- If you're looking for a
way to create better privacy around your home or business address, or you wanna simply
digitize your physical mail, guess what? It's a lot easier than you might think. I've been using a virtual
address for over five years now. I absolutely love the anonymity
and security it provides. Nowadays, I never share
my actual physical address with anyone except my
family, close friends, and the necessary government agencies. In this video, I'm gonna share with you four of the best virtual address services on the market today and explain the strengths
and weaknesses of each one so that you can make an informed decision about which one is right for you. Welcome to All Things Secured. My name's Josh. And as you can tell, I'm a huge advocate for virtual addresses. I mean, not only are there
a ton of privacy benefits, there's also the added perk
of being able to control and view your physical mail
from pretty much anywhere that you have access to
your computer or your phone. And keep in mind, when
I say virtual address, I'm not talking about a P.O.
Box, a co-working location, or even a virtual office. This is a unique address where you or your business
can receive any kind of mail and have it either scanned,
forwarded, or trashed. So what I'm gonna do for you here is list out the best
virtual address providers that I recommend. And then if you stay to the end, I'll explain how to use a virtual address if you're doing this
for the very first time. So let's get started. (upbeat music) First, Traveling Mailbox. I'm starting here because
this is the service I use as an address, both for my family while we're overseas and for my business. So, some of the pros here, they have 2FA security for login, which I think is really important. When you wanna secure
the mail that you have, you wanna make sure that
they have a secure facility and that you have secure login. They also allow you to connect
with Evernote and Dropbox so that you can put anything
into those cloud services if you want to inhabit just
automatically go there. They do check deposit. You can even have them mail
a letter on your behalf, which I've never used, but
it's not that expensive. I think it's like a $2
to have them mail it and $1 for every page that
you have them print off. Cons, things that I
haven't liked about them, particularly, is they
have premium addresses that are more expensive. Which would be okay, except in addition to
being more expensive, the mail takes a little bit longer because everything is forwarded to their North Carolina address. So if you want speedy service
with Traveling Mailbox, you go ahead and get that
North Carolina address unless you absolutely need
another city or state. So I really think that the
plans for Traveling Mailbox are reasonable. I've used them for many years, and I really like the service. (upbeat music) Next we have UK Postbox, which as you can tell from the name specializes in addresses
in the United Kingdom. Now, one of the advantages
of using a service like this, is that they have pay-as-you-go options. So, I have a UK address, but I don't have to pay monthly for it. Because I only pay whenever
mail is received and scanned. And so, it's great for,
they great business options for those that are doing
business in the UK. They also allow you to send letters. But really it's that pay-as-you-go
model that I really like. Now, the cons for that are that the price per letter
received is a bit high. So, if you receive a lot of junk mail, or if you think you'll be receiving anything more than seven
pieces of mail per month, you'll probably want to move
over to one of their paid monthly subscription plans. I really like the UK Postbox, if you're wanting an address
in the United Kingdom. (upbeat music) PostScan Mail is the next one on the list. And there are two features that really stick out to
me here in this service. One is the international
addresses that they offer. And then they offer something
called local pickup, which I'll explain in just a second. They have addresses in
the US, the UK, Canada, Czech Republic, and Switzerland. And by the time you're watching this, maybe they'll have a few more. I really like having
those different options all around the world, because it's not just US citizens or UK citizens that wanna
have virtual addresses. The thing about local
pickup that I like though, is that if you want it to, and there is the available
address that's nearby your house, you can actually use it semi
as a P.O. Box, where you go and pick those pieces of
mail up directly yourself, if you wanted to. Now, some of these locations might charge you a little
bit for that pickup. Or you can just have it
scanned and you can use it exactly like a virtual
address anywhere else. But I do like that option, if you happen to live by
one of their addresses that you can do local pickup. The cons is that they don't have fax or check deposit features,
which for most people, including myself, really
isn't that big of a deal. (upbeat music) iPostal1 is probably one
of the biggest players in the virtual address space. They have more than 2000
addresses to choose from. They have locations all
over the US, Europe, and even in China. And one of the great things is that they're probably
one of the cheapest options in this whole bunch. You can find pretty much
wherever you want to put it, you know, wanna have a location. They've got an app. They've got all these great things, these features that are
pretty much standard across all these services. And they do it at one
of the cheapest prices. The cons is that all
the phone fax features are only available with
virtual office plans, which are much more expensive. And in my opinion, aren't worth it. So, if you're trying to
do something with phone, there are other options. I've got a video about how
I use virtual phone numbers. You won't go wrong with
any of these options. So it's really just boils down to which features are important to you. Pricing, and of course, which
address you actually want. If you'd like another resource to use is VirtualAddressFinder.com. That's a database of all major
virtual address companies where you can search based on location or the features that you need,
if that's important to you. For those of you who have never set up a
virtual address before, let me walk you through the
simple four step process. First, you need to choose your
address and create an account with the service that
best fits your needs. It's usually a pretty fast process, or at least it was for me. The next step is where it gets
a little more complicated. Depending on the country, there are certain requirements that the government has
in order for a company to receive mail on your behalf. For example, in the US that means a notarized USPS form 1583. In the UK, that means sending in proper identification
documents, and so on. I got stuck on the USPS form 1583, since I'm a US citizen who's
living overseas right now. I don't have easy access
to a notary public. Thankfully, there are newer
services like NotaryCam that allow you to notarize
documents via Skype. So, while there was an extra fee involved, I think it was something like $25, the whole process took
less than 20 minutes. Super easy. Next, go make sure you download
the app for the company you decide to use. All the services that I've just mentioned
earlier in this video have their own iPhone and Android apps so that you can easily check your mail and request scans on the go. It is incredibly convenient. I'm telling you. So I would encourage you to find a service that offers a good mobile app. And then turn on notifications so that you know when you
have a new piece of mail. And finally, you need to slowly
start changing the address that you're giving out, both for your personal and
address and business purposes. So, it'll take some time for your mail to migrate
from your physical address to now your new virtual address. But it will be worth it. And eventually, you'll start
receiving all of your mail on your virtual address. Trust me when I say that
it's worth the switch. It's really not that expensive. And it helps you control
your physical mail, particularly, if you're living overseas. But definitely if you want
more privacy for your home or business address. Give this video a like
if it was helpful for you and leave a comment with
any questions below. Thanks for watching and
make sure you subscribe to All Things Secured
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