Horst W. Says:
I am moving to Spain. How can I handle the mail?
Spain Expat Marsha Scarbrough Says:
Hola Horst!
Congratulations on choosing to start your new life in Spain. I predict that you will love it!
Don’t worry about the mail. You’ve got a few solutions to choose from.
First of all, minimize it by going paperless with as much mail as possible. With online banking, you can receive all your statements and notifications electronically. You can pay many bills online. I suggest opening an account at wise.com where you can deposit your pension checks and convert them to euro digitally.
Many newsletters and even magazines (like IL) can be read online. In fact, businesses and publications are encouraging clients and subscribers to enter the digital age in order to save paper and postage.
Mail that can’t be handled digitally can be forwarded to you in Spain. Actually, the U.S. Postal Service will do it, but it’s very expensive ($85 per month) and will only do it for 18 months.
Private companies offer more cost-effective options. Many of these services offer you a permanent U.S. address to have your mail forwarded to. When it arrives at the address, it goes to a virtual mailbox that you can open anytime. They take a picture of what you’ve got in your box, and you can see it. Then you can choose to have each piece opened and scanned or shredded. You can save and/or print your scanned mail. You can have credit cards, driver’s licenses and packages forwarded to your Spanish address.
Some companies will also deposit checks in your bank account. U.S. Global Mail offers a plan like this for $9.95 a month. Also check out Anytime Mailbox (plans from $5.95), Traveling Mailbox, and iPostal1.
There are plenty of other companies to choose from too. If you go online and google “mail forwarding services U.S. to Spain,” you can compare lots of options.
And remember, there is plenty more information about moving to and living in Spain available on the IL website’s dedicated Spain page (much of which I contributed).
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