When I moved back to San Diego I knew I wasn't going to be signing a rental agreement anytime soon and I knew Aliina, my friend who had acquired my mail all summer, was moving. Meaning I needed to find a good place to have my mail routed to so I could receive it during this period of turbulent living.
Of course! I realized one day. I'll just open a PO box and I won't have to worry about all the moves and randomness and I can get all the formidable loan payment statements that I knew would soon be coming my way.
Turns out thought that you can't open a PO Box without a physical address, proved by not only a drivers license but also with something official like a voters address registration confirmation or a rental agreement. They make it look very easy, but without an address it's not! I'm sorry, but what in the world is the point of a PO box if you have a stable address?
This of course caused me great strife, I had no idea where I'd be in the next days, let alone months. I definitely had no rental agreement or permanent address. I was out of luck and my mail was going to be lost in mail land forever.
To my good fortune I miraculously received a voter registration address verification days after my first attempt at the PO box (sent from friend Aliina to address of friend who's couch I slept on at the time), and it verified my old address, allowing me the info I needed to open a PO box! So I went with it. It's not terribly legitimate, but truly, I need a PO box because I don't have an address of my own and I bet, especially in this economy, that there are a few people with the similar issue. Mail is kind of one of those necessary evils and while I've done every possible thing I can to get all my mail virtually, banks particularly are awfully old school and won't allow electronic statements or forms..its all via snail mail, which I believe is a waste of paper and time.
So yes, I am receiving my mail at a PO Box these days, and though I don't have an address of my own otherwise I am writing it on letters and receiving mail much to my satisfaction.
What bank(s) do you use? I have an account at Chase, BofA, and now Westpac (Australia BofA). All of them actually charge me to receive snail mail. Everything is done online: statements, payments, cards, everything. In general if you have online banking at your bank, you should easily be able to go paperless...
ReplyDeleteI remember opening a PO Box 2nd year at UCSD. I got it because I got tired of changing my mailing address every 3 months. The only downside is that they can't receive FedEx or UPS packages...but otherwise it worked great. I think I used the Revelle Reslife of Campus Tours address as mine, and just had Zarin "send" me a letter at that address, which I then received. It was good times.