Digital Mailbox Service iPostal1 Review
Wouldn’t it be just amazing if you could check your mail when you were out of town on a business trip? Or out on the road with the family? Wouldn’t it be just brilliant if you didn’t have to call up the post office every time you wanted to check what’s in your mail? If you could just use an app or go online to read a scanned copy of the important letter you were supposed to receive from the bank while you were out and about instead of having to wait till you get back home to check the same? What if I told you there is a way to do everything mentioned above and more with the use of a simple service.
The service we’re talking about here is iPostal1. This is my review of iPostal1’s digital mailbox service.
What is a Digital Mailbox?
Let’s consider it this way. And don’t mind me for recycling my examples. Let’s say you’re out taking a well-deserved vacation in the Caribbean and your colleague tells you that he’s going to need a copy of your bank statement. Don’t question his intentions now – all he wants to do is help!
Now the bank statement in question is in your mailbox 1,000 miles away. What do you do?
You can’t possibly fly all the way back home just to get a scanned copy of the aforementioned bank statement.
Now say if you had a digital mailbox. You wouldn’t be in such a dilemma in the first place.
Why?
Well because a Digital Mailbox is your mailbox. You choose a real street address from over 250 across the U.S., where your mail is received. Get it?
You see a clear picture of the outside of all your letters, magazines and packages. All your mail, organized and in one place, and you don’t have to drive all the way to the post office to check what you’ve received. With just a few clicks, you can tell your mail center what to do with each mail item.
Now that you’ve grasped the concept of a Digital/Virtual Mailbox, let’s take a look at one of the best Digital Mailbox services out there, i.e. the one provided by iPostal1.
What’s in the offer?
Everything I just talked about. But let’s just take a look again at everything that’s in the offer.
MAILBOX ADDRESS
You can choose from over 250 real street addresses, which means you can receive packages from any carrier, not like a PO Box with USPS. Addresses are available in 45 states. Some businesses may want to sign up for multiple addresses to have a local presence in many cities.
DIGITAL MAILBOX
Manage your mail and packages from anywhere, 24/7, with an app for Android or iPhone, or go online. See a picture of all the items in your inbox. With just a click forward, open and scan, shred, recycle or pick it up.
BUSINESS PHONE & FAX
A Virtual Office Plan includes Local or Toll Free company phone number with a personalized greeting, domestic and international phone forwarding and a digital voice mail. You also get a dedicated electronic fax to receive and view faxes in your digital mailbox from anywhere.
DOCUMENT SCANNING
When you receive mail that requires your immediate attention, request a Scan and view a PDF of the mail content in your Digital Mailbox in a couple of hours. Store documents on the cloud. Make sure to use up the 2GB of free storage you get with a subscription.
MAIL AND PACKAGE FORWARDING
Forward mail and packages to as many different addresses as you like, anywhere in the world, when you want, how you want. See real-time shipping cost comparisons for different carriers and service levels – select what works best for you.
PACKAGE CONSOLIDATION
Combine multiple packages into one box to save big on shipping. Combine letters into one package to save on forwarding.
CHECK DEPOSIT
You can also deposit a check directly into your account, as long as your bank accepts mail-in deposits. Stop worrying about the security of checks at an unattended mailbox when you are away from home or the office, or abroad.
CONTACT MANAGER
Unlimited online address book for all your shipping addresses and contact information. Store addresses of family and friends – just ‘click and ship’ gifts and packages. Store customer addresses for direct shipment worldwide.
What’s the cost?
You can get a digital mailbox with iPostal1 for as little as $9.99 per month. If you get more than 30 pieces of mail per month, you should to take a look at the other plans which offer more mail items per month at no extra charge. Plans with local phone and fax start at $49.99.
There is no contract, so you can opt out whenever you want with no penalty. If you sign up for a year, you will get two months free – pay for ten months and get twelve. You can pay with your credit card or PayPal.
When it comes to optional services that you may ask your mail center to do, such as shipping, scanning mail content or shredding, you pay a la carte for each service requested. You get 30 days free storage for any mail or packages you receive, but then there is a charge, so you want to be sure to stay current with your mail and either forward or discard mail before the 30 days are up.
What’s the experience?
So I went to the iPostal1.com website to sign up for my digital mailbox service. Three different types of plans are offered. I selected the Virtual Mailing Address Green Plan for $9.99, as I don’t expect to get more than 30 mail items per month. Then I selected my address location – there were plenty to choose from in the state I wanted. I downloaded the iPostal1 app – it’s available for Android and iPhone, and they sent me and email with my login information.
I got a notification on my phone once mail started arriving. Sure enough, I opened the app and with a tap I could see a picture of each piece of mail and who the sender was. From the menu of options on the app, I requested that one letter be opened and scanned and got the PDF in my digital mail inbox a few hours later. I discarded another piece of mail that I did not need.
I ordered a book from Amazon and had it sent to my digital mailbox address. When I was ready to forward it, I put in the address and then saw a list of all the shipping options available to me and what it would cost. I chose regular ground delivery by UPS, but if I needed it to arrive sooner, I could have chosen faster service and paid more.
The Verdict – iPostal Digital Mailbox Service
The concept of a Digital Mailbox is still a pretty new idea out in the world and not a lot of people are aware of such a concept.
Regardless, iPostal1’s Digital service is advertised as one of the best and I don’t think they’re misleading anyone with this statement.
If you’re on the lookout for a Digital Mailbox service, then iPostal1 is hands down the one you should be looking out for.