fidobsa

One of the things I miss most about living in UK is having a letter box set into the front door. Here I have the usual tin box mounted on the fence and my post is often soaking wet, mangled or both. The main problem is junk mail, usually from Tesco. This is too big to go all the way into the box so they leave it poking out. When it rains this acts as a funnel to direct rainwater into the box. I got back on Saturday from a month away in Austria and knew I would be coming back to a box jam packed with soggy mail. There were loads of bills since a lot of things that are paid quarterly in UK are monthly in Hungary. I sorted out the overdue ones and ironed them to try to get them dry. The wettest one was a quarterly bill for car insurance and this was still quite wrinkled after I ironed it. I tried to pay them this morning but the barcode reader / printer at the first post office would not accept the wrinkled check. I carried on into town and tried at another PO. This time it jammed the machine but the clerk opened up the machine and fed it in a different way which worked. I suppose I need to construct some kind of roof over the box or perhaps I should mount a length of drainpipe to take the junk mail?

Pulaski

Will Magyar Posta not "hold" mail while you're away?

90% or more of our mail is junk, so we instruct USPS to hold our mail every week, and deliver it on Friday when I am home.

fidobsa

I don't know about that. When I first bought the house and was away for long periods they were delivering it to a neighbour who would hand it to me when she saw me.

Peter_in_Hungary

However kind it may seem that is illegal unless the proper documentation (authorisation) is filled out enabling a third party to receive your mail!!
We NEVER get our mail authorised for receipt by someone else because any registered letter in Hungary will usually have a required action within some time limit and the time starts when the letter is received. If you are away and someone else takes the letter in for you then the clock is ticking!

The post office will hold and / or forward mail by request.

Peter_in_Hungary

Yup. The Mk1 letter box here is 50cm of triangular plastic pipe salvaged from the road side after the snow ploughs have broken the roadside markers off at ground level.
This pipe mounted at a slight downward inclination keeps post dry and works well.

duztee

Not liking the thought of an ugly piece of old drain pipe hung on my fence I recently bought the proper item, a metal tube which is clearly marked for supermarket circulars/flyers etc.

Despite being clearly marked I still have one deliverer who insists on ramming the end of his flyer into the mail slot, but his time is nigh, I know his day and time now and shall be having words. and if he fails to comply then his flyer might well end up in a totally different slot.

Peter_in_Hungary

And if it was really useful it would have a chute connected straight to the dustbin/recycle bin

fidobsa

I actually collect extra leaflets when I go shopping as I need them for lighting the stove! They do not burn as well as newspaper but they are better than nothing.

scrubbedexpat0105

My neighbours forward my mail to me. They have a key to my mailbox and whenever I'm in Hungary, I give them a stack of stamped addressed envelopes.

Not only does this work well (they pass the mailbox every day anyway, and probably just hand the re-enveloped post back to the postie), I would say that having received the mailbox key and SAEs from me would be proof that I had authorized them to forward my mail. If necessary I would give them written authorization, but in Hungary, of all places, I would be surprised if the authorities were to split hairs over that.

Soggy and delayed mail is a thing of the past, though I do have a recurring problem of wasps' nests in the mailbox.

I pay all bills by direct debit, just as I do in Germany. Many Hungarians do seem wary of giving big, bad, capitalist (and probably foreign) companies access to their bank accounts, though.

Peter_in_Hungary

Putting your mail in your letterbox is considered delivered to your address, what happens after that is not their concern.

What the postie can't do is put your mail in your neighbours letterbox without authorisation. In the same way your neighbour can not sign for a registered letter without your authorisation.

aries

How much would a post office box cost? I used one for years in Oz when I heard that a pile of mail in the area had been found opened under a bush. Also with my box close to the pavement, I would find mail on the ground, sometimes pulled out by schoolchildren. I had to go a kilometre to my PO box, but whenever I was away it was invaluable. It also stopped my mail being delivered to the wrong address. I once had an important and sensitive letter opened and put into my home letterbox late one evening, so all in all, the PO box was worthwhile.

Peter_in_Hungary

I believe about 5000HUF / month, a less if you pay for a longer period