sue&bob

hi,
We were wondering what people are doing regarding their mail,is it possible to set up a P O box in oz before you go,and get everything redirected there? or is it better to redirect it to a family member here and ask them to send it on?

if anyone can help we would appreciate any info on this
sue&bob

tinaj

I know that the Post Office do an International redirection service - it costs about £42 per year- a bargain. The trouble is you need to give a forwarding address I think.
I wonder how you can get a PO Box number, I have been thinking of doing this myself.

smithone

We redirected our mail to a relative in the UK until we had a permanent address in NZ.

Once we had a permanent address we contacted all the main people who were likely to contact us (banks, pension, tax) and gave them our address in NZ.

They now contact us directly over here.

WhiteRose

Try http://www.auspost.com.au/

tinaj

It says you can purchase a PO box, but there aren't any prices. Any idea how much one would cost?

Kiwipaul

Their are 3 diferent sizes of PO box. I have one in a Brisbane suburb costs about $75 per year (thats medium size 6"x6"x24" deep). You can get them twice this width and half this width for cheaper prices. Also having one in the CBD costs a lot more.

Problem is to get a PO box you have to give a residential address, this applies to both NZ and Australia.

smithone

If you have an AMEX card you can use their offices to pick up mail.

sue&bob

Hi thanks everyone for your ideas,ive just sent a e-mail to the post office in perth, so i will let you know what they say,the post office here(uk) only charges £68 for a year to redirect to oz so thats good value.
sue&bob

Kiwipaul

Find out if the re direction is via Air mail as I still get mail sent to me (generally junk mail) with normal UK postage but I'm in Brisbane and it takes about 2 months.

renth

It is air mail.

To open a PO Box you have to physically do it in person, you can't do it from the UK. We got a friend to do it for us.

It was a big mistake not opening the PO Box on our trip to validate the visas.

Our friends in the UK send all the stuff to our UK address, cards, kids birthday presents etc... and they get redirected. It's much cheaper than sending them direct to Oz.

Plus I used to be a postman so my redirect was free!

dmf

We are near Brisbane and set a mail box with MBE. It was all organised over the net well before we left so we had a forwarding address to give everyone. Very easy to do. We have collected our post a few times here now and they are all very helpful. You can do photocopies, internet access, phone calls, buy stationery all from the same place. They will also forward your post to you over here when you have a final address. I think the website is www.mbe.com.au. There are various offices. We chose the West End one as we are south side at the moment.

Dawn