Yorkshire Princess

My husband and I are planning to sell our house and live in our motorhome in Spain whilst looking for a permanent home there. Does anyone have experience of opening a Spanish Post Office box? The correos.es website doesn't explain how you go about it.

We will not have a permanent address at first as we will be living in campsites.

Also, has anyone had experience of a company called boatmail.co.uk? It's just been taken over by a new owner but I don't fancy my mail being forwarded to a complete stranger. Family/friends might help but we'd rather not ask them if it can be avoided.

Thanks.

missile

..... Where will you be, perhaps someone will have local knowledge.

Corres.es runs as a franchise and arrangements service do vary? We went in and opened an account with a mailbox in Quesada. Go collect your mail as often as you like.

There are several private companies, e.g. we found the Postbox in Rojales very good and cheaper than Correos.

For post to UK: You pay a set price they collect mail and transport it to UK then post to wherever you want.

Fred James

We have used a P.O. box for years as we live outside the town and there is no postal delivery service. We rent a box at the local post office. Our mail is placed in it and we collect it when we want. If you receive a package or parcel, they just put a note in the box and you can then ask for it at the counter.

It costs about €65 for the first addressee and about half that for the second. Unfortunately a couple must pay two fees even if they have the same name and the same for children although it depends on how friendly the postmaster is. Mail that is incorrectly addressed gets put in a pile in the corner which is only kept for a limited time.

However, sometimes there can be a long waiting list for boxes as the number available depends on how much space they have as the box cabinets take up a lot of space.

snikpoh

We use a private company that offers a mailbox service.

We pay 79€ annually and that covers ANYONE in the household.

The beauty of a private box is that they are (generally) open for longer hours than the post office. In fact, with hours we are given a key to get into the office even when they're closed.

lyric030250

I pay 60€ pa for the same service, anything addressed to "Buzon 65" is covered regardless of name and all courier parcels are accepted too. Makes life much more convenient.
In three years of using them now it has never failed.

HeikeundAlan

if you staying on a campsite you can have your mail send there too
we stayed on campsites from 2009 till 2014 mail no problem they all have a system

Yorkshire Princess

We had thought of this. We are hoping to base ourselves at a commercial Aire we used last year. The owner was very helpful. It's encouraging to hear that you did this for 15 years without a problem.
Thanks for the post.

Yorkshire Princess

I notice your location is Ontinyent. Could you tell me the name of the company you use as we are going to move somewhere around there or possibly Gandia area.
Thanks.

Yorkshire Princess

Thanks to everyone for your posts!

My hubby is convinced that you don't need to open a post office box over there, but you just give the redirection service the name and address of your chosen post office and pick your post up at the counter. From what's been said it seems it doesn't work like that.

I have been on the Royal Mail website today - they charge £293 per surname per year to redirect post from the UK to another EU country. Ouch!

Fred James

Yes, you can just have mail sent to the local Correos. I think they call it something like Lista de Correos. Basically they throw it all in a pile at the back of the office and pretend to look for your mail when you ask. In smaller offices they may tell you “it’s over there, go and look for it”.

After 30 days or so they are supposed to return it to sender but that costs money so they bin it!

We are lucky in that we have a small Correo office who knows us well. A bottle of decent wine at Xmas works wonders. If we get a parcel he phones us!

Yorkshire Princess

So if you choose this instead of a post box, do you have to notify them in advance that you will be getting mail sent there?

FranE

We also have no postal service, and so far we have used the Lista de Correos service successfully - but only for parcels so far.


It's important that post is addressed to your name, then "Lista de Correos", then the address of the POST OFFICE. It's a different system from the "PO Boxes", and at our Correos the Lista de Correos stuff is kept in a different cupboard.


No you don't have to notify them, and they don't notify you. As we've only used it for parcels we sort of know when something will be arriving: just turn up with your passport for ID and ask if there is a letter/parcel in the name of xxx LISTA DE CORREOS.


There is a maximum parcel size and weight, but it's quite generous. The service is free.


NOTE: The Correos won't sign for courier deliveries. This service is only for POST. And if you order stuff from eBay etc there's often no option for postal delivery. When we bought a water pump online, we had it couriered to our daughter and she posted it to us. It cost about £60 for it to be posted, the courier delivery charge to Spain was about £10! (And before anyone comments, the specific pump we wanted/needed wasn't available in Spain).


Here's the info: https://www.xol.co.uk/spain/receivin...-in-spain.html

Mark604

We had a post box at our local Correos or a year or so, can't remember how much it cost, but it never failed us. The postmaster would send us an SMS if we received anything larger than a letter.

As for Boatmail.co.uk - I know there are many that use it and it is recommended amongst the boating and campervan communities. I am considering it also for myself and I have not heard anything bad about it. There are Facebook groups for those communities and it seems as soon as the subject comes up, several say it is a good one.

stevesainty

In theory, all the important people will have been notified of your new postal address in Spain. The remaining mail would probably be junk and so would not need forwarding. For a belt and braces solution, redirect your mail to a friend/relative in UK for them to sort through and forward any important stuff.

HeikeundAlan

We where lucky all our mail goes to a family member importend gets send, rest just picture taken send via whats app and most goes into dustbin