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Boat Mail Recommendations


davester65

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22 minutes ago, Puffling said:

Postal orders, weren't they something, with their fancy postage stamps affixed?

 

Much of my mispent youth seemed to be taken ordering components from Home Radio and Electroniques catalogues paid by postal order. I was too young for a bank account, even though I was living at a residential address.

Postal orders are still alive and kicking.

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7 minutes ago, David Mack said:

I can remember as a kid receiving 'post lorders' in lieu of birthday and Christmas presents from relatives, and my Mum somehow turning them into cash I could spend.

 

Me too, and I never understood the point of them given you could cash them in at a post office. Why not just put two £1 notes in the birthday card? My mum used to prattle on about how it was not safe to send cash through the post and a PO was somehow safer, but she could never explain why!

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6 minutes ago, MtB said:

 

Me too, and I never understood the point of them given you could cash them in at a post office. Why not just put two £1 notes in the birthday card? My mum used to prattle on about how it was not safe to send cash through the post and a PO was somehow safer, but she could never explain why!

As I recall, an uncrossed postal order can be cashed by anyone at the counter, whereas a crossed postal order is only able to be paid into the account of the payee. Maybe your mum felt there was some security created by retaining the counterfoil of a postal order once it was sent?

Edited by Puffling
letterz
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We use Boatmail, which I don' hesitate to recommend. The Doctors here in Nantwich were quite happy to accept our CRT mooring as our 'address'. If we need to visit the Dr we just get a taxi etc if we're away from the mooring, Otherwise it's all online for repeat prescriptions etc.

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28 minutes ago, David Mack said:

I can remember as a kid receiving 'post lorders' in lieu of birthday and Christmas presents from relatives, and my Mum somehow turning them into cash I could spend.

They remind me of Billy Bunter, who always seemed to be waiting for one.

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14 hours ago, Tony1 said:

This is the one I'm planning on using if/when my relative address is no longer available: 

 

https://www.expost.uk/

 

They dont specifically mention it being ok for DVLA, so worth checking that, but it looks like its ok for banks, insurance, even the NHS/GPs etc.

Looks an absolute Godsend.

 

If you give it a go, do please update us on how well it goes, there will be a good few people looking for exactly this kind of service.

 

 

Expost looks interesting. My only hesitation would be their Handling Charges: Letter:  70p; Large letter:  £1.10; Parcel  (up to 20Kg):  £3.50. This could add up pretty quickly.

 

We have a small mailbox at MBE. Similar prices to Expost, but without the Handling Charges. It's a franchise business, with offices all over the country ... and over good chunks of the world it seems. Our MBE is very friendly and trustworthy, are happy to check if a parcel or piece of mail has arrived if you query them by email (to save a wasted journey), will scan and send you stuff, forward to anywhere in the world, sign for packages (passports, Amazon, Special Delivery, etc.). We even have a key to enter their lobby to access our mailbox outside of office hours, as well as the mailbox key. 

 

Our address looks like: Jane Smith, Flat 100 (or 'Suite 100' or 'Studio 100'), 44 Tupulo Honey Street, Big City, Postal Code.

 

We probably pick up post every month or two -- sometimes making a day trip of it by train to visit the 'Big City'. 

 

A lot of applications for things these days are online, and that's great. Many algorithms prompt your address by first requesting a postal code -- to generate all the addresses for that code for you to select from. With our mailbox, it usually comes up with the MBE name and address. 97% of the time the algorithm allows you to simply override this and input your own proper address manually. No problem. There's been once or twice over the years where we couldn't input our own full address manually, so left it as the Mail Business address (which is the same as ours!) and post arrives normally. All banking, insurance, government, etc. is registered to our proper address and arrives without note.

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4 minutes ago, Jim Batty said:

 

Expost looks interesting. My only hesitation would be their Handling Charges: Letter:  70p; Large letter:  £1.10; Parcel  (up to 20Kg):  £3.50. This could add up pretty quickly.

 

We have a small mailbox at MBE. Similar prices to Expost, but without the Handling Charges. It's a franchise business, with offices all over the country ... and over good chunks of the world it seems. Our MBE is very friendly and trustworthy, are happy to check if a parcel or piece of mail has arrived if you query them by email (to save a wasted journey), will scan and send you stuff, forward to anywhere in the world, sign for packages (passports, Amazon, Special Delivery, etc.). We even have a key to enter their lobby to access our mailbox outside of office hours, as well as the mailbox key. 

 

Our address looks like: Jane Smith, Flat 100 (or 'Suite 100' or 'Studio 100'), 44 Tupulo Honey Street, Big City, Postal Code.

 

We probably pick up post every month or two -- sometimes making a day trip of it by train to visit the 'Big City'. 

 

A lot of applications for things these days are online, and that's great. Many algorithms prompt your address by first requesting a postal code -- to generate all the addresses for that code for you to select from. With our mailbox, it usually comes up with the MBE name and address. 97% of the time the algorithm allows you to simply override this and input your own proper address manually. No problem. There's been once or twice over the years where we couldn't input our own full address manually, so left it as the Mail Business address (which is the same as ours!) and post arrives normally. All banking, insurance, government, etc. is registered to our proper address and arrives without note.

 

Thanks Jim, they look good, I'm saving that link. Its great to have a few opions.

I get very little postal mail these days, but now and then there will be a firm who insist on writing letters.

In fact it happened last year. When I retired, my firm overpaid me by about £250 in my final wages, and a while afterwards they wrote to my residential address to ask for the extra money back. Then they wrote again, and then a solicitors firm wrote on their behalf. 

It was lockdown so I couldn't easily visit without putting the elderly occupants at risk, so I knew nothing of these increasingly strident demands, but luckily I did visit a few days before the deadline expired, and I managed to pay back the extra money just before I would have had court costs to pay. 

After that I asked them to open every letter immediately and let me know if there was anything requesting payment or in some other way needing action.

Being over 85 years old, I can't 100% trust their judgment, but its better than nothing. 

Anyway, I hope its a long time before I need this service, but as we know, circumstances change... 

 

 

 

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16 hours ago, sueb said:

Boatmail.co.uk

boatpost2@gmail.com

 

I've used them for a long time and I think you'll find that they offer a similar personal service as Boatmail.

After choosing one or the other, your only two problems to sort out are car insurance and NHS.

Car insurance is difficult without your address and where it's kept being the same. I have a lockup garage in by my home mooring, and that's the address I give. It's not a problem that there's no one there, as the insurers do all online.

For NHS you need an address close to your registered GP. If you don't, they will de-register you and tell you to get a GP near your postal address, which in my case is miles away in a different county too. So the boatyard opposite my home mooring kindly lets me use their address for that. 

Do PM me if you wish.

James

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2 minutes ago, JamesWoolcock said:

Car insurance is difficult without your address and where it's kept being the same. I have a lockup garage in by my home mooring, and that's the address I give. It's not a problem that there's no one there, as the insurers do all online.

The problem for continuous cruisers is when the car has no 'home mooring', and is left in a variety of different places, some safe, some less so. Most insurers systems can't cope with that, but if you declare a fixed place where the car is kept,and it is almost never there, then you could find your insurance is invalid.

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6 minutes ago, Slow and Steady said:

How would they know it's almost never (or in fact never) there though? 

 

They may well not, but if they do find out, then you are guilty of misrepresentation in your original application, your insurance is instantly withdrawn, you then have an uninsured vehicle on the road, which you will have extreme difficulty getting reinsured, you will have to declare the withdrawal of the insurance when you apply for any insurance in future...

And if all this comes out when you make a claim, the insurance won't pay out and you could be prosecuted.

But apart from that - go ahead!

Edited by David Mack
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5 minutes ago, David Mack said:

They may well not, but if they do find out, then you are guilty of misrepresentation in your original application, your insurance is instantly withdrawn, you then have an uninsured vehicle on the road, which you will have extreme difficulty getting reinsured, you will have to declare the withdrawal of the insurance when you apply for any insurance in future...

And if all this comes out when you make a claim, the insurance won't pay out and you could be prosecuted.

But apart from that - go ahead!

Ha! I agree and it worries me to the extent that I'm giving up owning a vehicle altogether and have actually stopped using it over a year ago.

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37 minutes ago, Slow and Steady said:

How would they know it's almost never (or in fact never) there though? 

 

Having worked in an insurance fraud department it is surprising how much they know and the lengths they will go to to investigate a claim if they think something isn't quite right.

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Unless you have ongoing health problems, there's an advantage to not being registered locally - as a traveller you jump the queue and always get a fast track appointment. Just sayin. :)

 

Car insurance does appear to be the only problem, I've found almost every other thing you need is happy as long as their computer recognises a postcode.

Edited by Slow and Steady
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1 hour ago, Jim Batty said:

 

Expost looks interesting. My only hesitation would be their Handling Charges: Letter:  70p; Large letter:  £1.10; Parcel  (up to 20Kg):  £3.50. This could add up pretty quickly.

 

We have a small mailbox at MBE. Similar prices to Expost, but without the Handling Charges. It's a franchise business, with offices all over the country ... and over good chunks of the world it seems. Our MBE is very friendly and trustworthy, are happy to check if a parcel or piece of mail has arrived if you query them by email (to save a wasted journey), will scan and send you stuff, forward to anywhere in the world, sign for packages (passports, Amazon, Special Delivery, etc.). We even have a key to enter their lobby to access our mailbox outside of office hours, as well as the mailbox key. 

 

Our address looks like: Jane Smith, Flat 100 (or 'Suite 100' or 'Studio 100'), 44 Tupulo Honey Street, Big City, Postal Code.

 

We probably pick up post every month or two -- sometimes making a day trip of it by train to visit the 'Big City'. 

 

A lot of applications for things these days are online, and that's great. Many algorithms prompt your address by first requesting a postal code -- to generate all the addresses for that code for you to select from. With our mailbox, it usually comes up with the MBE name and address. 97% of the time the algorithm allows you to simply override this and input your own proper address manually. No problem. There's been once or twice over the years where we couldn't input our own full address manually, so left it as the Mail Business address (which is the same as ours!) and post arrives normally. All banking, insurance, government, etc. is registered to our proper address and arrives without note.

We also use Mailbox, etc. and find they provide an excellent service. The DVLA needed proof of our boat licence before accepting the address but no issues with the bank, in fact the only problem i have experienced is with the type of sites that automatically fill in your address using only tour postcode but with a little persistence and ingenuity you can generally succeed!

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  • 3 weeks later...

I'd like to semi-hijack this and ask about parcels.

 

I have a small (real world) mail box for letters and magazines, but what do you guys do for non-Amazon/eBay parcels? I can get Amazon (and some eBay) parcels delivered to pickups/lockers, but what about when ordering from some other place?

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12 minutes ago, ronnietucker said:

I'd like to semi-hijack this and ask about parcels.

 

I have a small (real world) mail box for letters and magazines, but what do you guys do for non-Amazon/eBay parcels? I can get Amazon (and some eBay) parcels delivered to pickups/lockers, but what about when ordering from some other place?

 

I've had things delivered to marina offices before. I do feel I have to give them some business in return, e.g. fuel/coal/chandlery stuff, or even rent a mooting spot for a few days.

I'm not sure I'm cheeky enough to just walk in, tell them I'm moored on the towpath outside, and ask if would they mind if I had some stuff delivered to their office.

Some are so nice they would probably do it, to be fair.

 

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16 minutes ago, ronnietucker said:

I'd like to semi-hijack this and ask about parcels.

 

I have a small (real world) mail box for letters and magazines, but what do you guys do for non-Amazon/eBay parcels? I can get Amazon (and some eBay) parcels delivered to pickups/lockers, but what about when ordering from some other place?

 

A big plastic tub by the front door and a note stuck in the window saying please leave any parcels in the plastic tub and / or call 1234567890

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Just now, Alan de Enfield said:

 

A big plastic tub by the front door and a note stuck in the window saying please leave any parcels in the plastic tub and / or call 1234567890

 

Can't. Our mooring has locked gates at either end. And even then places such as the Post Office tell the posties up here not to walk on the pontoon/moorings. For our mailbox we need to have it off the mooring and before the locked gates. Oh the joys...    😕

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25 minutes ago, ronnietucker said:

 

Can't. Our mooring has locked gates at either end. And even then places such as the Post Office tell the posties up here not to walk on the pontoon/moorings. For our mailbox we need to have it off the mooring and before the locked gates. Oh the joys...    😕

 

Sorry, I thought when you said 'the real world' you meant bricks and mortar not a marina.

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2 hours ago, ronnietucker said:

I'd like to semi-hijack this and ask about parcels.

 

I have a small (real world) mail box for letters and magazines, but what do you guys do for non-Amazon/eBay parcels? I can get Amazon (and some eBay) parcels delivered to pickups/lockers, but what about when ordering from some other place?

I think Boatmail will also forward parcels to an address you specify but haven't tried it myself. It's at cost of postage, plus their £5 charge per item if you use the PAYG option.

 

Poste Restante may be cheaper.

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On 19/02/2022 at 11:20, David Mack said:

I can remember as a kid receiving 'post lorders' in lieu of birthday and Christmas presents from relatives, and my Mum somehow turning them into cash I could spend.

Billy Bunter?

On 19/02/2022 at 11:20, David Mack said:

I can remember as a kid receiving 'post lorders' in lieu of birthday and Christmas presents from relatives, and my Mum somehow turning them into cash I could spend.

Billy Bunter?

On 19/02/2022 at 11:20, David Mack said:

I can remember as a kid receiving 'post lorders' in lieu of birthday and Christmas presents from relatives, and my Mum somehow turning them into cash I could spend.

Billy Bunter?

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