Do you have a po box for your mail? If yes/If not, what is the reason?
I’ve started postcrossing as a hobby not too long ago. I don’t have a problem receiving my mail in my current address but back at my hometown my mail gets frequently lost/it never reaches me. I’m a student so I will move back there eventually that’s why I was thinking about getting a po box. What do you think? I’d love to hear your views on it.
The most important thing is to receive postcards and letters safely. It doesn’t matter if the address is “street address” or a post office box.
I have considered a PO box for privacy reasons before but I can’t afford the £300-400 a year for it. Mail reaches my house with no issues, so I don’t need one for that reason either.
I purchased a PO box for my work, and have been using it for direct swaps as well, since it matters slightly less if I don’t check the mail for a few days. They’re relatively inexpensive here, though.
I have a PO Box but that’s because it’s how our entire small town receives mail - we’re too tiny for home delivery. It took a while to get used to but now I love it. I take a stroll every day to the post office to check my mail and if we’re out of town, our mail is safe inside the post office for our time away. If I was doing post crossing in another city and had home delivery, I don’t think I’d go and rent one - I’d just have the things mailed to my home.
Since 1987, I have used a post office box. I mail and collect my mail from there; also ship my packages. In the past, the letter carriers were quite careless with delivering mail to my house. Sometimes, with a good wind, my mail was in my neighbor’s driveway. Done with that…
Since I joined Postcrossing I received my postcards at my street address. No stress until recently when I started to receive in my mailbox not alone my postcards but also those of my neighbors. Meanwhile my business mail was inadvertently distributed to those neighbors 
So, I just opened a post office box for my Postcrossing mail. It costs 22.90 EUR p.a.
As an additional benefit I’ll have a nice daily walk 
I work out of my home office and until now there were days without reason to go out. My doctor will be delighted 
I had a PO box in the past, I thought it was the safest way to receive my mail. It unfortunately turned out that it wasn’t - I had a very bad experience with it, I lost a bunch of mail and the post office didn’t take any responsability for it. Besides, the price for a PO box in Italy is crazy - you pay 100 euros a year for the small size or 150 euros for the medium size. I would consider paying so much to have a good service, but given my previous experience, it’s not worth it.
On a more romantic perspective, one of my everyday joys since I was a child has always been checking my mailbox at home. Everytime I receive mail, it’s like when I woke up and found presents under the Christmas tree, and this feeling of surprise and joy has never left me throughout all my life 
A PO box is useful and practical, but would take away my little moment of happiness
I am in Bellingham Washington USA and our Post Office Boxes are very expensive, ($144/ year for the smallest box) but my mail doesn’t get WET as it does with my home mailbox and it is more secure. However, occasionally a clerk will CRAM some mail in the box ans damage some postcards or other fragile mail and this is always annoying. I can also get packages shipped there rather than to my house and thereby avoid Porch Pirates which are a serious problem in my neighborhood.
Here most people receive their mail in a P.O. box. Streets haven’t always had names, and houses started to have numbers only a few years ago. It costs 5,800 XPF (about 48.50 €) per year. I go to pick my mail once or twice a week.
When I was living in Switzerland a few years ago, I used Poste restante. It’s actually the same as a PO box, but you have to pick up your mail at the counter instead and it’s for free!
All staff at Bern’s main post office knew I was the guy with all the nice postcards and made an extra effort to give my outgoing mail nice and clean hand cancels 
Swedish post does unfortunately not offer this service, so I receive my mail at my street address here.
I’ve had a PO Box for a long time. When I started Postcrossing having the PO Box made me feel more comfortable from a privacy perspective. It’s been a positive experience for me. I’m generally happy with the experience. I have still had stamps on Postcards go missing however. The Post office staff have also enjoyed the Postcards 
they place them very carefully in the box and have made conversation about them on many occasions.
P. O. boxes are great for many reasons.
Privacy, over all.
You do not give your own address, but also, no one but you and the post office can see what mail you get*.
But also: collecting when it pleases you, safety that no one will steal your mail*, mail protected from rain, no one disturbs ringing the bell, and so on (as the reason that made you have one), like changing place of delivery often.
Tho, it’s an extra fee.
As long as it gets often used (and so, worth the money spent), I think it is a great service.
I never had one, but I would consider it, in case of need.
I have a PO Box because I am a housesitter and move around frequently. I check it daily as it is located in the heart of my businesses catchment. It is handy as I can drop off all my outgoing postcrossing cards at the same time.
As someone said earlier as long as the mail reaches you safety that’s the most important thing. However if mail goes astray, gets wet or damaged then a PO Box is a great idea. Depending on the cost it can work out to be a great investment. I still collect my mail daily in most cases so it’s no different to checking my own mail box. It’s also great for parcels and other packages. You only need a small PO Box as anything that doesn’t fit you receive a card to pick it up inside the post office. Plus if you travel or live in shared accommodation it can be of benefit again.
However if your mail doesn’t go astray and doesn’t get damaged in the weather and you don’t travel away lots then I’d say don’t worry about it and spend that money on stamps and cards. In other words there’s no definitive answer to this question. It just boils down to what suits you and how your mail is delivered.
I have never really concidered a PO box as it is so convenient that mail is delivered home (registered mail has always to be fetched from the postal partner/post office). However, it is not even a possibility for me.
In Finland PO boxes are reserved for companies only. It is also very expensive. I don’t know if this price is still valid, but the price I found is initial fee of 246 €, 12 months rent 298 € plus taxes. I have often wondered what the cost is in other countries as PO box addresses are so widely used and often even recommended.
I also saw that some private companies offer a bit similar service. They have a warehouse filled with boxes where the mail is delivered. I have understood it is mainly for companies that want “a street address” instead a PO box, so they would look more reliable. (The address would be something like “North street 3 B 123”). You don’t have to have a company to rent these boxes, but prices are still expensive (some that I found: initial fee 70€+240€/12 months or 319,99€/12 months). Even if they would be cheaper, I couldn’t use these services as all of those them are hundreds of kilometres away from me. (At least all I found were in Southern Finland. One did offer scanning the mail, so one would not need to physically receive mail. Nightmare for letter writing, postcrossing little me 
)
Wow, those prices really are crazy!
For context in Greece there are two types of po boxes. The “open” which are outside the post office and the “closed” which are inside. Not all post offices have open po boxes though, which are cheaper. Prices are as follows(including tax):
-Closed po box(year) 74,60€
-Closed po box(6 months) 43,40€
-Open po box(year) 37,40€
-Open po box(6 months) 23,56€
I wouldn’t say they are that expensive but as another person commented it also depends on the service that is provided.
I rented a postbox in my post office since the mail delivery network doesn’t include where I am. Whether I have a mailbox or not, I need to go to the post office, and the box prices are relatively low in Northern Cyprus (55 TRY, about 3 euros, per year). Moreover, unlike the other post offices here, my post office provides postboxes that can be accessed outside, which means I can get my mail even if the post office is closed.
Wanted to make sure I wasn’t completely off the mark with my figures, and yup: depending on who you go with, in the UK a PO Box is £20–40/month, £215–480 a year, and some of the services send you digitized versions of your mail only and not the physical things (for non-parcels).
So they take your mail and send it to you digitaly? And what do they do with your mail afterwards?