I think they destroy it, although some of them can send stuff to you if you pay more. Some of them don’t digitize everything; they tell you what you’ve received and then ask if you want it digitized.
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That sucks and totally defeats the purpose of renting a po box… What a waste of money and service.
It’s not all PO.boxes. Some PO boxes (like the Royal Mail ones) function as expected - a box your post goes into. They tend to be the most expensive. The digitization ones are cheaper, sometimes close to free but then you have to pay for every piece of mail you want digitized
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Oh okay, that makes sense. I mean it is good for people that need a po box for cheap and just have “regular” mail, it’s nice to have more options. Now that I think about it, I don’t know if you can get “regular” mail in a po box here in Greece. That’s why I don’t know no one here that has a po box, literally no one gets mail. Even regular mail is starting to become digital, so people get their bills on their phone.
I recently opened a PO BOX exclusively for Postcrossing & direct swaps. In my small town here in Iowa (about 30 mins away from Des Moines), the rental for 6 months is $40 USD for the smallest box, which isn’t too bad. At renewal, I may switch to annual rental, you get 13 months rental instead of 12 months for annual. In the warmer months I can walk to the post office to check my PO Box. 
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I have been using PO Box for a couple of years since my post office ceased home delivery service.
It’s ok and it does not cost a lot down here
25 $ per year
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I have a post office box. Have done for several years now.
I like that I don’t have to give out my street address to anyone if I don’t want to.
My mail doesn’t get wet, eaten by snails, webbed up by spiders or left hanging outside the box to be stolen or damaged.
My parcels are not chucked onto the porch and left for anyone to pick up.
I don’t have to worry about an overflowing mailbox if we go away - making loss of items a problem or making it obvious that we’re not home and therefore ripe for home burglary.
All of the junk Mail that comes as a result of various memberships etc is not blocking up my home mailbox - although I’ve now gone to great lengths to get myself off every mailing list possible. So I get very little junk mail. And they seem not to bother even trying to send it to my post office box. Which is great!
And my PO box - the smallest box available - only costs about AUD140 per year (that’s about USD95 and Euro 89).
Love it!!
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Totally agree Sam @Tinkatutu I think all the benefits you mentioned for $140 is extremely good value.Yes I see some countries are more expensive and then you’ve got to weigh up whether it’s of value or not.
In Australia we also get the option of receiving a daily email telling us if there is any mail. That means you don’t have to go out of your way to go to the post office only to find there’s no mail.
I actually enjoy the walk to the PO and then I can post all my mail, pick up my own, have things weighed etc.
Also our post offices allow access to the P.O. Boxes even out of office hours do you can get your mail morning , noon or night.
A most interesting discussion.
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Ah yes! The ‘you’ve got mail’ email. That’s a great feature!
My PO Box is also accessible 24/7 and only about 3 km from my house. I often walk or run there and back. It’s a great way to get out, and like you…I post my outgoing stuff while I’m there…and also do a spot of grocery shopping too.
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I have a PO box for privacy. It does cost a lot of money at around £33 a month, but it delivers the post to my house rather than me having to go to the local delivery office (quite far away). I use the PO box for eBay purchases, postcrossing, penpalling and so on. Anyone I don’t know in person gets the PO box for post.
I like that my address can be only 2 lines with national mail - box number and postcode - and 3 with international mail - box number, postcode and country - though postcrossing demands 4 lines with town as well. UPU guidelines and all that.
I wouldn’t feel safe having my address on the internet for someone to access with the only barrier being creating a postcrossing account. Even if someone came to the town on my postcrossing address, they wouldn’t be able to come to my “box number” and wait for me, as the box does not exist in a physical sense. That relief is reassuring for me, as else I wouldn’t want to risk receiving physical mail from strangers.
In addition, no one can sell on my information to a company, whether purposefully or through a “send a postcard” website, as a PO box is no use to them.
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I opened a PO Box when I joined Postcrossing. Mostly, I’m doing this for a little piece of security
The new price for the smallest box is $176/year. The way I see it is: $176/365days a year= $0.48 per day. And since there are 5 of us living in the house, it only ends up costing me $0.10 a day for each person for “security”… which is very cheap I think
There is another post office which is about 15 miles further out from where I live and the price is $68/year for the same size of box! I might consider going there the next time my renewal is due. The price will drop to $0.03/person/day for “security” if I go that route. Plus, I go shopping in that area anyway
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I use a P.O. Box for decades. It is located at the central post office of Athens, 
Greece, near Omonoia Square. The service used to be very reliable until the end of 2022. Since January mail delivery is very irregular. Recently I had no mail at all for three weeks and suddenly last Friday I received some 20 envelopes and postcards, including 9 postcrossing items. It appears that the Hellenic Post Office are short in staff, either at a key sorting office or at the delivery post office.
I have a P.O. Box for privacy; I hope they work as well as home delivery for this area (up to now I haven’t lost a lot of mail, fingers crossed that it will continue to be so).
At 100 €/year it isn’t cheap, but not completely unaffordable either, I think it’s worth the peace of mind of not giving out my address to random strangers on the internet.
I’d love to have the notification email service that they give you in Australia: right now I don’t receive enough post to justify checking the box every day, and most of the time I go there it’s empty anyway.
Also, not being limited to the post office opening hours would have been good, but that wasn’t an option either in this area. (I’ve seen some post offices where the boxes where outside, but they were too remote for me — I suspect that they were on minor post offices where the opening times are really short, however).
My P.O. Box costs EUR 22,90 per year and is the perfect solution for me. My last name is so common that I have two neighbours with the same one. They are very nice people but often on business trips and it‘s not fair to keep other postcrossers waiting for the registration. Moreover our mail carriers had been on strike every now and then and I‘ve been told that there are not enough employees anymore to carry out mail for colleagues on holiday in my district… I am happy with my P.O. Box 
I am also a student and use a PO box.
I decided to rent a PO box because I share a house with roommates and don’t want them to misplace any of my mail, and because my house mailbox doesn’t lock. I go to school in a town without much crime but I grew up in Houston, which has millions of people and where mail theft is common enough that most people have locking mailboxes, so I figure it’s better to be safe than sorry. Additionally, I wouldn’t want my mail to blow away or be damaged by rain, so it’s nice to have it indoors at the post office. I also go out of town periodically so having a place where my mail can collect and be safe until I return is good. Plus, the PO boxes are accessible 24/7 so I can get my mail anytime, which is great because I am frequently in class during regular operating hours.
In my town, San Angelo, Texas, USA, the PO boxes cost about $16/month for the second-smallest size, with the smallest size being a bit cheaper. I think it’s worth it and totally recommend.
Did you have any issues setting up your PO Box? I ordered one in August and I know I should have had postcard by now but I haven’t had a thing. 
I have been in touch with Royal Mail but just wanted to know how it went for you?
It did take a while for my first bit of post to come through: maybe a month? Now I don’t subscribe to one anymore as they would delay PO box post quite considerably versus normal post 
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Thank you. It’s been at least six weeks now. I’m a bit worried that they’ve lost my post.
It’s so weird that they wouldn’t prioritise PO Box mail when we’re spending so much on it.
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That’s terrible! I hope that’s just an anomaly. Here in the USA part of the perks of paying for a PO Box is to get better service. Mail goes right in as opposed to waiting for a carrier which is an issue with all the understaffing these days. So in theory you’re supposed to get priority. The promised delivery time is usually before 10 or 11 am depending on the office.
I have my current box because my wife would kill me if I gave out our address. It is so inconvenient for me to get to it because of health issues so I don’t benefit from the priority service. I try to go once a week. She offered to go for me but for her work hours. So I must apologize for all the late registrations but it is either this or no Postcrossing. I had considered a traveling mail service since the fees are about the same as a PO Box in a high volume city like mine but I have heard too many complaints about late and non delivery with any of these companies that I doubt that would speed up registration at all.
Getting a box requires proof of legal address and official identification for each user of the box. They are quite strict about that ever since 9/11 when security audits discovered some offices didn’t care who they rented boxes to. Some offices will not give you the key until they send a certified letter (recorded delivery) to your claimed legal address. It is not specified in the rules however local management may take extra steps if deemed necessary.
I send a generic looking letter to myself whenever I have a new address just to see how it goes. And the time I applied for forwarding I did the same to the OLD address.
I have a post office box because I often send postcards to people in jail or prisons and many facilities will not deliver your card or letter without a return address, but I do not necessarily want my home address to be revealed. Strange reason, I know. That said, even though I have the post office box, my postcards are often misrouted to the incorrect post office or mail box. The post office is my second home. They call me the crazy stamp lady 