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When you're away for an extended period (such as traveling long-term or working overseas) - or you simply want a digital solution for handling your company's mail - mail scanning services provide a practical alternative. Instead of your mail piling up at home or sitting in a physical mailbox, these services receive your mail at a secure facility where they're opened, scanned, and uploaded for you to view online.
As you explore different mail scanning services, it's essential to know what features matter most. A good service will offer not only secure access to your mail but also options like package forwarding, mail storage, and shredding. For businesses, services that can handle a variety of document types, including legal and financial paperwork, are a huge plus.
Wednesday, November 13th
US Global Mail is the mail scanning company that gives back, planting a tree for every new customer and not just scanning but recycling all of the mail marked for the discard pile (including the pre-sorted junk mail that you never even have to see in your dashboard). You'll have your pick of 30 different locations for your new address, including three that are owned and managed by US Global Mail itself. Plans here are much more inclusive than many rival services, and the customer support team gets tons of love from happy clients. US Global Mail continues to be our most-recommended option for scanning and forwarding mail.
Physical Address is one of the most secure mail scanning services out there: they own and maintain each of the facilities that receive mail and packages, and they conduct in-depth background checks on their employees. You won't have as many states from which to choose your new mailing address, but you will get extremely affordable monthly rates and tons of included benefits (ones that rivals often charge a la carte prices to deliver). Physical Address has earned over a thousand 5-star reviews and an "A” rating from the BBB, as well as our #2 spot among mail scanning providers.
If your company or organization is ready to ditch the mailroom (and maybe even the copier too), Docufree will be your perfect partner. Not only can they help you manage all of your incoming mail by digitizing it and distributing it to the right employee(s), they can tackle that backlog of paperwork you've been putting off and scan that too. Your plan here will be custom-designed and priced for your business, once you reach out for a quote. The BBB gives Docufree an "A+”, and companies say that it's the ideal service for streamlining paperwork in the office and keeping distributed teams on the same page (pun intended).
iPostal1 gives you a network of more than 3250 locations in the US and in other countries for your new mailing address, using retail shipping stores and virtual office buildings to receive mail and packages. You'll also have many service/pricing tiers to choose from, based on whether you're receiving mail as an individual or a business and how much you anticipate receiving each month. It gets a little pricey, but there are quite a few people who really love the service they've received via iPostal1. Keep this mail scanning option in reserve if you don't find what you're looking for higher on our list.
Yes, it is possible to get mail scanning services for just $100 a year - if you choose a service like PostScan Mail. You'll need to upgrade to a higher tier if you expect to receive a high volume of mail and packages, but even those options aren't unreasonably-priced. PostScan Mail has a lot of perks, like 800+ mailing address options in the US and abroad, support offered 7 days a week, and a 30-day refund policy. However, downsides include a lack of check depositing services and having to pay extra for shredding of mail (instead of just recycling it). Still, thousands of customers have given PostScan Mail a high score, earning it a good ranking from us as well.
LegalZoom is well-known for offering cost-effective documents for personal and business use, but their Virtual Mail scanning plans are only offered to companies looking to digitize their mail handling (and not for world-travelers, RVers, or even individuals just looking for a little privacy). The services offered here start at $29/month, but you don't get nearly as much as you'll find with comparable rival platforms. And, since this LegalZoom service is relatively new, there's not a lot of feedback indicating whether or not this is a reliable way to handle your company mail. We recommend looking at more established mail scanning options first, but LegalZoom still gets a mid-tier rating on its overall reputation alone.
Traveling Mailbox has been around for over a decade, serving more than 50,000 customers worldwide and scanning over 8 million envelopes. Pricing is reasonable, starting at $15/month, and all plans come with unlimited cloud storage, integration with platforms like Evernote and Google Drive, free shredding of junk mail, and support available 7 days a week. But, customer feedback for Traveling Mailbox is strangely mixed: you'll either have a flawless experience and recommend this mail scanning service to all your friends, or you'll have a terrible one and warn everyone away from it. Because Traveling Mailbox still has a track record of losing important pieces of mail for a not-insignificant number of clients, we can't give them a higher score.
At the outset, Virtual Post Mail will strike you as being more limited in location but broader in service than many of its mail scanning competitors. You'll only have 5 states to choose from for your new address, but you'll get extras like free registered agent service and other perks that are particularly helpful for new (and existing) business owners. Pricing starts at $20/month, and you'll have a 30-day money-back guarantee to decide if you like what VPM is doing for you. While there seems to be a lot to like about this mail scanning service, client feedback indicates that the reliability of Virtual Post Mail is on the decline, and even we had a hard time reaching support during normal business hours. VPM earns a below-average rating because of its customer reviews.
Anytime Mailbox can refer you to mail scanning services around the globe, from Alabama to Zambia and everywhere in between. You choose the location based on where you'd like to have an address for your physical mail to go, and then select the provider that offers the tier of service you need. You'll be doing a lot of clicking around to make your decision: Anytime Mailbox doesn't make it easy to see which locations can provide the specific capabilities you're looking for (like check depositing or package forwarding). Also, there are a lot of recent complaints from unhappy clients who have had big issues with the partner locations and with Anytime Mailbox's customer support (or lack of it). We now rank this mail scanning middleman as a below-average option.
Sasquatch Mail's services feel as elusive as the creature after which the company is named. It's designed with a heavy focus on privacy and security, so that clients can essentially "hide” their location (and even phone number) by having mail sent to an address in a different state. Although the base price is affordable at $9.99/month, you have to pay $2 for every single envelope and its contents that you want scanned to your dashboard, and it will cost you another $2 plus postage for each piece you have forwarded. Feedback for Sasquatch Mail is also hard to come by, and what we did find is almost always very negative, with references to receiving practically zero customer service. We don't recommend using Sasquatch Mail for scanning services.
Most providers let you decide what to do with each piece of mail - store it, forward it, or have it securely shredded. Some even offer access to their features from a convenient online dashboard.
How much do mail scanning services typically cost? Pricing can be a bit tricky. Some services bundle almost everything into a single monthly fee, while others have tiered plans or charge a la carte for many features like extra scans, check depositing, or package forwarding. It's important to clarify what's included upfront, so you don't end up with unexpected fees. Depending on your volume of mail and the services you need, the total cost can vary significantly, so you'll want to compare the value provided by each mail scanning provider.
There are quite a few options for mail scanning out there today. Confused by which one is right for you? To help you narrow them down, consider these criteria:
To help you get the right mail scanning service for your needs, the world-traveling experts at Top Consumer Reviews have researched and ranked some of today's most popular options. Use this information to sort the best from the worst and pick a mail scanning provider that will make your life easier, whether you're trotting the globe in an RV or simply trying to take your corporate mailroom to the all-digital level!
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