Around the world,  Before the World Tour,  Digital nomad,  Preparations,  TDM

Test and review of the Traveller’s Mail Service

How can you continue to receive your postal mail while you are traveling between South Africa, New Zealand and Argentina? I have tested the ” Courrier du Voyageur ” service for you.

Even if nowadays, postal mail is becoming increasingly rare, there are still a few diehards. And often, these diehards are important and/or boring: bank, insurance, administration, … (for example, I am fighting for the restitution of my housing deposit by registered letters).

Since the beginning of our world tour, we change our address every 48 hours, so it is essential to keep a fixed correspondence address.

I had considered asking my family to receive my mail and scan it for me for a while, but it’s still quite burdensome for them.

That’s when I discovered the “Traveller’s Mail” service.

You can’t make it up, “Courrier du voyageur” was created by a former world traveler

How does it work?

The principle is very simple, once subscribed, “Courrier du voyageur” provides you with a postal address in France which becomes your correspondence address. You will then be able to read your mail directly online.

Registration is 100% online, in just a few days. Once created, you can communicate this address to your contacts.

For our part, we have also subscribed to the forwarding service of La Poste.

How much does it cost?

There are several formulas ranging from about 10 to 40 € / month.

On the cheapest formulas, Courrier du voyageur will scan the envelopes you receive, it is you who will decide on the web interface which ones you want to have opened and scanned.

On the most expensive packages, all your mail is opened and scanned.

You can subscribe on a month-to-month basis or benefit from a sliding scale according to the duration of your subscription.

Details of the offers here: http: //www.courrier-du-voyageur.com/tarif-boite-postale.html

What about taxes?

Unfortunately, it isn’t possible to use the traveler’s mailing address as a “tax domicile” address.

I tried to do it at first but it was refused because the tax authorities wanted to know the address where you really live.

When we explain the concept of digital nomadism to them, it’s a bit complicated…

In the end, my “tax domicile” address is my parents’. They do not receive any mail because exchanges with the tax authorities are now completely dematerialized. On the other hand, depending on your income, this can potentially increase the housing tax of the person with whom you declare to reside. Not cool…

What does it look like?

This is what the main interface looks like. It deserves a good refresh but it does the job and offers many features. Courrier du Voyageur told me that a brand new design was in preparation and would be released in late 2016 / early 2017.

EDIT: The design has been redone, it is much nicer and more efficient now 🙂

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And here is the “mail” view with the example of a postcard that we “self-sent” from South Africa 😃

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What does it look like (new interface)?

The new interface is much more ergonomic and 100% responsive design, very practical!



What happens to my mail?

For each mail, you have several options:

  • Have the envelope or mail contents scanned
  • Have your mail physically guarded while awaiting your return
  • Deletion: mail from the traveler will physically delete the mail
  • Keep in the cloud made available
  • Download in PDF
  • Forwarding: on request, you can have a set of mail sent to the address of your choice (for an additional fee).

Little feature I miss: the ability to forward a mail to an email address (which would allow me to send it directly in Evernote).

Some very practical complementary services

  • If you have made a power of attorney (which is also 100% online), Courrier du Voyageur will be able to pick up your registered mail if you receive it).
  • If you receive a cheque, you can ask them to sign it and send it to your bank. I’ve had the opportunity to test it, it works perfectly.
  • Receive a package and store it in their warehouse or reship it to the address you want.
  • You can also ask Courrier du voyageur to send mail for you. The interest is reduced since it can be done on the site of La Poste but for having tested, the interface of this service is catastrophic. If one day I’m in a hurry, I’ll ask Courrier du Voyageur instead.

A small review

EDIT: With the new interface, this criticism becomes irrelevant.

The only real drawback is the web interface which isn’t responsive design (not adapted to mobile). While exchanging with Courrier du Voyageur, I learned however that there was already a mobile version (it isn’t well promoted on the site, I had not seen it). By using it, you lose a lot of features but it’s quite handy to be able to read your mail when you’re in places with very weak connections (in South Africa and India, not always easy…).

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Otherwise the support is really perfect, I have had several exchanges with them and the answers come systematically in less than 24 hours.

In conclusion, I warmly recommend the traveler’s mail service, which is essential if you want to keep a correspondence address when you travel.

To learn more about this service and get a discount code, read this article

https://www.nomadbento.com/6246.htm

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