Fábio Buzby

A PO (post office) box works great for basic mailbox service requirements. Even people who have physical addresses may opt for a PO box if they’d like to keep their real address confidential. But can your PO box address be your physical address?

You cannot use your PO box as your physical address because the former doesn’t fulfill the requirements of a “physical address.” In other words, a PO box address has no apartment or suite number in it. Also, a physical address denotes the place where you live – a PO box address doesn’t state that.

If you’re contemplating using a PO box as your billing address or an address to receive mail or ship in goods, continue reading.

Most likely, yes, but there could be exceptions. Banks usually do not accept a PO box as a billing address. Banks can certainly send mail to a PO box, but they must first validate the physical address to do so. There could be multiple reasons why that might be the case:

If you cannot provide a bank with your physical address or cannot authenticate your place of residence, you’d most likely not be able to open a bank account.

As far as how other businesses address this situation, most e-commerce companies in the U.S. usually will not mind a PO box address being used as a billing address. But some non-U.S. e-commerce firms that ship physical goods such as smartphones may not accept a PO box as a valid billing address. You need to confirm the same with your merchant or vendor before considering shopping.

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If a PO box cannot be your physical address, then why does it even exist? Apparently, there are quite a few benefits to renting a PO box – even in this day and age of the Internet, emails, and various other forms of digital communication. A PO box:

Also, the locked PO box can be accessed only using a lock combination or key. If your parcel cannot fit inside your PO box, it will be placed at your postal office’s lockers.

A PO box doesn’t get automatically assigned to citizens, and the general public cannot choose one randomly. They’ll have to apply for one with the USPS. When applying for a PO box, you must enter your physical address in the application form. The post office needs your physical address for identification purposes.

To receive your PO box number and keys, you must fill out USPS Form 1583 and have two valid IDs to show – one with a photo and another without a picture. The following are IDs you may use:

The USPS does not accept birth certificates, credit cards, or social security cards as valid identity proofs.

If you’d like to know how to reserve a PO box online, watch the video below:

If you are homeless or do not have a real address, you can’t get a PO box. But you can still receive mail or shipments, thanks to USPS’ General Delivery service. General Delivery is USPS’s proprietary mail service for people without a physical or permanent address.

To address a mail intended for General Delivery, just mention your name, write down the words “General Delivery,” and mention your local post office’s street address, city, state, and zip code. Once the mail or package has arrived, you could collect it from the assigned post office upon showing your ID. Mail received via General Delivery would remain in the post office for up to 30 days from the date of receipt.

Before using a local post office’s street address, make sure the particular branch office offers General Delivery service. If your city or town has more than one USPS office, only one of them could be accepting General Delivery. Therefore, it’s worth your while to confirm the same.

Kindly note your local post office isn’t your substitute for a physical address. You cannot be using your name and mentioning the post office’s address as your own. If you do not mention General Delivery in your address column, the mail or package will be returned.

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Popular delivery service companies such as UPS (United Parcel Service) and FedEx usually do not ship to PO boxes since a PO box is primarily a USPS service. However, if you opt for FedEx, UPS, or other mail carriers’ special delivery services and/or are okay with some of their delivery conditions, you could use their services to deliver mail or parcels to your PO box address.

FedEx lets you ship packages to a domestic PO box if the shipment goes through FedEx SmartPost.

SmartPost is basically FedEx’s quick delivery service that ships lightweight packages across the U.S. and America’s various territories. It works in conjunction with USPS to deliver parcels to your PO box. FedEx SmartPost takes care of the first phase of the shipping process before handing over your parcel to USPS for delivery to your PO box.

You may use FedEx SmartPost if you’re shipping to PO boxes in certain international destinations as well, such as Puerto Rico. In such cases, you must provide a legitimate telephone, telex, or fax number.

If you want UPS to deliver a shipment to your PO box address, you must provide your telephone number. In addition, there are certain stipulations you need to be okay with, which include:

Kindly note, UPS doesn’t accept FPO (fleet post office) and APO (army post office) addresses.

A PO box address also cannot be used for business purposes or to serve as a registered office address. Companies must have a real official address, which could be easily found by anyone. If you were considering using a PO box address for your firm, you could always use registered address services.

Even if you can use a PO box address for your virtual business, it would not look professional and may hurt your venture’s growth. Not to mention, customers and vendors alike will not be inclined to engage with a business that uses a PO box address as its primary legal address.

There are different ways to cut costs when starting a business on a shoestring budget. Its physical address is an area you certainly shouldn’t be compromising on.

For more, check out Can I Use My Parents’ Address for College?

In France, everyone has at least one insurance policy. Indeed, the law requires the subscription to certain compulsory insurance such as health insurance, civil liability, car / motorcycle insurance if you have a vehicle, certain professional insurance… We must not confuse these 3 very distinct insurances. Almost all home insurance and auto/motorcycle insurance contracts include this guarantee (you should know that civil liability is the basis of protection for auto and motorcycle insurance: it is the minimum guarantee that you can have in your contract), but if this is not the case, you can take out a private civil liability insurance policy. Coronavirus and insurance, what coverage?

Are you wondering to what extent your insurance policies are effective on costs and claims related to Covid 19? Know that exceptional measures are taken, of the order of the collective effort because nothing obliges them. Turn to your insurer to find out the precise terms and conditions, preferring contactless of course (email and telephone). While some insurance is made compulsory, others have become essential to protect against certain everyday risks.

It is important to choose the right insurance policy, the right contract. It must correspond to your needs and your situation as a whole. Faced with the multitude of insurance companies, this choice can quickly turn out to be difficult and cause you to give up. Our team has designed a free and easy-to-use insurance comparator to help you in your search. By providing some information, this tool will be able to study the offers on the market and present the most advantageous for you. And this, whatever the insurance you are looking for (loan, mutual health insurance, travel, home, dependency, etc.)!

Your insurance contract has a unique number. You may be asked for this insurance policy number, for example by your bank during a loan, or during an accident report after an accident. So where to find it? You will find your insurance policy number: The insurance policy is none other than the insurance contract, material proof of the agreement between the insurer and the insured. It contains the guarantees, the conditions of commitment of the insurer towards the insured, the obligations of the insured, the insurance deductible if there is one and the notice periods, among others.

When you sign your home insurance contract, for example, we also say that you are taking out a home insurance policy. The term insurance policy is used more by professionals in the field. Medical insurance policy can be defined as international health insurance. This is an optional insurance that you can take out when you travel outside French territory, especially outside the European Union. Many of the guarantees of medical insurance are found in travel insurance, such as the payment of medical and hospitalization costs, for example. Medical insurance is still more targeted because it is oriented solely on health, while travel insurance includes a baggage, repatriation, theft, etc. component.

Having a medical insurance policy is particularly interesting for expatriates, people on long stays and dual nationals. Please note that medical insurance is not the same as: In any case, if you cannot find your insurance policy number in your papers or letters, you can contact your insurer and ask them for it.

Since the Chatel law, the notice of expiry must be sent to you at least two weeks before the expiry of your contract. You are not only liable for damage caused by you, but also for damage to third parties caused by: Everyone in France is liable for damage caused unintentionally to others: this is Civil Liability.

The civil liability insurance policy, defined by the Civil Code, is compulsory. It takes the place of the person responsible for the damage: it takes charge of the compensation of the victim(s) and the repair of material, immaterial and bodily damage. Your child breaks the neighbour's window with his balloon, a tile in your house falls on a parked car, you run over someone on a bicycle... all of this comes under Civil Liability.

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Update for Python3: (quoted from the already-answered answer, since the last edit/comment here suggested a deprecated method) In Python 3