A Guide to Change Your Mail Address and How to Find a Mail Forwarding Service

You could need to change your mail address at one point or the other in your business. Businesses change their mail address for several reasons including when they change a business location, open several business branches, and lots more.

While you can easily change your mail address with the Royal Mail (the British postal service and courier company) within the UK, there are also companies that render mail forwarding services all through the country and internationally. In this post, we will walk you through the process of changing your mail address and how you can find a mail forwarding service.

What is a Mail Address?

A mail address is an address where you receive letters, invoices, correspondence, packages, and other documents. It is a dedicated address where individuals, businesses, and organizations send mail to. A mail address can also be a residential or office address depending on how the recipients of the mail want it. Several businesses receive mail at their office address or business location so we could refer to such as their mail address. On the other hand, people also receive mail at their home addresses.

How to Change a Mail Address?

Once you decide to change your mail address, you will be required to follow some steps. Changing your mail address can be done online using the Royal Mail website. Follow the below process to have your mail address changed.

• Visit the Royal Mail website and search for a business redirection section (there is the redirection of mail for businesses and individuals, so be sure to choose business).
• Once you have selected the business option, you’ll be directed to another page where you can fill out the business redirection form.
• Once you are on this page, read the instructions before filling out the online form.
• You’ll begin by providing information about your company including your company name, your old and new address, email address, contact mobile number, company registration number, and so on.
• You will also be required to provide information about the redirection start date and the mail redirection duration. You can choose between 3, 6, and 12 months. However, you can renew the redirection once the period chosen elapses.
• Next will be to pay for the redirection process. The amount that will be paid will be dependent on the type of redirection and the duration. You should also be prepared for this payment before starting the application so you don’t lose the information you’ve filled in.
• Now you can verify your identity and your old business address. So you’ll need to provide the company's registration documents or credit card statement to prove your organization's identity while you also provide utility bills for proof of the old address.
• When you are done with this you will submit and expect updates and confirmation emails.

Changing your mail address or redirection typically takes 5 business working days from the day you applied. After this, you should expect that your new mail will be received at the new address.

Apart from using Royal Mail to redirect your mail to your new address, several companies within the UK can receive mail on your behalf and send it to your new business address. These are called mail forwarding companies and they provide mail forwarding service. Now, let’s look at that.

What is a Mail Forwarding Service?

Mail forwarding services are services that are in charge of redirecting mail, packages, or parcels from one address to the other. These types of services ensure that mails are forwarded to businesses, entrepreneurs, freelancers, etc. to any location they could be. As such a business doesn’t have to be in a particular place for it to receive mail as this service helps redirect it from the old address to a new one.

With mail-forward services, businesses can receive documents from banks, governmental organizations, creditors, and customers from any part of the world.

How Does Mail Forwarding Service Works

In almost all parts of the world including the UK, several companies render mail forwarding services. Mail forwarding service can be used for a lot of reasons including when you’re moving your business to a new address, when opening another business branch, a need to receive parcels in another location, or when you are out of the country.

So with that mail forwarding companies act as middlemen between your business and the individual or organization sending the mail. They receive the mail on your behalf and send it to the location you are. Usually, this mail-forwarding company will provide you with a physical address. This address will be given to your customers, creditors, clients, banks, etc. so they can send your mail to this address when the need arises.

You can thus be sure to receive all your important documents and packages in one safe address before they are sent to your location. Alternatively, when the mail forwarding company notifies you about the mail received, you can give the option to scan the document and send it virtually, send it to a physical address, or shred or recycle the mail as needed. With this, you can have your mail sorted even before they get to you and you can choose only the important documents that should be sent to you.

In situations when you are changing your business address to a new one, mail forwarding services help by receiving your mail on your behalf and then forwarding it to the new address that you are. With that, you are sure that all mail and parcels will be received in a secure environment and will be directed to you accordingly.

What to Consider When Choosing a Mail Forwarding Service

As a business owner, you would most times be receiving important mails. These mails mean a lot to your business and must therefore be handled with care. To make the most out of these forwarding services, it is important to check well before selecting the one to use. Below are the factors to consider when selecting mail forwarding services.

1. Reputation

Be sure to research the company before using their service. You would want to check how long they have been in business, how they deal with customers, what their company’s mission and visions are, how safe are your mails with them, how knowledgeable and experienced are their employees, and so on.  Apart from that, you could do some research online to see what customers are saying about them. Great reviews from past customers could mean the company is good to go.  However, if the company has many bad reviews, then it’s better to stay away from them.

2. Customer Support

You would also want to check the effectiveness of their customer support. While dealing with mail-forwarding companies, there would be days when you might need urgent communication or attention from them. Check the company’s website if there is a live chat platform that you can easily use to communicate with them. Do they respond to emails quickly?  Are they easily accessible through social media handles and so on?

Although you might not necessarily find a company that responds quickly through all of the platforms, the trick is that they should be easily accessible through one or more of them.

3. Pricing

While pricing is also very important, it is good to check out all other factors discussed too. Low prices with poor customer service or reputation won’t go well. While you don’t have to spend much before using a suitable forwarding service, be sure to also consider other factors.

4. Location

An important factor to also consider is the location or physical address of the forwarding company. It is important to choose one with an address that will be convenient to your mail sender. If you’re moving your business to a new address, then it’s most likely that your customers, investors, clients, etc. would know your old address.

Choosing a forwarding service that is close to your old address would not be a bad idea as most of these people are familiar with and have sent mail to this old address. On the other hand, you would also want to ensure that the forwarding company is not too far from your new business address. All of these are to ensure that both parties send and receive mail conveniently.

5. Mail Forwarding Regulations

Are there regulations on the type of mail that could be received and forwarded? Does the forwarding company cover your new business address? Are there opportunities for you to receive mail virtually? Does the company cover some specific parts of the world in case you wish to receive your mail internationally?

All of these and other company’s regulations are what you should know before subscribing to their service.

Benefits of a Mail Forwarding Service

Here are the benefits you could derive from using a mail forwarding service.

1. Helps maintain professionalism

With a mail forwarding service, you are provided with a particular address where all documents from customers and other stakeholders are sent. Using this address consistently helps keep your professional image. Even when you are moving your business to another location, or you are opening several branches for your business, individuals and organizations don't have to send mail to a varying address.

2. Ensures mail continuity

As a business owner, when you change your business location, you don’t have to stop receiving mail. So mail forwarding services help ensure that they receive mail on your behalf and deliver to your new address.

As new startups are usually bound to change location once the business starts growing, they don't have to stop receiving letters, invoices, and other important documents from stakeholders they’ve met from the previous location.

So once you change your physical location, a good way to maintain a healthy relationship with past customers and to ensure you continually receive mail from them is through a mail forwarding service.

3. Offers geographic Flexibility

When your business starts growing and you decide to open several branches, a mail forwarding service can help you ensure that all letters, correspondence, and other documents are received in one location.

With that, they could all be sorted out before they are sent to an address. With this, your business could ensure that it doesn’t miss out on any mail.

4. Manages your business resources and time

Mail forwarding companies also offer services that involve sorting and digitizing mail. They can help you get rid of unimportant mail, and keep and send the important ones as you require.

With that, you get to save some time, while only maximizing your time on other business needs. Apart from that, you could request a digital copy of the document they received rather than having to store all paper documents in your space.

5. Protect your Privacy

In the process of changing your business address, you might start considering several alternatives as to where new mails are received.

Mail forwarding service helps you ensure that you don’t use your home address for receiving mail while also ensuring that all mail is sent to you at your new address.

So the stakeholders that your business deals with don't need to know your home address before they can send mails to you. You can thus conveniently receive these mails from anywhere you are.

Even when you haven’t also secured a new address for your business, you can be sure to receive your parcels without disclosing your home address.

6. Ensures continuity with Business address

In situations when your business changes address often, a mail forwarding service can help you ensure that only one address is maintained. So you don’t have to change the address given to your customers or lenders every time you move out of a location.

7. Faster response time

Since mail forwarding services could provide you with a scanned copy of documents received, it means you could spend less time responding to mail received. As you receive the digital copy from the forwarding company, you can respond to the mail sender faster enough.

8. Maintains Security

With mail forwarding service, you can be sure that your parcels are in safe hands. Mail service ensures that your documents are received in a secured location and they are safely sent to you. With that, you don’t have to worry about theft or loss as the company itself is focused on ensuring security.

Conclusion

Changing your mail address to a new one shouldn’t result in losing important mail. With the variety of Mail forwarding services that are readily available, you can be sure not to miss out on any mail even when relocating to a new business location. If you have any questions about mail forwarding, kindly contact one of our experts here.