Keeping a us residence versus a virtual address

@seamus452

Yup, I've had a US mail forwarder for over 20 years. It's the address my bank/brokerage has, and it's also the address for my credit record. They will forward items from the US to any country, but it's usually junk mail (the US is still the world leader in this), unless I need a new bank card. It also works for buying (small) products over there that I want to be forwarded, but, these days, there's very little (or no) advantage to buying something from a US website (e.g. Amazon) vs my local options. Indeed, if I want something cheap, my first choices are usually Temu or AliExpress, and it makes way more sense to have them ship directly to me.

As long as they have a PHYSICAL shipping address (i.e. not a simple Post Office mailbox) it should work. I simply give their address with Apt X instead of Mailbox X. There are occasionally official forms (e.g. W-8 BEN) that explicitly ask for a "permanent residence address" so I give the appropriate foreign address, and put my maildrop as my US mailing address. But, otherwise, I give it out as if it were my actual apartment address. (I suspect that addresses are no longer looked at by humans, as it's kinda obvious that it's not really an apartment.)

The address alone is often insufficient (especially for banks, etc.). You need a virtual number to go with it, either from the maildrop provider or from Skype (or similar VOIP folks). Skype is particularly good because their numbers accept both incoming calls and incoming SMS messages. (My virtual number is in a different state, another very obvious clue that it's not really an apartment.)

I kept it up because I wanted to maintain my impeccable credit score until I returned... but it has been clear for several years that I'm never gonna go back again. And it now looks like an increasingly pointless (and costly) vanity. :-)

However, keeping an apartment in USA instead would be several orders of magnitude more expensive. So, from that perspective, the maildrop is a massive bargain. If you're very wealthy, then it's no big deal to keep properties in several countries and regularly fly between them. But most of us can't afford that, and prefer to own just the one property that we live in. :-)

Thank you very, very much. That was indeed very useful information.

I am curous which US virtual mailbox companies are best if anyone has a recommendation on how to choose one.

@seamus452 we've used [link under review] the 3+ years we've been in Spain.  I can't say I recommend them though.  Scanning is a little expensive and usually it's mail we don't care about.  We've been weening our need away from them by having mail sent to a family address and we will probably close the account.  In the case of our Chase visa, we use our Spanish address.  We've received cards to our Spanish address when previous ones have expired.  We still have a property in the US, but we don't use it for any mail.  We still have our Wells Fargo, BofA and Schwab with US addresses and a US phone number.  Happy to answer other questions by direct contact.

US Global Mail is the link under review above, btw.

@seamus452

We've had a virtual address in the US since we moved to Spain 4 years ago. Use it for most US banks without issue. If you keep your house and sell it after moving to Spain, you will have to pay CG tax on it here.

@heapophoto

Thank you so much for your advice. I am not sure how to contact you directly.

@electra777

Thank you. Luckily, we do not own a home in the U.S,

@electra777

Would you feel comfortable sharing the name of the virtual address company that you are using?

Thank you

@seamus452

I messaged you by clicking on your name. You can reply the same way.

@seamus452

I use iPostal1. It's been fine for the most part--not the cheapest option, but you can get a street address almost anywhere in the country with them.

@seamus452
I messaged you by clicking on your name. You can reply the same way. - @heapophoto

When you click, what does it show?

@electra777

Thank you. I have looked at their website.

@SimCityAT

it shows the user profile of the sender, plus an option to DM.

@seamus452

That's how we communicate privately.

Hi, Seamus.  We aren't in Spain yet, but we're coming in 2026.  We are currently full-timers in our motorhome, five years now.  Because we would constantly be going back and forth between Michigan and Florida, AND because we wanted to use Florida as our domicile for taxation purposes, we were forced to use a mailing service that also gave us a legal USPS mailing address.  (We have since found a park that we have come to the same spot for two years running and we pay for all 12 months on that lot, so we now use this as our address.)  The service we used is called St. Brendan's Isle, in the Jacksonville FL area (Green Cove Springs).  We were VERY pleased with their service and if we have to go back to this type of arrangement in the future, we would not hesitate to use them again.