WHAT IS A VIRTUAL MAILBOX?

“What do you mean by a virtual mailbox?  Is that something to do with virtual reality?”  You could be forgiven for making that assumption.

The Oxford dictionary defines the word Virtual as:

“Almost or very nearly the thing described, so that any slight difference is not important”

A virtual mailbox allows a customer to rent a mailbox from a business that owns the building in which the mailbox is located.  Other customers may also rent some of these virtual mailboxes.  Each mailbox has unique address.  For example clients rent a virtual mailbox from Lets Letterbox in Bloomfield Avenue, Belfast Northern Ireland. The clients don’t live or work at the business address here in our building.  However we provide them with a much sought after central business office address in Belfast at a reasonable price. This address can also be used to register limited companies with Companies House (NI)

Physical And Virtual Mailbox Service

When you live in a house there is normally a physical letterbox or mailbox attached to that property. The letterbox is normally a letterbox slot in a door or a physical box construction into which any mail addressed to you is posted.  The normal mailbox or letterbox for a business is exactly the same although in some cases the actual physical “box” may be somewhat larger as businesses tend to receive more letters, mail and parcels than a residential address.  Virtual addresses provided by Lets Letters all have the same postcode, street name and number but they have different Unit or Apartment Numbers

How Is an Address Generated?

In the UK, the process of allocating addresses to individuals and businesses is carried out by the local district council.  The actual property in which the individual resides or in which the business takes place is normally given a number to form the start of the address.  This is then followed by the name of the road or street in which the property is located.  To avoid confusion the town or city, then the county and country are also included in each unique address.  The final part of the address that is written on an envelope, parcel or package is the postcode.

Registering A Postcode 

Postcodes are generated by Royal Mail after each new property has been built.  Royal Mail is the main postal service that operates in the UK. New property owners contact Royal Mail to obtain a postcode for their property. Postcodes were introduced to ensure that postal mail was delivered and received more efficiently. These postcodes normally consist of a mixture of between five and seven letters and numbers that identify a group of houses or buildings.  The digits in each postcode are not just randomly selected!  There is a methodology involved in their generation.

FIVE REASONS TO USE A VIRTUAL MAILBOX ADDRESS

1.Separate your work and business life

We all have private lives and for a lot of people we wish to keep our private life just that – private.  Virtual mailbox services provided by Lets Letterbox, can help keep your private life separate from your working life. Our  Sole Trader Or T/A Service   can give you the privacy you desire by providing your business with a separate mailbox address.   Your home address won’t be on any public records and your home won’t be inundated with junk mail.

2.Prestigious Belfast Office Address

Firstly, just imagine that you have created a fabulous new online business. You can carry out the business from the comfort of your own home.  It’s all going well but you would love to relocate to  a more central location where you believe you would attract more online customers. Nevertheless you cannot afford the rent in the city.  Customers are more inclined to buy from an online business when they recognize the city in which the business is based.

With Lets Letterbox your new virtual business address is based in Belfast and has a Belfast postcode, but it is only costing a fraction of the price.  Immediately, customers feel more comfortable buying from you and your business begins to grow.

More information about the benefits of a Belfast based business can be found in a recent blog Brexit-Company Registration

3. Company Registered Office Address

In another scenario, your accountant has advised that it would be much better for your business to trade as a Limited Company.  When your business operates as a Limited Company, you and your business are two distinct legal entities. One of the main advantages of becoming incorporated as a Limited Company, is that should your business get into difficulty and go bust, the only thing that you will need to pay back is the money that you invested in the business.  Your creditors will not be able to take anything that belongs to you, such as your house or your car.

COMPANIES HOUSE (NI) REQUIREMENTS

Incorporation as a Limited Company or company formation in Northern Ireland is carried out via Companies House (NI).  Limited Companies must provide a registered office address and the address must be physical and in the same country in which the company is registered. By saying that the company registered address must be physical, it means that documents from Companies House (NI) and HMRC can be physically delivered to the a registered office.  Again, Lets Letterbox provide this service and you can follow this link to find out more. Limited Company Services

4. Avoid PO Boxes as addresses for Company Registration

PO Box addresses in their normal format, are not usually accepted as a business  registered address.  The address needs to be a physical entity, it needs to be real. Some services however do provide PO Boxes that are acceptable as a company registered office.  This is because as well as the PO Box number, the address provides a road name and number and a postcode.  In other words, the address does actually exist as a physical building. Your best bet is to use a company registered office address provider like Lets Letterbox.  You can be sure you will receive a compliant company registered office address. Your company address is available for everyone to view online and everyone should be able to find it.

5.Director’s Service Address 

If you are a director of a company, Companies House (NI) requires that you must provide again, a physical address.  Our  Lets Letterbox Director’s Service Address provide this service here in Northern Ireland.  This separates a Company Director’s business life from their home life.

6.Private Mailbox After Divorce

This is a little awkward.  When things go wrong in your private life, you may need to divorce or separate from your partner.  What was once a case of “Oh, will you open that letter for me dear?” has turned on it’s head completely to “If you open my bank statement, I will have to get in touch with the authorities”. No one wants to end up in this situation.  A virtual mailbox for one of the ex-partners early in the separation procedures is the ideal solution. Choose our Lets Letterbox Individual & Personal subscription. We can provide people in this situation with a safe and secure address. Mail will be either kept for collection in person or it can be confidentially forwarded to the customer by an agreed method.

MAIL FORWARDING

EMAIL FORWARDING

When you have a personal mailbox or your company has its registered office address with Lets Letterbox your postal mail must be forwarded.  Any official government-based mail can be opened at our offices, we can open the mail and simply scan it to your computer  Email forwarding requires a level of trust from the customer.  Here at Lets Letterbox  confidentiality is always at the forefront of our minds.  So, you can be guaranteed your privacy with us. You can also call into our offices to pick up mail, parcels and packages. Or alternatively provide us with a separate postal address to which we can post the correspondence,

COLLECTION OR POSTAL FORWARDING

One of the other methods that we use is that we don’t open the envelope here in the office.  Instead, the mail is placed inside another envelope and then posted on to you at an address of your choice.  The beauty of this is that firstly, we as address provider don’t need to open your correspondence.  Another is that by the time you receive the mail at the address you provide to us, which may or may not be your home address, all the stamps and logos of HMRC or Companies House is not visible on the outside envelope and then no one needs what you are receiving and your “business” is still separate from your private life.

Virtual Office Address Belfast

Whether you are a business start-up wishing to become a Limited Company, a home based NI craft or IT business, a well-established sole trader operating in Northern Ireland and you badly need some definition between home and business lives or alternatively an overseas or global business wishing to break in to the NI market, the options available for a prestigious city based address are plentiful. Lets Letterbox is one of the main go to businesses to apply for a company registered office address in Belfast.  Our business services go hand in hand with our individual and personal services.