mail forwarding

is free,  all you pay is the onward postage at cost!

Free global forwarding of British expat mail

sending options

Use your secure controls to tell us whether to forward your mail on to you DailyWeekly or Monthly,  and when to send by Royal Mail, Signed-for or by Private Courier!   You can also request a forwarding on Demand  and your mail will be despatched within 24 hours,  without affecting your normal schedule,  even if your account is otherwise set to Hold.

Similarly,  if you have a Demand despatch sent using a different service,  your normal sending instructions remain unchanged.   In all cases,  your mail is consolidated into a tamper proof postal bag to protect your privacy and the postage is debited from your Postage Fund.

Please note:   Our system produces postage labels with EXACTLY the content and layout that you enter as the 'forwarding address' in your account control panel,  so remember to including a recipient's name,  if one is required.

royal mail or courier?

our quick guide to the options available

Royal Mail offer the most cost effective option for forwarding mail abroad,  and both their International Standard and International Signed-For & Tracked services are much cheaper than a Private Courier.   Final delivery,  however,  then becomes the responsibility of the destination country's domestic postal service.   Whilst in most of the developed world this isn't an issue,  if you live in a country where the domestic postal carrier is slow,  unreliable or insecure  ( parts of the Middle East,  Africa or South America for example ),  you may wish to consider a fully insured end-to-end Courier such as DHL or UPS for items of importance or intrinsic value.

Royal Mail Special Delivery offers next day delivery by 1pm,  but is only available within the UK,  and a 'next day' international courier service does not exist in practice.   Dig into the small print on a Courier's website and you'll see that both the collection and delivery points must be unfeasibly close to one of their distribution 'hubs',  and a pick-up is often not available the same day.

The claimed transit time for Royal Mail International Standard  (the old 'Airmail')  and Signed-for  ('Recorded')  is 3 - 5 working days to Europe,  and 5 - 8 working days to the rest of the world.   Most Couriers offer identical delivery times to the Royal Mail as standard,  whilst their Express services are marginally faster at 2 - 3 working days to addresses within the EU,  and 3 - 5 days for the rest of the world.

Whilst all of our regional Mail Centres are functioning normally,  postal and courier services around the world are experiencing various levels of delay due to the global Corona Virus pandemmic. . .  so please bear this in mind!

for your security!

Despatches containing a payment card,  passport or driving licence will always be forwarded by a 'trackable' service  ( regardless of the options you may have selected )!   If you are unable to sign for mail on delivery,  for whatever reason,  please send a message to legal@expost.uk  from the email address registered to your account,  with exactly the following wording.   We will then add a legal waiver to your records that will allow us to despatch by standard post.

"My mailbox Key is:  *****.   If I so instruct,  please forward any payment card,  valid passport or driving licence by standard,  untracked,  mail.   I understand and accept the risks associated with sending such items by standard post and I hold expost harmless in the event of loss.   I further understand that no tracking information or proof of delivery will be available to me."

 

Calandar showing scheduling mail forwarding from a UK virtual mailbox

 

keeping you informed

If you request your mail to be forwarded on any tracked service  (International Signed-for,  or Private Courier),  we'll send you an email with the tracking number and a direct link to your chosen carrier's on-line facility so that you can follow its progress.

We always send your mail precisely according to your instructions,  so please be careful when selecting Private Courier,  especially as you are resident abroad,  or you may find yourself paying way too much to receive a single letter!   If in any doubt,  we are always here to advise.

 

Free global forwarding of your mail

handling timelines

Our Mail Centres are manned 24 hours,  seven days a week,  and able to accept all out-of-hours courier deliveries.   Outgoing post is collected from the Centre by the Royal Mail at around noon each weekday,  and by private couriers according to their individual schedules.   As a result,  'Demand' requests must be received by 8am to guarantee same-day despatch.

Because our main postal delivery can arrive as late as 3pm,  mail is always logged in and processed the following morning,  so items may not appear in your control panel until then,  even though they were signed-for the previous afternoon.

 

Pills illustrating goods that are prohibited or controlled in the post.

prohibited & restricted items

Certain types of goods are either prohibited in the post,  or have legal restrictions placed upon their carriage,  especially when being sent abroad.   Visit the Royal Mail website for a comprehensive list  (very similar restrictions are also applied by most private couriers).

We reserve the right not to forward mail if we have reason to believe that it may contain prohibited items.