Mail forwarding made easy: 4 ways to share a document you received in the mail

How can you make it easier to share copies of documents you get in the mail? In the past,  sharing mail involved a series of forwarding addresses, making copies, and running to the local post office for extra stamps.  For that cost and time sacrifice, you might as well buy your own carrier pigeon! 

Luckily, virtual mailboxes can make this whole process much easier. With a virtual mailbox at Earth Class Mail, you can not only skip the line at the post office, but have a variety of options for sharing right on your phone or computer. Here’s a few ways you may not have known you can share your mail:

1. Mail scanning services makes sharing mail easy

Sharing your paper mail and packages can be extremely costly if you aren’t careful. Taxpayers spend $1.5 billion a year for the U.S Postal Service alone to process forwarded mail that ends up  undeliverable. 

Creating a digital copy of your mail with full text-search capabilities makes it easy for you to share a copy of your mail. Digital copies also make it simple to store and find your scanned documents in a flash. At Earth Class Mail, we like to keep our scanning detailed for your benefit. Our high-resolution PDF files include full-text search capabilities that include the envelope as well as front and back content of what lies inside. This way, you never miss important information and can get all of the details in your mail before deciding what you want to do next. 

Our individual plans include up to 50 pieces of mail each month scanned and business mailbox plans include more. By default, all mailbox plans have automatic scanning turned on to expedite service, although you can deactivate this option if you prefer.  

If you have a virtual business address plan, your mail items are billed individually, so it’s best to select that plan if you don’t anticipate much mail! 

2.  Share PDFs of your mail 

After scanning, your mail will arrive in your account dashboard already as a text-searchable  PDF.  We have added several integrations to make your documents compatible with some of the business tools you already may use. From your mailbox, you can choose to export  a PDF of mail to: 

• Bill.com 

• Dropbox 

• Google Drive

• Box 

If you are looking for even more integration options, we also offer a direct Zapier linkage for your business set up. Here's a guide on how to set up those integrations.

3. Mail shredding services 

Each year, one third of mail that is sent directly to the average U.S household is considered spam or junk mail. This not only fills up our landfills, and waterways with excess paper. But the tree cost to produce and distribute these adverts marks in the millions. 

With a virtual mailbox the junk still comes in, but we automatically sift through it, shred it, and recycle it. 

If there are important documents you don’t need a physical copy of such as electric bills or those pesky tolltag fees, you can choose to keep the PDF for future reference and shred the paper copy.

 Now the word shred may seem like things are gone forever, but if one day you wake up and the nightmare of you accidentally shredding your sister's wedding invite was real- simply reverse your shred! We hold mail for 30 days before secure shredding, so no worries if your fingers slip. 

4. Ship It

Going paperless means many things, but at Earth Class Mail it does not mean you’ll never see your mail again! Instead, you are in complete control of which packages arrive at your door, and when. 

Once your packages or mail arrive at your virtual address, all you need to do is select the option “Ship” in your inbox. Choose which items you want shipped and then put in your current physical address. You can  even have items sent elsewhere, such as a gift to someone else (a little hack for the holidays!). This way, you can ensure that all important documents such as passports, and credit cards, get to where they need to go. 

Virtual mailboxes can help you share your mail with your team 

A virtual address can be a major asset to both individuals and businesses. You can get mail from anywhere, use real street addresses, and get checks deposited.

Ready to pick a plan? See our options