Want to stop receiving business correspondence to your home address? Whether you are about to set up a business or have an existing business, you may be looking for alternatives to exposing your personal information online. One possible solution would be to use a PO Box as a cost-effective address solution.

For years, using a PO Box was a great option for smaller businesses in the UK that didn’t want to invest in a dedicated office space, but this is no longer the best solution available on the market. The biggest impact has been a legal change which means you can no longer use a PO Box as a business address.

In this article, we’re going to look at what a PO box is, exactly how they work… and why a virtual office is now the ideal choice for small businesses across every sector and industry

So, what is a PO box address?

A PO Box, also known as a Post Office Box, is a secure and private mailbox service. In the UK, Royal Mail is the best-known provider of PO Boxes, although there are other vendors on the market. PO Boxes are either a physical box - located in a Post Office if via the Royal Mail - or your mail gets forwarded onto an address of your choice.

Once your application for a PO Box has been approved, you will be able to use the PO Box address on your business’ website, customer correspondence and social media channels, and direct customers, vendors and other interested parties to send post to this address.

It’s important to note that, although you can use a PO Box address as the main postal address of your business for the general public, you can no longer use a PO Box to register your business with Companies House or HMRC.

Applying for a PO Box

To secure your PO Box you first have to apply for one from the Royal Mail. You can do this at your local post office branch or online, with the process taking up to 7 working days. You can also apply by post, but this takes up to 10 working days to be processed.

By contrast, when you choose to use a virtual office address, this can be up and running within minutes of purchasing your plan from a provider like Hoxton Mix.

The application process to register for a PO box can also be arduous, with Royal Mail requiring two forms of your proof of address, which many people find hard to get hold of as so many bills and bank statements are paperless.

Disadvantages of PO Boxes

Although using a PO Box used to be the only option for small businesses that didn’t have a dedicated office, this is no longer the case. In fact, using a PO Box actually brings a number of disadvantages to businesses when compared to using a virtual office that you should consider.

Cost

Royal Mail offers two PO Box solutions:

PO Box Collect
PO Box Deliver

With PO Box Collect, you must go to your local Customer Service Point to receive your post, while PO Box Deliver will forward your post to a residential address of your choice.

Both packages start from £45 per month, although the minimum term for the pay-monthly options is three months.

The monthly cost drops if you commit to six months or 12 months:

PO Box Collect

£216.60 for six months (£36.10 per month)
£371.40 for 12 months (£30.95 per month)

PO Box Deliver

£246.60 for six months (£41.10 per month)
£445.80 for 12 months (£37.15 per month)

These prices compare unfavourably with the services on offer from Hoxton Mix, with a virtual office address starting from just £19 per month when billed annually, rising to just £22.99 per month for a flexible month-to-month plan. Additionally, a virtual office plan from Hoxton Mix includes additional services and features beyond a simple mailing address. Your Hoxton Mix address will also be accepted as a business registration address on Companies House.

You can’t use a PO Box to register a business

Coming into effect in March 2024, the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 made it no longer possible to register a business with Companies House and HMRC using a PO Box address. This ruling aimed to improve transparency in order to reduce the risk of companies committing fraud.

Instead, business owners must register their company using an ‘appropriate’ address, which requires that you or someone acting on behalf of the company must be notified when official correspondence is delivered, and that the sender is able to receive confirmation of delivery.

This used to be one of the main benefits of using a PO Box, allowing small businesses to register with a PO Box to keep the residential address of the owner private. However, virtual office addresses do qualify as appropriate addresses, providing a convenient and easy PO box alternative.

At Hoxton Mix, we have a fully staffed office open Monday - Friday 09:00 - 18:00, located within walking distance from Liverpool Street, Moorgate and Old Street Stations in Central London.

Less credibility

Although more professional-looking than using a residential address, a PO Box still doesn’t carry the credibility of a physical office in a desirable business location.

A virtual office is a better option in this context, as this service uses genuine UK addresses that are often located in an area you’d expect a business to be based. For example, our virtual office addresses are all on Paul Street, Shoreditch, which is one of the UK’s most sought-after creative hubs.

Less flexibility

Regardless of the PO Box package you choose, your flexibility to live and work wherever you want is reduced. Your mail can only be delivered to a specific forwarding address, even with PO Box Deliver. With a virtual office address, all of your mail is processed, digitised and then made available to you via web or mobile to access wherever you are located. For important mail, you can have the physical copies forwarded to you.

With Hoxton Mix, all of your business post is digitised and sent to your email inbox within one working day of it being received. This means that you can stay on top of all of your important correspondence no matter where you are based.

Why use a virtual address for business instead of a PO Box?

With over 60,000’s SME’s and counting, a virtual office address from Hoxton Mix is a trusted solution for startups, small businesses and self-employed digital nomads. Here are the four main reasons that a virtual office address is better than a PO Box:

Protect your privacy

Unlike a PO Box, a virtual office can be used as the official registered address of your business with Companies House and HMRC, meaning that you don’t need to use your family home to receive official correspondence. You can also use it for your Director’s Service Address giving complete online privacy.

This means your privacy is guaranteed, because your virtual office address can be used as the only publicly available address connected to your business, ensuring you don’t have disgruntled customers or suppliers turning up on your doorstep when you least expect it.

Digital mail to your inbox anywhere in the world

Our virtual office plan includes everything you need to ensure you get your mail irrespective of where you are based. We are more than an address.

When we receive your business post, we’ll scan and send a digital copy directly to your inbox within 1-business day. This means that you don’t even have to be in the country to receive your mail—you simply need an internet connection.

Increase your organic search rankings

A PO Box can significantly limit your ranking performance in search engines like Google and Bing, particularly if your business services customers in a specific geographic area.

That’s because, when deciding what to rank for local search queries, search engines want to be able to verify that a business is actually local to that area—and a PO Box is not considered a legitimate physical address.

A virtual office is tied to a genuine location, which means it doesn’t come with the same restrictions.

Scale your business with supporting services

With Hoxton Mix you don’t just get a virtual office address—you can take advantage of a wide range of other supporting services, including:

A prime London 020 virtual office phone number that moves with you
A free business bank account & £75 cashback thanks to our partnership with Tide
Earn 1% cashback with credit limits of up to £250,000 to take your business further. No hidden charges or annual fee with Capital on Tap
Xero accounting software 95% of for 6 months
Access to our marketplace, including a wide range of special offers on business services, including payment processing, financial services, IT services, legal services and more.

PO Boxes have been around for a long time, but are becoming less useful for managing a business. At Hoxton Mix we are a technology-led virtual office provider who has been helping SME’s since 2010. With hundreds of five-star reviews across TrustPilot and Google, our track record speaks for itself.

Ready to explore alternatives to the standard PO Box and find out how we can help your business thrive? Discover our virtual office solutions starting from 63p a day.

Have some questions? Contact us via live chat, call 020 3475 3374 or email help@hoxtonmix.com

Find the right virtual office address for your business with plans starting from £0.63 a day

FAQ

What is a PO Box?

A PO Box is a locked mailbox that you rent from Royal Mail to receive post, instead of having it delivered to a physical mailing address, such as your home address.

Are PO Box addresses free?

No, PO Box addresses are not free, with the price depending on the service level you choose and the length of contract. So, how much does it cost to redirect mail, or have a location to collect it from? PO Box Collect, the Royal Mail’s basic service where you collect from a local Customer Service Point, is £45 per month, £216.60 for a six-month contract, or £371.40 for 12 months. PO Box Deliver, where your mail will be delivered to your home address, is also £45 per month, but rises to £246.60 for six months and £445.80 for the year. Note that with both pay-monthly packages, the minimum term is 3 months.

Do banks accept PO Box addresses?

Some banks may accept PO Box addresses as mailing addresses, but it's always best to check with your bank first. Most banks will require a physical mailing address for verification purposes.

How does a PO box work?

A PO Box is typically used by businesses as a public-facing address for receiving correspondence from customers, suppliers and anyone else that wants to get in touch—although they cannot be used as the correspondence address for Companies House or HMRC. Depending on the package you choose, the post will be delivered to your PO Box and either be stored until you collect it, or it will be forwarded to a physical mailing address that you specify.

Are there any benefits of having a PO box?

For businesses that don’t have a dedicated office space, a PO Box allows you to provide an address to the public that isn’t a residential address. However, because a PO Box can no longer be used to register the business with Companies House, your home address will still be publicly available information. What’s more, virtual office plans are typically cheaper than PO Boxes from Royal Mail.

Why is a virtual office better than a PO box?

There are numerous benefits of a virtual office solution over a PO Box. First of all, virtual offices are able to replicate all of the features of a PO Box but at a lower cost, while also offering more flexibility. For example, while PO Box Deliver will forward all of your post to an address of your choice, there’s no option to receive digital copies, meaning you still need to be at home to receive the post. Secondly, virtual office providers offer additional services to further enhance the customer experience, such as virtual office phone numbers and free business banking.