Mailing Address Challenges

Discussions center on the difficulties of lacking or providing valid mailing/physical addresses for banks, health insurance, and other services, including workarounds like PO boxes, virtual mail services, and general delivery.

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Keywords

PITA US CN P.O ZIP I.E google.com privatschutz.de PL PO address mailing mail addresses postal street po bank phone box

Sample Comments

majorchord Aug 26, 2025 View on HN

How does one not have a mailing address in $current_year?

justincormack Dec 20, 2025 View on HN

Why is giving multiple addresses a problem?

akshat_h Aug 6, 2015 View on HN

So, commenting late so may not get a response. But I am curious about handling stuff like bank accounts, health insurance etc. like that require you to specify an address. How does that work out?

crummy Jan 31, 2025 View on HN

Can you do that without a US postal address?

davidcollantes Dec 6, 2012 View on HN

Without an address it is hard to tell.

dv_dt Jun 7, 2019 View on HN

Isn't there a way to register your address with general delivery directives?

gburt Jun 7, 2013 View on HN

Still doesn't deal with the fact I have to give you my address...

leephillips May 8, 2022 View on HN

Banks and some other entities have databases of these services. Some will not accept these addresses. They will let you use them for mail, but they will also require a physical address and proof that you live there. But others will not. It depends on which mailing service you use and which bank, etc. This is my personal experience.

crimper Mar 9, 2021 View on HN

Giving my address is a huge PITA. you dropped it from your process too.

As fun as those ways to address a postcard are, they are not addresses that the bank will accept. The bank checks against a database of valid addresses; this is a common problem for people that have just built a house - most companies used cached databases so refuse to accept your address until it has trickled down.