# Is a PO box such a mystery? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 25, 2006, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-po-box-such-a-mystery/374081 "2006-09-25T16:27:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2006, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-po-box-such-a-mystery/374081/1 "2006-09-25T16:27:44Z")
Where I live, there is no home mail delivery, so we have a PO Box. If we don’t put the PO Box on the mail, we don’t always get the mail. So, the PO Box goes on the mail, including bank and credit card mailings. This, however, seems to blow the minds of every online retailer and various face-to-face businesses as well. Is it really so unusual to have a PO Box? ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2006, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-po-box-such-a-mystery/374081/2 "2006-09-25T16:36:35Z")
I’m in the same boat. And on top of it, I really try to avoid having UPS, FedX deliver to my home. I have it come to work. Credit card companies are the worst. Finnaly gave up on one of them because you could not get new account with a POB. Supposed to have something to do with the damn patriot act/money laundering :rolleyes: . About once a year something goes missing because someone tries to send something to our home address. ---
**Author:** ![SnakesCatLady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4af34b/32.png) [@SnakesCatLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SnakesCatLady)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2006, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-po-box-such-a-mystery/374081/3 "2006-09-25T16:38:00Z")
It’s not unusual, but mail-order retailers prefer not to accept P.O. Box addresses to avoid being ripped off. I don’t have any experience with it myself, but I have read that unscrupulous people have been known to rent mailboxes (not from the post office, but from private businesses that specialize in such) and order stuff with fradulent credit cards, etc. ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2006, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-po-box-such-a-mystery/374081/4 "2006-09-25T16:38:54Z")
[QUOTE=jsgoddess] Where I live, there is no home mail delivery, so we have a PO Box … Is it really so unusual to have a PO Box? [/QUOTE] Folks that in your exact situation (no home delivery of mail)? Yes, it’s highly unusual statistically. You may well be outnumbered 1000-1 when counted against private home addresses. Also, and unfotunately … PO Boxes have gotten the stink of fraud on them. ---
**Author:** ![FatBaldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecd19e/32.png) [@FatBaldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FatBaldGuy)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2006, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-po-box-such-a-mystery/374081/5 "2006-09-25T16:52:12Z")
Another reason that online/mail order businesses don’t like PO boxes is that FedEx and UPS cannot/will not deliver to a PO Box. They require a street address. ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2006, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-po-box-such-a-mystery/374081/6 "2006-09-25T17:10:37Z")
[QUOTE=enipla] I’m in the same boat. And on top of it, I really try to avoid having UPS, FedX deliver to my home. I have it come to work. Credit card companies are the worst. Finnaly gave up on one of them because you could not get new account with a POB. Supposed to have something to do with the damn patriot act/money laundering :rolleyes: . About once a year something goes missing because someone tries to send something to our home address. [/QUOTE] [Here](http://www.cftc.gov/cftc/cftcaml.htm) is more than you ever wanted to know about the Patriot act’s anti-money laundering provisions. ---
**Author:** ![kittenblue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ba8739/32.png) [@kittenblue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kittenblue)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2006, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-po-box-such-a-mystery/374081/7 "2006-09-25T17:54:47Z")
Since most online retailers don’t ship via the United States Postal Service, a PO box number just won’t work…they can’t deliver to them. So provide them with your street address, or have things delivered to work. If a credit card requires a street address, give it to them, but I’ve heard they’ll let you have your bills sent to a PO box. You’ve got to have some form of a street address so the fire trucks can find you. right? ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2006, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-po-box-such-a-mystery/374081/8 "2006-09-25T18:00:27Z")
[QUOTE=kittenblue] Since most online retailers don’t ship via the United States Postal Service, a PO box number just won’t work…they can’t deliver to them. So provide them with your street address, or have things delivered to work. If a credit card requires a street address, give it to them, but I’ve heard they’ll let you have your bills sent to a PO box. You’ve got to have some form of a street address so the fire trucks can find you. right? [/QUOTE] Oh yeah. We have a street address. Whether the Fire department would be able to find us is a different issue. Re the credit card fiasco. In this situation, for a new card, the company insisted that the first statement be sent to the house. Then I could change it to a POB. ---
**Author:** ![divemaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/divemaster/32/78_2.png) [@divemaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/divemaster)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2006, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-po-box-such-a-mystery/374081/9 "2006-09-25T18:07:22Z")
Amazon ships to my PO Box Columbia House ships to my PO Box, as do YesAsia and HKFlix and other e-tailers. I’ve even got shipments coming in from Korea and Hong Kong to my PO Box. I’ve got two credit cards tied completely to my PO Box. I get solicitations there all the time, so the PO aspect is not stopping credit cards from wanting my business. Not once have I ever had a problem setting up accounts or receiving shipments through there. Of course if the only shipment option is UPS, then I use my home address, but this is a rare occurrence. ---
**Author:** ![UntouchedTakeaway](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/d78d45/32.png) [@UntouchedTakeaway](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UntouchedTakeaway)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2006, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-po-box-such-a-mystery/374081/10 "2006-09-25T19:14:50Z")
[QUOTE=jsgoddess] Where I live, there is no home mail delivery, so we have a PO Box. If we don’t put the PO Box on the mail, we don’t always get the mail. So, the PO Box goes on the mail, including bank and credit card mailings. This, however, seems to blow the minds of every online retailer and various face-to-face businesses as well. Is it really so unusual to have a PO Box? [/QUOTE] I just moved. I use a PO Box for 99% of my “biz” because I was harrassed at my previous address. The harrasser has passed away (don’t ask me if I revel in the death of someone like this - it would probably end up in The Pit), but I still feel violated. The bank was difficult in getting the address changed (statements, etc), but were ultimately OK with it. I’ve found the same thing re: applying for new credit, so I haven’t bothered & won’t bother till I feel more secure (which may be never). VCNJ~ ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2006, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-po-box-such-a-mystery/374081/11 "2006-09-25T19:24:04Z")
[QUOTE=Veuve\_ClicquotNJ] applying for new credit, so I haven’t bothered & won’t bother till I feel more secure (which may be never). VCNJ~ [/QUOTE] When I was trying to get new credit, I was told that I could do it online with a POB, but not over the phone. 😕 Thing was, you could not get as good of a rate by applying online. ---
**Author:** ![Tamex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ccd318/32.png) [@Tamex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamex)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2006, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-po-box-such-a-mystery/374081/12 "2006-09-27T20:58:21Z")
I think it’s more common in the West. I grew up in Montana in a town that had (and I think still has) no in-town mail delivery, so we had a PO box, and so did just about everyone else in town. Granted, I was a kid, and I didn’t have bills or credit cards, but I don’t really remember it being a big deal. Certainly, local businesses were very familiar with the situation. In the Twin Cities, where I live now, it would be rather unusual for an individual or family to have a PO box, and people might be kind of suspicious of such an address, as in “What are you trying to hide?” I don’t even know of any small towns that have no mail delivery in Minnesota, although they may exist. I suspect that the vast majority of Americans have a street address that the post office delivers to, and may not even be aware that there are towns which have no mail delivery. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2006, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-po-box-such-a-mystery/374081/13 "2006-09-27T21:11:22Z")
[QUOTE=bordelond] Folks that in your exact situation (no home delivery of mail)? Yes, it’s highly unusual statistically. You may well be outnumbered 1000-1 when counted against private home addresses. Also, and unfotunately … PO Boxes have gotten the stink of fraud on them. [/QUOTE] It’s more like 7:1. According to the latest USPS data, for the 50 states plus US possessions (including Guam and Puerto Rico) there are 8,683,607 possible businesses addresses (of which 7,661,118 are actively receiving mail this month) 117,114,702 possible resident addresses (113,768,112 active) 19,901,616 possible PO boxes (15,937,062) Cite: Address Information Systems _Statistical Data_, USPS, October 2007 ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2006, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-po-box-such-a-mystery/374081/14 "2006-09-27T21:25:47Z")
[QUOTE=JohnT] Cite: Address Information Systems _Statistical Data_, USPS, October 2007 [/QUOTE] If the post office can get statistical data from a year in the future why can’t it deliver my magazines without tearing the covers? Bastards. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2006, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-po-box-such-a-mystery/374081/15 "2006-09-27T21:30:42Z")
:smack: That’s actually a feature, **Otto** , not a bug. ---
**Author:** ![freckafree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/freckafree/32/3050_2.png) [@freckafree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/freckafree)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2006, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-po-box-such-a-mystery/374081/16 "2006-09-27T21:45:25Z")
When I lived in a place with no home delivery, it always frustrated the hell out of me that, if mail came to my home address (and this place was so small that the PO staff new which address was associated with which box!), the staff would lecture me severely, and yet, as everyone has pointed out, oodles of companies won’t send mail to a POB address. (And, apprently, don’t have sophisticated enough addressing systems to store both a street address and POB address but mail to the latter rather than the former.) ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2006, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-po-box-such-a-mystery/374081/17 "2006-09-27T21:52:26Z")
> [@](#): > > It’s more like 7:1 Only if each and every one of those possible PO box addresses belongs to someone who doesn’t have a residential postal address. For that matter, it’s not even clear that all of those boxes are used by anyone at all. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2006, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-po-box-such-a-mystery/374081/18 "2006-09-28T01:20:20Z")
True on the first point, but incorrect on the second: note that 15,000,000 plus are considered “Active”. That means that there is mail being delivered to those boxes. I could run a query to see how many of those PO Boxes occur in zip codes that have no postal (hand-delivered) routing, but the issue isn’t that important to me and that wouldn’t really tell us much as it would skip those zips that have partial hand-delivery and partial po box routing. ---
**Author:** ![TheLoadedDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2006, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-po-box-such-a-mystery/374081/19 "2006-09-28T01:32:03Z")
IN my part of the world, there’s only a stigma if you don’t give a residential address _as well_. So, a large bank will have a PO box address, but there are also branches of the bank everywhere, as well as a big kick-arse skyscraper HQ in town. So that’s ok. An outfit advertising work from home schemes that _only_ give a PO box would be regarded with suspicion. For individuals, most every government, bank, credit, or other official form I’ve filled out has been in the format: RESIDENTIAL ADDRESS: \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ POSTAL ADDRESS (leave blank if the same as the above):\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ So they know where to find you, and it’s no big problem. One thing that’s more of a problem here is some government agencies and private companies don’t like dealing with folks who give their address as a hotel. I ran into this problem years ago, and tried to explain to the people that the reason I had a hotel address was because my family was managing the thing, but they still thought I was some fly-by-night alcoholic with a $20 pay-by-the-night room. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2006, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-po-box-such-a-mystery/374081/20 "2006-09-28T01:35:03Z")
[QUOTE=TheLoadedDog] but they still thought I was some fly-by-night alcoholic with a $20 pay-by-the-night room. [/QUOTE] Maybe it was the “Loaded” part. 😃 [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-po-box-such-a-mystery/374081.md?page=2)