This article is reposted from a US Credit Card Guide article with minor edits and additions. Original article

About AnytimeMailBox (ATMB)

Whether you're applying for US credit cards or running a cross-border e-commerce business, you need a stable long-term residential address to receive mail and packages. In addition, if you decide to move back to China for the long term while keeping your US credit cards, you'll also need an address to receive or forward renewed credit cards.

AnytimeMailBox, a US private mailbox rental provider, offers exactly this kind of convenient service. The author has used its service for a year and a half, receiving various packages and regular mail through the rented address, including bank statements, credit cards, and debit cards. Overall, the experience has been quite good.

Advantages of the service include:

  • Affordable pricing, starting at just $5.99/month
  • A dedicated APP and mail notification features
  • Many locations worldwide, with thousands of locations globally. This greatly reduces the chance of multiple people using the same address, making it less likely to trigger bank scrutiny and account shutdowns.
  • Location managers may offer additional services such as scanning, shredding, forwarding to China, and depositing checks into a designated account
  • The provider offers a CMRA service (Commercial Mail Receiving Agency), which is fully legal in the US

Signing Up for ATMB

ATMB currently offers a solid signup bonus: if you register through a referral link, both parties receive a $10 Amazon gift card.

Signup Process

  • Click to sign up (registering through the link gets you a 10 Amazon gift card)
  • Choose an address. After opening the signup link above, select Select a Location directly.
  • Select an address and choose a plan. It's recommended to check the selected address on Google Street View to see whether it looks like a genuine residential address.
  • Your address will then look something like this (#MAILBOX is an optional numeric mailbox identifier).
  • Choose a plan: different pricing tiers correspond to different billing structures. For example, the $14.99 monthly plan below allows up to 30 pieces of mail per month and 5 scanned pages per month, with extra charges beyond those limits. Fees vary by address service provider.
  • Set the recipient name and choose your unit number.
  • Enter your address in China.
  • Set up your credit card for automatic payment. The monthly fee can be paid with a China-issued Visa credit card; for example, I use a China Merchants Bank AMEX card.
  • All done — you can now start using this address!

ID Notarization

ATMB's location operator must verify that your identity is valid, so notarization is required.

After confirming your payment method, you will receive an official email from ATMB requesting a notarized USPS Form 1583.

Completing Form 1583

See ATMB's official instructions for details:

  • https://www.anytimemailbox.com/usps-form-1583

If you are a US RA resident, you only need to provide notarization for one of the listed IDs.

If you are an NRA resident — for example, someone living outside the US — some location operators may not accept your identity notarization. However, after notarizing your passport and driver's license (Chinese passports and Chinese driver's licenses are supported), there are still many operators willing to rent an address to you. For a translated driver's license copy, you can search for 租租车 on Alipay to get a free translation. Your passport will still need to be notarized.

Video Witnessing for Form 1583

There are two ways to get Form 1583 witnessed:

  • Find someone on the third-party platform Fiverr to notarize it
  • http://www.notarize.com

The quality of providers on Fiverr varies a lot, so try to choose someone with a strong reputation and high ratings. Through the referral link, your first Fiverr order can get 10% off:

Using http://www.notarize.com/ for notarization generally requires some English ability. It is a paid service, so it is usually more reliable than Fivver.

Summary

If you're outside the US and need to handle US mail, renting an address is definitely worthwhile. If you're thinking about keeping your US credit cards after moving back to China, you can also check out these related articles:

Signup Link

ATMB currently offers a solid signup bonus: if you register through a referral link, both parties receive a $10 Amazon gift card.