# Getting post



## littlebrownpam (Aug 15, 2012)

Hi,
We are due to move to Portugal in the next few weeks and need to sort out where our mail will go to, fairly urgently as our S1 cards will be arriving.
We're a minute or two drive from our village and don't have a post box, what do we do?
Can we just go to the local post office and get one? Also, we don't have a property name or number (trying to come up with a name!) but I've got the road name, post code etc will that be enough for the postie to find us?
If the postie doesn't deliver that far can we get a post box to rent from the post office?
Any advice gratefully received! I wasn't that worried about it until I started to sort out our healthcare.
thanks
Pam


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## travelling-man (Jun 17, 2011)

If you mean a post box to put onto the house, you can buy them from any local builders merchants or most post offices and they cost something in the region of E15 or so. 

As you've got a road name and a post code, you could probably get away with just putting a printed sign on your postbox with your surname on it (That's all we've done for the last six months and it worked for us).

All that said, Portuguese logic is sometimes a but odd. Our place was built in the 70s and we only have 2 houses in our road and were told the municipality would allocate us a house number asap.

After 4 months of living here, the municipality changed the name of half of our road (which is just a loop off of what passes for a main road through the village). This meant that there was now only one house in each of the named roads so ordinary logic would suggest a house number of number one.

We've just had the Municipality guys to the house to fix the house number on the wall for us and for some bizarre reason, we're number 102. 

The only thing I can think of is that maybe every house in the entire village has a different number.


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## littlebrownpam (Aug 15, 2012)

That sounds nice and easy if it's just a case of putting our postbox up with our names on. Suppose we still need to check if the postman/woman will come out as far as us, but we are really quite close to the village so hope they would.
If post can't get delivered I assume it is like here and it goes back to the post office?


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## travelling-man (Jun 17, 2011)

I'd guess it is Pam but perhaps others could comment. 

From my limited experience, they'll deliver pretty much anywhere on a tar road and even go onto dirt roads as long as there's no-where they're likely to get stuck.


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## canoeman (Mar 3, 2011)

Check at your Junta whether the house has a number if so it must be displayed.

Check with your local post office if your on a delivery route if it is as TM says, try to get one that is waterproof or whether your post is left at the start of a road, in which case you get a box if necessary from Post office or key for an existing box or maybe even a box at the Post Office.

It's useful to meet the postman and give him names of people at property he'll no doubt know who you are even before he's met you


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## haywire (Apr 25, 2007)

If you live off the beaten track you will find that most villages will have post boxes (Caixa Postal) at a central point in the village. CT will deliver to these boxes 2 to 3 times a week. If something is too large they will leave a card in the box to let you know to collect at the post office in your nearest town.

Or, you can request for an Apartado which is also a post box but is located at the Post Office at the nearest town.

In both instances it is best to contact the local Post office to find out availability.

I hope this helps.


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## Ronnie_Yook (May 9, 2012)

If you are in a rural area and the Correios allocates you a mailbox with your own key. "Registered Mail" will be left usually in the nearest Correios for collection, with a card in your mailbox informing you of this.

Please Note: "Registered Mail" to be signed for will be returned to origin if it is not collected within 3 days!

To assist you further we have found that our UK government department correspondence (S1 cards etc) have been sent via Malta and take 3-4 weeks to arrive!

Good luck with your mailbox.


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## canoeman (Mar 3, 2011)

Malta no it's just a Gov departments using a cheaper postal service than Royal Mail, it's still physically handled by RM the fastest delivery I've had from Overseas Pensions at Newcastle was the other day that only took 12 days


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## Ronnie_Yook (May 9, 2012)

canoeman said:


> Malta no it's just a Gov departments using a cheaper postal service than Royal Mail, it's still physically handled by RM the fastest delivery I've had from Overseas Pensions at Newcastle was the other day that only took 12 days


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Canoeman, thank you for putting me right, I stand corrected, and lucky you getting 12 days.

The postal mark franked on the envelopes posted to us from the The Pensions Service (TPS), Newcastle upon Tyne, England: "Valetta, Malta, and the dates".

With the dates on the TPS letters posted to us, and the actual date of receiving came to 3 & 4 weeks respectively.


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## canoeman (Mar 3, 2011)

The 12 days was rare 

Yes it's a big problem sometimes when dealing with UK Gov departments, when we went through the S1 procedures, in total we lost just over 18 weeks, looking at dates sent/received for post from UK Newcastle to here, then another 6 months because they "lost" my EHIC application.

Maybe RM deliberately delay letters?


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## jerryceltner (May 15, 2012)

Talking about house numbers our friend was asigned the no 429 and there are only seven houses in the street. There are 4 houses together in a row where we live so we have no76, 76A, 76B and 76C......seems logical


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