Post forwarding and scanning: how providers really charge

Post handling is the part of a virtual office where providers make their margin and where buyers get caught out. The address is cheap; the £39-a-year and £24.99-a-month headlines prove it. What happens to a letter after it arrives is priced per item, per month, per page or not at all, and the pricing page rarely says which.

Quick answer: Providers handle post in one of four ways: you collect it, they forward it, they scan it, or they accept government letters only. Forwarding is charged per item, typically 50p to £4.25 plus postage, or as a monthly bundle of £10 to £30. Scanning is included on most monthly plans and costs 25p to 75p a letter or £25 a month where it is an extra.

What are the four ways a provider handles your post?

The four post-handling models are collection, forwarding, scanning and statutory-only. Most providers offer two or three of them as separate tiers, and the model you pick changes the real price of the plan more than the address does.

How much does post forwarding cost?

Post forwarding costs 50p to £4.25 per item plus postage when it is charged per item, or £10 to £30 a month when it is sold as a scheduled bundle. Per-item pricing is cheaper for a quiet mailbox and unpredictable for a busy one.

The per-item market runs from Hoxton Mix's 50p-per-item forwarding plus a First Class stamp¹, and the same 50p plus postage at MYCO Works², through £1 an item at Quality Company Formations³ and London Registrars' per-envelope forwarding at £1 plus VAT plus postage, with signed-for items at £17.50⁴, up to £4.25 per forward plus postage at Mail Boxes Etc⁵. Two formation agents use a percentage instead: Uniwide adds 15 per cent to Royal Mail's rate with a £1.49 minimum, and Your Company Formations adds 40 per cent⁶. Uniwide is unusual in charging to forward statutory mail at all.

Bundles suit a steady flow. Blake House in York forwards weekly for £10 a month or twice weekly for £15⁷. Cambridge Innovation Parks charges £18 a month for a monthly send, £24 fortnightly and £30 weekly with postage included⁷, and the other Cambridge providers with forwarding bundles price in the same way. At the budget end, Virtual HQ combines forwarding and scanning for £8.99 a month, Silverstream London charges £15 and Hillgate in Stockport £16.99⁸.

How much does post scanning cost?

Post scanning is included in the price on most digital-first monthly plans and charged at 25p to 75p a letter or £25 a month where a provider treats it as an extra. Scanning is the model that turns a virtual office into something you can run a company from without visiting.

The best value we hold is Kollider's unlimited scanning in Sheffield, included in a £20 plus VAT plan⁹, which sets the bar for the other Sheffield virtual offices. The dearest treatment is at the workspace operators: Orega's £25-a-month scanning add-on covers 100 pages, then 25p a page¹⁰, and UBC charges 75p for every letter it scans¹¹. Regional independents price per item at the low end: 25p a letter at The Exeter Business Hub¹², 50p a letter plus 5p a page at Clyde Offices in Glasgow¹³.

Speed and depth vary as much as price. Ask whether the provider scans the envelope or the contents, and how quickly. LowCost LetterBox's scan tiers run from Scan Lite at £18 a month plus VAT to Scan Pro at £42.50, with a four-hour turnaround on the faster tier¹⁴. W1 Virtual Office's VO Scan tier is £25 a month with VAT included¹⁵. Among the Old Street EC2 virtual offices, The Hoxton Mix includes scanning in its £24.99 plan¹. If you live abroad, scanning is not a preference but a necessity, for the reasons set out in our guide on why overseas directors should choose scanning.

What is a statutory-mail-only plan?

A statutory-mail-only plan accepts post from Companies House, HMRC and the courts, scans or forwards it, and refuses everything else. It is the cheapest tier of the market and it is perfectly good if a registered office is all you need.

1st Formations' £39-a-year registered office is the best-known example, covering government and court mail only¹⁶. The Exeter Business Hub sells the same restriction for £9 a month¹², and Generator Hub across the city charges £10 a month for its statutory-mail tier, rising to £45 for a registered address with scan and email¹²; both appear on our Exeter virtual office plans page. London Virtual Address forwards Companies House and HMRC letters free by First Class post on its £24 plan¹⁶. The catch is what happens to a letter from your bank or a customer: it is returned or destroyed, and you may never know it arrived.

What limits and extra fees should you check?

Five things sit outside the headline: item caps, storage limits, parcel policy, signed-for charges and exit fees. Check each in writing before you sign, because they are where a cheap plan becomes an expensive one.

• Item caps. Blick Shared Studios in Belfast allows 15 items a month on its monthly service and 25 on the weekly one¹⁷. The Hoxton Mix moves you to an Enterprise plan from £100 a month at 250 items¹.
• Storage. Collection plans hold post for a limited time and some charge for storage beyond it. Ask how long.
• Parcels. The Hoxton Mix does not accept them¹; Wrkspace charges £10 plus VAT as an add-on¹⁸.
• Signed-for and courier items. £17.50 plus VAT at London Registrars⁴, against £1 for an ordinary envelope.
• Exit fees. UBC charges £50 to stop forwarding your mail when you leave¹¹.

The rest of the contract, from notice periods to auto-renewal, is covered by the post-policy questions in our buying checklist.

Why do we show two prices?

Every result on this site shows the advertised price and, underneath, what the plan costs once the post handling you said you needed is added. The order of a shortlist routinely changes between those two numbers. A plan at £24.99 with per-item forwarding can cost more than a plan at £35 with weekly forwarding included, and only one of those facts is on the pricing page.

Tell the comparison tool whether you need scanning, forwarding or collection and see what your shortlist costs with post handling added. The wider context, tier by tier, is in the full price picture across the market. Some providers pay us if you buy through the site; how commission works on this site is published in full and never affects the order.

Where these figures come from

Prices were read from each provider's own website on 8 September 2026.

1. The Hoxton Mix help centre: UK forwarding 50p process charge per item plus First Class postage; scanning included in the £24.99 a month plan; Enterprise plans from £100 a month for up to 250 items; mail only, parcels not accepted.
2. MYCO Works registered office page: forwarding 50p per item plus postage, scanning to email at no cost.
3. Quality Company Formations pricing page: same-day scan and email on the registered office and business address; physical forwarding £1 per item on the business address.
4. London Registrars registered office product page: posted mail £1 plus VAT per envelope plus actual postage; signed-for or courier items £17.50 plus VAT.
5. Mail Boxes Etc store price pages: forwarding £4.25 per forward plus materials and postage or courier costs.
6. Uniwide registered office and service address pages: forwarding at Royal Mail rates plus 15 per cent handling, minimum £1.49 plus VAT, applied to statutory mail. Your Company Formations business address page: Royal Mail rates plus 40 per cent handling.
7. Blake House York: forwarding £10 a month weekly or £15 twice weekly. Cambridge Innovation Parks: £18 monthly, £24 fortnightly, £30 weekly including postage, on a £54 inc VAT base pack.
8. Virtual HQ services page: mail forwarding and scanning £8.99 a month. Silverstream London: post forwarding add-on £15 a month. Hillgate Virtual Office, Stockport: mail forwarding £16.99 a month.
9. Kollider virtual office page: £20 a month plus VAT with unlimited mail scanning; forwarding charged per piece.
10. Orega Manchester and London pages: scanning add-on £25 a month for up to 100 pages, 25p a page thereafter; included on Virtual Office Pro.
11. UBC Southampton virtual office page: scanned post 75p per letter; £50 mail-forwarding exit fee.
12. The Exeter Business Hub: registered office £9 a month ex VAT for HMRC and Companies House post only, scanning 25p per letter. Generator Hub, Exeter: statutory-mail registered address £10 a month, registered address with scan and email £45, all ex VAT.
13. Clyde Offices Glasgow: scanning 50p per letter plus 5p per page.
14. LowCost LetterBox: Scan Lite £18 a month plus VAT, Scan Pro £42.50, Collect £40; the site describes a four-hour scanning tier.
15. W1 Virtual Office: VO Collect £20 a month, VO Scan £25, VO Scan and Post £45, all inc VAT.
16. 1st Formations registered office page: £39 a year plus VAT, government and court mail only. London Virtual Address: Companies House and HMRC letters forwarded free by Royal Mail First Class on the £24 promotional plan.
17. Blick Shared Studios virtual services page: 15 items a month on the monthly business address, 25 on the weekly service.
18. Wrkspace virtual office page: parcel handling £10 plus VAT add-on.