Away Longer: Hold Your Mail, Forward It, or Go Digital?

For up to four weeks, Deutsche Post's hold service works fine: your letters get collected and delivered in a batch once you're back. Anyone away longer runs into a real problem: you can't read mail that's sitting in storage, and deadlines keep running regardless. For a year abroad, a round-the-world trip, or life with no fixed address, a digital mailbox is usually the better fit. Letters get scanned, and you read them wherever you happen to be.

"What do I do with my mail?" usually sits at the bottom of the list before a long trip, until the first letter from the tax office shows up.

The options compared

| | Neighbors / family | Hold service (Deutsche Post) | Mail forwarding | Digital mailbox | |---|---|---|---|---| | Duration | any | up to 1 month | several months | unlimited, cancel monthly | | Reading mail while away | only if someone opens and photographs it | no | only at the new address | yes, as a scan | | Works abroad | limited | no | expensive and slow abroad | yes | | No fixed address | no | no | no | yes | | Cost | a bottle of wine | from €15.90 (private, online) | a paid service | from €9.95 a month |

Hold service: good for a vacation

Deutsche Post's hold service collects your mail for up to a month and delivers it as a batch afterward. Private customers pay €15.90 online. Order it at least five business days before you leave.

Good for: two to four weeks away. Not good for: anything longer, or for anyone who needs to know what's arrived while they're gone.

Mail forwarding: good when there's a destination address

A forwarding order redirects your mail to a different address for several months, your parents' place or a second home, for example. It works abroad too, but it's slower and costs more.

Good for: moving house and longer stays at one fixed location. Not good for: travel between multiple places or life without a fixed address. More in Redirecting mail: forwarding orders, PO boxes, or a digital solution?

What about a PO box?

Deutsche Post requires a German home address for a PO box. Someone also has to empty it, and registered mail only gets announced via a pickup notice rather than inserted automatically. For long absences, a PO box usually isn't the answer. Details in Setting up a German PO box.

Digital mailbox: good for anything longer-term

You list a rented street address as your postal address. Mail arriving there gets accepted and scanned, and you read it in the app, whether you're in Lisbon, Bangkok, or a campsite in Norway. Important originals can get archived or forwarded to wherever you currently are.

Good for: a year abroad, a round-the-world trip, work on assignment, digital nomads, extended hospital or rehab stays, and anyone with no fixed address.

What happens to deadlines while you're away?

This is the most important point, and a lot of people underestimate it. A letter is generally considered delivered the moment it's in your mailbox, not when you actually read it. Deadlines, for an objection to a tax assessment, for example, can start running while you're on a beach somewhere.

For a normal vacation, there's some protection: missing a deadline because of a usual, temporary absence can sometimes qualify for reinstatement to the prior status (Wiedereinsetzung). For long, planned absences, though, courts and authorities expect you to have made arrangements. "I was on a six-month world trip" isn't accepted as an excuse.

Something is changing digitally too: starting in 2027, under Section 122a AO, the German tax office will provide income tax, trade tax, and corporate tax assessments electronically by default once the underlying tax return itself was filed electronically. The assessment then counts as delivered on the fourth day after it's made available, even if you miss the notification. You only get paper if you object through ELSTER. VAT and separate assessment notices stay on paper for now. If you're away for a long stretch, keep an eye on your ELSTER inbox too.

No fixed address: what to watch for

If you leave Germany for an extended period and give up your apartment, you generally deregister. At that point you have no registration address left, and a Deutsche Post PO box is no longer possible. A digital mailbox is then often the only fixed postal address you have left in Germany.

Important: a postal address isn't a registration address. Whether deregistering is the right move for you, for health insurance, tax liability, or pension reasons, is worth clarifying beforehand. More in No Fixed Address, Still Reachable: A Global Postbox.

An example: eight months on the road

Picture a couple from Stuttgart, both mid-thirties, taking a sabbatical to travel through South America for eight months. Their apartment is sublet, and their parents live two hours away.

Their first plan: forward mail to the parents, with the mother photographing anything important. After thinking it through, they drop it. She'd have to open every letter, including bank mail, and with patchy internet in the Andes, the photos might arrive eventually, or not at all.

They set up a digital mailbox instead and update their address with the bank, insurers, and employer before leaving. In month four, a letter from the health insurer arrives with a question and a four-week deadline. They answer it from a hostel in Bolivia.

Checklist before you leave

• Set a postal address and update it with your bank, insurers, employer, health insurer, and authorities
• For a short absence: order the hold service at least five business days ahead
• Forward ELSTER notifications to an email address you check regularly
• Pause subscriptions and magazines
• Work out who can accept original documents in an emergency

FAQ

How long will Deutsche Post hold my mail? Up to a month with their hold service.

Can I rent a PO box without a fixed address? Not with Deutsche Post, which requires a German home address. A digital mailbox is an alternative.

Do deadlines keep running while I'm on vacation? Generally, yes. A letter usually counts as delivered once it's in your mailbox. A short vacation may qualify for reinstatement; for long absences, you're expected to plan ahead.

How do I get my mail on a round-the-world trip? Most reliably with a digital mailbox. Letters get scanned, and you read them in an app.

This article is a general overview and isn't legal advice. Deutsche Post details as of October 2026, no guarantee. Still have questions? → Contact us