Posta Restante / official address / renting post box / virtual mail box

We bought a house in 2017 that was at that time a holiday home. We came every few months from the US. We did not have a post box at our residence although other townhouse owners did. We rented a postal box at the post office. We used it for all our Portugal correspondence but we used the physical residence location on NIF and bank paperwork. It is possible to have a residence address and a post office box for mail. In fact, many Portuguese do not get mail at home, they have to go to the post office and collect their mail. You can fill out a form so that you do not get advertisements or junk mail, only resident addressed mail. It worked out well for us for 2 years until we moved to a new home. Developing a relationship with the postal workers at your local post office is recommended even if you only go there to empty your box. Having contacts is always good. We felt our mail was very secure in the postal box.

@peggyL

We used to have an Apartado as the mailman didn't deliver to our farm. It was very easy and convenient. 

I don't think you can use a PO Box for official purposes though.

We have a retenção at the regional post office (small local ones dont offer this service) so that we can used our proper address. It's quite expensive at about 10€ per month. A PO box can be set up at smaller post offices, but you have to use a PO address, this about 60€ per year.

We have not tested this as we usually collect every 7-10 days. We have had 'signed for/tracked' mail returned to sender occasionally as they have to be collected within a set number of days and we did not expect them. After a while you'll get to know the staff and they will probably allow leniency with standard mail even if there is a time limit for holding it.