What would it actually be like if all my mail came digitally now and the letterbox remained empty? A vision of the future? - No, there are actually already two providers who make this a reality with their scanning service: Dropscan and E-POSTSCAN. I tested both of them for a month. Read here to find out whether both services deliver what they promise and where the differences lie.
Dropscan is your digital mailbox. With this service, you can have your letter post, documents and paper documents scanned. Your digitised mail is then available in your account as a PDF. Your letters end up at Dropscan by having them sent directly there or by setting up a forwarding request with Deutsche Post. The highlight: You decide which incoming letter should be opened and scanned and what happens to the paper originals afterwards.
I tested the pay-as-you-go package. The registration process is quick and uncomplicated. After registering, I receive an ID for my personal Scanbox and the address to which my mail is sent so that it ends up as a scan in my Scanbox. If a scanbox is to be set up for an entire household, it is easy to specify the joint COD as the recipient.
I can set up a forwarding request with Deutsche Post for use. This must be applied for at least 5 working days before the desired start date. To ensure that the redirection request is carried out correctly by Deutsche Post, it is highly recommended that you put the note "Please note redirection request" on your letterbox at home.
If a letter is then received by Dropscan, an envelope scan lands in my scan box. With one click I can decide whether the envelope should be opened and scanned. In just a few hours, the scanned document is available as a multi-page and searchable PDF in very good quality. If I want to forward the digital document or save it locally, either the multi-page file or all pages can be downloaded as individual PDFs. In addition, I have the option of having the scans automatically sent to an e-mail address of my choice. If I enter my fileee upload address here, all my scans end up in my fileee account. By the way, Dropscan suggests an up-to-date list of various services and software in the FAQs for your own administration.
If I want to have my originals back, I can collect the letters in a collective order and have them sent to me. Here you can specify the period over which letters are to be collected and a delivery date. This worked without any problems in the test. Alternatively, you can have the originals destroyed. So I only get back the pieces of paper that I really want, because I have to keep the originals, for example.
The service use went smoothly and quickly at every point. At every step, I was guided through the process in such a clear and informative way that I had no unanswered questions. The quality of the scans and text recognition was exceptionally good. I particularly liked the freedom of choice: Do I want to have the letter opened? Do I want the original back? This is particularly interesting when it comes to advertising or when I want to say goodbye to superfluous paper in the long term.
Click here for Dropscan.
E-POSTSCAN is the scanning service of the German Post. The service can be booked via the E-POST portal and ensures that all letter post no longer ends up in the letterbox, but is digitised by the post office. The scanned letter post is then made available in the E-POST account. The scans can then be accessed either via the browser or the E-POST app.
A free E-POST account is required to use E-POSTSCAN. Unfortunately, registration for this is somewhat complicated. On the one hand, this is due to the fact that you have to personally verify your identity card in order to activate your account. Swiss Post offers two options for this: Go to a post office branch or wait for the postman at home. I decided to go to the post office, because like most people, I'm not at home during the day. After an employee at the post office has checked my registration data against my identity card, it takes a few more days for the E-POST account to be activated.
The confirmation of the activation comes by SMS, but unfortunately the scanning service still cannot be ordered. Although I presented myself in person at a post office with my ID card and received unblocking passwords including my E-POST e-mail address by post, I now have to confirm my home address again. This can be done with the addressTAN that the post office sent me with my registration - but it hasn't yet, so I'll keep waiting...
7 days after the official activation, I also receive my address TAN, which I can now use to confirm my address and order the E-POSTSCAN. Here, Swiss Post offers an unlimited (from 1 month) and a limited variant (min. 7 days, max. 1 month). For the test, I opted for the limited version and booked the service for one month. However, the service only starts after the money has been received and has a lead time of another 7 days.
After a registration marathon of almost 3 weeks, everything runs smoothly afterwards. The letter post is made available to me as a multi-page PDF with OCR in my account. The quality of the scans and text recognition is very good. As an additional service, I receive an SMS notification for each new scan. If I want to save the digital document locally, I can download the files as with Dropscan. Automatic forwarding is not offered. However, the documents can be sent manually as an E-POSTBRIEF (€0.62) for a fee.
At the end of the month of the scan order, all originals are sent to me by post as normal. If you choose the unlimited scan order, you will receive your analogue mail bundled weekly at the desired time.
If you already have an E-POST account, you can book the scanning service of Deutsche Post relatively easily and quickly. The mail is reliably digitised in the E-POST account and you can also access your scans on the go. However, the enormous effort required to register and order mail if you don't yet have an E-POST account is definitely too much for me. In my opinion, it's only worth it for an open-ended order. If you want to be flexible and are looking for a quick solution, you should rather use another service like Dropscan. Click here for E-POSTSCAN.
Lead time
- none
- 7 days
Costs (private customers)
- Pay-As-You-Go Package: (Pay for what you use, for infrequent users), €0.50 per incoming item; €1.00 per scanned item; collective item: €2.50 plus postage/ Pay-As-You-Go Package: (For frequent users), monthly basic fee: 24.90€ with many inclusive services. detailed price overview
- Unlimited order: 14,99€ per month/ limited order: 14,99€ max. 1 month
Specified useful life
- no
- Unlimited: from 1 month/ limited: min. 7 days - 1 month
Scan quality
- very good
- very good
OCR
- yes
- yes
Forwarding (e.g. fileee)
- Download manually or set up automatic e-mail forwarding (e.g. to fileeeUpload address nutzer.XXXX@my.fileee.com)
- Download manually or forward as E-POST letter for a fee (0,62€)
Original
- Send or destroy on request
- Letter post is delivered regularly. limited: at the end of the month or unlimited: weekly.
mobile app
- no
- yes
You don't get that much letter post and would rather digitise your old documents once? Then maybe our scanning service is something for you. The documents are professionally scanned by us and then land directly in your fileee account.
