Most Popular
1. It’s a New Macro, the Gold Market Knows It, But Dead Men Walking Do Not (yet)- Gary_Tanashian
2.Stock Market Presidential Election Cycle Seasonal Trend Analysis - Nadeem_Walayat
3. Bitcoin S&P Pattern - Nadeem_Walayat
4.Nvidia Blow Off Top - Flying High like the Phoenix too Close to the Sun - Nadeem_Walayat
4.U.S. financial market’s “Weimar phase” impact to your fiat and digital assets - Raymond_Matison
5. How to Profit from the Global Warming ClImate Change Mega Death Trend - Part1 - Nadeem_Walayat
7.Bitcoin Gravy Train Trend Forecast 2024 - - Nadeem_Walayat
8.The Bond Trade and Interest Rates - Nadeem_Walayat
9.It’s Easy to Scream Stocks Bubble! - Stephen_McBride
10.Fed’s Next Intertest Rate Move might not align with popular consensus - Richard_Mills
Last 7 days
Why President Trump Has NO Real Power - Deep State Military Industrial Complex - 8th Nov 24
Social Grant Increases and Serge Belamant Amid South Africa's New Political Landscape - 8th Nov 24
Is Forex Worth It? - 8th Nov 24
Nvidia Numero Uno in Count Down to President Donald Pump Election Victory - 5th Nov 24
Trump or Harris - Who Wins US Presidential Election 2024 Forecast Prediction - 5th Nov 24
Stock Market Brief in Count Down to US Election Result 2024 - 3rd Nov 24
Gold Stocks’ Winter Rally 2024 - 3rd Nov 24
Why Countdown to U.S. Recession is Underway - 3rd Nov 24
Stock Market Trend Forecast to Jan 2025 - 2nd Nov 24
President Donald PUMP Forecast to Win US Presidential Election 2024 - 1st Nov 24
At These Levels, Buying Silver Is Like Getting It At $5 In 2003 - 28th Oct 24
Nvidia Numero Uno Selling Shovels in the AI Gold Rush - 28th Oct 24
The Future of Online Casinos - 28th Oct 24
Panic in the Air As Stock Market Correction Delivers Deep Opps in AI Tech Stocks - 27th Oct 24
Stocks, Bitcoin, Crypto's Counting Down to President Donald Pump! - 27th Oct 24
UK Budget 2024 - What to do Before 30th Oct - Pensions and ISA's - 27th Oct 24
7 Days of Crypto Opportunities Starts NOW - 27th Oct 24
The Power Law in Venture Capital: How Visionary Investors Like Yuri Milner Have Shaped the Future - 27th Oct 24
This Points To Significantly Higher Silver Prices - 27th Oct 24
US House Prices Trend Forecast 2024 to 2026 - 11th Oct 24
US Housing Market Analysis - Immigration Drives House Prices Higher - 30th Sep 24
Stock Market October Correction - 30th Sep 24
The Folly of Tariffs and Trade Wars - 30th Sep 24
Gold: 5 principles to help you stay ahead of price turns - 30th Sep 24
The Everything Rally will Spark multi year Bull Market - 30th Sep 24
US FIXED MORTGAGES LIMITING SUPPLY - 23rd Sep 24
US Housing Market Free Equity - 23rd Sep 24
US Rate Cut FOMO In Stock Market Correction Window - 22nd Sep 24
US State Demographics - 22nd Sep 24
Gold and Silver Shine as the Fed Cuts Rates: What’s Next? - 22nd Sep 24
Stock Market Sentiment Speaks:Nothing Can Topple This Market - 22nd Sep 24
US Population Growth Rate - 17th Sep 24
Are Stocks Overheating? - 17th Sep 24
Sentiment Speaks: Silver Is At A Major Turning Point - 17th Sep 24
If The Stock Market Turn Quickly, How Bad Can Things Get? - 17th Sep 24
IMMIGRATION DRIVES HOUSE PRICES HIGHER - 12th Sep 24
Global Debt Bubble - 12th Sep 24
Gold’s Outlook CPI Data - 12th Sep 24

Market Oracle FREE Newsletter

How to Protect your Wealth by Investing in AI Tech Stocks

Registered Address.co.uk London Business Registered Office Address Mail Forwarding Review

ConsumerWatch / SME Jan 11, 2017 - 06:05 PM GMT

By: N_Walayat

ConsumerWatch

Registered address.co.uk is just one of many similar services that offer UK companies the use of business addresses for business correspondence purposes not just in some of Britain's prime locations such as central London but some even offer addresses across the worlds major cities, thus allowing companies to gain a postal address footprint worldwide.


This is review is of what one can expect as a real customer use of one of the increasingly popular services, registeredress.co.uk that currently focuses on offering 3 London addresses from East London, the City of London and Kensington. Addresses that can be used both for business and official registered office mail with extra bolt on services available such as a £10 charge for the receipt of parcels.

The core service works in terms of offering use of 1 of 3 currently available business addresses through payment of an annual subscription fee plus a further fee for x number of letters to be forwarded onto the businesses forwarding to address. The business letters allowance can be topped up at anytime during the year, and a log in control panel lists letters and any other credit balance.

The core service is usually supplemented by use as also the companies official registered office address i.e. for HMRC and Companies House purposes, as well as further bolt on's available such as for use as directors address, or as a virtual telephony service.

THE COST

The current cost (Jan 2017) for a company signing up with registeredaddrerss.co.uk for a typical service of say use for business and official mail calculates to a fee of £192 for an initial quota of 20 business letters and technically unlimited official mail forwarding though in practice this usually tends to be average under 10 per annum.

The price of £192 is BEFORE any discounts running at the time of signing up as registeredaddress.co.uk do tend to run periodic discount sales during the year, for instance during December the offer was for 15% OFF ALL SERVICES, whilst in January this has jumped to 30% OFF ALL SERVICES!

So today the £192 fee would convert into just £134.40 after the 30% January discount.

RENEWALS

Now, before you all go rushing off to join registered address or similar outfits, there is one major fly in the ointment that I should mention, and that is what happens at the time of renewal. So whilst the basic core business service as listed above would cost a new customer signing up today £192 before discount and £134.40 after the current promotional discount, however for the exact same service for a business renewing for a further 12 months then that fee jumps to £300!

Worse still is that the 30% discount that's supposed to apply to ALL SERVICES apparently does not work for existing customers at renewal, where on entering the code get a message that the "Discount code is invalid". Whilst logging out and doing the same as a new customer results in the discount code being accepted.

£300 amounts to a 40% increase on the existing new customer fee of £192 before discount.

£300 amounts to a 70% increase on the existing new customer fee of £134.40 after the current 30% discounts.

Something those seeking to use a third party address service need to be aware of that after making use of the new business address i.e. on business stationary and signage that at the time of renewal are going to be hit with sizeable unexpected price hike.

I contacted registered address 4 times by email for why they charge existing customers near double that for new customers, and finally got a response 10 days later stating -

- The renewal fees are different from the fees shown on the front page of the website. Those fees are introductory prices for the first year of the service.

However, the ONLY prices listed on the website are those that apparently only apply to new customers. Nowhere is indicated to expect a 40% price hike at time of renewal.

On the plus side contacting registeredaddress.co.uk and questioning their price hike has resulted in a 20% discount code that did work, so the actual renewal cost was reduced to from £300 to £240, but this is AFTER a 20% discount which may not work in subsequent year. So the cost at renewal is £240 against £134.40 for someone signing up today. However the cost at the very least should be the same as that which is quoted on their site as the normal price before any discount running at the time i.e. £192, so the effective price hike at renewal is 25% (after receipt of a 20% discount code).

In conclusion services such as registered address are great for small businesses that want a foot print in a prime location., However understand that use of such addresses can carry unanticipated extra costs at the time of renewal that need to be factored i.e. as this example illustrates to expect to be billed 40% more than the 'normal price' of that which new customers are likely to pay i.e. here the renewal fee was first £300, then after a 20% discount falling to £240 against £134.40 for a new customer signing up to the same service today.

Overall I rate registered address 9/10 in terms a of service reliability and 6/10 in terms of value of money due to the sharp unexpected price hike at time of renewal for which there is NO indication of on their website that customers signing up today are likely to be hit with such a sharp price hike at the time of renewal and there remains the risk that the such price hikes could continue at future renewals, i.e. the ratcheting up of the fee charged each year as the customer becomes ever more committed to the use of the address.

Also whilst this is a review of registered address, do expect similar from all such service providers in this unregulated sector.

By Nadeem Walayat

http://www.marketoracle.co.uk

Copyright © 2005-2017 Marketoracle.co.uk (Market Oracle Ltd). All rights reserved.

Nadeem Walayat has over 25 years experience of trading derivatives, portfolio management and analysing the financial markets, including one of few who both anticipated and Beat the 1987 Crash. Nadeem's forward looking analysis focuses on UK inflation, economy, interest rates and housing market. He is the author of five ebook's in the The Inflation Mega-Trend and Stocks Stealth Bull Market series that can be downloaded for Free.

Housing Markets Forecast 2014-2018The Stocks Stealth Bull Market 2013 and Beyond EbookThe Stocks Stealth Bull Market Update 2011 Ebook5The Inflation Mega-trend Ebook

Nadeem is the Editor of The Market Oracle, a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication that presents in-depth analysis from over 1000 experienced analysts on a range of views of the probable direction of the financial markets, thus enabling our readers to arrive at an informed opinion on future market direction. http://www.marketoracle.co.uk

Disclaimer: The above is a matter of opinion provided for general information purposes only and is not intended as investment advice. Information and analysis above are derived from sources and utilising methods believed to be reliable, but we cannot accept responsibility for any trading losses you may incur as a result of this analysis. Individuals should consult with their personal financial advisors before engaging in any trading activities.

Nadeem Walayat Archive

© 2005-2022 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication.


Post Comment

Only logged in users are allowed to post comments. Register/ Log in