British Troops Overseas To Get UK Postcodes

May 10, 2012 - PRLog -- The current British Forces Post Office (BFPO) number is not compatible with many online ordering systems, including credit agencies.  This means that service personnel serving overseas or onboard ships and submarines experience difficulty buying products and services online with most websites not recognising the BFPO address.

In order to improve this, the MOD, BFPO and the Royal Mail have been working together to create addresses with each BFPO number linked with a UK-style postcode for online use.  This will benefit 100,000 personnel and their families serving overseas in such places as Germany, Cyprus, Afghanistan and the Falkland Islands and help them to avoid credit rating problems and improve access to financial products such as credit cards.

Andrew Robathan, Minister for Defence, Personnel, Welfare and Veterans, said: "One of the aims of the armed forces covenant introduced by this government was to minimise the impact of military life so this is another great step forward to make service life as easy as possible."

Commenting on the scheme, BFPO head of policy and plans lieutenant colonel Ian Stark said: "BFPO and Royal Mail have created a database that opens up access to internet services and the ability to carry out internet transactions, whether it is online shopping, registering your car or applying for a mortgage or credit card.”

"The changes will also allow our people to build up a credit history which is recognised by financial service providers”.

Mike Newnham, Royal Mail's chief customer officer, said: "Royal Mail is intensely proud of its strong and enduring links with the British forces and we are delighted we have played our part in implementing this important initiative”

It was released commercially in March 2012 as part of the Royal Mail Postal Address File (PAF) (http://www.simply-postcode-lookup.com/postcode_address_se...) which is updated monthly. It is anticipated that credit rating agencies and government departments will be among the first to use this and that other companies will begin to update their website services (http://www.simply-postcode-lookup.com/for_web.htm) to accept BFPO numbers from 12 April 2012 onwards.

The new postcodes are solely for use on websites. The layout of many web pages varies but the new automated process will allow a BFPO postcode to be entered onto the postcode field. The BFPO number entered will allow the website to auto populate (http://www.simply-postcode-lookup.com/index.htm) the relevant box with the UK-style postcode. Where a delivery address is generated the BFPO details should auto fill the street and town details with the BFPO address and the BFPO number.