Great Tips to Cut Postage Costs Hunt

borntoshop

s.12 of the Currency and Banknotes Act 1928 states

'If any person prints or stamps, or by any like means impresses, on any bank note any words, letters or figures, he shall, in respect of each offence, be liable on summary conviction to a penalty not exceeding [level 1 on the standard scale]'

The banknotes Law was revised in 1954 but this hasnt been changed as far as I can see.
http://www.statutelaw.gov.uk/content.aspx?LegType=All+Primary&PageNumber=15&BrowseLetter=C&NavFrom=1&parentActiveTextDocId=1121896&ActiveTextDocId=1121896&filesize=9732

Level 1 is £200. Not quite treason but still punishable, also criminal to melt coins.

silverelephant

What a fascinating topic!

Out of curiosity - does anyone know if we still get Sunday deliveries at Christmas time? - I can remember this from when I was a child but certainly haven't noticed it over recent years - maybe I just don't receive as many Christmas cards as my Mum used to!!

Also what are people's thoughts on getting a postal service 7 days or the post offices being open 7 days? In this time of 24/7 everything it would be interesting to know especially since you can effectively now buy postage/stamps online 24/7.

I have total respect for our postie - we live in a village that started in a valley and has now spread outwards in all directions so you can't go anywhere without going up and down hills all the time. Imagine lugging all that lot up and down hills when I've been busy ordering off amazon :-)

ukmonkey

borntoshop wrote: »

s.12 of the Currency and Banknotes Act 1928 states

'If any person prints or stamps, or by any like means impresses, on any bank note any words, letters or figures, he shall, in respect of each offence, be liable on summary conviction to a penalty not exceeding [level 1 on the standard scale]'

The banknotes Law was revised in 1954 but this hasnt been changed as far as I can see.
http://www.statutelaw.gov.uk/content.aspx?LegType=All+Primary&PageNumber=15&BrowseLetter=C&NavFrom=1&parentActiveTextDocId=1121896&ActiveTextDocId=1121896&filesize=9732

Level 1 is £200. Not quite treason but still punishable, also criminal to melt coins.

Thanks a lot for that. I too seemed to think there was SOMETHING like this in law.

misterthrifty

For anybody who has any of the E stamps which are valid for letters to Europe and went from 44p to 48p recently. The price for large letter 1st class went up by the same and so the E stamps can be used on them.

Mr T

teedy23

WKD-Lauren wrote: »

i think there may be some truth in this as i hae found at smaller, quieter branches of the P.O they check the sizes of letters&parcels using the slots much more often & this can save you money as something may end up falling into a lower category than you had expected, thus making it cheaper.

whereas at larger, busier branches - they tend to guess which category your letter/package falls into - often rounding it up to the more expensive option, if say it was a borderline case between large letter&package

The solution
Get a leaflet from the post office that unfolds showing the sizes and thickness of postage
Get some one handy to use this as template for your very own post office set (make it from mdf or summit)
Tell person at post office what size of mail your posting before they tell you
Remember to pop it on Kitchen scales too
:T :T :T

WKD-Lauren

teedy23 wrote: »

The solution
Get a leaflet from the post office that unfolds showing the sizes and thickness of postage
Get some one handy to use this as template for your very own post office set (make it from mdf or summit)
Tell person at post office what size of mail your posting before they tell you
Remember to pop it on Kitchen scales too
:T :T :T

thanks, i do that anyway - but im more likely to force them thro the slots & 'make them fit' lol and the P.O people always check them too as they don't believe me!

ukmonkey

@WKD-Lauren - The item has to pass freely through the slot (i.e if the slot was laid down, you could simply drop the item through the slot without having to push it through) otherwise it would fall into the next category and would therefore be at risk of being surcharged if there wasn't enough postage on it.

HTH's

emma.harvey

If you have 2 small items to send to the same address it is sometimes cheaper to send them separately. I sell a lot on Ebay and often send out 2x large letter sized items (48p each 1st class) rather than bundling them together at a charge of £1.09. Only 13p but when you send as many things as I do it all adds up. Since I pre-package everything it saves time re-packaging as well. Even better, if the items will lay side by side easily enough and not go over the length/width for large letter, put them in a larger envelope - if they are less than 100g it will be 48p 1st class large letter, 100g-250g 70p. Cheaper than £1.09 for posting by packet!

SuzySF

ukmonkey wrote: »

I can confirm that this is complete and utter tosh and would ask the MSE forum team to remove the post and also to remove my post (this one) that quotes it.

Thanks.

I can contradict this !!! I use two local post offices - one in a village, and the other is in town but is a sub- office. Both of these will give me cheaper rates..I think it's because they have the time to check the weight and look for options. I had aparcel that the main po quoted £35 surface shippingn to the U.S, I took to the sub office, and although the same price was quoted the lady said if i split the parcel and sent TWO it would cost a total of £14...and go AIRMAIL ....they wont tell you that at the main office ..so in effect smaller offices ARE CHEAPER !!!!
:rotfl:

jenniewrennie

I read in the paper the other day that the PO is contemplating dropping Saturday delivery like when they dropped the "2nd post". I know they need to save money but for those of us at work during the week parcels on Saturday are a godsend!