MSE News: Stamp prices likely to rise as cap confirmed

custardy

anjak-j wrote: »

The price increase over the past decade is ridiculous. I actually remember a second-class stamp being just [single-number]-pence. (I was born in the early 80s, for disclosure's sake.)

as I said.the rises kick in with Dsa.RMs income has plumeted from it

savetilibleed

Is it absolutely guaranteed that stamps bearing the 1st or 2nd marking bought now at today's prices will be accepted in, say 3 or 5 years time (if enough are bought now), without the recipient of a letter bearing the stamp being asked to fork out the difference on delivery?

ashleypride

brewerdave wrote: »

..and the charities will suffer because people won't buy cards!!

Most "charity" cards donate a pittance to charity.

smala01

We are paying for inneficiency...

O Unions refusing to allow automatic sorting machines
O Posties leaving "early" when they have finsihed their round and still being paid.
O Sick rates that are out of this world

No more government subsidies anymore so the mail must pay its way - time for competetition.

Smala01

jrawle

savetilibleed wrote: »

Is it absolutely guaranteed that stamps bearing the 1st or 2nd marking bought now at today's prices will be accepted in, say 3 or 5 years time (if enough are bought now), without the recipient of a letter bearing the stamp being asked to fork out the difference on delivery?

That's what it says on the Royal Mail website:

royalmail dot com /discounts-payment/stamps/faqs:

Q: Do stamps have an expiry date?

A: Stamps without a specified monetary value are described as Non Value Indicator (NVI) and are typically First and Second class stamps. These do not have an expiry date, therefore can be used regardless of the length of time you've had them. Stamps with a monetary value also do not have an expiry date and can be combined to make up the value of postage required.

However, I'm not unduly worried becasue even if they announced stamps bearing the 1st, 2nd mark would become invalid after a certain date, I'd soon sell them via our internal discussion board at work.

Now I have to wait and see whether they send me 100 special Diamond Jubilee stamps. They really will look dated in a few years' time! While I really hope it isn't the case, there's always the possibility we could see a change of monarch before I've used all my stamps.

With all the internet shopping and eBaying going on, I don't understand why RM isn't making a profit.

Royal Mail actually makes a large profit, which I think has been increasing in recent years. Last year they made an operating profit of £67m, up from £22m the previous year (figures from BBC News, 21 November 2011). However, that includes a loss of £41m from letters. The fact is, eBay and business post make large profits for Royal Mail, but the universal postal service makes a bit loss. They want all parts of the organisation to be profitable. I don't really agree with that. I think one part of a public service can be subsidised by another.

Of course, the other big issue is the pension fund, which has a huge deficit, and has to be backed by the taxpayer.

Sooler

tifo wrote: »

Will they improve their delivery service as well ??

At the moment, with modernisation since Feb, my post can come any time between 11am and 5pm .... usually it's around 2pm.

What do you receive that it matters what time in the day it arrives?

ben501

What about the other part of the stamp - the queen?

I'm sure she's got plenty of time to go yet but sooner or later the inevitable's going to happen. Is there a time limit to using stamps not bearing the reigning monarch?

If I buy 100's now I may they may outlast her.

cepheus

savetilibleed wrote: »

Is it absolutely guaranteed that stamps bearing the 1st or 2nd marking bought now at today's prices will be accepted in, say 3 or 5 years time (if enough are bought now), without the recipient of a letter bearing the stamp being asked to fork out the difference on delivery?

I have asked the PO this very question, but still awaiting a reply, however I have just bought a couple hundred quid of stamps, 2nd mainly, since these represent best value.

Don't forget the price of large letter stamps are increasing as well so I have bought some of these as well. Hopefully, we should be able to use a combination of 2nd, Large 2nd, 1st, Large 1st class stamps to make up the majority of the cost on larger packages if need be.

custardy

cepheus wrote: »

I have asked the PO this very question, but still awaiting a reply, however I have just bought a couple hundred quid of stamps, 2nd mainly, since these represent best value.

Don't forget the price of large letter stamps are increasing as well so I have bought some of these as well. Hopefully, we should be able to use a combination of 2nd, Large 2nd, 1st, Large 1st class stamps to make up the majority of the cost on larger packages if need be.

nobody can answer that
it is highly likely they will be
however with RM a near 100% certainty for privitisation/carve up. who knows

Pennywise

jrawle wrote: »

Royal Mail actually makes a large profit, which I think has been increasing in recent years. Last year they made an operating profit of £67m, up from £22m the previous year (figures from BBC News, 21 November 2011). However, that includes a loss of £41m from letters. The fact is, eBay and business post make large profits for Royal Mail, but the universal postal service makes a bit loss. They want all parts of the organisation to be profitable. I don't really agree with that. I think one part of a public service can be subsidised by another.

Depends on how they crunched the numbers. They almost certainly wouldn't make the same "profit" on parcels if they stopped the letters. They'd still need most of the same infrastructure, staffing, buildings and vans, just to deliver the parcels, so the same costs would then have to all be allocated against the parcels income, probably causing that to make a loss. Smaller parcels are delivered by the posties who are delivering the letters, so you couldn't get rid of all the letters posties and their vans etc. At the moment, the costs will be spread across the parcels and letters business, so your postie's wage and van may be split equally between the letters and parcels branches. On a marginal cost basis, I suspect that letters do make a contribution to profits even if they show a loss on a cost absorbtion basis. The number can be made to fit whatever image you want to give - allocation of costs isn't an exact science.