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MSE Blog: Why I won’t ever send a letter first class again

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"We’ve been conditioned into thinking that first class is, well, classier. Whether it’s flying or getting the train, first class is what everyone aspires to. But with that added class comes added cost..."
Read MSE Amy's full blog:
Why I won’t ever send a letter first class again
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Read MSE Amy's full blog:
Why I won’t ever send a letter first class again
Click reply below to discuss. If you haven’t already, join the forum to reply. If you aren’t sure how it all works, read our New to Forum? Intro Guide.
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I send all my mail second class.
The link is a post about sending out wedding invitations.
It is a bit of an odd thread though.
As for my first vs. second class rules, I send first class for anything 'personal' and one-off, and second-class for anything non-urgent or 'bulk' - so a personal letter goes first, and christmas cards go second.
If you addresses are machine readable, they will zip through the system without needing to be manually handled. That way Second class can be as quick as First class
If Royal Mail have busy periods, they will slow down the second class mail to favour first class that does carry the guarantee.
We often get second class mail delivered the day after posting but it is not always the case.
Incidentally, the important part of the address is the Post Code. This is the bit that you need to take care with and make legible. If the electronic reader cannot decipher this, it goes into a hand sorting line and could take ages. Also, the post code needs to be the last line of the address - don't write anything below it, like the county for instance, as the reader only picks up the last line and only recognises post codes.
It's only an aim, not a guarantee.
So we decided to include SAEs with all our invites for the RSVPs. The cost of 60 second class stamps was probably more than the cost of printing place cards, but as a result we had absolutely no non-responses and didn't have to spend any time chasing people for their replies/meal choices.