Stamp prices to rise by up to 15% - but there's a way to beat the hike

soolin

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

It's a shame the media sticks with this "price of a 1st class stamp" headline every year.

By Royal Mail's admission, and general common sense, letter volumes are declining so the price of a stamp isn't particularly relevant to most and the news articles are mostly pointless. 

Given parcel volumes are up and more people sell their stuff online these days it would be nice to see articles on the costs of parcels, info on the benefits of insurance and tracking with comparisons to the other couriers in the market.

Perhaps people might learn something rather than just moaning about something they rarely use being too expensive.

The MSE article does mention Large Letters but for example doesn't state if you buy stamps now to save a few pennies and use those to post eBay orders you won't have delivery confirmation on parcels for example. 

I agree, the first thing I always look at is the cost of a small 2nd class parcel then a 2nd class large letter, I rarely ever send letters so it is not an immediate concern of mine. I did notice the difference between 1st and 2nd class letters is increasing year on year so if I do send a letter would probably opt for 2nd class anyway.

The large letter confirmation is the reason why I am sitting on  many stamps and with no idea how on earth I will ever use them. I was making up my £1.05 and £1.65 large letter postage with a mix of stamps - but when I noticed that labels bought from ebay now show delivery I switched back to printing labels.

Mainly though I send small parcels so I pay 50p per parcel less by buying a label online, so am not going to waste money using my stamps up that way- plus of course I also lose the delivery confirmation.

cwc1899

Why am i not surprised that there is a massive price hike to pay for the postal strike… I’ve still been receiving Christmas cards during the past week for goodness sake. 

They don’t deserve it!
The great British public must be made to foot the bill. There must be an alternative service? And they wonder why theres a drop off? I wouldn’t put it past them to limit the ‘shelf-life’  of the barcoded stamp so be wary of bulk buying…

soolin

cwc1899 said:

Why am i not surprised that there is a massive price hike to pay for the postal strike… I’ve still been receiving Christmas cards during the past week for goodness sake. 

They don’t deserve it!
The great British public must be made to foot the bill. There must be an alternative service? And they wonder why theres a drop off? I wouldn’t put it past them to limit the ‘shelf-life’  of the barcoded stamp so be wary of bulk buying…

I can’t see any reason to fear bar codes stamps being obsolete at any time soon, I imagine the cost of the current swap out scheme has been huge and I can’t see them doing that again any time soon. The only time in living memory apart from the bar coding where stamps have become useless was as a result of decimalisation, which was not a Royal Mail initiative. 

savergrant

Has anyone any experience of these people?
https://discountedpostagestamps.co.uk/1st-class-discounted-postage-stamps/

Sounds like a good time to stock up for the family and ebaying.

soolin

savergrant said:

Has anyone any experience of these people?
https://discountedpostagestamps.co.uk/1st-class-discounted-postage-stamps/

Sounds like a good time to stock up for the family and ebaying.

I think I've used them in the past without issue. However remember that for parcels you lose 50p at least per parcel by using stamps plus delivery confirmation, and for large letters you lose the racking details f you use stamps instead of the ebay postage. 

hermante

Yay! 2nd large letter 5p decrease (currently 1x 1st + 10p, soon 1x 1st + 5p)

Small parcel 31p decrease (currently 3x 1st + 50p, soon 3x 1st + 19p) - ok no delivery confirmation when using stamps but RM pays compensation without proof anyway.

10kg special delivery currently 16x 1st + 25p, soon 14x 1st + 5p

Compensation for loss / delay is now 8x 1st, so in theory, anything selling for under £10 is risk-free if you are happy to trade the item for stamps.

WLM21

Buy a load of 1st class stamps at 95p each (current price) .. soon to be worth £1.10

Then, in April a small parcel price will need 3 x £1.10 plus a 19p postage label at the PO ..  a total of £3.04  a saving of 45p (just under 13%)

getting the postal label means you get a delivery confirmation code  too

soolin

WLM21 said:

Buy a load of 1st class stamps at 95p each (current price) .. soon to be worth £1.10

Then, in April a small parcel price will need 3 x £1.10 plus a 19p postage label at the PO ..  a total of £3.04  a saving of 45p (just under 13%)

getting the postal label means you get a delivery confirmation code  too

Still 5p dearer than buying a label online though. 

Rantband

soolin said:

WLM21 said:

Buy a load of 1st class stamps at 95p each (current price) .. soon to be worth £1.10

Then, in April a small parcel price will need 3 x £1.10 plus a 19p postage label at the PO ..  a total of £3.04  a saving of 45p (just under 13%)

getting the postal label means you get a delivery confirmation code  too

Still 5p dearer than buying a label online though. 

And FREE collection at the moment, no queuing at the Post Office.