1st class stamps 60p - 2nd class 50p

[goo_mason]

Consider the cost of a bus ticket to get you across town. Now consider the cost of a stamp to get your letter to the other end of the country.

I moaned when I saw the new prices, and I moan when first class mail takes over a week to travel 10 miles, but seriously - it's not THAT expensive considering what you get for your money.

That said, I may consider bulk-buying a few years' worth of stamps before the rise 'cos I'm a tight so-and-so....

 

[Paul J]

It seems expensive as we have become used to sending letters etc via email. On the otherhand we don't get charged to have our mail delivered so I think it still a fair price.

 

[marinyork]

Which is exactly why postage stamps are becoming more expensive.

Just taking what royal mail have said themselves and commenting on it. They are offering some reductions for ESA for Christmas etc but not JSA.

If you sent out a mere one application a week by post thats 1.1% of your income if you're under 25 and 0.89% if you're over 25 (if someone wonders why you couldn't send 2nd class, see my post above) blown on a single stamp. Some people still send out quite a few a week in applications, others don't. Depends what sort of jobs you're applying for. That's going to really, really hurt some jobseekers, overall though there are more on-line applications.

You do realise how many applications the jobcentre/work programme contractors expect you to send out each week don't you (and no I'm not just talking about the jobseeker agreement)?

 

[DCLane]

I send about 5-10 letters/postcards a week.

Also, I need to spend some money for the end of the tax year.

Tomorrow I'll be buying £100 worth of stamps ...

 

[ASC1951]

That's scandalous. They were about 20p for a 1st class and 16p for 2nd class the last time I bought any...

Still cheap by international standards.

In my last place of work a friend & colleague used to open all our customer mail (200+ letters daily). Some mail didn't get stamped by Royal Mail in the top-right hand corner of the envelope. So if you were careful in detaching the stamp from its envelope, you could re-use it with a little bit of Pritt Stick.

I've still got loads of re-usable stamps in my kitchen drawer.

Plenty of room for them, I expect, after tipping your morals out.

 

[Archie_tect]

I have to buy 100 Large Letter stamps [rising from 75p to 90p], 100 1st and 100 2nd, roughly every month. Postage costs are still down an incredible amount from the days before we could send emails attaching dwg/pdf drawing files.

So, postage will rise from £157/month to £200/month.... still an incredibly good value service though which once lost would be lost for good.

 

[Moodyman]

Plenty of room for them, I expect, after tipping your morals out.

I'd be happy to post you some ASC? PM me your details and I'll get 'em out 1st class tomorrow.

Since I type, print and envelope most of my letters from work, I also post them from there too. So I don't have much use for the drawer full of recycled stamps.

 

[Archie_tect]

I'd be happy to post you some ASC? PM me your details and I'll get 'em out 1st class tomorrow.

Since I type, print and envelope most of my letters from work, I also post them from there too. So I don't have much use for the drawer full of recycled stamps.

Hmm, maybe time to start keeping an office post recording book...

 

[Moodyman]

Hmm, maybe time to start keeping an office post recording book...

It's a blue chip company and the use of computer, telephone and mail (letters, not parcels) is allowed so long as done in one's breaks/lunches.

 

[Maz]

Cheap compared t taking it yourself.

Exactly.
If someone handed me an envelope and said "Take this to Scotland for us, here's 60p to cover the cost" you'd just laugh at them.

 

[smutchin]

Royal Mail postage prices and delivery service now are at roughly the same level as they were in France when I lived there nearly 20 years ago. Progress!

d.

 

[oldfatfool]

The regulator is the main reason behind the rise in postage costs to joe public. When the market was opened up 5 or 6 years ago RM where strangled in what they could charge the likes of TNT, DHL and UK Mail etc etc for delivering the 'final mile' whilst the competition could charge the bulk senders (including many gov't depts) what they could get away with for collecting and delivering to the nearest RM sorting Hub.

Obviously RM still have the same overheads and job to perform but now only 1/2 (if that) of the mail actually is Royal Mail end to end so revenue as been massively hit. (check your mail in the morning and see how much as a TNT or Business post frank on it)

Unfortunately this loss as to be turned back into a profit somehow, if only to pay my wage rise and pension (which the Labour govt managed to lose/ spend)

Before anyone decries RM just ask yourself what private company is likely guarentee a delivery to every address in the UK daily, major towns maybe but villages and rural areas? I can't see TNT or DHL driving 15 mile up a farm track every day to deliver one letter with a 50p stamp on it can you?

In fact they have had a license to deliver mail door to door since the market opened up but have declined to set up such a delivery service preferring to just cream of the lucrative business collection side previously mentioned. So when they decide to have their 2 penneth in the press slagging off RM for price increases or threatening to strike just consider what the alternative would be.

 

[smutchin]

The regulator is the main reason behind the rise in postage costs to joe public. When the market was opened up 5 or 6 years ago RM where strangled in what they could charge the likes of TNT, DHL and UK Mail etc etc for delivering the 'final mile' whilst the competition could charge the bulk senders (including many gov't depts) what they could get away with for collecting and delivering to the nearest RM sorting Hub.

Yes, and posties are lumbered with ever-increasing sacks, full of "bulk mail" that no one wants, that they're expected to deliver in the same time for less money, while private companies like TNT sit back and count their profits. It stinks.

If people think it's bad now, they should just wait and see how bad it gets if the government ever fulfils its obvious wish for full privatisation.

d.

 

[srw]

The main cost of the postal service is labour. If the price of a first class stamp had kept pace with wage inflation since the days of the penny black in 1840 we'd be paying £3.04. So on that measure 60p is pretty good value. That's also the measure of average affordability.

If you look at the narrower price inflation measure, 1d is worth about 29p now - not such good value, but a much worse comparator.

 

[Smokin Joe]

Just as well more job applications are done on-line these days. That's making stamps a potentially expensive buy for someone on £53.45/£67.50 a week.

Don't the job Centre provide stamped envelopes for those on JSA who are sending applications off? I'm pretty sure they used to.