Postage stamps - again

[Mups]

I didn't know this until today.
Did anyone else know the Post Office has increased the price of stamps yet again,  as from today?

That means over the last 3 years,  they have put the price up 6 times!    I bet the postman's wages haven't gone up six times though.

Now:

1st class stamps have increased by 5p  to £1.70
2nd class stamps have gone up by 2p  to 87p

They kept quiet about it this time, didn't they.

[Scrumpy]

I think it's a plot to stop us sending Christmas cards..
... and it's working...

[JBR]

As more and more people communicate online these days, and of course you can send 'cards' online, the Post Office must be losing income from fewer people posting now.
Fortunately, they still collect mail from the many post boxes just about everywhere, so that must be paid for.

[Scrumpy]

Nothing nicer then receiving a card/letter in the post...

[Mups]

April 08, 2025, 07:28:51 PM

Nothing nicer then receiving a card/letter in the post...

I agree with that, Scrumpy.  Special things are nice to put away and keep, too.

[Ashy]

All my bills come by post. My engagement with the post office is down to bills and parcels. They're quite busy. I worked as a postman in about 1990 and there were almost no private letters even then. The second deliveries were mainly catalogues and they weighed a ton. These days there is no second delivery and the postmen have a perambulator. 

The only slight relief I can see with stamps is that stamps marked with 1st class or 2nd class can be used even when the price goes up.

[klondike]

Only those with the barcode. The rest either had to be or have to be swapped. I'm guessing too many forged or reused so they had to make things more complex which doubtless increased costs leading to yet another price hike. Soon be cheaper to put stuff on a taxi.

[Mups]

Klondike's right, Ashy.   No barcode and they won't be accepted.  I think you had to use them up within 6 months.

[GrannyMac]

We hardly get any post.  Almost all our bills are online now.  Water, council tax and insurance are about the only paper based correspondence.  I have some stamps from last year, some are Christmas ones, we still send a few cards. They're all barcoded so they're fine.

[dextrous63]

Increasing costs will deter people from posting things.  I can't help but feel that they'd make more money by reducing the price and thus increasing the usage and hence revenue.

[klondike]

I think they don't want private customers. They must be offering big discounts to commercial customers.

[Ashy]

Klondike's right, Ashy.  No barcode and they won't be accepted.  I think you had to use them up within 6 months.

Yes I thought we had swapped all of ours. 

[klondike]

You maybe did. I think it was a while back the few I had were replaced.

[Mups]

Increasing costs will deter people from posting things.  I can't help but feel that they'd make more money by reducing the price and thus increasing the usage and hence revenue.

Exactly what I think.    They seem to think not enough people are using the mail,  so best put the prices up!   Where's the logic in that?  
To most of us, these ever increasing price increases are even more off-putting surely?