Thousands of Royal Mail stamps are set to be unusable withing months as a new system is introduced, with some left set to be thousands out of pocket.
Brits have been warned that their ‘1st’ and 2nd’ class stamps will be unusable from January 2023 as Royal Mail begin rolling out a new barcode system to replace the traditional stamp system.
Ooh, a new computerise system, we know how good the Royal Mail is at that!
To help with the change, Royal Mail is offering a swap system. The “Swap Out” scheme will be running from 31 March 2022 to 31 March 2023.
Wait! *checks calendar* Errr....
Money Saving Expert founder Martin Lewis has long suggested people stock up on stamps to beat the annual price increases.
Should have kept your mouth shut, Martin!
H/T: IanJ via email
5 comments:
I bought a shed load of stamps in the 90s that I am still using now. Although I still have a couple of books left, which I will replace by taking advantage of the swap scheme I have saved a fortune.
Things move on and they are moving with barcodes rather than the ordinary stamps. Maybe there are too many forgeries now or they find that the old stamps don't scan as well. Regardless, as they are not saying they are useless and you can't use them I don't see the issue.
I think that the issue is that they are giving you a year to exchange them starting five months ago.
Does Royal Mail have a line in its accounts for "stamps sold, not used, but thought to be in circulation/handbags/wallets"?
If so, in a year's time they will be able to reduce that to zero, giving a very good, one off, profit jump.
I've known about this for a while and I believe that they have been exchanging them so maybe it did start in March. They just didn't publish it widely enough back then. As it is we know now and we still have 7 months. Shrugs.
"Maybe there are too many forgeries now or they find that the old stamps don't scan as well. "
Because someone in the office used to save them for charity, I used to tear them off. I've noticed now that some official envelopes come with stamps actually printed on the envelope itself...
"...giving a very good, one off, profit jump."
Cunning!
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