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Did you know this ?

(49 Posts)
BlueBelle Sat 16-Aug-25 13:02:42

I went to post a birthday card to Ireland today (Royal Mail) did you all know that there is no more ‘Europe stamp’ only ‘All the world’ So the lowest price to send to Ireland, The Netherlands, France or anywhere else in Europe for a card or letter however small even a postcard is £3.20
That’s the last one I ll be sending

Allira Mon 18-Aug-25 14:41:32

No, I hadn't realised, thank you for the tip-off Bluebelle

Most of our overseas cards do go to Australia so it's grit your teeth and pay but we do have a couple to send to Europe, only as far as France though!
That's a rip-off!

cc Mon 18-Aug-25 14:45:39

Charleygirl5

I usually receive and send 6 Christmas cards to southern Ireland but I think an email will suffice.

RM is closing itself down on its own with little help from us.

I will use the money saved by buying a treat in Waitrose or M&S.

I'm actually doing some Christmas cards on WhatApp now, you can send a picture, a written message, a recorded message or even a video so simply.
I usually just stick with a photo of a card front and another of the inside. You can't put it on your mantlepiece though - I wonder how much longer we will all be doing that, we have far fewer than we used to, though we still send to or contact roughly the same number of people as before.

cc Mon 18-Aug-25 14:49:12

HelterSkelter1

Such a shame for all the card companies/shops and charity cards. Maybe the boy scouts will have to set up a card delivery service for local cards. Make a change from packing shopping.

I do wonder if this is why Paperchase ceased trading,
I believe that Royal Mail been taken over by an overseas owner now, a a Czech entrepreneur?

BlueBelle Mon 18-Aug-25 14:54:14

Your couple to France will cost you £6,40 Allira
You likely will be over the weight limit with three cards in one envelope milestone
I hate e-cards too nanna8, so impersonal you can’t put them on a shelf and see them smiling at you

Crossstitchfan Mon 18-Aug-25 14:55:06

BlueBelle

Well let’s hope your £20 gets delivered Multicolours?
So you think it’s worth £3.20 to send a birthday card to Ireland then ?
By the way who is Syd ?

Well I mentioned as it might help someone who didn’t know and I m complaining because I think the service is a disaster now Crosstitchfan should I just have kept my mouth shut and not have posted on here I thought it was a discussion group !

Oh dear! I am in trouble again. BlueBelle, I did not mean you shouldn’t complain. What you do is up to you.
You have picked me up on this, which is strange, but is not the first time you have reprimanded me lately unless I am mistaken. (I looked for examples but failed to track them down). Have I offended you? If so, I am sorry. I always thought we got on well on G’net.
You are the second person to have a bit of a go at me since I mentioned a big birthday last week. Is there a connection I wonder?
I think I might take a break from posting for a while. It’s started to upset me over the last couple of days. Funny because only a few days ago I posted how lovely you all are and how much I love being on here. 😪

HowNowBrownCow Mon 18-Aug-25 14:57:14

The other day I had an offer for free postage from Moonpig whom I subscribe to. It cost me £2.79 for each personalised card that I ordered. I can set the earliest date that the card is sent so did all the family birthdays through to December. To be honest RM just can’t compete. I don’t like privatisation but like many have limited income so have to save where I can.

FranP Mon 18-Aug-25 15:04:37

multicolourswapshop

I receive mail every other day and I’ve just posted a birthday card to my dg who will love to receive it especially as I’ve popped £20 into the birthday card I remember those days when I was a youngster, so exciting and well worth a stamp 🤣👌

Posting anything to my young folks in Nottingham seems to print a "steal me" label on it.

For DGS, I transfer the money to his mother who adds it to his linked credit card - the modern age!

FranP Mon 18-Aug-25 15:11:22

I bought a lot of stamps ahead of price rise, but only send to the non-techs.

I have a Jacquie Lawson account and people seem to like it.

In a sense, it was deregulation of the postal services that sounded the death knell, as new companies cherry picked. I worked for a company that changed over to using a central London delivery service for things that were local, posting the rest. A courier told me that they had a 2 tier charge London and elsewhere in UK - but they would take the "elswheres" and add stamps if they were for any UK islands, NI or more remote Welsh areas so they gave the PO their costs

Alison333 Mon 18-Aug-25 15:38:56

JennyCee

I sent a card to my daughter in Melbourne and it cost - wait for it!!!! £8.10!!!!!!!!!
Disgusted isnt in it

That's strange. I just posted a card, getting it weighed at the P.O. counter, to my niece in Perth, Australia and it was only £3.20.
Perhaps, I was undercharged?

Etoile2701 Mon 18-Aug-25 15:42:25

Is that thanks to Brexit ... the gift that keeps giving?

Grannycool52 Mon 18-Aug-25 16:20:53

I think it's worth the postage costs to give our friends and loved ones the pleasure of knowing that we still care about them.

watermeadow Mon 18-Aug-25 17:57:35

What annoys me is that postal collections are early in the morning here so if you post a card during the day, it’s not even collected until next day. No deliveries over the weekend and I want birthday cards to arrive on time.
For a birthday on a Monday you need to post the card, first class, the previous Thursday.

WithNobsOnIt Mon 18-Aug-25 18:11:34

What a diabolical liberty as my old gran used to say.

As letters, cards etc as now becoming a disappearing species. The Post Office is now milking prices for all their worth while they can.

Tut Tut Tut!!

BlueBelle Mon 18-Aug-25 18:14:05

Alison the price is £3.20 to everywhere now there is no longer a European post so your price to Perth was correct
I can only presume JenntCee had a large or heavy card or had put other things in with it, as £8.10 isn’t correct at all

Grannycool it depends what your incoming money is if you are living on a pension (even with the extra 25p for being 80) and you have a number of children grandchildren overseas it may not be possible

Dollshouse Mon 18-Aug-25 18:41:19

My sister gives me a years worth of cards for my family when I see her. Christmas, birthdays and anniversary cards all in a stack and I pass them on as each date comes by. This is around 20 cards across a year so saves a lot and it guarantees they arrive on time (assuming I remember to pass them on).

BlueBelle Mon 18-Aug-25 18:54:12

But that only works if you’re nearby all 20 people, if your children and grandchildren are scattered then it’s not that easy

Kamj Mon 18-Aug-25 19:16:08

I used to have a silent moan, about prices of stamps until I thought.. Still cheaper than taking myself smile

jocork Mon 18-Aug-25 20:53:40

I still send quite a lot of Christmas cards but I don't receive as many! I used to send presents to my neice and nephew in France and Germany but last year they weren't acknowledged so I've decided not to bother this year as I don't know if they arrived or not. I always used to get a message of thanks from my neice and from my nephew's mum, but nothing last year! At Christmas friends abroad just get a Christmas 'round robin' letter by email as postage costs are so high and I usually miss the last posting date anyway! It;s sad that such traditions are ending due to cost. I haven't sent a postcard from holiday for many years and the last one I received was from DS and DiL when they were on their honeymoon - 8 years ago! I guess my grandchildren won't know what a postcard is!

Lahlah65 Mon 18-Aug-25 22:35:05

We sometimes send postcards through TouchNote. This enables us to upload our own photos and send cards within the UK or from wherever we are to wherever we want. With a personal, postcard style message on the reverse. You have to buy ‘bundles’ of credits in advance. The more you buy, the cheaper it is. They don’t cost much more than buying a card and posting second class and people seem to like receiving them. They also have greetings cards now too, but not tried these yet.

ExaltedWombat Mon 18-Aug-25 22:40:54

Don’t blame the post office for the end of the Europe price. Blame those idiots who voted for Brexit.

Allira Mon 18-Aug-25 22:44:47

ExaltedWombat

Don’t blame the post office for the end of the Europe price. Blame those idiots who voted for Brexit.

😁
Although I didn't vote for Brexit, I know that that is a quite n insignificant part of the rise in costs.

BlueBelle Tue 19-Aug-25 07:07:13

Thankfully I wasn’t one of the idiots ExaltedWombat

I think it’s a mixture of reasons but I m just very sad that something as simple as keeping in touch personally has gone beyond a lot of people s pockets and it feels greedy I know that you can do cards on line but they are about as meaningful as a straw boater in a hail storm (for me anyway)
I m sorry Crosstitchfan I didn’t mean to offend you in any way and I don’t think I said anything particularly bad to you
I ve just looked over it again
It’s not been a good week for me and I guess this postal thing was the icing on the cake

These views on here are just my opinions not aimed at anyone in particular please don’t anyone else take offence

knspol Tue 19-Aug-25 14:18:48

Cost me over £13 recently to post a sheet of A4 to the US, their letter to me had taken almost 5 weeks to reach me and the return of the form ( for pension purposes and therefore important) was overdue by the time I rec'vd it. Sent form back recorded, signed for, first class and was shocked at the cost.