In 2020, can I post a birthday card with cash inside?

[BlingLoving]

Growing up, the annual receipt of cards with cash in them from family, locally and overseas, was a highlight at birthday time. I have various young family members who are now teenagers and I'd like to bring back the tradition - sending them books/ toys etc seems a bit silly now and they live in other countries so I have no idea what's appropriate. But... is it safe? If I stick some cash inside a card and post it to Europe, will it get there?

Probably not!
We do this for DC birthday too but granny/anutie/uncle etc transfer money to my account which I then slip into the cards before opening.

I put birthday cards inside their nice envelope inside a brown boring looking envelope and they've all got there safely.

We get sent cheques made out to us so we can give the money to the kids. I've had a couple of large letter sized envelopes (with 2nd hand books off eBay) go missing in the post recently, so I wouldn't risk cash.

FWIW “cash in mail” is actually illegal in quite a few European countries...there’s a list somewhere on the U.K. Post Office website...

That said I’m sure notes get slipped into cards by accident...

I send money or vouchers to family never had a problem at christmas time i put cards in a brown envelope like a pp. Why wouldn't a card with say £20 not get to its destination safely?

I'm thinking more internationally. So euros in a card to France. I like the brown envelope idea.

I put birthday cards inside their nice envelope inside a brown boring looking envelope and they've all got there safely.

Ds1got this today for his birthday at the weekend with money inside.
Maybe we have been lucky but kids have always got thier birhhday money in post from relatives.

My husband's grandmother still sends him (aged 41) a £5 note in his birthday card.

Great idea using brown envelope.
I'd never thought of that!

Yes i send € to Ireland , the brown envelopes are sturdier to stick down and not as transparent.

Bless her @Throughabushbackwards my dds great aunt also sends a fiver my Dds are in their 20s

I wouldn't. Only because cheques and cash that has been posted have gone missing. All my daughters recent birthday cards had been opened too.

Dds regularly get €10 or €20 notes in cards sent to them in Ireland from other addresses in Ireland. I wouldn't send them myself but I do post vouchers. My mum lives in a town in Ireland where two postmen were caught with piles of post they hadn't delivered!! Happened years apart.

Aw, this has made me nostalgic for the birthdays when I used to get two pound coins Sellotaped into a card from my great auntie. Envelope always heavily Sellotaped down in order to put off opportunistic thieves!

Would always have said ‘Yes, just brown envelope it’ in the past.
Then dd’s passport went missing bin a bag that was sent next day signed for as the PO suggested. Now I dread sending anything of value via the post....

Amazon account is safer, send gift card/voucher in a card direct to recipient. I’ve started doing that.

Yes because thieves are often foiled by sellotape 😀

No. The royal mail machines can pick up the metal strip in the notes so less scrupulous postal staff may empty the contents. My mother keeps doing this when we've asked her not to. Even losing the £100 she put in a card to her niece on her wedding wasn't a sufficient lesson aparently on the risks of sending bank notes in the post. Can't remember whether the card never got there or whether it arrived opened.

Mixed responses. I'm tempted to risk it, I admit. But appreciate it's not entirely risk free.

Amazon card is safer but you can send things signed for which offers extra protection. I'm not sure of the cost for sending overseas though. (I occasionally work in the post office)

My teenage grandsons have had bank accounts since they were 11 so I do a bank transfer. I also do this when they clean my car etc. They don't use cash anyway only their cards, even on the bus.

I sent a birthday card with extra stamps on it because it was one of those with a badge that costs more. No money in it, but someone clearly thought that the extra value stamps meant there was money in it. It arrived, but with the envelope unsealed and torn.

They must have been very disappointed to find there was no cash.

vouchers etc don't work as I'm sending it overseas.

Sorry, posted too soon.

OP - I have the same issue and wanted to do vouchers but it felt complicated. I've sent cash and it's got there in the past but I always get nervous. I now give cash to the parents when I see them and ask them to keep it until birthdays.

My husband is a postal worker and knows even when in a brown envelope if money is inside. In fact, he knows pretty much when a gift card, voucher or cheque has been sent. He has never stolen, but knows people who do, or who have done so in the past. Internal theft with Royal Mail is far more common than people realise. I presume all mail systems worldwide have the same problem.

Do an online bank transfer. Far safer.