Anyone work for Royal Mail / The Post Office I have a stamp question?

[frenchnoodle]

Will the new barcode stamps be able to be reused?

By that I mean right now you can sometimes peel an un-stamped stamp off and reuse it, getting one over on the system.

Will the unique barcodes stop this being possible?

This.

Thanks, I didn’t think to ask either. I can’t even remember if it was me who collected it but it certainly wasn’t worth the money to get a Christmas card after Christmas. I suppose the sender just ran out of stamps.

Except you are making someone else pay more.

it's always fraud whether you have had to choose between a stamp or bread. It's irrelevant.

Yes we have well established it's fraud....

And what? What does constantly repeating it accomplish?

There are times in life you have to weigh up option, sometimes that means reusing a stamp. Some people always have the money at hand to have stamps, some don't.

And my god, dear god I have testified TESTIFIED TO MY SISTERS HERE, those who read the thread before and after me!

A sin!

But who among us is completely without sin? Shall we be flogged for this crime?

Oh, oh fraud!!!!

Fraud that will be stopped now apparently.
Do you want something like that?

Some people have no understanding of the struggles of others. No empathy. Nothing. Its all irrelevant now anyway as the days of getting lucky and reusing a stamp, once in a blue moon, is over. Oh but it fruad. Yawn....

What happens if I use a non-barcoded stamp after 31 January 2023?
Mail posted with non-barcoded Definitive stamps after 31 January 2023, will for the first 6 month be delivered as normal, no surcharge will be raised. After this 6 month grace period, an item with a non-barcoded stamp would be treated as if there is insufficient postage. Any item that has insufficient postage is subject to a surcharge. Surcharge fees can be found on our website.

The above is from the Royal Mail website. Remember, the only stamps being phased out are the non-barcoded stamps showing only the late Queen's head. All picture stamps and Christmas stamps can continue to be used after 6 months.

The OP and anyone needing to reuse a stamp will still be able to do so until the end of July 2023, and after that will still be able to reuse picture and Christmas stamps.

These are examples of the type of stamp without barcodes and needing to be used by the end of July 2023 - or swapped by completing a form and returning them to Royal Mail.

With no franking how is length of delivery time monitored now?

These are examples of the type of picture stamps without barcodes and still able to be used - and possibly reused if needed - in the future, beyond the end of July 2023. They don't need to be swapped via a form and Royal Mail either.

But you can’t reuse stamps without a serious risk of the recipient having to pay. I had to pay a surcharge for an item with a reused stamp on it a couple of years ago as did @NameChangeFor2023.

Go ahead. Keep doing it. See what happens.

The recipient may not tell you. If you ask them outright then they will probably expect you to offer to cover the cost including the surcharge.

Someone will get pissed of with it eventually and tell OP. The others will just know she's a CF expecting them to pay.

Yep and, as included in the article I linked to above, you cannot reliably tell whether the stamp you are peeling off and reusing has been franked. In addition to the old-style visible ink franking and crossing through, RM have also used UV franking for the last few years. Not passing judgement on your choices OP but it's highly likely that if you have done this a lot one of your recipients will have ended up paying a surcharge.

Calm down dear.

The OP and anyone needing to reuse a stamp will still be able to do so until the end of July 2023, and after that will still be able to reuse picture and Christmas stamps.

you can't re-use the non bar coded stamps without running the risk of the recipient having to pay the postage plus a surcharge. Or refusing to accept the item of post and this not receiving it.

This. MN is awash with people who are either tone deaf, lacking empathy or live a life where they don't struggle or understand the struggles of others. Ignore them @frenchnoodle , I've named changed because some are so odd they read previous posts and then comment on that. Strange indeed.

Anyway, I've reused stamps to cut my costs and recently I had 2 failure to pay postage notifications to people I've sent items to. I won't do it again, but the very tiny amount I might add to income selling a couple of small things will no longer even make a few extra quid for the bills. Cry me a river, say the MN but a warning to people that use them the barcoded ones really do end up costing you. Don't use them. I refunded the couple of people that received an item from me (less than a £5 item) with a barcoded reused stamp, so I paid £2.50 each item to get the item there. Not worth it and I won't do again.

It's not o the scale of the MP's, big celebrities or the billionaires who have lots of ways of saving money but it's a bigger sin in the eyes of many MN users who slay the ones at the bottom whilst ignoring the corruption at the top.

Those twats at Royal Mail seem to have an issue with non-previously used non-barcode stamps.

Post put card through the door the other day saying I needed to pay £1.50 to get something a she sender had attached insufficient postage. I wasn't expecting anything other than a couple of birthday cards I usually receive. I thought I am NOT paying out.

It WAS a birthday card. The sender was speaking to my wife and asked if I had received it as another card she'd sent had been treated the same.

Both stamps came out of the same book.

Bloody good trick of RM. They've already had the money for the stamp already now they want another £1:50 for sweet FA.

We were told by RM that the late Queen's head non-barcoded stamps could still be used until 1st July without problem, so I kept the ones I still had to use up rather than go through the kerfuffle of sending them back to exchange. However, the two times I have used them recently the letters have not arrived. I have never had letters go missing before. Coincidences or RM not sticking to their promise? I don't really believe in coincidences. I don't want to risk using the stamps I have left because I have no confidence the letters would arrive.

As a child I remember the post arriving before breakfast and a second delivery before lunch. Letters posted with a first class stamp arrived the next day, usually early morning. Now we get one delivery only mid-afternoon, and 'first class' post arrives days later if you're lucky, unless you pay a huge extra fee.

I was wondering the same thing, i have reused stamps in the past, if the post office can't be bothered to make sure they are franked then i don't see why people can't reuse them they charge enough for them

Well, it keeps a few cents/dollars from being thrown away/burned after use.

I always heard if you bought forever stamps they can be reused