STAMPS GOING TO BE 60p & 50p

[2old2beamum]

Right forget Xmas cards (sorry to mention the C word) The homeless will get a donation in lieu

I can't remember the last time I actually used a stamp. Probably was Christmas.

Blimey! that is a jump in price.

That'll be why it costs so much more per letter now, cogito. Less use of system, but still need to maintain system of same size.

Compare it to fuel and it's absolute peanuts. If fuel costs weren't so high ridiculous then stamps wouldn't need to be increased so much.

High AND ridiculous

But northey the system is still used, I pay my postage online - it will go up their too.
Surely the competition is greater too?

RM last charged me £20 to post a valuable document with insurance. A courier firm charged £8
And they don't have the advertising / junk mail revenue, that supposedly covers branch overheads

There's no competition for ordinary letters. Plenty will courier a parcel or a document for a fat fee but the Royal Mail has the monopoly on letters. They can charge what they like, basically.

Because of email and text etc, it's used nowhere near as much as it used to be for easily transportable things like letters which could be carried with a bag and a bike. Now it's mostly mail order chunky stuff which requires vans and fuel. So their whole funding model has to change.

60 pence is still an absolute bargain to get a document from one end of the country to another.

It'd be ok if post actually arrived. A couple of people didn't come to our wedding because they didn't get the invites (we only found out after). Neither of my best friends got theirs.

It's basically gambling. Much as I miss stationary, I only use email and Facebook now as then people actually get it

Nobody wants to compete for ordinary letters, because they wouldn't make any money. The other firms cream off profitable work and the RM is still stuck with the rest, so I expect it's inevitable that prices go up.

Here's a bit of trivia.... In 1854 when the Penny Black came out a teacher's wages were £1 10s/week. If teachers' wages were still proportionate to the cost of a first class stamp they would be £12,000 p.a. when stamps reach 60p each.