Royal Mail to increase cost of postage stamps
The newly-privatised group has announced above-inflation price rises for the end of this month.
Royal Mail has announced that the price of postage stamps will increase at the end of this month.
From 31st March, the price of a first-class stamp will rise by 2p to 62p. Meanwhile, the cost of a second-class stamp will increase by 3p to 53p.
For bigger items, the cost of a large first-class stamp up to 100g will go up by 3p to 93p, and a large second-class stamp will cost 4p more at 73p. These are all above-inflation price rises.
The recently-privatised Royal Mail defended the increases, saying that the prices are still among the best value in Europe. The average cost of sending a second-class letter up to 100g in Euope is apparently 60p.
It added that, under current rules, it could have increased the cost of a second-class stamp to 57p, which would have been a hike of 7p.
Smaller price rise than last time
It is the first price rise in two years, although the last in 2012 saw huge increases from 46p to 60p for first-class stamps and 36p to 50p for second-class.
Those changes prompted mass stockpiling of stamps.
If you're thinking of stockpiling some now, as you long as you buy stamps that just say ‘1st’ or ‘2nd’ then you’re OK to use them at any time. So if you do a lot of posting you might want to start buying sooner rather than later.
Do you still use the postal service? Will you be stockpiling stamps? Let us know in the Comments box below.
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