New Royal Mail prices from March 30

Some good news: There is a Large Letter rate for small packages sent abroad, so slightly bulkier items are not considered and charged at Small Parcel rates. That would be great for our customers abroad…it’s so silly charging so much to send a tiny little thing!

Don’t forget to change your prices…

http://www.royalmail.com/sites/default/files/Royal-Mail-UK-and-international-parcel-and-letter-prices-30-March-2015.pdf

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That is good news, I stopped putting postal prices for abroad in my listings as a lot of my cards when packaged were more than the 0.5cm allowed for letters (I add a piece of cardboard or use card-backed envelopes to prevent bending and if it’s a delicate design cover with thin bubble wrap for protection) I’ll have to see if it’s worth adding overseas prices again :smile:

This is good news :smile: I still manage to sell cards overseas even with the small package rate, in fact I sell more overseas than I do to the UK… go figure :smile:
This is even better though.

I too package them in either strong card envelopes or protected by card in jiffy bags so also make them larger than LL. Or they may already have a boxolope rather than an envelope if they are of a more 3D nature.

I don’t sell my cards and pictures overseas at present, but may have to look into this as I know it’s a whole new market waiting to be tapped into!

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Thanks for leaving this info! I forgot it was that time of the year again…

Sam :tropical_fish:

That’s really interesting about the introduction of a large letter size abroad. I do get enquiries for peg bags from overseas, but they cost such a lot as a packet that I rarely sell any. Whereas here they send as a large letter, in fact that was how I decided on the size of them.

Yes! I just had a look and that’s 2.5cms of good news for me! Thanks for letting us all know. xxx

It’s good news for international small parcel senders too. In the weight band I use there’s £3 off the US and the rest of the world, which makes the postage vs item cost look a lot better :smile:

Jo

Has everyone remembered that the new Royal Mail prices come in to effect today? Just bumping this up as a reminder!

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I’d forgotten about them and when I went to post a packet today that’s when I found out about it.

thank you for sharing the PO link…
can one of you lovely people confirm something for me to make sure I get it right.
I often send my small paintings to the US standard rate.
There used to be three levels that applied to me…up to 20g
up to 60g and up to 100g
The middle one isn’t listed, so am I to assume that if I send a painting (letter) up to 20g it is £1.33 but if I send a painting that weighs say 30g I pay £2.25 and likewise if I send an item for 80g it is still £2.25?because both 30 and 80g are over 20g but below 100g. Hope that makes sense…
If this is the case in some cases I will pay slightly more but in other cases I will save money.
I know that you lovely lot are much more “on the ball” than I am so Help please!!

If its under 10g it will be £1, 11 - 20g then it will be £1.33 to the USA, if its between 21 - 100g it will be £2.25.
You can always check using RM’s price finder http://www.royalmail.com/price-finder don’t forget to fill out the appropriate customs form.
Sasha

thanks Sasha, that is what I thought it was…I don’t need customs forms as my items are tiny, flat and fit in an A6 envelope…thanks for your response.

Strictly speaking as you are sending something as a business, something that has been paid for i.e. is not a letter or some other sort of communication - I think you do need to fill in the customs form… but then you will get into the whole ‘do I need to send it as a package and not a letter’ thing…

I asked in the post office…even with slightly larger paintings and they said there was no need as the value is so small…we are talking 2.5" x 3.5" in a small envelope and no width to it.

I agree with Helen - if you have been paid for the item then it is a business transaction and should have an appropriately filled in customs form. I sent some jewellery to the USA in a small stiffened envelope with a CN22 attached to the outside and the post office decided that it was fine to send as a letter at letter rates not a package. The CN22 form on the royalmail website is http://www.royalmail.com/sites/default/files/CN22_01.pdf (you should be able to get preprinted copies from your post office) its very straight forward as you don’t need to fill in the harmonised code if you don’t know it.

My post office ladies are seriously needing trained in letter sizes for abroad, they are either overcharging me because they dont seem to know that there is a large letter size now but still wanting to send my large letter by small package rates, when I query them they say its what the machine is coming up with and when they realize there mistake there is no apology or anything. I suppose if they make a mistake the letter will arrive as its their fault.
I am just going through my postage costs and notice to send a large letter abroad under 100g is now cheaper but the next weight band is more expensive

A few people have had problems with their PO staff insisting amongst other things that an international large letter had to be ‘a letter’, so I tweeted RM to get the definitive answer. The reply was that any package that fit the size/weight restrictions could and should go as a large letter, and that if anyone is having problems they should tweet @Postoffice with the name of the branch. I guess it depends how much you like your PO staff whether you would want to do that!

The new LL rate is great and some things will be cheaper to send. Prices for international parcels have increased by 20p and up though … with the exception of things that are quite heavy (1kg+) which have dropped in price (eg. a 1.2kg parcel to zone 2 has dropped from £16.45 to £15.80). Weird! Good news if your stuff fits this weight band though :slight_smile:

Hi Brenda, My post office just says to write printed paper on the front of the envelope. No need to fill out a customs form if it’s art cards etc. Kath x