So what do YOU have to pay for First Class Post?

[Bush Girl]

A while ago we had a brilliant thread running about the price of petrol in various parts of the world and we marveled at just how different they were - sometimes scarily so.

Here in the UK our first class postage stamp increased in value by a whooping 30% overnight this month, so now a first class letter - and it has to be a very light weight one in a small envelope - now costs 60p, about US$1. It has been sold to us Brits as a necessity to bring us in line with the rest of the world as we've been having mega cheap post up until now - apparently.






So, my friends in the rest of the world....tell me what you have to pay to post a letter to Granny or a birthday card to your nephew? And if it's very pricy, does this stop you, in this digital age from sending letters the old fashioned way?








I have certainly been put off sending things like Christmas cards. When I lived in Singapore you could send a Christmas card anywhere in the world for SGP50c about US25c, and so I sent loads & loads of cards, something like 120 every year (and I made every single one of them, but that's another story that ends with "thank goodness for my new found digital skills"!). Now back in Britain, this has become far too expensive, and I'm rather ashamed to admit that this Christmas just past I didn't send a single card in the post. Not one.

 

[clarabear]

I think a regular stamp for a letter is $0.45 right now. Postage for packages has generally gotten ridiculous though. That being said USPS (United States Postal Service) has started offering flat-rate priority boxes. When I was sending boxes to my brother in Afghanistan they were $8 and change but they have gone up since then. But there are also more sizes, including a special size just to send to soldiers overseas. You could fill the boxes with rocks and it would cost the same as if you filled it with feathers. The prices vary depending on the size of box you use from $4.90 for a larger envelope to $15.45 for the largest box which is 12X12X5.5. The military boxes are $13.45. Something I never knew about military mail is that you only pay for it to go to San Francisco (for asian posts) or NY (for European posts) and then the military takes it from there. Which is why you can send boxes for US prices. It doesn't actually go thru international mail, although it does go thru customs and I have to fill out a customs for for that whether it is going to an actual base in Europe or to a deployment base in Iraq or Afghanistan. Going along the same lines, if I had an APO (American Post Office) address and mailed something to someone else with and APO address the mail would be free. I think there is a limit on size and weight but letters and small packages are free.

 

[VickiStegall]

interesting thread here. I had to look it up because I buy "forever" stamps, so it doesn't say the price on there. You buy the "forever" stamps and you can use them, um, forever without worrying if the price goes up.

So, to mail a regular, lightweight letter in a standard rectangular envelope is $.45 US (0.28 BP, 0.35 euros)

to mail a SQUARE letter (cards, I'm assuming) is $.65 (0.40 BP, 0.50 euros). I had no idea that square letters cost more.

 

[VickiStegall]

Clara, we were posting at the same time.

It's interesting to learn about the military post. Back when Alyx was 3, we had friends stationed at the NATO base in Geilenkirchen, Germany. We took a trip with them through the UK and to Paris and then stayed at their home in Germany for a week. Anthony had a limited amount of time off work, so he was only there for the UK portion of the trip, which meant I would be traveling home alone with a 3 year old and all the various paraphernalia associated with that plus all the souvenirs. So, our friends boxed up all the dirty clothes and things we wouldn't need on the last 2 days of our trip and mailed it home for me. All I had to carry was a backpack, the umbrella stroller and Alyx! It was less than $10 but the blessing of not having to worry about hauling all that stuff + 3 yr old was PRICELESS!

 

[Dumpty]

interesting thread here. I had to look it up because I buy "forever" stamps, so it doesn't say the price on there. You buy the "forever" stamps and you can use them, um, forever without worrying if the price goes up.

bwahahaha same here LOL
so I just checked and for a lightweight "normal" letter it's 0,60€ (0,77$ - £ 0,48 )

 

[janedee]

Our current first class postage rate is .61c within Canada, to the US its 1.05 and overseas $1.80.
Parcels cost an outrageous amount to send, so although our girls are overseas right now we don't send care packages as they cost more to send than the items in them. We just send gift certificates instead.

 

[clarabear]

Vicki - my sister was bridezilla and didn't look into anything...so low and behold she picked square invites. They cost a fortune to mail. We had to seal them super tight to make sure they didn't go over in size and I think they ended up being about $0.85 each. I guess they cost more because they have to be fed by hand and can't go thru the auto sorter. The first cost my mom got on them was $1.60 or something ridiculous like that and multiply that by 150. My mom was less than impressed.

 

[VickiStegall]

wow Clara! they should put a warning on that stuff! I'd be less than pleased too!

back when I first started the O, I sent out little Christmas gifts to everyone on the team. The postage ended up costing 3x as much as the actual gifts. It's made me so sad the last couple of years because with the size of our team now, I just can't afford the postage to send packages all over the world like that anymore

 

[Madi]

Our stamps are 0,50€
for Europe it's 0,85€ and the rest of the world is 0,95€
and that's for standard size, when you get over the weight limit it just doubles.

 

[snowdropz]

One thing I can say for sure I'm glad I've gone digital as buying from overseas is so much cheaper now (no postage cost!!!) I dread to think how much a scrapbook kit would cost in postage terms now from US to the UK!

Thankfully, my family aren't into sending cards... we never did! Luv FaceTime/Whatsapp where it's the communication means for me when chatting with friends overseas. I do send digi cards that way!

Selena, I might go down your route about not sending Xmas cards! It's just ridiculous the cost of sending one when the card itself is cheaper than the postage!

 

[snowdropz]

wow Clara! they should put a warning on that stuff! I'd be less than pleased too!

back when I first started the O, I sent out little Christmas gifts to everyone on the team. The postage ended up costing 3x as much as the actual gifts. It's made me so sad the last couple of years because with the size of our team now, I just can't afford the postage to send packages all over the world like that anymore

Vicki, don't worry about gift! Just send a digi kit instead! :eyebrows:

 

[Bush Girl]

So it would seem that us Brits have been duped by our postal bosses, we appear to be paying WAY more than anyone else for regular post. How frustrating.

We too, have a Forces postal system like your American one. You can put ordinary inland postage on a letter/parcel and as long as it's addressed to a BFPO site, it will be sent all over the world. My RAF friend sent her horse BFPO to Hong Kong a while back and all it cost her was the same as if she'd rented a horsebox to go to a horse show down the road, like £400 or something. Anyone else would have been charged huge amounts, maybe more like £4,000 to airfreight a horse half way round the world!

 

[yvonnahenna]

Our stamps are 0,50€
for Europe it's 0,85€ and the rest of the world is 0,95€
and that's for standard size, when you get over the weight limit it just doubles.

Hm, did the price raise again? I thought it was still €0,44 LOL

 

[Madi]

Hm, did the price raise again? I thought it was still €0,44 LOL

no, it used to be 0,46 but last jan went up again!!!
but we do have the "forever" stamps now!!

 

[Dumpty]

back when I first started the O, I sent out little Christmas gifts to everyone on the team. The postage ended up costing 3x as much as the actual gifts. It's made me so sad the last couple of years because with the size of our team now, I just can't afford the postage to send packages all over the world like that anymore

Oh Vicki I still have the tubes (nothing more in there but can't thow them away !) for the lip balm you sent ... that was sooo sweet of you, AND It was such a cool gift that I had to fight my daughters over them LOL.

 

[faerywings]

Wow, looking at your prices makes me happy to get forever stamps here too. Thankfully, I pay most of my bills online, so one book lasts me a while.
Some in our govt want to get rid of our Postal Services, but I can't see how that is going to make anything less expensive to the customer.

 

[tanteva]

In Sweden: 6 SEK (=$0.84)
Abroad: 12 SEK (=$1.67)
But that's really just a plain letter. Add just a little extra and you tip over the weight limit and prices go up.

 

[VickiStegall]

Oh Vicki I still have the tubes (nothing more in there but can't thow them away !) for the lip balm you sent ... that was sooo sweet of you, AND It was such a cool gift that I had to fight my daughters over them LOL.

aaaaaw! I love hearing that!!!! I really had fun making them! The first year, Ms Chris made the gifts with her faerywings magic touch. I still have a few of those around too - just can't part with them. I do miss doing that, but I think I'll take Audrey's advice this year! (better start now so I get it done in time lolololol)

 

[yvonnahenna]

no, it used to be 0,46 but last jan went up again!!!
but we do have the "forever" stamps now!!

I love them! No thinking about how much I have to put on.. Just the stamp with #1 LOL

 

[clarabear]

Vicki - when I was a CT for a designer at another site the site made a special kit at Christmas just for the CTs that all of the designers participated in. Then they didn't give out coupons or anything, just the kit. It was kinda cool.

 

[yvonnahenna]

*Offtopic* LOL

Vicki - when I was a CT for a designer at another site the site made a special kit at Christmas just for the CTs that all of the designers participated in. Then they didn't give out coupons or anything, just the kit. It was kinda cool.

Oh yes, I'm a member at a belgium/dutch photo/scrap forum. There are a few designers posting around. they did that once as well.
And my friend designer tries to swap coupons with other designers from other shops.

 

[Ellen]

I think Royal Mail has got a death wish the way they are going about it.
I think twice now before posting one of my cards abroad.
I'm also going to have to change the way I make my cards , less bulky and keep an eye on the weight as well. It's so easy to go over the 40 gr. and pay the penalty for it.


it's now cheaper in the U.K. to use a courier instead of R.M. so they loose out on that as well.


I used to send parcels ( up to 2 kilos) to the boys in Afghanistan and Iraq for free through BFPO has that changed now?

Holland does special christmas stamps every year , they are cheaper than the normal stamps..all little bits help

 

[sue.falstaff]

I'm sooooo out of touch when it comes to the cost of stamps / using postal services!!! I rarely send "real" mail, except at Christmas, when I send friends & family cards I've made (I've taken part in the Christmas card exchange here at Oscraps for the past 3 years too!). I have to say that I've never even heard of "forever" stamps!

 

[LaurieW]

I buy the forever stamps, and due to a rough year last year, still sending bills with Mary and baby Jesus on! Most bills get paid online though.