Royal Mail customers ‘outraged’ as major announcement could leave millions of stamps invalid

ROYAL Mail has made a major announcement that could leave millions of stamps invalid.

Anyone with a stash of 1st or 2nd class stamps won’t be able to use them this time next year – and they’re not happy about it.

Royal Mail is moving to a new barcode system, which doesn’t include the use of current stamps.

It’s in an attempt to make letter sending more secure, but it doesn’t make post any easier or cheaper for customers to track.

From January 31, 2023, you won’t be able to use the current style of stamps that feature an image of The Queen’s head.

Instead, only the new style stamps complete with their new barcodes will be valid, and you’ll face a surcharge trying to use anything otherwise.

The barcodes will soon become commonplace on all standard and Christmas stamps with each one having a “digital twin” that contains a unique code alongside it.

But Brits are annoyed at the change, and they took to Twitter to air their frustrations.

One said: “Straight after Christmas, just when everyone has left over stamps from sending Christmas cards. Nicely timed!”

Another said: “I don’t like it!

“Just the monarch’s head on a stamp is a very British tradition – what’s next, bar codes on the reverse of coins?”

A third said: “I wish I’d known this last week when I bought two books!”

The price of stamps typically rises with inflation each year.

That’s been on the rise and was up to 5.4% in December, just as prices of commodities and bills have seen massive hikes too.

Money mogul, Martin Lewis, revealed that a typical first-class letter stamp is around 85p currently – up roughly 25p in the space of 10 years from when it was 60p. 

But what it means for stamp collectors is that they’ll usually stock up before prices change – now though, they’re stuck with too many as the current type run out in just under a year’s time.

On Twitter, some thought they’d offer some helpful advice to the outraged many who felt like they were going to lose their money’s worth.

One said: “You’ve got almost a year to use them, just send a lot of cards.”

Another said: “Send all your Christmas cards now and use them up!”

But some simply weren’t convinced with how you’re meant to trade in the out-of-fashion stamps as, one said: “Talk about making it a hassle to swap!”

“Clearly is on purpose,” they said. “Why can’t people just swap them at a Post Office?”

The way of trading-in the stamps before the cut off is a little complicated, but Royal Mail will let you do it for free.

You have to fill out a “Swap-Out” form on the Royal Mail website, which hasn’t yet been released, or call the postal giant directly to request a form.

Or you trek out to get one in person from a local delivery office – but not a Post Office.

You’ll then have to post back the stamps you want to swap to a Freepost address.

The “Swap Out” scheme launches on March 31 this year, and you can continue to trade in the old stamps well after they become invalid as it runs until March 31 2023.

It’s going to become a bit harder to get hold of the old type at the shops and Post Office too as they’re phased out of sale slowly over the next year.