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A Royal Mail postman has revealed a “trade secret” that there is “no difference” between first and second-class stamps. Speaking to Matt Chorley on Times Radio, postal worker Andy Mason said the public could save some much-needed cash when sending letters and parcels because first-class stamps are “absolutely” pointless.
The DJ asked Mr Mason: “Is it a bit pointless bothering with first and second-class stamps?”
The postman’s response may shock prolific parcel-senders. He said: “Yeah, absolutely. Giving away trade secrets here, but there’s no difference between first and second-class anymore.
“Used to be when you have two deliveries, the first-class was treated more importantly, you take that out, come back, have your breakfast and then take the second-class out, but it’s all done as one delivery now.
“So not officially, but if you wanted to save some money, you wouldn’t need to bother with a first-class stamp.”
Columnist and presenter Mr Chorley tweeted a screenshot of the quote from Mr Mason, providing some context underneath his post with details about the cunning test he had undertaken, to see whether first-class stamps really were worth the money.
He wrote: “We sent 12 letters from London to addresses across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Six first-class all arrived the next day. Four second-class also arrived within a day of being posted. Two others – sent to north London and Hampshire – arrived after two days.”
In April 2023 the price of stamps went up by as much as 15 pence for first class and seven pence for second class.
Citizens Advice claims that stamps cost 64 per cent more than they did five years ago.
A large first class stamp is £1.60, up from £1.45. Normal first class stamps are £1.10, up from 95p.
A second class stamp is 75p, where it was 68p, with large second class stamps now costing £1.15, where it used to be £1.05.
