Can you still use old stamps? Why the Royal Mail now uses barcodes and how to return out of date stamps

Royal Mail has recently started rolling out barcoded stamps in a move to modernise the postal service.

The scheme enables customers to swap their traditional stamps for the new barcode versions.

The development will allow customers to watch clips and send special video messages by scanning the stamp barcodes.

Why has Royal Mail introduced barcode stamps?

The barcodes, when scanned on a phone, will connect customers to new services downloaded on the Royal Mail app.

At the moment, the scanned barcode sends users to a special video of Shaun the Sheep, however personalised video functions are expected to follow.

Speaking to GB News, David Gold, the Royal Mail’s director of external affairs & policy, said the new stamps were “going to change the way we use mail”.

Mr Gold said: “We’re taking the humble stamp, which, let’s remember, was created and started in Great Britain in 1840 and we’re taking it into a new era.

“We’re reinventing it for the modern age. We’re linking it to technology.”

Nick Landon, Royal Mail chief commercial officer, said: “Introducing unique barcodes on our postage stamps allows us to connect the physical letter with the digital world and opens up the possibilities for a range of new innovative services in future.”

How to return stamps

If you have a printer, you can swap up to £200 worth of non-barcoded stamps by printing out and completing this Stamp Swap Out PDF.

You should send this back to the Royal Mail free of charge, along with your stamps, by writing on the envelope “Freepost SWAP OUT”. No other address details or postcode are needed. 

If you have a printer and more than £200 worth of stamps to swap out, then use the bulk stamp swap out form, Royal Mail recommends sending this and your non-barcoded stamps via a secure service with suitable cover. The address to send to is:

Royal Mail
Swap Out
Tallents House
21 South Gyle Crescent
EDINBURGH
EH12

If you don’t have access to a printer, you can ask for a form to be posted to you by completing this form online.

The instructions for sending it back will depend on the form you request.

Stamp swap out forms are also available from the customer service point of local delivery offices.

Deadline for using out-of-date stamps

Non-barcoded stamps will remain valid to use until February 2023, but anyone who cannot use them by then can swap them for the equivalent value of barcoded stamps.

Nick Landon, Royal Mail’s chief commercial officer, said: “As we move to this exciting new era of barcoded stamps, please check your kitchen drawers, wallets and purses for older non-barcoded stamps and make sure you use them up by 31 January 2023.”