Martin Lewis’ MSE makes important clarification about Royal Mail stamp deadline

Consumer expert Martin Lewis has made an important clarification regarding the deadline to use or swap old stamps, as you may have more time to do so than you might think.

While the Royal Mail told Martin Lewis’ website MoneySavingExpert that January 2023 was still the deadline, they added that there would be a six-month “grace period”. This would mean stamps are valid until July 31, not January.

Martin himself touched on this in his latest weekly newsletter for the money-saving and consumer site, stating that old stamps can be used and swapped after January.

Martin wrote: “Despite a series of misleading Royal Mail adverts saying otherwise, non-barcoded stamps with a profile of the Queen’s head can still be used for another six months.”

If you still believe that you will not be able to use all of your stamps by this deadline, you should still have access to the Royal Mail’s “Swap Out” scheme. This scheme lets you exchange the stamps for free by completing a form.

You need to use a standard form for stamps worth up to £200, or a bulk stamp form for stamps worth more than £200 both of which can be downloaded online.

The new stamps are similar to the previous ones except they have barcodes to make them more easily identifiable.

This comes after the Royal Mail issued a warning about disruption to deliveries abroad following a cyber attack.

In a statement posted online, the company said: “We have asked customers temporarily to stop submitting any export items into the network while we work hard to resolve the issue.

The Daily Record has approached Royal Mail for comment.

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