Royal Mail warning as homeowners have months to act over new stamp change

Royal Mail has begun to roll out a stamp change – meaning people have just months to use their old stamps. The new style barcode stamps will begun to be introduced on January 31, 2023.

This means the old-style stamps will become worthless in the next few months. Many households keep stashes of 1st and 2nd Class stamps and Royal Mail are asking people to use them as soon as possible.

The new will make letter sending more secure, but it doesn’t make post any easier or cheaper for customers to track.

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From January 31, only the new stamps complete with barcodes will be valid, and you’ll face a surcharge if you try 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. Nick Landon, chief commercial officer at Royal Mail, said: “This initiative will see Royal Mail become one of the first postal authorities in the world to add unique barcodes to stamps.

“By doing this, we are looking to transform the humble stamp so we can offer our customers even more convenient, new services in the future.

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