Royal Mail: Final day for people to use non-barcoded stamps

Monday is the last day in which standard non-barcoded stamps can be used to post items. 

After Monday, customers sending mail with these stamps risk the recipient being given a surcharge of £1.10. 

Commemorative and non-barcoded Christmas stamps will still be valid. 

You can swap your old stamps for barcoded stamps through Royal Mail’s Swap Out scheme – there’s no deadline for swapping old stamps for barcoded ones. 

Royal Mail said: “A leaflet with a form [for the Swap Out scheme] was delivered to every household recently, but customers can also print out a form from our website; call our Customer Experience team to order one; or pick one up at a local Royal Mail delivery office or Post Office.”

Barcoded stamps were introduced in February last year in an attempt to make deliveries more efficient and improve security.