Royal Mail has announces new tariffs effective from 7 April 2026, new stamps on 26 March 2026.
"From 7 April 2026 the price of Second Class stamps will increase by 4p to 91p and the price of First Class stamps will be £1.80, an increase of 10p.
"The new price of a Second Class stamp remains 65p below the European average price of £1.56 and a First Class stamp is 13p below the European average of £1.93. Under the Universal Service in France, Germany and Spain customers only have the option of paying for a three-day service. France charges £1.92 for a Second Class stamp, 12p more than a First Class, next day, service in the UK.
"The stamp price rises reflect the continued rise in cost of delivery for every letter as letter volumes decline and the number of addresses increases. The average household now receives only four letters per week, down from 14 at their peak over 20 years ago, while the number of addresses has risen by four million.
"Richard Travers, Managing Director of Letters at Royal Mail said: “We always consider price changes very carefully, balancing affordability with the rising cost of delivering mail. On average, UK adults now spend just £6.50 each year on stamps and there are 70% fewer letters sent than 20 years ago. In the meantime, the number of addresses we deliver to has increased by four million to 32 million addresses across the UK.”
(Press release)
New tariff analysis
(New prices in bold, reduced in red, unchanged in italics.)
|
|
1st |
2nd |
||
|
Letter |
1.80 |
1.70 |
0.91 |
0.87 |
|
Large Letter – 100g |
3.30 |
3.15 |
1.55 |
1.55 |
|
- 250g |
3.60 |
3.60 |
1.90 |
2.00 |
|
- 500g |
3.60 |
3.60 |
2.40 |
2.40 |
|
- 750g |
3.60 |
3.60 |
2.70 |
2.70 |
|
Small Parcel 2kg |
5.45 |
5.09 |
4.25 |
3.99 |
|
Medium Parcel 2kg |
8.05 |
7.45 |
6.95 |
6.49 |
|
- 10kg |
10.05 |
9.35 |
8.75 |
8.19 |
|
- 20kg |
15.45 |
14.25 |
13.15 |
12.25 |
Signed For prices for 1st class Letters rise by 20p, and Large Letters by 10-25p; 2nd class letter is up by 14p, Large Letters by 10p. Parcels show rises across the board.
Tracked 24/48 prices show small rises with basic Large Letter (up to 1lg) prices increased by 10p to £3.95 (24) and by 35p to £3.30 (48). Parcels show 5-7% rises.
Special Delivery up to 100g rise 7.5% from £9.25 to £9.95, up to 500g from 6.8% from £10.25 to £10.85. The 9 a.m. option increases are lower this year from £49.95 to £53.95 for the basic 100g weight!
International rates. The basic worldwide letter and postcard rate rises by 20p again from £3.40 to £3.60 (5.8%) airmail and from £3.30 to £3.50 for Economy (surface).
The price for airmail Large Letters up to 100g increases by 30p to all zones (so from £3.50 to £3.80 for Europe, £4.30 to £4.60 worldwide); other weight bands rise by around 6%.
International premium services
The price for 100g International Tracked to Europe increases from £9.75 to £9.95. Outside Europe the rises vary from 10% in Zones 1 & 2 to only 5% for Zone 3 (USA – possibly compensating for both reduced volume, and the administration fee for processing US Tariffs).
I haven't had time to do a comprehensive comparison, especially of rates which are less used like Tracked Small Parcels, but one that stands out is the World Zone 1. Whilst Zone 2 rates stay the same at all weights, Zone 3 (USA) increases by about 6% (with a note that this is subject to change!), Zone 1 (which is the whole world except the USA, Europe and Oceania) shows some increases by a massive 25% (which means for 250g from £16.00 to £19.90), and for 2kg 16% from £31.70 to £36.90.
There are smaller rises for the now 'Documents only' International Tracked and Signed where the compensation has been reduced from £50 to £20 to match the standard airmail.
New Stamps from 26 March 2026
There will be three new stamps, for the 100g letter rates, costing a nice round £12 for the set (DS2400).
DS2400A £3.60 Purple Heather for letter rates
DS2400B £3.80 Aqua Green for Large letter to Europe
DS2400C £4.60 Sapphire Blue for Large letter to the rest of the world.
 |
| Pre-issue publicity images of airmail stamps to be issued 27 March 2026. |
Other charges
The cost of a PO Box will be increased by 12% to £416.40. Twelve months' redirection, which was 100x the 2nd class rate at £87 is increased to £95.
Context for older stamps
I've been looking at some older Post and Go sets. A Collector's set of Poppies bought in only 2018 cost £8.18. The postage value at the new rates will be almost two-and-a-half times that at £19.50!
One very very small crumb of comfort: you can still use 2x1st class for an international letter.
ReplyDeleteJohn
Thanks for that...ir saved me taking my footwear off to calculate it. It used to be so hard to stick several commemoratives on postcards to foreigners. Another crumb of comfort; that we could do with; is a make-up value to ramp a 2nd class stamp up to a 1st. The new price of 91p for 2nd means that we shall have to stick a 50p, 20p, 10p, 5p & two 2p stamps. Fitting 7 of the modern-size stamps on to a postcard will be tricky. I tend to use 2nd class commemoratives up quickly, but my store of 1st class ones is piling up because if you are in a rush it is swifter and often cheaper to ring up. Your call is important to them: and Vivaldi's Four Seasons is nice to listen to.
DeleteI am surprised that letter traffic peaked in the present century - 2004 - my guess would have been the 1970s before the improvements to telephone availability were wrought.
For the sake of 2p using 2 x 2nd class for a first class letter would save a lot of time.
DeleteSo 4 x 2nd class will cover (+4p) for international.
In a similar vein, a 2nd class large letter remains unchanged at £1.55p. A 1st class stamp would cover this and are on offer at less than 80p on an online market place (not ebay). Would RM sort this as underpaid 1st class or automatically downgrade to 2nd class? A 25p loss or a 75p gain for the sender?
DeleteWhy would RM sort a 2nd class Large as underpaid 1st class? It's clearly 2nd class as it says on the stamp.
DeleteSimilarly if you put a 1st class letter stamp on a Large Letter then it should be processed as a fully paid 2nd class - but don't bet on it!
The stamp being used would be a 1st class NVI stamp, (NOT clearly 2nd class...) value £1.70 (£1.80 from April), on a large letter to pay for a 2nd class service on the large letter, which is £1.55p. The sender having paid only 80p for the 1st class NVI purchased as 'DISCOUNT POSTAGE' would save 75p.
DeleteAccepted. I was covering both situations, and mis-read your usages. Large Letter stamps are also available at a discount. I would expect a discounted 2nd class Large to be even less than a discounted 1st Letter.
DeleteThe online prices for 2kg small parcels are now a bit odd:
ReplyDelete2nd class WAS £3.35, NOW £3.95
Tracked 48 WAS £3.55 NOW £3.65
Same situation with 1st/T24. The traditionally cheaper service is now more expensive. The only distinguishing benefit is you get sent a book of stamps if 2nd/1st arrives late.
My reading is that Tracked 24 goes up from £3.85 to £3.95 & Tracked 48 from £2.95 to £3.30.
ReplyDeleteInteresting that the new letter and postcard international rate of £3.60 in purple heather deviates from all the other shades of green used since the KIng came to the throne.
ReplyDeleteMy Order Advice Note from RM received today gives a Date of Issue as 26th March. Should I presume this is an error?
ReplyDelete26th March 2026 is correct.
DeleteYes, the date on the first day postmarks is 26 March. Unfortunately the header on Royal Mail's information to dealers shows an issue date of 27 March! I'll alter the post and title.
Delete