Royal Mail to Phase out Non-Barcoded Stamps
In the News
Stamps that just say 1st or 2nd on them will no longer be usable after next January. You will be encouraged to use them by this date but you will be able to swap them too.
snoogans888 yes I think a lot of people buy several before the price increase to save a bit.
I read that apparently you can't even exchange the stamps at the post office you have to get a form from somewhere?!?! Bonkers!
Yes you can:
You will, however, be able to exchange current stamps for barcoded ones for free under Royal Mail's new 'Swap Out' scheme, which opens on 31 March 2022 and will run until 31 March 2023.
To do this, you just need to fill in a 'Swap Out' form from its website (the page isn't live yet), or call it, or get one from a local delivery office (not a post office though). You'll then have to post back the stamps you want to swap to a Freepost address.
Pjran Exactly, you have to post them in, you can't just take them to a post office.
tumblespots I have quite a few books so will most probably have to exchange some of them but there’s christmas 2022 cards to send.
Pjran Yes, me too, I have quite a few and many of them are odd denominations too a hangover from Mr T having his own business! He suggested yesterday that I used a lot of the 1p & 2ps on the next few letters I send! Let's hope they can still read the address!
Pjran SO how can you prove what you have posted, Andover is forever losing post you'd end up with nothing.
tumblespots they’ve started posting out the swap out leaflets it seems when each county gets them through there door varies
I don’t know why they can’t just let people do the swap at their local post office surely that’s got to be more cost efficient plus there will be people like me going to the post office to get proof of postage of sending the stamps back to them as they are going to get millions and do I trust them to process and not lose them -No!
Gromit22 The other factor, of course, is that they are striking so who knows when you will get the replacements?
Many years ago I would swap pirated amiga and atari st discs with penpal contacts and we would always put clear sellotape over the stamps so we could clean off the ink from the franking and then re-use the same jiffy bags. I think we used the same stamps maybe a dozen times before the jiffy bag started looking tatty. So looks like the days of stamp postage fraud are coming to an end as bar codes would prevent that. Royal Mail will probably find their postage income will shoot up.
BonzoBanana yes! This must surely be why they are doing this. I have been known to soak unmarked stamps off envelopes to reuse them. I don’t suppose they’ll swap them!
Bexy Their prices for standard parcels are at £3.35 and £4.45, but you can expect it to increase to £4.45 and £5.45 at this point.
Royal Mail is killing itself. The competitors need to come up with a service that replaces RM's service.
I do feel bad for the employees though we as customers are also affected as our parcels are stuck with them and have yet to be delivered. Some say their parcels were lost (probably just an inconvenient delay) due to these strikes.
PhilipMarc I want to say though that if you use their Click and Drop service then they will come and collect from your door free of charge! That is the best thing the Royal mail has done in years, saves queuing at the post office!
If it aint broke don't fix it eh?Just another money scheme no doubt. The new ones will be more expensive of course.
I missed this chat topic when it was originally posted and only heard about this yesterday. This change is probably more about stopping people hoarding stamps and forcing them to pay more. With every stamp price increase I try to send less physical mail. Consequently, I have quite a lot of them to use up or swap. Are the new barcoded stamps only valid for a fixed period of time after purchase? If not, that could well be an as yet unannounced planned change for the future 
I will need to tell my granny as she has a stockpile of stamps, whenever the price is due to go up she buys lots of books.
I have been stockpiling stamps for more than 10 years, hopefully I will make a decent profit from exchanging them for the new bar coded stamps.
Received a pamphlet about this today.
Ordered a booklet from eBay of 1st class stamps and I'll then send it out with the spare ones I already have.
I have a book of 2nd class in my purse. I’m no doubt get them used up at Xmas. But this is good to know Thankyou
. I still cut stamps off envelopes use them again lol 
Cant remember the last time I bought any stamps - still have a packet for 8 from about two years ago! Thats part of the problem for RM - we are not sending anything like enough letters to keep it profitable. The reason for the new barcodes was always fraud as they knew many stamps were being reused - lets face it many of us have done it if you come across a stamp that seems clean and unfranked.
didbygraham I remember I could have done that, yet just threw it away as it done its purpose.
AmyPitchers The new stamps have a QR code (or so it looks like it) so I wonder what info that could have stored, hopefully no sensitive info about the sender/receiver than what's already shown.
Join for free to get genuine deals, money saving advice and help from our friendly community
Chief Bargain Hunter
