check current 2nd class rate
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Second class is the Christmas card's natural stamp: the last posting dates (mid-December for 2nd class: Royal Mail publishes them each year) are the only deadline that matters. Stamp prices rise most years: buying a sheet of stamps BEFORE an announced rise is one of the few genuinely riskless investments (barcoded stamps don't expire and are honoured at the class paid). Hand-delivering the neighbours' cards on a walk remains free and traditional.
What The Christmas Card Postage Calculator Works Out
- Total cost: cards x the stamp price plus cards x the price per card. A traditional 40-card list at second class rates with 30-70p multipack cards runs GBP 50-60 all-in.
- The postage share: stamps as a percentage of the total. It has climbed past half as stamp prices ratcheted through years of above-inflation rises, so the envelope's contents now often cost less than its corner.
- Trim the bill: hand-deliver the local half, buy next year's cards at 75% off in the week after Christmas, prune the obligation-for-obligation names, and buy charity multipacks so the budget works twice.
- Hand-delivered cards (advanced): the number you can drop through local letterboxes on a walk, removed from the postage bill; the card shows the stamps saved and roughly how far the round is.
- First class cards and stamp price (advanced): cards that must go first class (typically because the second class last posting date has passed) and the premium that costs over second class. The first class default is 170p; check the current rate.
- International cards (advanced): cards going abroad on top of the UK list, at the international standard letter rate (about GBP 3 by default, editable), with their earlier last posting dates in early December.
- Revised total (advanced): the whole exercise re-costed by delivery method: second class, first class, international and hand-delivered, plus every card bought.
- Buy next year's stamps now (advanced): enter the rise you expect in next year's stamp prices and see what buying the stamps before the rise saves. Barcoded stamps do not expire and are honoured at the class paid, so it is one of personal finance's smallest sure things.