Royal Mail not enough postage on item

gray1404 · 9 Aug 2026

On Friday I posted 2 letters from Liverpool, one to Blackpool and the other to Doncaster. I attached a regular first class stamp. On reflection, due to a small enclosure, I think this may have been a large letter.

Given I attached a first class stamp with a value of £1.80 will Royal Mail by default treat this now as a second class large letter as this is £1.55 or will they still treat it as an underpaid first class large letter (£3.30) and bill the recipient?

Neither person has contacted me to let me know they have received their item yet. It would be embarrassing if they were expected to cover any shortage in postage so I am hoping Royal Mail might now be treating these items both as second class?

RailUK Forums

Mcr Warrior · 9 Aug 2026

If the items both weighed 100g or less, they should still get there without any surcharge being levied, but handled by Royal Mail as Second Class rather than First Class. Hard to tell the difference, these days, mind you!

gray1404 · 9 Aug 2026

I am positive they are both less then 100g. It's just the thickness that could be the issue. But that's reassuring they'll treat it as second class without any surcharge.

WesternLancer · 10 Aug 2026

gray1404 said:
I am positive they are both less then 100g. It's just the thickness that could be the issue. But that's reassuring they'll treat it as second class without any surcharge.

If they don’t do that I think normal practice is supposed to be the postie leaving a card with the person you sent it to saying x sum is owed and on payment the item will be delivered.

If that’s not paid it might eventually be returned to you possibly also with a similar payment request. Assuming you put senders details on or in the envelope. I’m not totally sure about this however.

I’d be tempted to alert the people you sent it to it might have had incorrect postage and offer to pay them any sum they are asked to pay to receive delivery in the manner I describe.

styles · 11 Aug 2026

WesternLancer said:
If they don’t do that I think normal practice is supposed to be the postie leaving a card with the person you sent it to saying x sum is owed and on payment the item will be delivered.

If that’s not paid it might eventually be returned to you possibly also with a similar payment request. Assuming you put senders details on or in the envelope. I’m not totally sure about this however.

I’d be tempted to alert the people you sent it to it might have had incorrect postage and offer to pay them any sum they are asked to pay to receive delivery in the manner I describe.

This is certainly what's happened to me before.

I sent a small number of keys in the post. When it was put through the plastic sizing thing at the Post Office, it was a small letter.

However, during transit, they bunched up on top of each other and an excess was charged. I thought it was a bit mean-spirited but whatever.

Anyway, I learnt my lesson - if you're sending a few small items in an envelope, consider sticking them down to a sheet of paper so they don't stack up in transit.

gray1404 · 11 Aug 2026

That's exactly what I did actually. I used some tape to stick them down inside the card I was sending. So there is no way they could bunch up.

However I think it was very borderline if the item was the thickness of a letter or a large letter. I can only hope that, assuming it was a large letter, it is now being processed in second class mail rather than any surcharge being levied.

Certainly there was enough postage attached to cover the second class rate.

AY1975 · 14 Aug 2026

This kind of situation was also discussed in this now locked thread from early 2023 on what to do when sending an item of mail that's borderline between two different postage rates: https://www.railforums.co.uk/thread...e-between-two-different-postage-rates.242616/

As someone said in that thread, your safest bet when sending such an item might be to err on the side of paying the higher of the two rates that it's borderline between.

Mcr Warrior · 14 Aug 2026

@gray1404. Have the items in question not been delivered yet?

gray1404 · 15 Aug 2026

Sadly not

Mcr Warrior said:
@gray1404. Have the items in question not been delivered yet?

zero · 17 Aug 2026

RM definitely knows a 1st class regular stamp is worth more than 2nd class large 100g. I often receive and send items thicker than 5mm using 1st regular stamps.

It's not really possible to tell whether they have been treated as 1st or 2nd, since 1st and 2nd items travel in the same bag and only when a particular sorting/delivery office is overwhelmed do they deprioritise items that are obviously 2nd class.

I have heard that when it's not easy to tell whether the postage affixed is at the 1st or 2nd class rate (typically when stamps with values are attached and it's not worth the time for postal workers to do addition) they just treat them as 1st class, but as mentioned there may not be any difference anyway.

Sometimes I get no letter deliveries for 1-2 weeks and then everything arrives in one go. That seems to be how RM operates now. Items with 2nd class stamps have arrived next day and items sent 1st class have taken 2 weeks.

SuspectUsual · 17 Aug 2026

zero said:
Sometimes I get no letter deliveries for 1-2 weeks and then everything arrives in one go

I was at my parents' last week and they mentioned that their postlady - who is a family friend - had told them that their street now receives 3 deliveries a week, not 6. They get Tuesday / Thursday / Saturday. And that's a suburb of a big city, not out in the sticks

WesternLancer · 17 Aug 2026

SuspectUsual said:
I was at my parents' last week and they mentioned that their postlady - who is a family friend - had told them that their street now receives 3 deliveries a week, not 6. They get Tuesday / Thursday / Saturday. And that's a suburb of a big city, not out in the sticks

This is the new system. But that is supposed to only apply to 2nd class items.
We had a leaflet from Royal Mail us explaining this a few weeks ago. Other relatives in other parts of the country have had the same leaflet so I assume it’s supposed to have been sent to every address.

Titled “Second class mail is changing.
Small changes for more dependable deliveries”

Images of this on line.
eg

UK 2nd class post moves to alternate days

News about Great Britain (United Kingdom) stamps & postmarks, postal history, Royal Mail, & Post Office Ltd., and philately in general

blog.norphil.co.uk

Guessing you’ve maybe not had one however.

One can test this by sending yourself first class letter making sure to post it by the collection time stated on the pillar box (often now 9am) and seeing if it arrives next day. Which is the stated aim.
Post a second class letter to yourself in the same manner, same or different day, from a different pillar box and monitor that.
Obviously that’s best part of £3 used up on said test tho.

DelW · 17 Aug 2026

It can still work. I realised at lunchtime last Monday that I'd forgotten to send a card to a relative whose 80th birthday was next day, and with whom I've always exchanged physical cards.

So after lunch I went into town, bought an appropriate card, went into the library to write it, put on a first class stamp and dropped it into the posting slot at the local sorting office. Fortunately for family harmony, I heard later that it made it to its destination (about 50 miles away) the following morning, on time for her birthday.

Royal Mail not enough postage on item

gray1404

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Mcr Warrior

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gray1404

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WesternLancer

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styles

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gray1404

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AY1975

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gray1404

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zero

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WesternLancer

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UK 2nd class post moves to alternate days

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