Deadline Approaching: Use old stamps by July 31st 2023
Unbarcoded postage stamps are invalid after 31 July so use them up quickly, says Paul Lewis
You have until the end of July to use old postage stamps without a barcode on them. If you use them after 31 July the letter will be treated as unstamped and the person who receives it will have to pay a fee of £2.50 before it will be delivered. The stamps that cannot be used are those with just the late Queen’s head on, including the standard 1st and 2nd class stamps for ordinary and large letters as well as any stamps for different values. Commemorative and pictorial stamps and Christmas stamps are not included and can be used after that date.
If you cannot use up your old stamps by 31 July you can change them for new ones: simply download the Royal Mail Swap Out form from royalmail.com – search “swap out” – and print it out (or call 03457 740740). You can also collect the form from any post office, but you cannot swap the stamps there: you must use the form and post it.
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Enclose the old stamps with the form. Self-adhesive stamps must be left attached to their backing sheet, and stamps with glue on the back must be moistened and stuck to the form. It can only be used for up to £200 of stamps.
Put the form in an envelope and address it simply to FREEPOST SWAP OUT. At the moment there is no deadline to swap your stamps, and you can safely leave it until after the end of July. The new stamps are bigger, and Royal Mail says the barcodes are there to “pave the way for innovative services”. It’s not clear what those might be – all you can do at the moment is zap the bar code with your smart phone to watch a Shaun the Sheep video!
Royal Mail has admitted to me that one purpose of the unique barcode is to enable it to detect if a stamp is used more than once. At the moment stamps that have been used but have passed through the system without being franked can be reused without detection. That is illegal and barcodes will help stamp that out.