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Am I wasting money? Postage..
 

Used this forum as it is regards to UK only shipping but please move if incorrect.

I send approximately 100 large letters a day.

I've been purchasing large letter stamps at 95p each and sticking them onto the letters. Dead straight forward and minimal time.

However I thought I'd be entitled to some form of discount due to the quantity but I cannot see any option to bulk buy stamps at a reduced rate.

I've read about purchasing postage online at a reduced rate, could I save much and is it worth the hassle involved?

Also does anyone have any experience with franking?

Thanks in advance.

Re: Am I wasting money? Postage..
 

have you looked into getting a franking machine?

Re: Am I wasting money? Postage..
 

I used to get my large letter stamps from Costco, slightly cheaper

Re: Am I wasting money? Postage..
 

Franking or PPI

I prefer PPI personally.

Re: Am I wasting money? Postage..
 

As Bunneh says a franking machine would save you some money.

Pitney Bowes would be able to provide you with one for £13 a month and you would be able to frank large 1st class letters for 81p each.

If you are sending 100 letters a day you would make a significant saving.

Also, when you first open your account with Pitney Bowes they also give you £20 free postage - or at least they did 12 months ago.

Hope that helps.

Re: Am I wasting money? Postage..
 

I think i'll look into franking, that you all for your help.

Re: Am I wasting money? Postage..
 

ppi is 78p first,63p second. You can also get a 30 day credit account which helps with cash flow a lot and they'll pick it up from your house for free

Re: Am I wasting money? Postage..
 

I have used franking machine for 3 or 4 years now. nothing better.
Just have to be clever about your timing to take out a contract though. As they want £79.99 + Vat on a new software every year when postage cost change.
I took mine out end of march, so they wave that cost every year if I sign up for another 12 month contract.

Re: Am I wasting money? Postage..
 

I prefer PPI - cheaper to start up and like Dan said, you get 30 days credit which always helps at the beginning.

Re: Am I wasting money? Postage..
 

Perhaps the post office also has a cheaper rate if you prepay in bulk shipping offers? Just wondering

Re: Am I wasting money? Postage..
 

No discount at post offices unless you post on an industrial scale.
But I visit a local cash and carry which caters for corner shops etc and they sell books of stamps very slightly cheaper to enable the shops to make a tiny amount of profit .
Never bothered but I believe it was a minimum of about 30 or 40 stamps per book

Re: Am I wasting money? Postage..
 

Yea, definitely no discount at the post office :(

Re: Am I wasting money? Postage..
 

what sort of numbers do you need for a business account with RM or other postal services?

Re: Am I wasting money? Postage..
 

Yeah I'd recommend PPI, cheaper price and easy to do.

Re: Am I wasting money? Postage..
 

I don't think there is a minimum spend, you'd have to check to confirm though

Re: Am I wasting money? Postage..
 

To get it collected from your house with PPI you need to post over £15k a year.
You can drop off at your local sorting office or post office and jobs a good 'un.

You need to post at least 5k a year to qualify for the service but they don't check, I've had this for a long time and I hardly even used it.

Re: Am I wasting money? Postage..
 

think i may be missing out! i'm posting around 3000 orders a month but im just taking it all to the post office and leaving it with them. usually i have a bag full which is already stamped and a bag full for the post office to process which can not have stamps on them due to them being over 100g. they let me skip the queue and leave everything with them and pay next day and they give me the royal mail bags and anything i need which is good, but if theres money to be saved think i need to get a ppi account. do royal mail provide you with all the royal mail sacks to put post in and how to they calculate all your orders by weight? as most mine are 2nd large letter but depending on how many products is in each parcel they are different prices. so do i just put for example all 1st large, 2nd large, 1st large signed in seperate bags and they give a total cost for what the bag weighs?

Re: Am I wasting money? Postage..
 

do you get proof or posting cert of posting ? with a franking machine and PPI please

Re: Am I wasting money? Postage..
 

When you sign up they will give you sacks, royal mail stickers (special, recorded etc) cable ties and all the tags to complete your order.

I haven't used the system in a while but here's an example of how it works.

BPL (this is a code you enter on the system when you're making your order, telling them how many of what you've got, we'll say this is large letter recorded)

You'll then have a load of options saying first class or second class, quantity and weight etc.

it's incredibly easy to use, you just need to know all the codes and then fill everything out and complete the order. print the invoice out and then take it in one of them sacks down the sorting office (or the post office)

whenever you need some more sacks they will deliver them or you can collect them from the sorting office

Re: Am I wasting money? Postage..
 

Yes you can do, but you are not always able to get the same level of compensation (although this depends how you are posting)

It is worth baring in mind that a lot of post offices branches will give you a very hard time over accepting PPI mail as they do not get a cut so its easier to have the RM collect it directly or drop it off a the sorting office.

Re: Am I wasting money? Postage..
 

This is true.
They don't like accepting the bags because it doesn't benefit them but as they're a franchise of Royal Mail they have to accept them. However, if they're being funny about it it would just be easier to drop at a sorting office and save any problems they might try and create

Thanks for your reply. So when you do the BPL and enter the amount of large letter 2nd class for example, do you have to enter the weight of each one separately or do you just enter the amount of parcels that's in the sack and they weigh the sack and charge you an amount from the weight of the total?