What happens if you put the wrong stamp on a letter in the UK?

I’m sure we’ve all been there. You take a letter to the postbox and off it goes. It lands back on your doormat with a stamp on the front, insufficient postage amount. That is only if you are ahead of the game and you’ve been wise enough to provide a return-to-sender address in the event of it being undelivered.

It’s a nuisance, but mistakes happen, let’s hope it’s not an urgent one?! Right, so what you have to do is add the correct amount of postage to the letter and send it again, with everything crossed that it arrives at its destination.

Now, what if you use a franking machine???

Well if you’re using the machine correctly, modern-day franking technology should make sure that you always pay the correct amount for your mail. But again, mistakes can happen, we’re only human after all. However, brace yourself for a Royal Mail Surcharge in that eventuality.

Don’t worry though, your mail will get to its destination, and RM won’t delay it for you. They understand most mailings are time sensitive, but you’re going to pay the price.

Royal Mail will identify that you have accidentally underpaid on some mail, the details will be captured and your mail will be sent on its way. Then a summary is sent each week highlighting the number of items underpaid and is then supplied to your franking machine manufacturer. There’s no hiding from it.

Learn more on: Franking Machine vs. Stamps: What is The Best Choice for Your Business?

You are then going to get hit with an administration fee for underpaid mail and here is what it looks like this:

It’s quite a penalty if you’ve underpaid by a few pence, but what this covers is the administrative costs incurred by RM to receive the underpayment, which they say is kept to an absolute minimum.

Mailmark franking is a little less than standard franking since the automation technology means it’s more cost-effective for RM to manage underpayments and therefore they want to benefit their Mailmark franking customers by passing on these cost savings in the event of an underpayment.

So OUCH right? How can you prevent this? You must ensure that you are choosing the right option when franking large letters, obvious I know, but the theme all the way through this piece of literature is mistakes happen.

Do you want a surefire way to prevent these mistakes from happening? Choose a hybrid mail provider and this headache is not something you ever need to consider when sending letters or postcards.

What is hybrid mail? Find out here with imail comms, the UK’s first hybrid mail provider with a ton of experience and experts at the end of a call to help you which across to a more convenient and efficient way of sending mail.