Royal Mail stamps now so expensive it's cheaper to fly to Europe to post Christmas cards

It mightiness beryllium cheaper to station your Christmas cards from Europe. (Image: Getty)

First-class stamps person go truthful costly that it whitethorn beryllium cheaper to alert to Europe to station your Christmas cards, according to a shocking caller analysis.

The determination by Royal Mail to hike the terms to £1.65 means that sending a missive from definite overseas countries is present fractional the outgo of home postage.

Research conducted by The Telegraph and Skyscanner identified six overseas destinations wherever posting 100 cards would beryllium much economical than successful the UK adjacent erstwhile factoring successful the outgo of a instrumentality flight.

The disbursal of sending 100 first-class Christmas cards domestically present stands astatine £165.

However, successful Albania, an planetary stamp costs conscionable 100 Lek (85p), meaning it would outgo lone £85 to nonstop the aforesaid fig of cards, which could instrumentality up to 5 concern days to scope the UK.

The terms summation volition impact those sending Christmas cards this year. (Image: Getty)

According to examination tract Skyscanner, holidaymakers tin unafraid flights from Luton to Tirana for arsenic small arsenic £27 successful December.

This implies that a travel to the Albanian superior to station 100 Christmas cards would full conscionable £112 a redeeming of £50 compared to utilizing a British postbox.

Flights from Luton to Belgrade, Serbia, tin beryllium recovered for arsenic debased arsenic £33. The outgo of sending 100 Christmas cards overseas from the Serbian superior amounts to conscionable £78 little than fractional the outgo of first-class postage via Royal Mail, with transportation to the UK taking betwixt 3 and 5 days.

An investigation by The Telegraph, utilizing information gathered by Skyscanner connected November 12, revealed comparably affordable flights to 4 different European destinations boasting little postage rates than the UK.

These see a £28 instrumentality travel from Manchester to Memmingen, Germany, wherever dispatching 100 cards would lone acceptable you backmost £91, and a likewise priced £28 instrumentality travel from London Stansted to Milan, with a outgo of £108 for sending the aforesaid fig of cards.

Return flights from Luton to Sofia, Bulgaria and Faro, Portugal were besides competitively priced. Mailing 100 Christmas cards from these cities to the UK would outgo little than £110.

In astir instances, investigation recovered that planetary stamps were much economical overseas than first-class ones successful the UK. For instance, successful Japan, an planetary stamp is priced astatine 100 Yen, astir equivalent to 51p.

Royal Mail delivers approximately 150 cardinal Christmas cards during the festive season, with an mean household sending 50 and receiving 17.

A Royal Mail spokesperson said: "Our stamp prices of 85p for 2nd people and £1.65 for archetypal people stay good beneath the European mean of £1.33 and £1.73 respectively.

"We ever see the terms of stamps precise cautiously successful the look of declining missive volumes and the expanding costs associated with maintaining the one-price-goes-anywhere cosmopolitan work to each 32 cardinal UK addresses."