ROYAL Mail is rolling out major fee changes tomorrow before customers face the Christmas charge.
Business account users will be asked to pay a new additional charge of 2p.
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Shoppers are facing extra costs this Christmas as Royal Mail introduces a surchargeCredit: Getty
The green surcharge will be introduced on or after Monday, November 6.
Although the surcharge will not be charged directly to consumers, there are concerns that they will foot the bill anyway if companies are asked to raise their prices to cover the extra costs.
The surcharge will be applied to:
- Guaranteed Royal Mail Special Delivery by 9am, 1pm and until end of day on Sunday
- Royal Mail Tracked 24 and Royal Mail Tracked 48
- Royal Mail 24 and Royal Mail 48
- Special delivery, returns guaranteed
- Royal Mail tracks returns
Business account users will also have to pay an extra surcharge of 5p for letters and 10p for parcels later in the month.
This will come into effect on November 20 and end on January 7 – the peak time for Christmas deliveries.
Sarah Coles, personal finance analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: “Online retailers have to contend with rising prices across the board, so they are unlikely to absorb these extra costs.
“This will be passed on to customers, who can expect the price of Christmas to continue to rise.”
It comes after Royal Mail announced that First Class stamps will rise from £1.10 to £1.25 on October 2.
Andrew Hagger, personal finance expert at Moneycomms, said the prospect of extra charges was “the last thing hard-pressed consumers need”.
Royal Mail applies a 2p green charge to its business customers who fund decarbonisation measures.
Products including Royal Mail Tracked 24 and Royal Mail Tracked 48 are subject to this charge.
In addition, a peak charge of 5p applies to Royal Mail 24 and Royal Mail 48 large letters, Royal Mail Tracked 24 and Royal Mail Tracked 48 PO Box products sent by business account holders.
The following products will be affected by the 10p peak charge:
- Royal Mail 24
- Royal Mail 48 parcels
- Royal Mail tracked on the 24th
- Royal Mail tracked 48 parcels
- Royal Mail tracks returns
- Guaranteed Royal Mail Special Delivery by 9am, 1pm and until end of day on Sunday
- Special delivery, returns guaranteed
A Royal Mail spokesman said: “Christmas is our busiest time of the year and we are investing in thousands of extra staff, more vehicles and extra parcel sorting sites to handle around double the normal volume of parcels.
“Other parcel carriers already apply a similar surcharge over the Christmas period.”
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