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Hello,

I went to my main post office where I got a few IRC's before and today they told me they don't do them anymore.

Has anyone else, especially in the UK, experienced this?

Yes, they have been withdrawn from sale, genuinely withdrawn, and not just hard to find.

Alternatives are trading/buying stamps through the Autograph Exchange/Sale forum, or small bills of foreign currency such as $1's or 5EURO notes.

They discontinued them 31st Dec 2011

Im in the UK and to get round it i asked my dad to buy me some USA $1 dollar bills
£7 = $14 so i include $2 and a note explaining why ive included some money
i put the Money in a envelope which i write on For stamps then i seal the envelop and fold it (use a slightly bigger envelope so you dont ruin the money) then i wrap it in my letter

Hope all this Helps

Thanks for replying I will remember this in the future.

Do you know why they have been stopped? And also, what does Royal Mail expect their customers use in its place?

lbunny14 wrote:Thanks for replying I will remember this in the future.

Do you know why they have been stopped? And also, what does Royal Mail expect their customers use in its place?

dont no it didnt say
suppose they want us to spend £12 on a sheet of 5 USA stamps

So i would do as i said and include some $$ in the envelope

Also if you ever recieve any Letters from the US with a normal stamp on it and it hasnt been franked (marked with a RM stamping machine) you could peel it off carfully and glue it on your SASE or save them?
it does work i use unmarked stamps for my UK requests

EmmaSheree wrote:

lbunny14 wrote:Thanks for replying I will remember this in the future.

Do you know why they have been stopped? And also, what does Royal Mail expect their customers use in its place?

dont no it didnt say
suppose they want us to spend £12 on a sheet of 5 USA stamps

So i would do as i said and include some $$ in the envelope

Also if you ever recieve any Letters from the US with a normal stamp on it and it hasnt been franked (marked with a RM stamping machine) you could peel it off carfully and glue it on your SASE or save them?
it does work i use unmarked stamps for my UK requests

Yeeeah I do that as well

Cool. Will do as you suggested


Thank you very much

I asked RM via Twitter why they had been withdrawn from sale, and got the rather rubbish excuse of "there were alot of people who had them not recognised at the other end".

kimmylee wrote:I asked RM via Twitter why they had been withdrawn from sale, and got the rather rubbish excuse of "there were alot of people who had them not recognised at the other end".

Well they should have banned them for contrys who dont use them
not make them disappear and we have to find an alternitive which probably works out more expensive than buying IRC

Like I said, rubbish excuse!

I actually find buying US stamps alot cheaper than IRC. Instead of sending 2xIRC at £2.80 I send $2.10 (my preference, most send with one $1.05) of stamps. For 20 US stamps I pay roughly £14 and get 10 requests out of it So £1.40 per request, half the cost of IRC's.

Of course this is only an advantage for the US because of the stamps. I have in the past done the odd request to France and Ireland, in which case too expensive/too much hassle to get stamps. Now I would send a 5 EURO note which works out more expensive than IRC.