A 48 per cent rise in the cost of sending a postcard to outside Europe is ‘outright theft’.
That’s according to Kerry Kemp, a long-standing member of the local Isle of Man Stamp Clubs, which supplies postcards to tourist outlets.
The Post Office removed its 10g rate for airmail from April 2, with the charging schedule now starting at 20g. Post weighing up to 10g being sent to the rest of the world which previously cost 80p, now costs £1.19.
Mr Kemp said: ‘This hike is nothing short of scandalous when you consider that at the same time, they raised the European rate from 71p to 73p, a mere 2.8 per cent.
‘You can imagine how overseas tourists are going to feel that a postcard they bought for 30p to 50p will cost £1.19 to send home and giving the island bad press over this.
‘The aforesaid rates will apply to residents when they send their birthday/Christmas cards overseas. Personally, I feel that this increase is outright theft.’
The Post Office believes Mr Kemp has criticised the move now after it declined to re-order postcard supplies from him.
An Isle of Man Post Office spokesman said it had been a long term aim ‘to simplify its tariffs for customers, in addition to keeping our postal rates as low as possible’.
‘The increase in the cost to send a postcard internationally represents a very small proportion of our revenue and therefore very few customers were affected by this change.
‘The decision was made to abolish the 10g weight step and to standardise all our international letter prices which increase in increments of 20g.
All of our international prices were increased by 3 per cent. In the current economic climate and the challenges facing the postal industry, we were keen to keep our increases as low as possible and received very little adverse reaction to our postal increases which came into effect on April 2.
