Tag: Post Office

Post Office set to join broadband bandwagon

Posted by | Aug 11, 2006 | |

The Post Office could be set to join the broadband revolution, after reports yesterday said it was set to move into the crowded market for high-speed internet access.

“We look at lots of opportunities in the market, and broadband is naturally one of those things you would look at, but there’s absolutely no decision,” spokesman David Simpson said.

Telecoms analysts suggested that the Post Office, which already offers a fixed-line telephone service in conjunction with Cable & Wireless – HomePhone – in direct competition with BT, was poised to announce the move.

The battle for broadband customers has intensified in recent months. BSkyB launched its own high-speed internet product last month and, in April, Carphone Warehouse entered the fray by offering its “free” broadband service Talk Talk as part of a bundle with line calls and rental.

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Post office® boosts Instant Saver rate to 5%

Posted by | Aug 3, 2006 | |

From 29th August 2006 the Post Office® is increasing the rate on its Instant Saver account from 4.75% to 5.0%*, in line with the new Bank of England base rate rise.

The rate will be available to new and existing Instant Saver customers.

Richard Norman, Head of Savings, said: “The Post Office® is committed to offering customers great value and we want to pass this new rate on to savers as soon as possible so they get the most out of their money.”

Post Office® Instant Saver is guaranteed to remain within 1.0% of the Bank of England base rate and the account offers six free withdrawals a year with a flat fee of just GBP 1 for future withdrawals.

Instant Saver is available at all of the UK’s 14,300 Post Office® branches, by telephone and online. Withdrawals can be made both at branches and ATMs, offering unrivalled choice and convenience.

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Holding the folding : UK prefers cash over plastic on holiday

Posted by | Aug 1, 2006 | |

Holidaymakers are set to splash the cash overseas with bumper currency sales of GBP2.3 billion forecast for this year according to a new Post Office® report. In fact, one in every fifteen pounds of the total GBP34 billion spent overseas this year will be bought from the Post Office®.

Launched today, the report shows cash is still the UK’s number one way to pay abroad. Almost half (47 per cent) prefer to use local currency compared to 33.6 per cent who prefer to “put it on the plastic” using their debit or credit card.

Although Traveller’s Cheques are still popular with 19 per cent of holidaymakers, as plastic becomes more popular they are slowly declining, with sales dropping by almost 12 per cent last year. Despite this, euro Travellers’ Cheque sales grew by 7.7 per cent last year .

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Paying for post by shape and size 'will cause chaos'

Posted by | Jul 31, 2006 | |

The introduction of new postage rates for letters and parcels will cause increased queues at post offices and confusion for consumers, a consumer watchdog claims.

Postwatch said that Pricing in Proportion (Pip) which is being fully introduced next month, will lead to increased pressure on post office counters, where queues are already growing.

The new plan means that customers will be charged for the size and thickness of the letter they are posting, rather than simply its weight.

A campaign to inform customers begins today, with a paper template being posted to every address in Britain.

A Postwatch spokesman said that, in the short-term at least, queues at post offices were likely to become longer as people struggled with the new rules and worked out the price they would need to pay.

“Royal Mail needs to work hard to inform people what is going on,” he said. “We are keeping an eye on how queuing goes in the longer term.”

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Could a first-class disaster soon wipe the smile off this postmaster's face? Post offices have provided key services for years, but with the industry in crisis we may just have to learn to live without them.

Posted by | Jul 25, 2006 | |

How much is a community worth? That is the decision confronting MPs and MSPs in a few weeks, as the nation wakes up to the fact that more than 10,000 post offices, including more than 1100 in Scotland, are now under real threat of closure.

Post Office chiefs told MPs last week that only 4000 offices out of 14,400 were viable, while losses had doubled from GBP2m to GBP4m a week directly due to loss of government business. In September, an obligation to stop avoidable closures runs out, and the government is due to give notice on what in 18 months will replace a GBP3m-a-week subsidy for “rural” offices – serving communities of up to 10,000 people each. A petition calling on the government to save the network last week reached two million signatures.

Postwatch, the independent watchdog, says it has been expecting government consultation to begin since last December, but it has been “repeatedly delayed and will not now take place in time to inform the decision on future funding”. In May the government said John Prescott would chair a cabinet committee on the Post Office. It is at last to meet for the first time this week, just as MPs head off for their 11-week summer break.

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