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Sending to Post Office EEA2
Posted: Wed Feb 17, 2016 2:58 pm
by dimitrisln
Hello, I am fairly new to the UK and I am wondering, what is the Royal Mail? Is this just the "POST OFFICE" building I see? And what is a postal order? Is that paid by cash to the Post Office and payable to Home Office or something? I have never done this before and I cannot seem to find much info on the net concerning this.
Sorry this isn't common where I come from.
Regards,
D
Re: Sending to Post Office EEA2
Posted: Wed Feb 17, 2016 3:05 pm
by alex1128
No need to be sorry to ask we are all here to learn .
The Royal Mail are in the business of delivering letters and parcels; essentially they're just another courier company, although they're legally required to deliver daily to every address in the country for the same price, and to collect post from letter boxes in the street.
They were recently privatised by the government and are now a private, for-profit company.
The Post Office is a network of shops, who are licensed to provide services such as dishing out pensions and benefits payments (although that's almost all done electronically thses days), providing and checking official forms (for passports, driving licences etc). The Post Office is a state-owned company, although the majority of individual post offices are actually run as private businesses.
A postal order is an order for payment of a specified sum to a named payee, issued by the Post Office. Basically you give them cash and they give you a cheque of that sum and they charge you around 12% for it .... you can fid more infos here :
http://www.postoffice.co.uk/postal-orders
Re: Sending to Post Office EEA2
Posted: Wed Feb 17, 2016 3:08 pm
by chriskv1
Let me google that for you .
What is Royal mail ?
Royal Mail plc is a postal service company in the United Kingdom, originally established in 1516. The company's subsidiary, Royal Mail Group Limited, operates the brands Royal Mail and Parcelforce Worldwide.
What is post office ?
A post office is a customer service facility forming part of a national postal system.[1] Post offices offer mail-related services such as acceptance of letters and parcels; provision of post office boxes; and sale of postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. In addition, many post offices offer additional services: providing and accepting government forms (such as passport applications), processing government services and fees (such as road tax), and banking services (such as savings accounts and money orders).[2]
What is a postal order ?
an order for payment of a specified sum to a named payee, issued by the Post Office.
Royalmail is a mailing service that you can operate from the post office. It used to be government owned but later it was privatised .
Postal orders can be purchased from the post office and made out to the home office. Which means the HO can use it to get the money you paid to the post office. Think of it like a check , but instead of drawing money out from your bank account , the post office already took money from you by cash .
Re: Sending to Post Office EEA2
Posted: Wed Feb 17, 2016 3:30 pm
by dimitrisln
alex1128 wrote:No need to be sorry to ask we are all here to learn .
The Royal Mail are in the business of delivering letters and parcels; essentially they're just another courier company, although they're legally required to deliver daily to every address in the country for the same price, and to collect post from letter boxes in the street.
They were recently privatised by the government and are now a private, for-profit company.
The Post Office is a network of shops, who are licensed to provide services such as dishing out pensions and benefits payments (although that's almost all done electronically thses days), providing and checking official forms (for passports, driving licences etc). The Post Office is a state-owned company, although the majority of individual post offices are actually run as private businesses.
A postal order is an order for payment of a specified sum to a named payee, issued by the Post Office. Basically you give them cash and they give you a cheque of that sum and they charge you around 12% for it .... you can fid more infos here :
http://www.postoffice.co.uk/postal-orders
Re: Sending to Post Office EEA2
Posted: Wed Feb 17, 2016 3:33 pm
by noajthan
Re: Sending to Post Office EEA2
Posted: Wed Feb 17, 2016 6:32 pm
by dimitrisln
dimitrisln wrote:alex1128 wrote:No need to be sorry to ask we are all here to learn .
The Royal Mail are in the business of delivering letters and parcels; essentially they're just another courier company, although they're legally required to deliver daily to every address in the country for the same price, and to collect post from letter boxes in the street.
They were recently privatised by the government and are now a private, for-profit company.
The Post Office is a network of shops, who are licensed to provide services such as dishing out pensions and benefits payments (although that's almost all done electronically thses days), providing and checking official forms (for passports, driving licences etc). The Post Office is a state-owned company, although the majority of individual post offices are actually run as private businesses.
A postal order is an order for payment of a specified sum to a named payee, issued by the Post Office. Basically you give them cash and they give you a cheque of that sum and they charge you around 12% for it .... you can fid more infos here :
http://www.postoffice.co.uk/postal-orders
I keep seeing track your package by Royal Mail. So does this mean I go to the Post Office or should I look for a Royal Mail shop when I want to send my EEA2 (RC) form. Thank you for the welcome, it is really very much appreciated. Many many thanks.
Re: Sending to Post Office EEA2
Posted: Wed Feb 17, 2016 6:45 pm
by noajthan
dimitrisln wrote:...
I keep seeing track your package by Royal Mail. So does this mean I go to the Post Office or should I look for a Royal Mail shop when I want to send my EEA2 (RC) form. Thank you for the welcome, it is really very much appreciated. Many many thanks.
Go to a Post Office.
When you mail the package ask the post office clerk for a
secure service with tracking.
(It will cost several pounds more than a regular package service).
You will get a receipt with a barcode/tracking number.
You can monitor progress of your package via the Royal Mail '
track your item' website, here:
https://www.royalmail.com/track-your-item
You can also buy a pre-paid
Special Delivery envelope for HO to use to return your documents to you safely.
It is pre-paid. The clerk will tell you the cost to pay.
(It will be a grey plastic type of envelope).
Write
your home address on the envelope.
Keep one of the bar-code stickers from this envelope so you can track it when HO use it to return your valuable documents back to you.
Enclose this pre-paid, self-addressed envelope in your bundle and send off to HO with rest of your application.
Re: Sending to Post Office EEA2
Posted: Thu Feb 18, 2016 7:09 am
by dimitrisln
noajthan wrote:dimitrisln wrote:...
I keep seeing track your package by Royal Mail. So does this mean I go to the Post Office or should I look for a Royal Mail shop when I want to send my EEA2 (RC) form. Thank you for the welcome, it is really very much appreciated. Many many thanks.
Go to a Post Office.
When you mail the package ask the post office clerk for a
secure service with tracking.
(It will cost several pounds more than a regular package service).
You will get a receipt with a barcode/tracking number.
You can monitor progress of your package via the Royal Mail '
track your item' website, here:
https://www.royalmail.com/track-your-item
You can also buy a pre-paid
Special Delivery envelope for HO to use to return your documents to you safely.
It is pre-paid. The clerk will tell you the cost to pay.
(It will be a grey plastic type of envelope).
Write
your home address on the envelope.
Keep one of the bar-code stickers from this envelope so you can track it when HO use it to return your valuable documents back to you.
Enclose this pre-paid, self-addressed envelope in your bundle and send off to HO with rest of your application.
Thank you so very much - it is much clearer to me now. I really appreciate it.
Re: Sending to Post Office EEA2
Posted: Thu Feb 18, 2016 7:52 am
by ohara
To put it in the simplest way possible:
Royal Mail is the main national postal service in the UK. When you see people in red jackets delivering letters to your house in the morning, they work for Royal Mail. If you post a letter in a red post box (which are absolutely everywhere), it is Royal Mail who will collect and deliver it. Their network is enormous and they deliver most of the international post which is bound for UK addresses too.
Post Offices are kind of like an outlet for Royal Mail. You can do many things there, such as get free copies of many popular forms e.g passport application, driving licence application, car tax etc. You can also send mail by a variety of different methods, such as tracked services. They are also the designated collector of biometric information for those who are required to provide it (mainly non-EEA migrants applying for residence documents, and everyone applying for naturalisation). Royal Mail offer quite a few postage options other than just 'standard' mail (where you simply put a stamp on a letter and post it). You can pay a little extra to get proof of delivery and some amount of tracking, this is called Recorded Delivery. It is most common when you want the package to be signed for when it is delivered (it's a good idea to use RD for anything you send to the Home Office / UKVI, and in fact any other government departments). You can also use the tracking feature on the Royal Mail website to see where in the journey the package is, and also view a digital image of the signature once it has been delivered. There is also a Special Delivery option, which is quite a bit more expensive than RD, but it is tracked more thoroughly, insured (it's technically the only way you are allowed to send cash through the post), and it is guaranteed to be delivered next working day by 1pm (there is an even more expensive one which is guaranteed by 10am). If you ever miss a delivery which requires a signature, Royal Mail will put a small card through your door saying "we missed you" and it will have details on where to collect your package. This is normally your local Royal Mail sorting office, where you will have to go with some ID (to prove who you are) and sign for the package there. Recorded Delivery and Special Deliver items cannot be delivered without a signature (but it doesn't have to be the person named on the package that signs for it, it's just proof that it has been delivered). When posting anything by RD or SD, you must write a return address on the item, as it will be returned to you after a certain period if the initial delivery fails and nobody ever goes to collect it.
A postal order is kind of like a cheque, but you don't need a cheque book or even a bank account to get one. They are outdated now and barely any places will ask for one, it's normally low priced things like applications where there is a small administration charge and they don't accept cash. You can 'buy' a postal order at a Post Office, and you can only pay for it in cash. A postal order for £10 costs £11.50 I believe, and you can have it "crossed" which means it can only be cashed by the recipient if you choose to write one on it. You can leave it "open" though, so that anyone can cash it, including by you if it is returned (and you have the receipt).
Re: Sending to Post Office EEA2
Posted: Sat Feb 20, 2016 12:48 pm
by noajthan
ohara wrote:To put it in the simplest way possible:
Royal Mail is the main national postal service in the UK. ...
...
Helpful guidance for a newcomer to our country.
I would only add that the concept of a postal system dates back to at least the 16th century in this country:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/ ... rvice.html