I have found a bundle of these stamps, green printed and unused. I just wondered what their purpose was and do they have any value for cashing in somewhere? The face value is £1 per stamp.
- posted
8 years ago
I have found a bundle of these stamps, green printed and unused. I just wondered what their purpose was and do they have any value for cashing in somewhere? The face value is £1 per stamp.
They were (are?) for saving up towards your then quarterly bill - now monthly for most of us. Possibly a call to BT might see if they will still cash them for you.
I imagine that people bought them as a way of saving up to pay their telephone bill. I don't specifically remember them, but I'm pretty sure that there had used to be something similar for television licences.
Ah - just found this old (2007) Money Saving Expert thread about BT stamps. Don't know whether the answer given then still holds true!
from 7 years ago
Bt Phone Stamps
29th Aug 08 at 8:02 AM #1My mother recently went into a care home and whilst sorting out her things I found ?120 worth of old BT PHONE STAMPS If anyone else has BT PHONE STAMPS here is part of my reply from BT and the address to send them to .... ''''''''' I would like to inform you that BT has cancelled the BT stamp as a payment method. As you have ?120 worth of BT stamp, I request you to send the stamp to BT correspondence address so that, they will be able to adjust the amount towards your future bills. Please find the address below:''''' BT plc Correspondence Centre Durham DH98 1BT. ALTHOUGH BT DO NOT SAY....I WILL PROBABLY SEND THEM BY RECORDED DELIVERY ....JUST TO BE ON THE SAFE SIDE...........
michael adams
michael adams explained :
We have not had a BT line for 8 years which was probably when they were bought, prior to then. Thanks I will chase them up.
Harry Bloomfield scribbled
Many years ago, my daughter found a book of phone stamps in the street, with no name or address. So I cashed them. I can't understand why anyone would collect any saving stamps/savings schemes/gift tokens, be they for tv licence, phone, christmas food or shopping. They hark back to a time when no one had a bank account and buyers are regularly ripped off by the sellers.
In message , Jonno writes
That is because you are probably relatively young. I recently retired as local sub postmaster, and savings stamps were extremely popular before being phased out. There is still a generation who want to withdraw their pension in cash, then pay the bills weekly, so it is two or three pounds, perhaps a fiver, off the telly, the rates, the phone, the leccy and everything else, every week. Doubtless it is expensive for the recipients, and a pain to administer, but that is how some people have organised their lives since the beginning of time.
News scribbled
I've seen people collected money from a PO and immediately separated it into different purses. It was obvious it was more to do with their IQ than any other reason. Pretty much the same fools who end up thousands in debt.
I see Tesco & Morrisons sell saving stamps. They must be making a fortune out of it.
In message , Jonno writes
Just the opposite. They are the people who are never in debt. They have an old fashioned attitude. They pay the bills first, then spend what is left. The attitude today is just spend first, then pay the bills if there happens to be money left over.
Well the fact of the matter is that many other people clearly think differently to the way you do. And always have done ever since the day you were born and will continue to do so for the rest of your life. And the same goes for most people.
One interesting thing is the length of time it can take a person to realise this fact and not be surprised by it; if in fact they ever do.
In this case there are some people who are attracted to the various physical aspects of sticking stamps in books, the stamps themselves, maybe lining them all up neatly, completing a line or a book. etc etc. Which in this case is accompanied by a sense of satisfaction in keeping on top of the bills
One person who realised this, and profited greatly from this physical aspect was the person who dreamed up Panini football stickers.
michael adams
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News formulated the question :
I agree whole heartedly with that. My late partner did similar, some money in different handbags, some in several different bank accounts - a nightmare for her to administer. She was never in debt.
My method is to get things paid straight into one account and all the bills are DD from that same account. I just run some software which draws a graph of the balance in each of my accounts, so I know where I am day to day financially.
I was attracted to it, when I was around 12 years of age. I would collect the Green Stamps on behalf of my parents. I rapidly learned the whole thing was a futile waste of time and never collected for any more of those schemes.
michael adams scribbled
How do you account for the death of stamp collecting? I know it's gone the way of bubble gum cards because I have a bag of stamps which I wanted to pass onto a/any charity. I've been unable to find a charity that wants them.
Green Shield stamps were not the same. Effectively a discount on things bought. Pretty well the same as Nectar points today. A different concept from saving stamps for a utility, etc, bill.
Harry Bloomfield scribbled
Fuck that. Knowing the nearest £k is close enough for me.
You'd imagine stamps might be a good teaching aid for primary schools; if their curiculums weren't so circumscribed maybe. Plus the possibility of the children picking up diseases off them, I suppose.
At the bottom end nowadays "the young people" are more likely to collect facebook friends than stamps. A quick Google shows Panini stickers have gone the same way except for nostalgia buffs.
From memory there may have been a short lived investment boom in stamps at some point in the last 30 years which collapsed rather suddenly.
Forgeries and new printing techniques may or may not have had something to do with it.
michael adams
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michael adams
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And savings stamps are a lot more portable than a row of jam-jars on the kitchen windowsill, and a lot harder to be raided in an 'emergency' (like needing more beer money).
Owain
They weren't quite the same as you could not go out and buy trading stamps for x value and redeem them for that value later, they were a bonus scheme given out with purchases. High rates of inflation helped to finish them off as by the time you saved up enough for something the small value they were worth had diminished. The company saw what was going on an re branded itself Argos using the stores that were previously available for savers to exchange the stamps for goods. The poor value bonus points idea now rests with various Debit/Charge card schemes. For most people it takes ages to accumulate enough points for anything decent. High mileage drivers on company business who can use their own cards for fuel and accommodation and reclaim on expenses are one group who can accumulate enough in a reasonable time and acquire something that will genuinely be free them. The Tax Man has never got around to arguing that points obtained' that way are a benefit in kind either.
G.Harman
michael adams scribbled
Ta. I'm slightly concerned that the cost of postage will be greater than the value of the stamps.
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