I recently forwarded a couple of bank cards in the post. Neither card has arrived. It is fairly obvious what is the these envelopes so I did wonder if the banks/royal mail have a policy of not allowing redirection to reduce the risk of fraud.
I don't think someone nicking bank cards is going to care if they intercept any of those too.
No company I've worked for has ever permitted company ID cards to be sent through the post. There was a period when bank card were being delivered by courier - not sure if they still are.
Once upon a time, one could forward mail by simply adding a new address to the envelope and re-posting it without an extra stamp. I believe this is no longer allowed, and any such mail risks being treated as "insufficient postage paid", with the intended recipient being carded and advised to pay up and either collect or arrange delivery.
I have also seen envelopes printed with a message (I can't remember the exact wording) to the effect that if it's not delivered to the address first shown it should be returned to a specified address.
What an odd thing to do with such a valuable item. If the cards belonged to a relative, WTF didn't you put them into another envelope? If they were for someone else, I'd have cut them up and returned them to the bank.
It depends who the carrier is. If it's Royal Mail then you shouldn't need any more postage (according to our local postmistress), however, having said that, a bunch of letters we forwarded to Belfast recently vanished without trace so make of that what you will. The recipient didn't get any message about insufficient postage postage paid.
They were no more or less safe than the first time they were posted, though I will admit that someone did pinch our cast iron letter box. We now have a 'tin' one.
Personal forwarding of non-business mail certainly used to be permitted but the evidence of this appears to have been wiped from Royal Mail's website. It's something I'd like to have an authoritative answer on as I've had a postie getting arsey over it on a few pieces of mail I have personally redirected to me.
My postie is fairly helpful and he has to be. In every local village there is a Apple/Holly/Ivy/Oak cottage, Home/High/Low/Church/Moor Farm and some mail invariably goes astray. I have never had any bother putting it back in the post box with "not here try there" written across it or been charged for anything of mine so redirected.
The question wasn't how do thieves know which cards to take, but whether the Royal Mail had a policy of intercepting cards when they are posted on elsewhere after delivery to the original address.
I have had company ID cards that have had a note on the back asking anyone who finds it to post it to a particular address. Including ones that state that they are Government property and it is an offence to retain it.
My replacement Visa Debit card has arrived by normal post this morning.
I like 1.2 "may charge a handling fee for forwarding an item if it has been opened before being re-posted, or the name of the original addressee is covered or obscured." - I've had a letter that I've re-directed, only to have the same letter posted back through my letterbox a few days later (twice!), despite writing on it with a large black marker and in the end I had to resort to totally blanking out the window to cover up my address.
Despite the date I think that's just what I was looking for, thanks!
1.4 is however both vague and broad, and could be a stumbling block should an awkward bugger get involved:
"In any case where we consider that an item has been forwarded to evade payment of postage we may treat it as an unpaid letter in accordance with the requirements of the Scheme or contract under which is was sent."
Automated sorting may have read the original Royal Mail applied phosphor destination coding bands and re-delivered it to the local sorting office, then it'll be a blinkers-on delivery.
I've asked anyone redirecting for me to obscure the phosphors too.
same here - they seem to have given up with the "phone in" security (cynically, one might think that this is connected with them no longer being allowed to con you into buying CPP insurance)
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