Business Mail Advanced Prices 2020
Business Mail Advanced prices have changed as of January 2020. The cost of sending items via business mail advanced when using Mailmark will be:
- 1st Class letters – 63p
- 2nd Class letters – 41p
Business Mail Advanced (BMA) discounts are based on the volume of post you send at a time. Below is a table of the savings that can be made by using a Mailmark franking machine with Business Mail Advanced. These discounts are based on unsorted machine readable letters sent.
For more in depth detail about sorted and unsorted levels of discount download this brochure Royal Mail Advertising Mail Rate Card 2020
What is business mail advanced?
Business Mail Advanced is a versatile, cost-effective way for businesses to send their urgent and non-urgent general UK business correspondence and transactional mail, such as bills, contracts, statements and invoices.
Business Mail Advanced offers a highly flexible solution for businesses who are producing bulk mail outs with a minimum of 250 letters for delivery within the UK. It offers a choice of delivery speeds and discounts based on mail volumes and how you prepare and present your mail, allowing you to adapt Business Mail to suit your specific business needs.
Formats
All letters sent using a Mailmark franking machine print a 2D barcode, meaning every mail piece you send is machine readable.
What criteria must be met to obtain the discounts?
As well as sending a minimum of 250 letters, your business also needs to meet the following criteria:
Address location and format
- Addresses must be machine printed in a defined area of the letter
- All addresses should be 90% accurate, postcoded and in appropriate fonts
- Optical Character Recognition (OCR) address specification is recommended
Clearzones
- Appropriate Clearzones – Royal Mail requires certain areas of the mail piece to have no markings. These are called clearzones. Royal Mail print barcodes on each item in these areas to assist the sorting process.
Presentation/Sorting
- Customers should use white DL (220 x 110mm) envelopes
- Letters separated into 1st and 2nd class
- Letters presented upside down and facing the front of the trays provided by Royal Mail
- Trays should be placed in the wheeled containers also provided by Royal Mail
- Letters should bear a licence number – this is normally applied when your franking machine franks a letter
- Complete a customer collection receipt
- Collection is free: if there are less than 4,000 items ring before 12.00pm same day collection, If there are 4,000+ items 24 hours’ notice is required
VAT and Business Mail Advanced
From April 2nd, 2012, Business Mail Advanced became subject to VAT. For further information visit, information vat and postal-services VAT is applied at the time of franking using software loaded onto the franking machine.
How is the discount assessed and how do I claim my money back?
Mailmark franking machine customers using BMA will frank their post each day using the tariffs provided within the machine and send off as normal. Royal Mail’s sorting machines will use the 2D barcode to identify the BMA product, price paid, date etc. that the customer selected. Royal Mail will then calculate every day the correct price (+VAT) and send this information to the relevant franking manufacturer. At the end of each month the manufacturer will provide an automated VAT invoice to claim your VAT back and any rebate relating to volume related discount (VRD) will refund back in to the customers postage account.
Will an invoice be provided?
An invoice will be received at the end of each period showing customers how much they have posted using BMA and any adjustments (+/-) that have been made. The invoice will allow customers to clearly see:
- Daily posted volumes by class-
- The level of VRD achieved each day
- Identify when BMA discounts were not achieved
- Detailed adjustment summaries (+/-)
- VAT for their business accounts
If you would like further information on Business Mail advanced and Mailmark call us on 0800 458 2880 or email info@ashcroftmailing.co.uk