Hi everyone! I am an international student from China, and just arrived in Sydney for about two weeks. I’m just wondering if we have meetup in Sydney or if it possible, some people interested in writing postcards or letters may have a meeting at some time?
BTW, does anybody know if I can mix the international stamps and domestic stmaps together in order to send a postcard internationally?
Thanks!
Yes you can mix international and domestic stamps…but you must pay an extra 10% on the value of the domestic stamps. This is because when they are sold…their value includes 10% GST. But there is no GST on international postage. But because you’ve bought a domestic stamp…10% of the value goes to the government for GST. You have to make up this amount. Clear as mud right?
So…say you are sending to Germany. It will cost you $3.50
If, say, you choose to use a $2.70 international stamp…you still need another 80 cents worth of postage. If you choose to make that amount up using domestic stamps…you must actually place at least 88 cents worth of domestic stamps on (that’s 80 cents plus the extra 10 %). I usually just round it up to whatever I have). But don’t round down…then you run the risk of it not being sent due to insifficient postage.
Another way of looking at it is to always remember that domestic stamps are worth 10 cent less than their marked value…if you are using them to send overseas. So a $1.10 domestic stamp is only worth $1 when you use it for international postage.
It is covered in this paragraph here:
And this document can be read here.
omg!!! Thank you so much! I’ve just kinda understand this GST thing… At the first time I bought a stamps, the post office lady gave me a booklet that they used for putting different postages of stamps, and let me picked the stamps I want, but I didn’t realize there are different types of stamps, so I bought about 30 dollars of domestic stamps… And after that I went to a different post office to send my international postcard, the guy told me I do postage in the wrong way and he said domestic stamps cannot send internationally… It’s really confused me a lot LOL
Yes, they can be used. It may pay to have that official Australia Post document on hand so that you can show it to them…and explain it to the staff though…because I’ve also been told by a staff member that they thought I couldn’t use domestic. You can, you just need to pay extra.
And if I were using only domestic stamps…I’d probably add an Airmail sticker. Although many post offices no longer stock them…I’ve been told they are unnecessary. But I still use them if I’m using domestic stamps on an international card. My local LPO still has them…so I collected a bunch.
And welcome to Oz! I hope you enjoy your stay. I wish I could join you in Sydney for a meetup. I may get up there in the next two weeks…and if I did, I would be in the Manly area. But it’s very uncertain at this point. Sorry!
That’s so nice! I’ve download the document! Thank you for letting me know… but I think we need some time to organize a meetup LOL. That’s ok, don’t neec to say sorry~
When mailing to Europe I often use a $2.50 international stamp (the rate for sending to New Zealand) and add a $1.10 domestic stamp to make up the exact rate.
