I don’t see why this should be reported. I don’t think it’s fair for someone to possibly get in trouble for accidentally putting the wrong postage amount. I’m sure we’ve probably all done it at one time or another.
16 Likes
They won’t get in trouble.
If it’s accident, it’s of course normal. They can try to be more careful.
But for example one card I received, this person has been reported also before. I think it only had the postcard stamp. I didn’t need to register that card. Postcrossing can’t support and accept underpayment.
The are people who intentionally underpay.
4 Likes
I have to admit, before this thread, I had never reported it before. And I’ve been aware of underpayment in a few postcards I’ve received over the years. I suppose the only point in reporting it is if someone is deliberately cheating, and the team won’t know that unless several people report the same member.
9 Likes
Do you consider, the stamp might has been correct and got lost on the way?
If some mishap like that occurrs, I think, it wouldn’t be fair to not register.
Presumably something like that has happened to a card of mine. Or that’s my conclusion from a hint in the hurray-mail - the postcrosser thanked me, really liked the card - and added something about the stamp I didn’t understand (because like all cards, I send, it has gotten the correct stamp).
Since then self-adhesive stamps exert a kind of strong attraction on me … sorry for all stamp-lovers/collectors, safety first …
3 Likes
I had a nice message from support. They said that this is happening quite a lot at the moment amongst new members from the US. They were going to have a gentle word with the sender, and in the meantime, I can register the postcard. So all is well.
9 Likes
Since reading this thread, I will make an effort to understand the $ amount of stamp prices and requirements. But I think this could become crazy difficult. 
2 Likes
Not your responsibility to account for anyone else.
2 Likes
Sending from USA there are only three (basic) possibilities: domestic card 51 cents, domestic envelope 66 cents, international card or envelope $1.50.
1 Like
So I mailed a letter domestically in the USA to my friend. I didn’t catch it was overweight and they just wrote 27 cents owed in the card but delivered it. Is she supposed to just leave a quarter or a stp in the mailbox or how do you pay up?
2 Likes
If the carrier delivered it, I’d leave the money for the person in my box taped to a note.
2 Likes
Cool that’s what I said but I wasnt sure if they would actually take money!
1 Like
I had not looked closely at the stamps on the card to Brazil before, but just noticed that the eighteen cent stamp has a machine slogan cancel from the 1970s - in full it reads “Please post early - before lunch & before four o’ clock”. Eighteen cents was the domestic rate for postage in Oz in the mid 70s. So as already mentioned, no valid stamps were used. No wonder Australia Post is losing millions in revenue from cards and letters!
5 Likes
…exactly! People wonder why our prices are going up, and then you see this kind of fraud!
And I find it hard to imagine the person did it accidentally too. The only scenario I can think of is maybe preparing the card - thinking you were going to put it in an envelope - and then forgetting and posting it ‘as is’.
When people ask for cards in envelopes I explain that I will ‘dummy up’ the back of the card…I put full address and sometimes old and used stamps or sometimes pretend sticker stamps. Either way…it goes in an envelope afterwards with full appropriate postage.
I’m sad that someone would knowingly post with used stamps (I can see an old partial cancellation on the lefthand side margin of the 6 cent stamp too), but I guess it doesn’t surprise me.
There is a lot to be said about Australia Post’s lack of attention to detail it would seem…and someone seems to be using that to their advantage. It’s a bit like the envelopes I have received in the mail with older uncancelled stamps simply cut off the old envelope, with a wide paper margin still visible around them, and then sticky-taped to my envelope to be used as postage. It’s bleeding obvious that they’ve been used on an envelope before…but due to being uncancelled, they’re being used again. it would seem that no one in Oz Post cares much 
.
4 Likes
It is reassuring to know that this does not happen only in Italy! 
One of the tips I give to new postcrossers is to check the rates themselves before going to the post office, because the employees may not know them. And usually they ask to overpay.
Personally I won’t report an underpaid postcard, because it could have happened due to an honest mistake (the wrong stamp was sold at the post office, the postcard was franked together with a group of others sent to another country with a lower rate, a stamp could have come off or been stolen…)
Unless it is clear that the postcard was underpaid on purpose, or using fake stamps
8 Likes
That happened in Germany too.
1 Like
In Ukraine there are some stamps with a price that is part stamp value and part donation. Only recently I found out that donation part does not add postage value to a stamp (let’s say I bought a stamp 12uah+8uah donation, I can’t count it’s value as 20 uah, it’s still a regular 12 uah stamp). I send two letters and two cards using these stamps and half arrived, another half is still traveling, I really hope all will arrive. And that your card will arrive too! 
5 Likes
We have those, too, which are called semi-postals. I paid 75 cents for the tiger stamp, which has a value of 66 cents towards postage, with the rest going to charity.
6 Likes
personally i just go into the post office and they put postage on. that way everything is fair
2 Likes
when i first started postcrossing (2019), i wasn’t aware of different rates for international cards vs. domestic postcards. i posted my first few cards internationally with i believe domestic postcard stamps! they did arrive, eventually, but they took ages. when i started putting proper international postage on the cards, they arrived so much quicker
2 Likes
It is really interesting to read the different reviews on the fact of reporting or not reporting underpaid stamps (especially when the recipient does not have to pay anything extra).
I think different cultures influence that choice.
edited by moderator, because part of the post is off-topic
5 Likes