No matter how organised you think you are, there will always be the odd time where you forget to do something rather simple, such as not putting a Royal Mail stamp on a letter.

Whether it was after filling out a form in a rush or walking back from your local post box after sending someone a birthday card, realising an important item doesn’t have a stamp on it after you’ve sent it off can be frustrating.

But what happens when you have sent a letter or a card without a stamp on it and what can you do? Let’s find out.

Two things can happen if you forget to put a stamp on a letter

Eurosender says: “After you place the letter in the mail collection box, it goes to a post office department where it gets sorted using automated equipment.

“If there is no stamp on your envelope, a special scanner will detect it, and the letter will be attributed to a separate category of mail.

“It will then be sent to a dedicated employee who checks for missing postage stamps on letters.”

If you do forget to put a Royal Mail stamp on a letter you are sending to someone, there are two options which can follow.

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Either the letter is returned to you (as the sender) or the receiver of the letter will have to pay for the missing stamp in order to get hold of it.

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Eurosender explains: “The price the receiver will have to pay depends on the post office.

“In most cases, the receiver will pay a fee that equals the price of the stamp for the letter, but it can also happen that they need to pay a surcharge for insufficient postage for the unstamped letter.

“If the receiver refuses to pay, the letter will be returned to you as the sender. You, as the initial sender, will then have to cover the required fees.”