Annoyed, to say the least...

Royal Mail has announced details of postage rates coming in effect on the 31st March 2014.

• First class will go up to 62p (from 60p)
• Second class will go up to 53p (from 50p)
• Europe upto 20g airmail will go up to 97p (from 88p)
• Rest of the world first weight band will be upto 20g - there'll be no 10g rate currently 88p. The cost of sending upto 20g airmail will still be £1.28 (although this is a 40p increase for lightweight post under 10g, and for postcards)
• Some weight bands have been removed. Some heavier letter rates will be "cheaper" 
• Airmail will be renamed International Standard
• There'll be a letter size for International post, not exceeding: 24cm length, 16.5cm width and 0.5cm depth.

Overall, I am not a happy bunny. 97p can sort of cope with that... but a 40p rise for outside of Europe for postcards........... well, I think I will need to do some serious thinking about whether I can send postcards around the world. I know this will hit many UK postcrossers hard and think some will even give up.