Royal Mail Insurance

How much does Royal Mail insurance cost in 2026?

Standard services: £20 in the price

Tracked and standard parcel services carry £20 of compensation, paid on proof of posting and proof of value. There is no way to raise it on those services: cover is attached to the product, so a more valuable parcel means a different service, not an option ticked at checkout.

Special Delivery Guaranteed: three levels

Special Delivery Guaranteed by 1pm starts at £9.45 for a 100g item with £750 of cover, and the same service takes you to £1,000 or £2,500 for a higher price. The jump between levels is small in absolute terms, which makes the top level the best value per pound insured.

International parcels stop at £250

International Tracked and Signed services cap compensation at £250, and International Standard falls back to £20. For a cross border parcel worth more than a few hundred pounds, the service you pick cannot close the gap.

What Royal Mail will not compensate

Two rules matter more than the price list. Jewellery and money are excluded from compensation on standard services, so they belong on Special Delivery or nowhere, and the prohibited goods list applies whatever you paid.

Claim rules that catch people out

A Special Delivery item is only treated as lost once five working days have passed since the due delivery date, so the file cannot be opened the next morning. At the other end, a claim must reach Royal Mail within 80 days of posting, which is generous compared with the 14 days most couriers allow, but it runs from posting, not from the day you notice. Keep the proof of posting, the receipt showing the cover level, and an invoice or order confirmation that establishes the value.

Worked example: a £1,800 camera kit

Special Delivery at the £2,500 level costs £19.45 from 100g and covers the kit in full, which is the cheapest route to that ceiling in the UK market. Move the same kit abroad and the best Royal Mail option pays £250. A Secursus policy on that parcel costs £18, which is 1% of the declared value, applies to domestic and international shipments alike, and pays the £1,800 declared within 3 days of the file being validated.

Royal Mail insurance compared with Secursus

When Special Delivery is the right answer

For a UK parcel worth up to £2,500 that needs a timed delivery and a signature, Special Delivery at £19.45 is hard to beat, and the cover is included rather than added. The case for separate insurance starts where Royal Mail stops: above £2,500, on international routes where the ceiling is £250, and on repeat shipments where paying by parcel value is cheaper than paying for the premium service every time.

Compare other UK carriers

Royal Mail is the only UK operator that ties cover to the service rather than to a declared value. Parcelforce insurance uses paid steps up to £2,500, DPD insurance a flat £100 liability, Evri insurance £20 included and £999 at most, Yodel insurance £50 with a £500 item ceiling, GLS insurance pays by weight, UPS insurance charges about 1% with an £11.50 minimum, FedEx insurance caps valuables at about £750 and DHL insurance charges £12 up to £800. To match a ceiling to your goods, compare parcel shipping solutions.