dated dispatch record · same-day dispatch
Proof your letter was posted, without queueing for it
The free certificate of posting is great, if you own a printer, live near a Post Office and can get there before it shuts. Upload your letter as a PDF instead: we print it, hand it to Royal Mail the same working day, and email you a dated dispatch confirmation to keep. From £1.79 all in.
Why the posting date is the whole game
Cancellation clauses, notice periods, appeal windows, complaint deadlines: an enormous amount of British paperwork counts from the day a letter was posted, not the day it was read. Which means the argument, when there is one, is never really about the letter’s contents; it is about whether you can show it was posted, and when. People who post letters at a postbox have nothing. People who kept a dated record win the argument before it starts.
What you get with every PostOwl letter
Your paper trail, automatically
- Your own copy of the exact PDF that was printed and posted
- A dispatch-confirmation email recording the date it was handed to Royal Mail
- An order reference tying the two together
- An independent third party, not you, saying it was sent
No extra fee and nothing to ask for; the dispatch email arrives on its own with every letter.
How PostOwl sends it
Upload your PDF, type the address, choose first or second class, and pay by card or Apple Pay. No account, no subscription. Order before the cutoff on a working day and your letter is printed, enveloped and handed to Royal Mail the same day. A one-page letter costs £1.79 second class or £2.69 first class, and your PDF is permanently deleted after dispatch; we keep the order record, not the contents.
Where a dated record earns its keep
The letters people most often need proof for are the ones we have written guides about: cancelling a gym membership before the next payment date, a letter before action that a court will later want to see, HMRC correspondence with a deadline attached, and parking ticket appeals where the window is measured in days. Same flow every time: upload, address, posted, proof.
Proof of posting FAQs
What is proof of posting, exactly?+
A record that a specific letter went into the postal system on a specific date. The classic version is the free certificate of posting a Post Office counter stamps for you. The point of it is not the piece of paper; it is being able to show, later, that you sent the thing you say you sent, on the day you say you sent it.
Is PostOwl's dispatch email the same as a certificate of posting?+
It is not a Post Office certificate; it is a dated dispatch confirmation from an independent third party, recording that your letter was printed and handed to Royal Mail on that date. Together with your copy of the PDF, it shows what was sent and when. For deadlines, notices and disputes, that combination does the same job: a dated record from someone other than you.
Do I need proof of posting or proof of delivery?+
Usually posting. Many contracts, notice clauses and legal rules treat a letter as served a set number of working days after it was posted, which is why 'when was it posted' is the question that matters. If you specifically need a signature on delivery, Royal Mail's signed-for services exist for that; for everything else, a dated record of posting is what disputes turn on.
What if the recipient says the letter never arrived?+
Royal Mail delivers the overwhelming majority of letters, and many notice clauses do not require the recipient to admit receipt at all, only that the letter was properly addressed and posted. Reply with your PDF copy and the dated dispatch confirmation, and point to the posting date. That is precisely the situation proof of posting exists for.
Posted today, provable forever
Send it now → from £1.79This page is general information, not legal advice. Whether a particular record satisfies a particular clause depends on the clause; when the stakes are high, read it or take advice.