Press releases

Mailing deadlines for letters and parcels

For Swiss Post, the run-up to Christmas is the busiest time of the year. It handles millions of parcels and letters every day. To ensure that they arrive by Christmas Eve, Swiss Post would like to draw your attention to the recommended mailing dates. Inpayments and payment orders are also subject to final deadlines if the amounts are to be credited and debited to the accounts in question before the end of the year.

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Swiss Post handles record amounts of mail during the Christmas period. On peak days over one million parcels pass through its sorting centers and delivery staff distribute as many as 20 million letters, newspapers and promotional mailings. Because of the huge volume of mail, Swiss Post recommends that its customers drop off their Christmas mail well before the acceptance deadlines to ensure that their mail arrives on time. At the same time, Swiss Post guarantees that ECONOMY and PRIORITY parcel consignments will also be delivered on Saturday, 24 December 2016. The latest possible final acceptance times for letters and parcels are:

Product Letters Parcels
Switzerland A Mail / PostPac PRIORITY[1] Friday, 23.12.2016 Friday, 23.12.2016
B Mail / PostPac ECONOMY[1] Tuesday, 20.12.2016 Thursday, 22.12.2016
SameDay Services[2] [3] Friday, 23.12.2016 Friday, 23.12.2016
Swiss-Express “Moon”[4] Friday, 23.12.2016 Friday, 23.12.2016
Europe URGENT[5] Wednesday, 21.12.2016 Tuesday, 20.12.2016
Other countries URGENT[5] Tuesday, 20.12.2016 Monday, 19.12.2016

1 Please observe the respective final acceptance times. Swiss Post recommends dropping off consignments one day before the latest possible date.

2 No service on 24.12.

3 Service not offered on Saturdays.

4 Delivery window extended on 24.12. (11 a.m. instead of 9 a.m.).

5 Transport times only apply to conurbations and business centers. Exact transport times per country can be found on the Internet under “International information” and at www.swisspost.ch/info-int or on the URGENT freephone number 0800 45 45 45 for customers and post offices.

Inpayments made on time

The following deadlines apply to domestic credit transfers which must be debited from a customer’s account and credited to the recipient’s account by the end of 2016:

Inpayments at post office counters Tuesday, 27.12.2016
Written payment orders Received by PostFinance by Tuesday, 27.12.2016
E-finance payments Accepted until Thursday, 29.12.2016, 11.59 p.m.
Inpayments to retirement savings account 3a

Post office counters: Wednesday, 28.12.2016

Written payment orders: Received by PostFinance by Wednesday, 28.12.2016

E-finance: Accepted until Wednesday, 28.12.2016, 11.59 p.m.

Ensuring a trouble-free service

To ensure your mail is processed smoothly, please address and package your items correctly. Swiss Post would like to remind its customers that the address should be placed at the bottom right-hand corner of the parcel and that bright, single-colour packaging materials are particularly well suited to automatic processing. It is also important that parcels are only sealed using adhesive tape, not with string. Swiss Post offers the PostPac as a robust alternative to your own packaging (www.swisspost.ch/postpac). Swiss Post recommends that letters containing valuable or fragile items be sent by “Registered” post and parcels be sent using the “Signature” value-added service. Swiss Post is also introducing a range of stamps and a wide selection of stationery in its product range – all in time for Christmas.

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