Editorial standards

We report changes that affect anyone sending or receiving a parcel in Ireland: postage and courier prices, customs and duty, delivery services, disruption, and the carriers themselves. News from abroad makes it in when it changes something for a parcel sent from here, such as a destination’s customs rules or a strike at its postal service.

Every story has to pass one test. Would someone in Ireland send, buy, price or time a parcel differently because of it? If not, we leave it out, however interesting it is.

Where a primary source exists, the story rests on it: Revenue, ComReg, the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, a government department, the European Commission, or the carrier’s own announcement. We read the original rather than someone else’s summary of it, and we link it in the article.

A story with no official source needs at least two independent news organisations reporting it. A story from abroad needs at least three. A social media post can point us towards a story but is never the source of one.

Every figure and date in an article comes from a named source or from our own price data, and each one is checked against the source text before the article goes up. If sources disagree, we say so or we wait.

When a story touches a route we price, the article shows the cheapest bookable price we hold for it and the date that price was checked. That panel refreshes whenever our prices do, so it stays current. Any price quoted in the article text is what we held on the day the article was written, and says so.

For how the comparison itself works, see how it works.

When a story develops, we update the original article rather than writing a new one. The change and its date appear at the top of the article and in a dated list at the end. We never put a new date on an old story that has not changed.

If we get something wrong, we correct it and note the correction on the article. To report an error, email hello@postcompare.ie with a link to the article and what you think is wrong.

PostCompare is independent and run in Dublin. Carriers and retailers do not pay for coverage, and no article is sponsored. We never take payment for a booking: booking completes on our partner’s secure site at the price shown.