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LIVING IN AUSTRIA

How much does it cost to post items within Austria and abroad?

Austria has an excellent and affordable postal service with typically quick turnarounds. Here’s what you can expect on price and service.

Published: 10 August 2023 16:42 CEST
How much does it cost to post items within Austria and abroad?
The logo of Austrian post is pictured in Vienna (Photo by SAMUEL KUBANI / AFP)

Whether you’re looking to send presents to family living abroad or keep up fast correspondence within Austria, your price and expected delivery time will depend on whether you avail yourself of standard or priority options.

What are my domestic options?

You can send small letters of up to 20 grams within Austria for €0.81 at a standard rate and €1.00 for a priority rate. If your letter is over 100 grams, you’ll pay either €1.30 or €1.50. You can also send small packets of up to two kilograms for €3.00 and medium ones for €4.50 – with economic options being only slightly cheaper than this priority rate.

If you pick the priority option, your letter will arrive anywhere else in Austria the next business day. Given the small difference in cost, it’s typically better to choose it unless you’re really not concerned about when your post ends up being delivered.

READ ALSO: Cost of living: Austrian Post announces price increases

What about sending letters abroad?

This depends on where you’re sending them.

Small letters of less than 20 grams can be sent within Europe – including both the EU and neighbouring European countries – for €1.20 and outside Europe for €1.90.

You can send priority letters that are between 20 and 75 grams for €2.30 to the rest of Europe and €2.90 outside Europe, with non-priority being only slightly less money.

If you start getting into large letters, the price goes up quite a bit.

A post box in Vienna. Photo: Pierre Verdy / AFP

A post box in Vienna. Photo: Pierre Verdy / AFP

A large letter packet, which can be up to 35 cm long and 25 cm wide, will cost you at least €6.50 to send within Europe and €8.20 by priority. If it’s leaving Europe, that’ll set you back at least €11.00 and €15.00 if you send it priority.

If you send an extra-large packet – so up to 90 cm long and 50 cm wide – you’ll pay at least €9.90 to send it on within Europe and €12.90 to send it priority. If you send it outside Europe, you’ll be on the hook for €21.80 or €24.20 if you send it priority.

What other services can I get?

You can opt for several extras. These include item tracking for €0.25 or €2.50 to send you post by registered mail. For €2.20, you can specify that the post be delivered only to the named addressee, or you can also opt to receive a notification when the post has been received at its destination.

Sending registered mail internationally will cost more, coming out to a charge of €3.65.

What about parcels?

The cost of sending a parcel within Austria is determined mostly by weight, with the price sliding up from €5.49 for parcels less than a kilogram, to about €11.22 for up to 10 kg. You can still send parcels between 10 kg and 31.5 kg for €15.03.

Internationally, this goes up in cost the further away you send it. Austrian Post divides parcel destinations up into five “zones” – one of which has several sub-zones.

Postal zone 1 includes all EU countries and splits them up into zones 1a, 1b, and 1c. Zone 1a involves EU countries that directly border Austria – such as Germany, Croatia, and Hungary.

Zone 1b includes France and Belgium, which are just a little further away.

Zone 1c has the furthest away countries in the EU, such as Cyprus and Ireland. What’s important to remember here though, is that the price differential is negligible. You’ll pay between €9.79 and €10.18 to send a boxable light package to another EU country. Between €21.04 and €22.13 will get a four kilogram package from Austria to anywhere else in the EU.

The difference comes in larger packages. A 30 kg package can get sent to Germany for €53.95, but it will set you back €93.60 to send it to Cyprus.

Zone 2 covers European and Mediterranean countries that aren’t in the EU, including the UK, Israel, Egypt, and Syria. You can send packages there on a sliding scale from €17.87 for a single kilo all the way to €46.50 for 10 kg and €126.00 for up to 31.5 kg.

READ ALSO: How to post packages between Austria and the UK post-Brexit

Zone 3 covers Canada and many Central Asian countries, with package posting rates of between €20.64 for a kilo and €175.00 for large packages of over 10 kg.

The United States falls into zone 4, as does east Asia and southern Africa, charging prices of €24.02 for a single kilo, €46.20 for 10 kg, and €220.00 for large packages of up to 31.5 kg.

Finally, the most expensive places to send packages from Austria are also – predictably – the furthest flung countries in zone 5. These countries include Australia, New Zealand, and most of the rest of Oceania. Sending a one kilo package there will cost you €28.49, while you’re shell out €62.50 for 4 kg and €365.00 for a large package of up to 31.5 kg.

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For members

TRAVEL NEWS

Reader question: What will EES mean for foreigners living in Europe?

The EU's new Entry & Exit System (EES) of enhanced passport controls is due to come into force later this year, but among many questions that remain is the situation for non-EU nationals who live in the EU or Schengen zone.

Published: 27 April 2024 07:59 CEST
Reader question: What will EES mean for foreigners living in Europe?

Currently scheduled to start in autumn 2024 (unless it’s delayed again, which is not unlikely) the EU’s new Entry & Exit System is basically an enhanced passport check at external EU borders, including a facial scan and fingerprinting.

You can find a full explanation of the new system HERE.

Travellers crossing an external EU or Schengen border for the first time will be required to complete EES ‘pre-registration’ formalities including that facial scan and fingerprinting.

There are, however, several groups exempt from EES and one of them is non-EU nationals who have a residency permit or long-stay visa for an EU country.

So if you’re a foreigner living in the EU or Schengen zone, here’s what you need to know.

Exempt

One of the stated aims of EES is to tighten up enforcement of over-staying – IE, people who stay longer than 90 days in every 180 without a visa, or those who overstay the limits of their visa.

Obviously these limits do not apply to non-EU nationals who are resident in the EU or Schengen zone, which is why this group is exempt from EES checks. They will instead be required to show their passport and residency permit/visa when crossing a border, just as they do now.

In its explanations of how EES will work, the European Commission is clear – exempt groups include non-EU residents of the Bloc.

A Commission spokesman told The Local: “Non-EU citizens residing in the EU are not in the scope of the EES and will not be subject to pre-enrollment of data in the EES via self-service systems. The use of automation remains under the responsibility of the Member States and its availability in border crossing points is not mandatory.

“When crossing the borders, holders of EU residence permits should be able to present to the border authorities their valid travel documents and residence permits.”

How this will work

How this will work on the ground, however, is a lot less clear.

Most ports/airports/terminals have two passport queues – EU and non-EU. It remains unclear whether the non-EU queue will have a separate section for those who are exempt from EES.

It does seem clear that exempt groups will not be able to use the automated passport scanners – since those cannot scan additional documents like residency permits – but should instead use manned passport booths. However it is not clear whether these will be available at all airports/ports/terminals or how non-EU residents of the EU will be directed to those services.

There’s also the issue that individual border guards are not always clear on the processes and rules for non-EU residents of the EU – even under the current system it’s relatively commonly for EU residents to have their passports incorrectly stamped or be given incorrect information about passport stamping by border guards.

Brits in particular will remember the immediate post-Brexit period when the processes as described by the EU and national authorities frequently did not match what was happening on the ground.

The Local will continue to try and get answers on these questions. 

READ ALSO What will EES mean for dual nationals

What if I live in the EU but I don’t have a visa/residency permit?

For most non-EU citizens, having either a visa or a residency permit is obligatory in order to be legally resident.

However, there is one exception: UK citizens who were legally resident in the EU prior to the end of the Brexit transition period and who live in one of the “declaratory” countries where getting a post-Brexit residency card was optional, rather than compulsory. Declaratory countries include Germany and Italy.

Although it is legal for people in this situation to live in those countries without a residency permit, authorities already advise people to get one in order to avoid confusion/hassle/delays at the border. Although EES does not change any rules relating to residency or travel, it seems likely that it will be more hassle to travel without a residency card than it is now.

Our advice? Things are going to be chaotic enough, getting a residency permit seems likely to save you a considerable amount of hassle.

Delays 

Although residents of the EU do not need to complete EES formalities, they will be affected if the new system causes long queues or delays at the border.

Several countries have expressed worries about this, with the UK-France border a particular cause for concern.

READ ALSO Travellers could face ’14 hours queues’ at UK-France border

Where does it apply?

EES is about external EU/Schengen borders, so does not apply if you are travelling within the Schengen zone – eg taking the train from France to Germany or flying from Spain to Sweden.

Ireland and Cyprus, despite being in the EU, are not in the Schengen zone so will not be using EES, they will continue to stamp passports manually.

Norway, Switzerland and Iceland – countries that are in the Schengen zone but not in the EU – will be using EES.

The full list of countries using EES is: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland.

Therefore a journey between any of the countries listed above will not be covered by EES.

However a journey in or out of any of those countries from a country not listed above will be covered by EES.

You can find our full Q&A on EES HERE.

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