. . . full of Christmas prezzies, just a polite reminder from me that you can often get the best deals by going though an online broker. Not only can it get you cheaper rates but also greater flexibility on size or weight restrictions.
For example, I realised this evening that the parcel I'd just spent ages packing was 8cm too long for the Collect Plus service I usually use. So I checked on what ParcelForce would charge, which was over £30.
Going to a brokerage site though saw the length restriction waived for my parcel with Collect Plus and the price dropped to under a tenner with ParcelForce.
https://www.parcel2go.com/