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Packing jobs from home in the UK: The truth you don’t want to hear

How would you fancy the job of packing leaflets from home? Sounds fairly simple and easy money doesn’t it? The fact is, you probably won’t find what you’re looking for. Take a look at why.

packing jobs from home UK


Packing jobs from home in the UK

As a young boy, I remember my mum working from home, packing envelopes. It didn’t seem thrilling and, in all honesty, wasn’t particularly well paid. My memory escapes me slightly as this was 30+ years ago, but I’m sure it couldn’t have been much more than one pence per envelope.

Although packing envelopes with cards and letters was never going to make anybody rich, it’s an easy task and something you could do in the comfort of your own home, watching programmes such as Howard’s Way (anybody?) and keeping an eye on the kids.

Harking back to the good old days and always looking for different ways to make money, I put packing jobs from home into Google to see what I could find. And I was hit with a lot of results.


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What Google says about packing from home jobs

Unsurprisingly, top of the list came job sites like Jooble and Indeed. Generally, type any phrase with the word job in it and these sites will appear top. I say any phrase, there is one exception I can think of.

Anyhow, these sites show the odd leaflet packing job, but they tend to be localised and you need to travel into an office to work. From the jobs I have seen on offer, they pay minimum wage and have limited hours. Apart from that, there was very little else on offer.

job advert envelope packing


Sadly, most of the jobs you’ll find aren’t genuine.


Amazon – work from home packing products in the UK

There are plenty of rumours doing the rounds that you can package products on behalf of Amazon and send them on. This is incredibly unlikely as Amazon has its own distribution centres and it doesn’t make sense for them to send these tasks to people’s homes.

There is a tiny chance that another company may ask you to do this and then send the products on to Amazon to distribute. I found a job on People Per Hour listed in 2022 that offered £15 per hour for this task. However, I couldn’t verify it was genuine or not.

Envelope stuffing scams

But be careful when looking for home packing jobs. Scammers are well aware that there are plenty of people who are looking for an opportunity to work from home and with a lack of genuine jobs on offer, it gives them a chance to take advantage.


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How do these scams work?

There are a couple of ways you can be caught out if you’re not too careful.

The advert will promise you good money just for stuffing envelopes and mailing them out – anything between £500 – £2,000 per week. They claim that you will be supplied with everything you need and will receive your pay each week.

The catch? You have to pay a small fee to get started.

Now, this can go one of two ways. Either you’ll receive nothing and the company will disappear with your money. Or, you will be sent the envelopes to fill and send. But after you’ve completed all your hard work, the company will claim that you haven’t held your side of the deal and will refuse to pay you. So they keep your money and get free work out of you.

And it’s not only in the UK that these scams take place. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) warns that there are plenty of people being taken advantage of over the other side of the Pond. They recommend that you ask the company the following to help keep you safe

  • Who will pay me?
  • Where is your business located?
  • How long have you been in business?
  • How and when will I get my first paycheck?
  • Will I be paid a salary or will my pay be based on commission?
  • What will I have to do?
  • What is the total cost of the envelope-stuffing program? 
  • What will I get for my money?
  • Will I have to pay for supplies, ads or postage?

Any genuine envelope filling company should be able to answer these questions. If they don’t, or it sounds too good to be true, avoid.

What happened to all the envelope filling from home jobs?

So, why have all the envelope packing jobs dried up over the years when they used to be so popular? Well, there are quite a few reasons these services are no longer in demand.

  • email – a far easier way to contact customers and far cheaper. A company can send out millions of emails in a matter of minutes. Yes, people may ignore emails, but they may just ignore any letters they receive too.
  • technology – most major companies prefer machines to do the work for them. Not only are they far quicker, but they are also much cheaper to use. All the company needs to do is post them.
  • trust – can a company trust that the person they employ from their home does the job properly? Not only that, but they will also have to hire somebody to make quality checks.

As you can see, the art of filling envelopes from home is quickly disappearing. If you do see any adverts offering money for packing from home, please treat them with extreme caution.


FAQs

Does Hallmark offer card packing from home?

No, Hallmark does not offer these kinds of opportunities.

Does Carlton Cards offer home packing jobs?

Again, no. These jobs are operated on their premises rather than from people’s homes.

Where can I find home packing jobs?

You will need to keep checking job sites. However, it is very unlikely that you’ll find any genuine opportunities.