Photobox

What to know about shopping at Photobox

Photobox has been printing personalised photo gifts from London since 2000, and the range is broader than the name suggests. Photo books run from softcover layflat volumes to large hardbacks; wall art covers canvas, framed and mounted prints, acrylic and aluminium; and the gifting side takes in mugs, jigsaws, cushions, magnets, photo blocks, calendars, greeting cards and wedding stationery. Plain photo prints in standard sizes sit at the cheap end, so a single order can mix a £5 set of prints with a £60 canvas.

Timing matters more here than at most retailers because the product is made to order. The heaviest promotional period runs from late October through Christmas, with Mother’s Day, Father’s Day and the wedding season the other reliable peaks. Photobox publishes cut-off dates for Christmas delivery each year — check them before ordering rather than after, because a personalised item cannot simply be dispatched faster from stock.

Two things shape what an order actually costs. Discount codes here are typically percentage-off with a minimum basket, and the brand states that codes cannot be combined with each other, with other promotions or with gift cards — so one code per transaction, and it is worth checking which is worth more before you commit. Delivery is charged separately and varies by product; a canvas ships differently from a pack of prints, so read the shipping estimate at checkout rather than assuming a flat rate.

A few practical points. Upload at the highest resolution you have, since the site warns on low-resolution images but will still let the order through. Proof the spelling on anything personalised, because made-to-order items are not returnable for a change of mind. And if you are building a large photo book, save the project and come back to it — a code applied at checkout works the same whether the book took ten minutes or a fortnight.

— MoneySaverCodes Team