US passport renewal: question on courier

Must we use the 26 pound courier service if we mail in the passport. The consulate site is cagey, but it seems to be the case that we can just send it in recorded mail? Anyone have any recent experiences with this?

The way I read it, we can only use the courier service, but I could be wrong.  Anybody actually done it another way?

You have two options. Use the contracted courier service (actually located in the Embassy so easier to track if something goes wrong) or Royal Mail Special Delivery. We don't recomend recorded since they tend to go missing more then Special Delivery. If you decide to use Royal mail Special Delivery make sure you incude with your application a prepaid return Special Delivery envelope. We will not send your passports back to you without a return method and will hold on to your passports until you provide us a way of getting them back to you.

Check this link for more information or feel free to PM me with any questions. http://www.usembassy.org.uk/cons_web/acs/passports/courier2.htm

Thanks sweetypeabee,

I'd looked at that page, but hadn't noticed the distinction between special delivery and record mail. From what I can figure, sending it via royal mail special delivery will cost around 11 pounds, while the courier costs 26. I think I know what route I'm taking.

BTW, just to vent randomly, when the UK Passport agency sent back my US passport, they did it in a regular second class delivery envelope. Anyone could have easily felt that it was a passport. Yikes!