For Your Information - US postal customers only

[stephen_s]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. postage rates go up starting on Sunday for the first time since 2002, raising the price of mailing a first-class letter by two cents to 39 cents.

The increases will affect all types of mail and packages, including postcards, which will go up by a penny to 24 cents.

The increases of around 5 percent will help build a congressionally mandated reserve fund. According to a 2003 law, the U.S. Postal Service must put $3.1 billion into an "escrow account" by September 30.

Postal service spokesman Jim Quirk said Congress was to decide within 180 days after passage of the law what the money would be used for, but that has not happened. "Two years have passed and that determination has not yet been put into law."

Without the reserve requirement, the service could have avoided a rate increase this year, Quirk said.

The postal service ended its 2005 fiscal year on September 30 with $1.4 billion in net income on operating revenues of $69.9 billion.

The cost to mail an item weighing up to half of a pound via Express Mail, the postal service's fastest delivery method, will rise to $14.40 from $13.65. Priority Mail, which delivers packages in an average of two to three days, will cost $4.05 for packages up to one pound, up from $3.85.

International rates will rise by similar amounts. Mailing a first class letter to Europe or Asia will cost 84 cents, up four cents.

The price of a regular first-class stamp rose three cents in June of 2002.

[agentplus]

Wouldn't you have thought the post office would have known about this increase?

Our post office did not have 39 cent stamps until about Wed (the 11th). They still, Wed. did not have 24 cent stamps. Worse yet, on the 9th they had run out of 2 centers. ;)

[tdew]

Originally posted by agentplus@Jan 17 2006, 04:19 AM
Wouldn't you have thought the post office would have known about this increase?

17875


There must have been a lot of confusion on this - I was in a hotel in Western MD - at the breakfast buffet and the TV was on. The local newscaster was warning everyone that very soon the price of a stamp was going to be raised to 38 cents.
I looked around, but no one else seemed to have realized that she was giving the wrong information.

Our post office is still okay on the fill in stamps. I can be flexible too, as I have many old denominations - lots of 29 centers yet.

[missalf]

Also, for what it's worth, both during an interview and in a print story I read either in the baltimore sun or washington post, the individul(s) quoted anticipate another two to three cent rise next year about this same time.

[Ned]

The confusion which occurs every time the Postal Service raises its rates, the lack of stamps at the new rate sometimes for weeks, and the lack of $0.01 and $0.02 stamps to add to the old stamps is partly why I turned to Internet postage printing a few years ago. You always have the right postage when you need it. I never have to go to the post office any more.

[stephen_s]

Originally posted by Ned@Jan 17 2006, 09:15 PM
The confusion which occurs every time the Postal Service raises its rates, the lack of stamps at the new rate sometimes for weeks, and the lack of $0.01 and $0.02 stamps to add to the old stamps is partly why I turned to Internet postage printing a few years ago.* You always have the right postage when you need it.* I never have to go to the post office any more.
18006


I agree with you, Ned. I use stamps.com (even though it's not Internet). I don't mail a lot, but I pay the monthly fee for the convenience.

[Ned]

Originally posted by stephen_s@Jan 18 2006, 10:06 AM
I agree with you, Ned.* I use stamps.com (even though it's not Internet).* I don't mail a lot, but I pay the monthly fee for the convenience.
18035

That's who I use too, but stamps.com is what I call Internet postage. It verifies all addresses over the Internet, you purchase postage for your account via the Internet, it decreases the money in your account as you print stamps via the Internet, or at least mine does. If you're not connected to the Internet the program doesn't fully work. Doesn't your version work the same way?

I too don't mail too much anymore. I used to mail out lots of checks each month for my business and personal bill payments too. Now that's reduced to a trickle. I try to pay everything by credit card (miles) and the credit cards are paid by direct bank transfer.

[stephen_s]

Originally posted by Ned@Jan 18 2006, 06:40 AM
Doesn't your version work the same way?
18043


You're right, actually, Ned. I never thought of it that way :).

Most of my bills are done via bill pay through my bank or I pay via credit card.