US Postage Rates to Rise on Sunday, January 26, 2014

Joe

Joe

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The cost of a first-class stamp will increase from 46 cents to 49 cents on Sunday.

Buy your "forever" stamps before the increase.

What bugs me about this is the relative lack of publicity about this, and the difficulty of finding out information about it.

One of the best sources seems to be Wikipedia, ironically.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/US_postage_rates

See also:

http://about.usps.com/news/national-releases/2013/pr13_077.htm

U.S. Postal Service Announces New Prices for 2014

Highlights of the new single-piece First-Class Mail pricing, effective Jan. 26, 2014 include:

  • Letters (1 oz.) — 3-cent increase to 49 cents
  • Letters additional ounces — 1-cent increase to 21 cents
  • Letters to all international destinations (1 oz.) — $1.15
  • Postcards — 1-cent increase to 34 cents
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I was just at the post office this afternoon. If I had known I would have bought some stamps.
 
I bought some forever stamps when I mailed off my winter swap package to Scorpius this month. I also have some older stamps and some makeup stamps, although the 3 cent increase means that I'll be putting 1 and 2 cent stamps all over the damn envelope, front and back. If the USPS doesn't like it, then they shouldn't constantly raise the cost of a stamp. So there!

Also, I don't use as many stamps as I used to because I don't send stuff through the mail as much as I used to. I have a lot of recurring payments either on my credit card or automatically deducted from my bank account, and I do a lot of online payments and banking. I guess that's why the price went up 3 cents. Multiply me by millions of other people, and that's why the Post office is always in the red.
 
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Joe said:
What bugs me about this is the relative lack of publicity about this, and the difficulty of finding out information about it.
Click to expand...

I guess I watch a lot of news programs and view a lot of online news sites because I've heard it being mentioned quite a few times. It sucks.


Amy SF said:
Also, I don't use as many stamps as I used to because I don't send stuff through the mail as much as I used to. I have a lot of recurring payments either on my credit card or automatically deducted from my bank account, and I do a lot of online payments and banking. I guess that's why the price went up 3 cents
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I'm the opposite. I mail out all my bills. I refuse to sign up for online pay. I tried it with Verizon and they ended up taking double the amount I owed out of my account, which depleted my account and made all my other checks bounce. It was a nightmare that I don't want to repeat.
 
I use very few stamps but I bought a bunch of forever stamps online today.
 
Ugh, I forgot this was coming up and didn't buy extra stamps. I still mail some bills but not all.
 
Think about it this way: Yes, the price of the stamps has gone up again. BUT it went up three cents. That means that it will likely remain at this price for quite some time before it goes up again, and it will. If you go ahead and stock up on forever stamps at the new price, you won't have to worry about it when the price does go up again. And because there's usually very little publicity when the price goes up, you won't be caught off guard when it does happen, again.
 
They said on the news that it would stay at this price until 2016. Not very long, in my book, but I'm definitely going to stock up big time. I don't want to pay more than 50 cents to send Christmas cards and the like.
 
I got a roll of 100 at the $.46 price. That will probably last me until 2016, lol.
 
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beancounter said:
It will just continue the viscous cycle. They raise the price because fewer people are mailing letters. And people send fewer letters as the stamp price goes up, prompting the post office to increase prices.
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My thinking exactly. Shooting themselves in the foot. It used to be years and years before the price went up. Now it seems to happen every couple of years. *sigh*
 
thefadedone said:
I guess I watch a lot of news programs and view a lot of online news sites because I've heard it being mentioned quite a few times. It sucks.




I'm the opposite. I mail out all my bills. I refuse to sign up for online pay. I tried it with Verizon and they ended up taking double the amount I owed out of my account, which depleted my account and made all my other checks bounce. It was a nightmare that I don't want to repeat.
Click to expand...

Someone I know had this problem with another cell company. Can't remember which one at the moment. But I still pay mostly the old-fashioned way too. For one thing I work on a computer 40+ hours a week. I don't want to touch the thing after that. Plus when I did sign up for e-pay, it seemed my inbox would get so full of junk (guess I don't check it enough) that I'd miss the phone bill or whatever. So I went back to the old way. Also, for me anyway, sometimes the unexpected comes up and you don't have the $$ for the electric bill or whatever bill. So you don't want them taking it out of your account. I'd rather pay a few dollars for a late fee than a bounced check fee. And lastly, I want to keep the postal workers employed. I think 49 cents is quite a deal for getting that bill or birthday card (yes, some of us still send those) across the country.
 
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I pay most of my bills online but I don't have an automatic set up. I pay them different times each month...depending on when there is money in the checking account.
 
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