Postage & Stamps Just got More Expensive

The United States Postal Service (USPS) has raised the price of postage and stamps. For personal use, most of us use the First-Class Mail Forever stamps. They have gone up two cents to 60 cents from 58.

That’s for standard sized envelopes weighing an ounce or less.

By the way, the “forever” part of the name of the stamp means it will never expire. Even if prices change, the stamp you bought works for that ounce or less envelope.

A huge percentage of businesses use metered mail. The cost of first-class postage will now be 57 center per stamp. That’s a raise of four-cents.

Postcards sent within the borders of the U.S. will now be 44 cents. That’s up from 40 cents and the price of an international letter has gone from $1.30 to $1.40.

The cost of mailing domestic packages of 13 ounces or less will now begin at $4.50.

In a news release, the USPS said the increases are part of a 10 year plan to “transform the United States Postal Service from an organization in financial and operational crisis to one that is self-sustaining and high performing.”

The plan is called Delivering for America.

“As inflation and increased operating expenses continue, these price adjustments will help with the implementation of the Delivering for America plan, including a $40 billion investment in core Postal Service infrastructure over the next ten years,” the USPS said.

The plan will invest $2 billion of the $40 billion in technology upgrades and $20 billion will be spend on how mail and packages are processed.

Here is a summary of the cost increases:

• Letter (up to one ounce): 60 cents • Metered letter (up to one ounce): 57 cents • Price per additional ounce for letters: 24 cents • Domestic postcard: 44 cents • International letter: $1.40

Source: MSN