USPS Postage Rates Increasing
It was reported today on CNN/Money that the United States Postal Service will raising its rates in January of ‘06. First class mail will get a two cent hike to thirty-nine cents, which is only a five percent hike. There had been rumors last year that a postage hike was going to occur in 2005 and was going to be more significant (an increase to 41 cents) but the VP of USPS Public Affairs and Communications put them to rest.
Here’s how the rates will change:
| Service Class | Old Rate | New Rate (1/06) | % Increase |
| 1st Class Mail | $0.37 | $0.39 | +5.4% |
| Postcard | $0.23 | $0.24 | +4.3% |
| Priority Mail | $3.85 | $4.05 | +5.2% |
| Express Mail | $13.65 | $14.40 | +5.5% |
Courtesy of Cap from StopBuyingCrap.com, here are some more rate hike numbers (at least the end consumer relevant ones):
| Service Class | Old Rate | New Rate (1/06) | % Increase |
| Priority Mail, to 1 lb. | $5.85 | $6.15 | +5.1% |
| Parcel Post, 2 lb. | $4.14 | $4.36 | +5.3% |
| Certified Mail | $2.30 | $2.40 | +4.3% |
| Money Orders | $0.90 | $0.95 | +5.5% |
The last first class mail postage increase was back in June 2002 (3 cent bump, +8.8%) so when you look at the percentage increases, it’s not really as “big” as it sounds.
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8 Comments - Share Your Thoughts
Jim,
My emails to you are bouncing (and so are some submissions for the Carnival of Personal Finance). Is there an alternate email address we can use? Thanks!
Flexo,
Try cetyle@hotmail.com for now.
I’ll look into the email situation…
here’s the rest of the rate hike for others who mail as much as me. bleh. it’s gonna cut into me meager income. arr!
–Priority Mail, one pound, up 30 cents to $6.15.
–Parcel Post, 2 pounds, up 22 cents to $4.36.
–Certified mail, up 10 cents to $2.40.
–Money orders up 5 cents to 95 cents.
–Weekly news magazine, up 1 cent to 18.5 cents.
–Household magazine, up 1.5 cents to 28.9 cents.
–In-county newspaper, down 0.2 cents to 5.8 cents.
–Small nonprofit publication, up 1.4 cents to 28.3 cents.
–Presorted advertising mail, 2 ounces, up 1.1 cents to 21.4 cents.
And e-mail and e-pay become that much more attractive
I may never mail another letter again. Seriously, though, I understand their need to cover expenses with a rate increase. I just don’t particularly want to support it. I also hate buying 2-cent stamps to add to those 37-cent stamps I already own.
This won’t be the end of the hikes. This $0.02 increase is only to gover escrow payments the post office is required to make by law. They are also currently seaking increases for 2007 to cover increased operating costs due to increased fuel costs.
For those that send a lot of mail (I do due to auction business) you can get stamps at below retail value…a nice way to save money that not a lot of people seem to know about.
[...] As I mentioned last Monday, the postage rate hike will come into effect today with the first-class letter rate going up from 37 cents to 39 cents, the first hike since 2002. The interesting part is that the hike is to help fund a congressionally mandated reserve fund, the purpose of which still has yet to be decided despite their own rule requiring its purpose to be decided within 180 days (surprise surprise). Incidentally, the USPS generated a profit of $1.4 billion on operating revenues of $69.9 billion of revenue. [...]
how much for a 30 pound weighed box with clothes to China to a cheapest price
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