Did you hear about the recommended postal rate hike?

[Vintagegal]

I just watched on NBC Nightly News that the USPS is talking about raising the postage rate for a first-class stamp to 41-cents.

But, they're also proposing to sell stamps that are like "Forever stamps" where you buy stamps that are locked into the proposed 41-cent rate, and no matter how many times they raise the rate, you'll only have to pay 41-cents. I don't know how that's supposed to work. The story went by so quickly.

Yikes! I don't like the thought of 41-cents for a first-class stamp, but I suppose if it's necessary...it's necessary.

[shurlyjean]

stamps are often odd numbers...37, 39, 41... I guess we still need pennies. They don't even sell 13 cent stamps for cards that are too FAT, you need 10 and 3 cents.

I have my own stash of stamps at home... that way I don't go to the PO.

Shirley

[Christie]

It's outrageous that they keep hiking up the price. If this keeps happening we won't be able to afford to do swaps.

[iloveflipflops]

Oh great!! Just what we need :(. NOT!!!

[GrammaStamper]

Canada Post raises their rates every January 15th.

We also have the "forever" stamps and when I asked what "forever" is, was told, "until the Post Office decides to change it". Now who created them Rulers of the Stamp Hikes, I wanna know! My guess is most likely "forever" will be 3 - 5 years.

[Vintagegal]

Barb.....That's what it's called....the Forever stamps. That's something the USPS is thinking of adopting.

[dgbearsmom]

The way I understand it, they will be making these forever stamps that will not have a denomination. They will sell for whatever the current rate is. So if/when they raise the rate to .41 (it has not been approved - only proposed), the stamps will sell for .41. The next time the rate goes up to .43 or whatever, the stamps will sell for that. BUT if you have stamps leftover from when you bought them at .41, you can still use them without having to add extra postage to make it up to the new rate. So theoretically you could buy a whole butt load of stamps at .41 and use them until you run out regardless of how high they raise the rate next time. They are probably betting that most people only buy at most 100 stamps at a time, so they won't be losing all that much on doing this.

Did you know that they are also planning to reduce the extra ounce rate from .24 to .17? So that's a good thing, right. Most everything else is going up though, if it gets approved. Priority is going from 4.05 go 4.60. Postcards to .26. Surcharge for "odd" envelopes to .17.

It does get very annoying that they keep raising rates, especially when I think the reason their costs are so high is because they are inefficient. Not to mention it has been taking forever and a day for a lot of my mailings to get to people lately. Why should I have to keep paying more and getting less and less reliable service?

Judy

[teabear]

Oh, thanks for all the info Judy. I love that the extra ounce rate is going down. That's the one that gets me for nearly everything I mail.

[toao]

Well that stinks. What ever happened to 23 cents? HA!

Mary

[Tantalize]

Oh poo! I guess Im so used to the postal rates here in Canada like Barb said. We already pay .52 cents right now to mail a letter within Canada... Yes, each year they do raise it a penny more, which is ridiculous. I cannot wait til the near end of the year, I am going to stock up on those permanent/forever stamps. lol