How much does a single stamp cost

WASHINGTON, Oct 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) said Friday it wants to raise the price of first-class Forever mail stamps from 60 to 63 cents to account for inflationary costs.

USPS filed notice of the proposed hike with the Postal Regulatory Commission and wants the increase to take effect Jan. 22. U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said in August that inflation would cause USPS costs to exceed its 2022 budget plan "by well over $1 billion."

There will be no change to the single-piece letter and flat additional-ounce price but other prices will rise including the cost of an international letter by five cents to $1.45.

Overall first-class mail prices will rise 4.2%, USPS said.

DeJoy has said USPS for years had failed to charge enough for package and mail delivery.

Struggling with diminishing mail volumes despite having to deliver to a growing number of addresses, the USPS reported net losses of more than $90 billion since 2007 until August when it booked a onetime, non-cash benefit of $59.6 billion after President Joe Biden signed financial relief legislation into law.

DeJoy released a March 2021 reform plan that aims to eliminate $160 billion in predicted losses over the next decade.

DeJoy said despite reforms losses would still reach $60 billion to $70 billion over the next 10 years -- and USPS must cut $35 to $40 billion in operating costs.

"I've got to use pricing," DeJoy said in July, adding he thinks mailers "got a deal for the last 10 years and we're charging them."

USPS raised prices in July of a first-class stamp from 58 cents to 60 cents after hiking stamps by 3 cents in August 2021.

USPS is receiving $3 billion from Congress to boost electric vehicle and charging purchases. In July, USPS said it plans to buy at least 25,000 EVs. read more

First-Class Mail® service is an affordable and easy way to send envelopes and lightweight packages. First-Class Mail Forever® stamps cost $0.60 (the current 1 oz price) and will never expire, even if the First-Class™ postage rate goes up. For packages (up to 13 oz), prices start at $4.80.

Buy Stamps First-Class Mail Prices

WASHINGTON, DC — Today, the United States Postal Service filed notice with the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) of price changes to take effect Jan. 22, 2023. The new rates include a three-cent increase in the price of a First-Class Mail Forever stamp from 60 cents to 63 cents.

If favorably reviewed by the Commission, the proposed increases will raise First-Class Mail prices approximately 4.2 percent to offset the rise in inflation. The price changes have been approved by the Governors of the U.S. Postal Service.

The price for 1-ounce metered mail will increase to 60 cents, and the price to send a domestic postcard will increase to 48 cents. A 1-ounce letter mailed to another country would increase to $1.45. There will be no change to the single-piece letter and flat additional-ounce price, which remains at 24 cents. The Postal Service is also seeking price adjustments for Special Services products including Certified Mail, Post Office Box rental fees, money order fees and the cost to purchase insurance when mailing an item.

The proposed Mailing Services price changes include:

U.S. Postal Service Announces New Prices for 2023

Product

Current Prices

Planned Prices

Letters (1 oz.)

60 cents

63 cents

Letters (metered 1 oz.)

57 cents

60 cents

Domestic Postcards

44 cents

48 cents

International Postcards

$1.40

$1.45

International Letter (1 oz.)

$1.40

$1.45

As operating expenses continue to rise, these price adjustments provide the Postal Service with much needed revenue to achieve the financial stability sought by its Delivering for America 10-year plan. The prices of the U.S. Postal Service remain among the most affordable in the world.

The PRC will review the changes before they are scheduled to take effect. The complete Postal Service price filing, with prices for all products, can be found on the PRC website under the Daily Listings section at prc.gov/dockets/daily. The Mailing Services filing is Docket No. R2023-1. The price tables are also available on the Postal Service’s Postal Explorer website at pe.usps.com/PriceChange/Index.

The Postal Service generally receives no tax dollars for operating expenses and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations.

Maybe this counts as good news in a time of painful price increases for necessities such as food, fuel and housing: The cost of a US postage stamp just increased by a mere 2 cents.

That raises the cost of mailing a first-class letter by 3.4%, to 60 cents — unless you still have a bunch of “forever stamps” that you bought at a lower price. A price hike that modest seems almost quaint given that overall consumer prices are up 9.1% year over year, the fastest pace in 40 years.

First-Class mail prices are up about 6.5% overall following the latest hikes. Metered mail went up 4 cents, or 7.5%; sending a postcard (remember those?) now costs 44 cents, a 10-cent hike; and overweight First-Class mail will increase 20%, to 24 cents per additional ounce.

“As inflation and increased operating expenses continue, these price adjustments will help with the implementation of the Delivering for America plan,” the USPS said in a statement, referring to its plan to invest $40 billion in upgrading its infrastructure. “With the new prices, the Postal Service will continue to provide the lowest letter-mail postage rates in the industrialized world and offer a great value in shipping.”

A postman drives a United States Postal service (USPS) mail delivery truck through Washington, DC on August 13, 2021.

Biden signs US Postal Service reform bill into law

But the 2-cent hike won’t bring in much more money for the USPS for one reason: Americans aren’t sending nearly as much mail as they used to. As a result, First-Class mail in general — and individual letters in particular — are far less important to the Postal Services’ revenue stream now than in years past.

Last year 13.5 billion letters were mailed out. But that comes to only about two pieces of mail per US household per week.

People have found other ways to communicate — and to pay their bills — than putting a stamp and an envelope and dropping it in a mailbox. The number of individual letters mailed last year fell 8.4% from the year prior, and is down 45% from where it was just a decade ago, in fiscal year 2011.

The number of individual First-Class letters doesn’t count most of the other mail jamming your mailbox, such as bank statements and other direct mail from businesses. There were 35.6 billion of those last year, or more than five per household per week.

Then there were another 41 million pieces of what the USPS generously calls “marketing mail,” and most consumers know as junk mail.

Even though senders of that marketing mail pay a much lower rate, the sector brought in $9 billion last year, compared to only $7.4 billion for individual First-Class letters, and $13.5 billion for presorted First-Class mail.

All in, First-Class mail accounted for only 30% of Postal Service revenue last year, with individual letters tallying less than 10%. As recently as 2011, about half of postal revenue came from First-Class mail, with 17% from individual letters.

Parcels and packages are where the Postal Service is really making its money today. The USPS handles final delivery of many packages shipped by Amazon (AMZN) and other online retailers, with items delivered in bulk to the post office nearest to the buyer’s home.

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