Goodbye, start licking Penny.
The United States Postal Service wants to raise the price of stamps again.
federal authorities requested on Tuesday. Increase the price of first-class stamps from 68 cents to 73 cents.
The price of a “Forever” stamp has been just 68 cents since January, when USPS last raised the price from 66 cents.
Reaction to the proposed changes was swift, but there was also some frustration.
“Like anything else, when prices go up, service goes down. This country is in trouble,” one Facebook user wrote.
“If the USPS is planning to raise prices, they will have to do more to find all the lost packages that were ‘delivered to address’ but were never delivered or were ‘lost in transit.’ We need to spend that extra money,” another official fumed.
One person simply wrote, “Thank you Biden.”
The latest proposed adjustments include a 3 cent increase in the price of domestic postcards and a 10 cent increase in the price of international letters, as well as unspecified increases in fees for certified mail and money orders.
Although seemingly insignificant, the additional nickels and pennies can increase the price of Postal Service products by up to 7.8 percent.
If approved by the Postal Regulatory Commission, the new fees will take effect from July 14, 2024.
The requested price increases come just months after the USPS last raised prices systemwide.
U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy previously warned postal users to get used to “uncomfortable” rate increases as the post office seeks to become self-reliant. He said the price increases were overdue because “a flawed pricing model has been in place for at least 10 years.”
In November, the USPS reported a net loss of $6.5 billion for the 12 months ended Sept. 30 as first-class mail volumes fell to the lowest volume since 1968.
Stamp prices are up 36% over the past four years, with a first-class stamp costing just 50 cents in 2019.
with post wire
