Posted on 01/07/2006 11:01:32 AM PST by kingattax
It will cost Americans 2 cents more to mail a letter starting Sunday. First-class postage rises to 39 cents for the first ounce.
The increase follows legislation requiring the Postal Service to place $3 billion in an escrow account this year. Another rate boost is likely next year to cover rising costs for the agency. Stamp prices last went up in June 2002.
Many rates, such as parcel post and advertising mail, vary by distance or whether the material is presorted. Rate changes taking effect, including some estimates for typical mailed items:
_Post card, and each additional ounce in first class, up 1 cent to 24 cents.
_Letter to Canada or Mexico, 1 ounce, up 3 cents to 63 cents.
_Letter to other foreign countries, 1 ounce, up 4 cents to 84 cents.
_Priority Mail, 1 pound, up 20 cents to $4.05.
_Express Mail, 8 ounces, up 75 cents to $14.40.
_Certified mail, up 10 cents to $2.40.
_Money orders up 5 cents to 95 cents.
_Delivery confirmation, up 5 cents to 60 cents.
_Weekly news magazine, 5.8 ounces, presorted, up 1 cent to 18.5 cents.
_Household magazine, 13.8 ounces, presorted, up 1.5 cents to 28.9 cents.
_Small nonprofit publication, presorted, up 1.4 cents to 28.3 cents.
It is not good of course, but maybe they can understand why I NEVER write letters anymore. I call people on the phone. The postal service gets very little money from me.
Why don't they just increase it to an even number such as 40 or 45 cents?
Online bankin and e-mail...
They do that to torture us so we now have to buy 2 cents stamps so we can finish using our 37 cent stamps. ARGH!!!
Who buys stamps anymore?
I haven't bought a stamp in over 3 years thanks to the Internet.
USPS is still the best deal on shipping items that weigh under 1 lb.
It really irks me to pay 5 or 7 dollars for something that I know because I ship things would cost less than $2.oo first class for postage because they only use UPS or something.
No wonder they have to raise the rates. There's 6 or 7 people supporting the postal system now (tongue in cheek.)
My wife worked for the PO for a while. She was amazed at the bureaucratic nightmare that it was. Management shuffled like a deck of cards, theft rampant along with the busts of postal thieves on a very frequent basis, Seniority granted to the incompetent and incapable among what would be many real-world business tragedies.
But this isn't the real world. This is the government in business. Nothing to see here...move along!
She quit following the end of her first 6 month contract, even though they offered her more time and then some. It wasn't necessarily because she didn't want to do it, but because we were having another child. She would have stuck it out and no doubt one far.
I'm grateful we've got her home with the children.
The purposely make profit margins for machines that you buy stamps in.
$3 billion has got to be for pensions and lifetime health insurance for all postal workers.
Another black hole that is endless.
Never will I online bank after having to deal with the banks during my fathers divorce. You loose control over your money and there is nothing you can do about it.
Terrific book on the subject, though not for the easily shocked, Charles Bukowski's "Post Office."
Just so I still get all that friggin' junk mail.
Exactly.
My bank keeps trying to get me to use "On-line Billpay". I keep refusing. I don't need them involved in paying my bills.
They already have my money in their accounts, plus my credit card, plus my mortgage and retirement accounts. I sure as heck don't need them knowing that much more about me.
You don't have to. Take down your mail box.
I need my mailbox to get legitimate mail (such as it is), and I need to junk mail to light my fireplace.
"need to GET junk mail..."
Frack!
Am a longtime postal worker but even I admit I pay some bills online (Phone, Cable/Net). Yes, prob. should have gone up to a round number.
Hate to bring forth a liberal comic to help defend the USPS,
but Jimmy Tingle did the following bit in '88 when the stamp
price went up (paraphrased): "(mentions a whole bunch of
horrible news items)...and, in other news, the price of a
STAMP went up to a quarter! (Acts outraged) HOW CAN THEY DO THIS? IS THERE NO GOD? (Back to normal) For a quarter you can send a letter 3,000 milesacross the country...for twenty...five... cents! You want CHANGE? TIP the guy three cents!"
still a good deal yet I guarantee there will be a column in your local paper giving the example of a letter that fell
behind a filing cabinet in 1929 and only just got delivered now. "See how inefficient they are!" Meanwhile, billions
of letters and parcels get delivered correctly every day,
in a short period of time.
"Am a longtime postal worker "
Uh-oh...you're gonna get it.
Seriously, I use the USPS for all my parcel mailing. Over many years the number of Priority Mail parcels I have mailed that have not arrived at their destination in good time is exactly ZERO. ZERO have been damaged.
Add to that the USPS supplying boxes, etc. for Priority Mail users at no charge, is way nicer than UPS or FedEx. I wouldn't ship any other way, and that includes international shipments.
I hand-delivered as many Christmas cards as possible this year, and I told people in advance, just wait until you see me to give me the card, DON'T put a stamp on it!
Its price controls. Thats why my rent is $934.13 a month.
My bank offers "online" checking. Its not really electronic transfer, the bank actually cuts a check and mails it to who I have set up as a payee.
Its free
Delivery confirmation is now $ .45. Will go to $ .50 .
Well, I just came from the local Post Office (W. Hollyweird, CA) and they were out of two cent stamps. Only thing left were one-centers in the one stamp machine in the outer lobby. And there was a looong line of morons (most with John Kerry for President bumperstickers on their cars parked outside) standing in line trying to figure out how to operate the damn stamp machine. Pathetic...
Speaking of... I went to the Plano, Texas post office (corner of Coit Rd and Hedgecox) a few days ago to buy the soon required $0.02 stamps. One vending machine only and $0.39 and I believe they were $0.75 stamps... what!. The other vending machine was out of service... typical BULL S**T that I/we have to be beaten down by.
So you know... Billy Clinton was the president when this joke of govt. waste went into service.
people who can't figure out how to vote would think a stamp machine is a piece of 22nd century technology
My bank's Online Billpay is free too. They transfer funds electronically to your creditors on the date you specify each month.
I just feel like it's giving Big Brother more of a hold on me than I would like. Someday maybe I'll relent and do it, but for now, the few checks I mail out each month go through the good ol' US Postal Service. (Of which my brother is a 20-plus year employee and postmaster of a medium-small city in southern Minn.
Hear hear!
They should just make it like 50 cents and then stop increasing the postage every other year. It gets tiring.
Reminder bump
Now there's an idea! If creditors gave me a break on my bill for using electronic transfers instead of clogging up their mailbox with checks, then I'd rethink my stance on using Billpay.
If companies ever switch to receiving electronic payments exclusively and no longer accept paper checks, what will all of those people who are opening envelopes in Carol Stream, Illinois do for work? (Carol Stream, Illinois is a suburb of Chicago and there is a major payment receiving center for many national creditors located there.)
I forget how my bank said they handle bill amounts that fluctuate each month like utility bills do. I think I have to go online each month after I receive the bill and fill in the blank so the bank knows how much to send.
Oh, and what's a cheque? (Just kidding!... :)
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