On Jan. 27, the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) will roll out the biggest forever stamp price increase in history, as the price of a first-class stamp will rise from 50 to 55 cents.
According to reports, the price increase is to help offset record losses of around $4 billion in 2018.
The raise to 55 cents represents a 10 percent increase and is also the largest in terms of cents in USPS history. The last largest increase happened in 1991 when stamps went from 25 to 29 cents.
Other reported increases on Jan. 27 include: small flat rate box from $7.20 to $7.90; medium flat rate box from $13.65 to $14.35; large flat rate box from $18.90 to $19.95; regular flat rate envelope from $6.70 to $7.35; large flat rate envelope from $7 to $7.65; padded flat rate envelope from $7.25 to $8.
On Dec. 17 the USPS Hawkeye District, which includes Iowa and Illinois’ Quad City districts, sent the following to the Advocate News courtesy of Sara Lindauer, manager of business mail entry:
As a reminder, mailing services and shipping services prices will change on Jan. 27, 2019…
The following actions affect domestic single-piece price mail:
* The Postal Service will increase the 1-ounce letter price of the First-Class Mail stamp to $0.55, and the meter price will now be $0.50.
* 1 ounce First Class flats price will remain at $1.00.
* The single-piece additional ounce price for letters and flats will decrease to $0.15. The additional nonmachinable price of a 1-ounce letter will decrease to $0.15.
* The price of postcards will remain at $0.35.
* First Class packages service will change from a weight based pricing structure to a zone and weight based pricing structure.
* Proposal implementation of dimensional weight pricing to all zones for Priority Mail, Priority Mail Express and Parcel Select has been deferred and will become effective June 23, 2019.
With questions, please contact the Hawkeye Mailing Requirements Office at 515-283-7606.