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You’ve got mail, and it’s more expensive.
The government has done it again and found another way to make something more expensive. Starting Sunday, July 12, the price of a first-class Forever stamp will increase by 4.8%.
This means the next time you need that tiny sticker in the right-hand corner of your envelope for things like bills, birthday cards or letters, you’ll now pay 82 cents and not 78 cents. The move comes after the Postal Regulatory Commission, the federal agency that oversees the USPS, approved the hike back in May.
The agency has been facing financial challenges since 2007. In June, USPS warned lawmakers it could literally run out of money within a year, urging Congress to approve some much needed changes. U.S. Postmaster General David Steiner blamed a broken business model.
“The bottom line is that we are out of cash. We are borrowing from our employees’ retirement funds to continue operations,” Steiner’s written testimony before a U.S. Senate committee said.
“The Postal Service has a broken business model and action is needed by Congress to fix it,” he added.
USPS has reported net losses of about $120 billion since 2007 and one of the ways to continue making money is by looking at what works — first class mail. Back in April, the agency broke down its 10-year plan to “achieve financial stability,” while keeping America’s stamps the most affordable in the world.
The changes included the price of letters and postcards both domestic and international.
This is not the first time USPS has raised prices, it’s not even the second time or the third time. Since 2021, stamps for domestic letters have increased seven times. Here’s a quick breakdown:
- August 29, 2021 — 58 cents
- July 10, 2022 — 60 cents
- January 22, 2023 — 63 cents
- July 9, 2023 — 66 cents
- January 21, 2024 — 68 cents
- July 14, 2024 — 73 cents
- July 13, 2025 — 78 cents
And come July 12, that price will be 82 cents, marking its eighth increase in five years. This means that the price of Forever stamps has doubled since they were first introduced back in 2007 when they cost just 41 cents.
The Forever stamps were created to make mailing more convenient for consumers. By keeping the current one-ounce First-Class rate, they “eliminated the hassle” of having to buy small one- or two-cent stamps to cover inevitable postage price hikes.
According to The Postal Service, it does not receive any tax dollars for operating expenses and relies on the postage sales, products and services to fund its entire operation. The agency said it also has “some of the lowest mailing rates in the industrialized world and continues to offer great values in shipping.”
“As changes in the mailing and shipping marketplace continue, these price adjustments are needed to achieve the financial stability sought by the organization’s Delivering for America 10-year plan,” the agency said in the April press release.
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