USPS plans to raise the price of stamps again
FILE – A postal customer drops letters into a slot at a post office May 11, 2009 in San Francisco, California. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
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(NEXSTAR) – The United States Postal Service announced its intention to raise the price of postage this summer.
In a bulletin published Wednesday, the USPS said it filed notice with the Postal Regulatory Commission, seeking approval to raise the price of stamps starting July 10.
The price of a Forever stamp would rise to 60 cents.
If approved by the regulatory commission, the following increases would kick in:
| USPS Product | Current cost | Cost after July 10 |
| Letters (1 oz.) | 58 cents | 60 cents |
| Letters (metered 1 oz.) | 53 cents | 57 cents |
| Letters (additional ounces) | 20 cents | 24 cents |
| Domestic postcards | 40 cents | 44 cents |
| International letters (1 oz.) | $1.30 | $1.40 |
The USPS recently raised prices in August, according to CBS News, when the cost of a Forever stamp went from 55 cents to 58 cents.
A Forever stamp, like its name suggests, can be used to mail a letter regardless of when it was purchased. That means if you bought a book of Forever stamps 10 years ago, when the price was 45 cents each, you can still use them to mail letters now, even though prices have climbed.
Even though they come soon after a recent price hike, the Postal Service said the latest proposal doesn’t even keep up with rising inflation. The proposed price hikes represent a 6.5% jump, but the annual inflation rate was 7.9% at the end of February, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
“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,” the USPS statement reads.
President Joe Biden signed legislation Wednesday to save the post office’s six-days-a-week delivery service. The legislation cleared Congress last month after years of discussion and comes amid widespread complaints about mail service slowdowns.
Officials had repeatedly warned that without congressional action, the Postal Service would run out of cash by 2024. The final bill achieved rare, bipartisan support by scrapping some of the more controversial proposals to settle on core ways to save the service.
Delivering the mail is among the most popular things the government does, with 91% of Americans having a favorable opinion of the Postal Service, according to a Pew Research Center poll released in 2020.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.