Sending a letter through the United States Postal Service (USPS) has just become a bit pricier. USPS adjusted the price of the First-Class Mail Forever stamp from $0.68 to $0.75 on Sunday, which marks the second price hike this year.
While the price increase is likely not big news to most Americans, it will have a big impact on companies that use USPS to send out bulk mail and rely on the postal service to conduct their business. The Association for Postal Commerce (PostCom), which represents businesses and organizations that use or support the use of mail as a medium for business, criticized the move, saying that it would cause USPS to lose clients.
“We think they’ve overshot the mark on raising their rates,” PostCom’s CEO Michael Plunkett said in a statement. “These rate increases aren’t generating much additional revenue because it’s driving volume out of the system that is likely never to return.”
USPS also adjusted the prices of its other services. It will now cost $0.56 cents to send a domestic postcard compared to the previous price of $0.53, while international postcards and international letters will each cost $0.10 more to send. Announcing the move back in April, the postal service explained it is necessary to “achieve financial stability” due to continued changes in the mailing and shipping marketplace.