USPS proposes raising the prices of 1st class stamps to 73 cents

If the U.S. Postal Service wins its case, the price of a first-class stamp will increase for the fourth time in less than two years.

The USPS is proposing to increase the cost of a first-class stamp to 73 cents, or about 7 percent on all forms of mailing.

If approved, the plan, announced Tuesday, will raise the price of one-ounce metered letters to 69 cents, international one-ounce letters and postcards to $1.65 and domestic postcards to 56 cents.

The proposal has been sent to the Independent Postal Regulatory Commission for final approval. If the commission approves it, the new prices will take effect in July.

The proposed price increase comes after the USPS increased the cost of a first-class stamp to 68 cents, up from 66 cents on January 21. Stamp prices increased twice in 2023.

Over the past 20 years, the price of a first-class stamp has risen about 84 percent.

“It’s ridiculous, absolutely ridiculous,” New Yorker Jacqueline Pollen told ABC News as she left a post office on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. “I’m a senior citizen on a fixed income. I can’t really afford that many stamps. I have a lot of Forever stamps that I bought years ago and I use them, but I don’t know how I’ll I’ll afford 73 cents for a stamp.”

Like millions of Americans, Pollen said she has cut back on sending letters, even Christmas cards, saying, “I use e-cards and e-mail. That’s what I use now to save money.”

But Manhattan resident Albert Quiles, who went to the post office to buy stamps, resigned himself to paying the higher postage prices.

“I have to deal with it. What else can you do? You have to go with the flow, man. Times are changing,” Quiles told ABC News. “There’s nothing you can do. The government says this is what you have to do. It’s not like it’s just me, it’s everyone. I don’t feel bad about it. “

The postal price hike is part of a 10-year “Delivering for America” plan launched in March 2021 to transform the USPS from a cash-strapped organization to a self-sustaining, high-performing organization.

The USPS reported a net loss of $6.5 billion in 2023 as revenue fell 0.4% to $78.2 billion and first-class mail usage fell to its lowest level since 1968, postal officials said.

In 2022, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy warned customers to expect “uncomfortable” increases in postage costs until the USPS is on track to become self-sustaining.

“While our pricing decisions are ultimately made under the authority of the Board of Governors, in the short term I will most likely advocate for these increases,” DeJoy said during a meeting with the Board of Governors. USPS in 2022. “I believe we have been seriously damaged by at least 10 years of a flawed pricing model, which cannot be satisfied by one or two annual price increases, especially in this inflationary environment.

Despite rising postal prices, a 2023 USPS survey showed that stamp prices in the United States are still lower than those in 31 other countries analyzed.

“In 2023, the price of a standard domestic letter in the United States was nearly half the average price in our 31 sampled countries,” according to the USPS Office of Inspector General report released in March.