Stamp Prices To Drop For The First Time In Nearly 100 Years
DETROIT (WWJ) - For the first time in nearly 100 years, the United States Postal Service is reducing the price of postage.
Effective Sunday, April 10, the cost of a standard stamp is dropping from 49 cents to 47 cents. The cost for a postcard stamp will also decrease from 35 cents to 34 cents, and international letters will cost $1.15 instead of $1.20.
Just why are the prices dropping? It's a mandate from the Postal Regulatory Commission because a temporary rate increase that began in January 2014 to help recover from the massive volume and revenue losses during the Great Recession is ending.
Consumers might be happy about the price cut but the Postal Service is definitely not. USPS officials expect the price reduction, which was forced by the Postal Regulatory Commission, to result in a loss of $2 billion in annual revenue.
"Given our precarious financial condition and ongoing business needs, the price reduction required by the Postal Regulatory Commission exacerbates our losses," Megan Brennan, Postmaster General and CEO, said in a statement. "This unfortunate decision heightens the importance of the review of our ratemaking system which our regulator is required to conduct later this year."
The temporary increase from 2014 resulted in an extra $4.6 billion for the Postal Service.
The last time postage rates were lowered was in 1919, according to reports, when Congress reset prices to pre-World War I levels -- from 3 cents to 2 cents.
