USPS Wants To Raise Stamp Prices 5 Times Over 3 years

If the United States Postal Service (USPS) receives the rate increase it’s asking for, it will cost more to mail a letter by 2027. The organization wants to raise stamp prices five times over the next three years.

A document submitted by the USPS to the Postal Regulatory Commission on Monday reveals that the current price of a first-class stamp, 73 cents, could increase five times within the next three years if the Commission approves. However, it does not specify how much it intends to increase the price each time.

The price hikes would begin in July 2025 and continue through the end of 2027, with additional increases every January and July. The agency said these adjustments are necessary to meet its “legal obligation to be financially self-sufficient.”

The document reads, “The Postal Service intends in all cases to be judicious in the use of available pricing authority, but it anticipates that the changes for Market Dominant classes may apply most or all pricing authority available on the date of filing, given our legal obligation to be financially self-sufficient, our progress under the Delivering for America Plan and its fundamental goals of providing excellent service while still achieving financial sustainability, and our current and anticipated financial condition.”

The USPS Will Not Raise Stamp Prices in January 2025

NEWS: @USPS will NOT raise the price of stamps in January 2025. In recent years prices would go up each January & July. USPS this summer raised stamp prices for the 6th time since 2020, when it got the authority to set rates higher than inflation pic.twitter.com/xmE0H4jSGO

— Jory Heckman (@jheckmanWFED) September 20, 2024

This announcement follows the USPS’s announcement that it will not raise stamp prices in January 2025. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said, “Our strategies are working and projected inflation is declining. Therefore, we will wait until at least July before proposing any increases for market dominant services.”

Stamp prices have climbed 36% since 2019 in a string of six increases, going up from 50 to 73 cents, according to Axios. A July 2024 5-cent increase for First-Class stamps tied the record for the most significant hike ever and followed a 2-cent increase in January. USPS data shows that rates only increased three to four times a decade between the 1970s and 2000.

The United States Postal Service is an independent federal establishment mandated to be self-financing and to serve every American community through the affordable, reliable, and secure delivery of mail and packages to 167 million addresses six and often seven days a week, per the USPS’s official website.