Price of Mailing a Letter Dropping to 47 Cents Starting Recently

Mailing a letter will cost you just a little bit less starting this past weekend. The U.S. Postal Service announced Thursday that a first-class stamp for a 1-ounce letter will cost two cents less, down to 47 cents, beginning Sunday. Postcard stamps also are 1 cent cheaper, at 34 cents, while international stamps will drop 5 cents to $1.15.

The reason for the change is that a temporary rate increase the Postal Service was permitted to put in place in January 2014 is currently going away. The Postal Service was permitted to charge more for stamps to offset a massive budget shortfall caused, to some extent, by the 2007-2009 recession, which it estimates cost the agency in excess of $7 billion in revenue in 2009 alone.

Postal officials wished to keep stamp prices at their current levels, estimating the price reduction will cost the Postal Service $2 billion in revenue annually, but its regulator, the Postal Regulatory Commission, declined the request.

“Given our precarious financial condition and ongoing business needs, the price reduction required by the PRC exacerbates our losses,” Postmaster General and CEO Megan Brennan said in a release. The Postal Service reached its $15 billion borrowing limit with the Treasury department in 2012.

The agency has depended on raising rates on its package business to assist with the red ink. Financials for the Postal Service in the most recent three-month period showed the very first quarterly profit since 2011, earning $307 million, compared with a loss of $754 million in the same period a year earlier.

Were you aware that you can order stamps online now? USPS