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In a Break With Tradition, the USPS Isn’t Hiking Stamp Prices This Month
By Pete Grieve MONEY RESEARCH COLLECTIVE
But the USPS is pushing to raise shipping costs on Jan. 19.
After five straight semiannual price hikes, the U.S. Postal Service is finally holding stamp prices steady this January.
For more than 15 years, the USPS has been losing money even though it’s supposed to sustain itself financially without taxpayer funds. To offset inflation and limit the agency’s losses, officials have recently enacted a series of aggressive price hikes that have left Americans grumbling.
The most recent stamp price change, in July, lifted the cost of a “Forever” stamp to 73 cents. The price is now 33% higher than it was in 2021, when stamps cost 55 cents.
The Postal Service broke with tradition when it announced last fall that there would not be another price increase to kick off 2025. The agency said its prior adjustments had boosted revenue and expressed hope that cooling inflation would help stabilize costs.
“Our strategies are working, and projected inflation is declining,” Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said in a September news release. “Therefore, we will wait until at least July before proposing any increases for market dominant services.”
Despite DeJoy’s upbeat tone about improving conditions, the Postal Service lost $9.5 billion in fiscal year 2024 and said it expects to lose money again in 2025.
Stamp prices remain flat, shipping costs could rise
The size of the last stamp price change likely factored into the decision to hold off on increases in January amid criticism about the mounting cost of postage. The cost of a “Forever” stamp went up 5 cents in July, which tied a 2019 hike as the largest stamp price increase ever. (These stamps cover the postage to mail a 1-ounce letter within the U.S., regardless of any future price increases.)
But the break from price increases will likely be short-lived. In a September filing, the Postal Service said it expects to return to a twice-a-year cadence of price increases in 2026 and 2027.
While stamp prices are remaining flat for now, the Postal Service is pushing to increase shipping costs on Jan. 19.
If the Postal Regulatory Commission approves proposed changes, shipping prices will rise 3.2% for Priority Mail and Priority Mail Express services and 3.9% for USPS Ground Advantage services. High-volume shippers who use Parcel Select services would also see a 9.2% increase.
Why are shipping costs going up if stamp prices are not? In a November release, the Postal Service explained that stamp prices are mainly based on the consumer price index, a measure of inflation, while other shipping prices “are primarily adjusted according to market conditions.”
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Pete Grieve is a New York-based reporter who covers personal finance news. At Money, Pete covers trending stories that affect Americans’ wallets on topics including car buying, insurance, housing, credit cards, retirement and taxes. He studied political science and photography at the University of Chicago, where he was editor-in-chief of The Chicago Maroon. Pete began his career as a professional journalist in 2019. Prior to joining Money, he was a health reporter for Spectrum News in Ohio, where he wrote digital stories and appeared on TV to provide coverage to a statewide audience. He has also written for the San Francisco Chronicle, the Chicago Sun-Times and CNN Politics. Pete received extensive journalism training through Report for America, a nonprofit organization that places reporters in newsrooms to cover underreported issues and communities, and he attended the annual Investigative Reporters and Editors conference in 2021. Pete has discussed his reporting in interviews with outlets including the Columbia Journalism Review and WBEZ (Chicago's NPR station). He’s been a panelist at the Chicago Headline Club’s FOIA Fest and he received the Institute on Political Journalism’s $2,500 Award for Excellence in Collegiate Reporting in 2017. An essay he wrote for Grey City magazine was published in a 2020 book, Remembering J. Z. Smith: A Career and its Consequence.