If you still prefer regular mail instead of email, you’re in luck. The price of mailing is going down starting April 10.
The price of a first-class stamp will lower by two cents, costing 47 cents. Letters to all international destinations will go from $1.20 to $1.15, and postcards will decrease from 35 cents to 34 cents.
The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) is not happy about the decrease in rates. The USPS does not recieve tax dollars for operating costs. The system relies on revenue from postage, products and services.
The price reduction is the repercussion of an expiring surcharge that had been put into effect in January 2014. The move was supposed to help the struggling Postal Service bounce back from the $4.6 billion in losses dating back to the Great Recession.
Postmaster General Megan J. Brennan says the forced reduction of mailing prices would exacerbate Postal Service losses. The agency estimates it would lose $2 billion in annual revenue as a result of the move.
“Given our precarious financial condition and ongoing business needs, the price reduction required by the PRC exacerbates our losses,” said Brennan 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,” she added.
Commercial and other postage rates are also going down.
The last time the price of postage was lowered was in 1919, when stamp prices dropped from 3 cents to 2 cents. The price of stamps went up again to 3 cents in 1932 during the Great Depression.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
