Second Postage Hike of 2024 Coming July 14

Ever-growing postage rates are driving companies to digitize as much as possible. A record-high rate hike set for July 14 is going to impact companies that rely on the mail to do business.

The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) announced it will be raising the cost of a first-class postage stamp from 68 cents to 73 cents in mid-July. This is the second postage hike of 2024 — USPS just upped postal rates in January. The five-cent hike ties a 2019 rate hike as the highest in the service’s history. The typical postage rate hike is between two to three cents.

Businesses that use their own mailing machines to send metered mail are facing the same five-cent hike. Sending a one ounce metered letter will cost 69 cents starting July 14, up from the current 64 cent rate. Also going up in price:

• domestic postcards from 53 cents to 56 cents
• international letters and postcards from $1.55 to $1.65, and
• the additional-ounce price for single-piece letters from from 24 cents to 28 cents. 

Bottom line: For companies that need to send out a bulk mailing soon, better to get it done before the calendar turns from June to July.

Digitizing functions like payroll and accounts payable and receivable is a proven path to cutting costs. Reducing reliance on the mail also reduces the rising risk of check fraud. Theft of business checks doubled from 2021 to 2022, warns the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.

Postage Hikes Not About to Let Up

Fact: USPS is a financial train wreck. Technological trends like email and digital banking have led to a shrinking need for mail. But Congress deserves a healthy share of blame by refusing to let the Post Office implement cost-savings initiatives like ending Saturday mail delivery.

The Post Office expects to lose $6.5 billion in fiscal year 2024. And USPS is delivering nearly half the amount of mail it did prior to 2006.

Since 2000, USPS has raised postage prices 21 times, but the hikes are coming faster and more often. Five rate increases in just two years are putting pressure on sectors like newspaper and magazine publishers. Postage hikes have been “excessive and unsustainable for news and magazine publishers that rely on the postal system to deliver quality journalism to Americans,” Holly Lubart of News/Media Alliance told Axios.