At least that is how one of my favorite Blogs, Dead Tree Edition describes it, but it is good news for mailers. April 10 postal rates will go down for the first time since World War 1. This is not based on the generosity of the Postal Service as evidenced by the title of their announcement Forced Price Reduction.
It isn’t really a price reduction. It is the end of the temporary “exigent” postage increase which was imposed in January 2014. The deal was prices would be 4.3% higher until the Postal Service banked an extra $4.6 billion to bail them out of the bind the great recession caused.
The reason the Postal Service is calling it a reduction is they were just kidding about the temporary part. They assumed, as did we all, when they approached the $4.6 billion mark congress or the courts would come to their rescue and the temporary increase would become permanent.
Nope.
What does this mean? Well, first the bad news, those fifty rolls of Forever Stamps you bought knowing they could only gain in value just lost two cents each.
And everything else just comes down 4.3%, right? No. The average is 4.3%. In reviewing the new rates I found some that will go down over 5% while others are as little as 2.5%. EDDM is going down 3.8%.
If you assume your postage costs will go down 3.5% to 4% you will be safe. Think about it this way, if you are mailing a weekly publication the end of the exigent price increase will save you enough to pay for two weeks of postage over the course of a year, and that is a helluva deal.