2021 Postal Rate Changes
Most businesses with more than 20 employees spend over $1,000 a month in postage, so even small increases can have a big impact on your budget. It’s important to stay on top of postal rate changes so you can make the necessary adjustments to account for the increase in your marketing budget.
While First Class retail rates are largely staying the same, commercial rates are seeing a variety of increases. For example, Priority Mail will see an average rate increase of 3.6%. Here are the latest USPS postal rate changes to mailing services, which will go into effect January 24, 2021.
Rate Change Highlights
- First Class Retail Mail: No increase—Forever Stamps remain at $.55 for 1 ounce letters.
- First Class Commercial: Metered Mail rate (1 oz) will increase by one cent to $0.51.
- First Class Presorted: Automated mail is increasing 2.3% for letters (presorted machinable letters will stay the same), 3.2% for both automated and presorted postcards, and an average of 3.7% for flats (at 4 oz—lighter weight flats will see a larger percent increase).
- Marketing Mail Letters: Companies (both non-profit and for-profit) using saturation and high density thresholds, will not see an increase. But automated non-profit letters should expect an increase between 1.8-3% and automated for-profit letters should plan on an increase of 0.9-1.8%.
- Commercial Flats: Marketing mail flats will not increase for those using EDDM, Saturation, or High Density Plus carrier route mailings. Marketing mail flats mailing at automation rates (less than 4 oz) will see an 8.5% increase on average (or a decrease of 4.7% if participating in drop shipping).
- Non-profit Flats: Non-profit marketing mail flats using EDDM, Saturation, or High Density Plus carrier route mailings will see a maximum increase of 0.5% (over 4 oz). Non-profit marketing mail flats mailing at automation rates (less than 4 oz) will increase an average of 8.2% (or 6.5% if drop shipped).
For more details on these new commercial rates, please refer to this cheat sheet.
USPS Business Calculator
To help you budget, USPS has also launched a new and improved Business Calculator, which supports both Domestic and International services. The calculator allows you to walk through different mailing scenarios and provides answers to complicated business rules.
Feature highlights include:
- “New Mailing” – Name your mailing scenario, add or delete to the mailing, go to the statement to select extra services.
- “Manage Mailings” – Go to statement or delete mailing.
- The ability to select multiple mail classes (products) at the same time for comparison on costs.
The current Domestic/International Business Calculators will remain online until March 19, 2021, but you can explore the new calculator here.