1st Class Stamps to Rise in Price?

Tonio

Tonio

Asperger's Poster Child
What if we drop the price of first-class stamps to 25 cents and raised the cost of bulk mail? I don't have any statistics, but I suspect that first-class is subsidizing the cost of bulk mail to some extent. If so, it should be the other way around.
 
Penn

Penn

Dancing Up A Storm
Dymphna said:
:yeahthat: but I hate not having the paper trail. :tantrum
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Ok, I posted something like this a while back.

I'm with BankofAmerica and they offer free BillPay services, online.

Yeah, it takes about a half an hour to an hour to read through, and set up
your accounts that are billed to you.

But once they're set up properly, an I have seven, on the date that I've received confirmation of a direct deposit at the bank, for the payperiod, I go to BillPay, select accounts, fill in the $$.$$ value from my mail receipts, for all seven of them.

Then I click on "print", create my papertrail for my records, then Pay bills - and, they're gone!!

Justa like-a dat! Two years now and not one missed payment.
 
E

ericw

New Member
Tonio said:
What if we drop the price of first-class stamps to 25 cents and raised the cost of bulk mail? I don't have any statistics, but I suspect that first-class is subsidizing the cost of bulk mail to some extent. If so, it should be the other way around.
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Actually, the USPS claims bulk mail subsidizes first class - because most of the cost of mail-handling is in sorting it, not shipping it (though rising fuel costs probably contributed to this proposed increase), and bulk mail is usually pre-sorted.
 
K

Kizzy

Guest
The Journal says the expected new rate increase stems partly from the failure of proposed legislation that would have allowed the post office to take advantage of pension-fund savings.
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So this would be to pay for the pensions of employees?


I wonder why they haven't decided to just privatize the post offices. I know a girl who has just as much time on her job as I do with the state government, 16 years and she doesn’t have a degree. She makes a tad under 60K to stick stamps on mail, sort it and collect money. :confused: Doesn't that seem like an extremely high salary for that type of work? AND no degree? It isn’t rocket science, but it does make me wonder how much they fork out in salaries.

Anyway, I have always been amazed that I could put a stamp on something in Maryland and send it to California, even 41 cents for that service seems like a bargin.
 
Penn

Penn

Dancing Up A Storm
Kizzy said:
So this would be to pay for the pensions of employees?


I wonder why they haven't decided to just privatize the post offices. I know a girl who has just as much time on her job as I do with the state government, 16 years and she doesn’t have a degree. She makes a tad under 60K to stick stamps on mail, sort it and collect money. :confused: Doesn't that seem like an extremely high salary for that type of work? AND no degree? It isn’t rocket science, but it does make me wonder how much they fork out in salaries.

Anyway, I have always been amazed that I could put a stamp on something in Maryland and send it to California, even 41 cents for that service seems like a bargin.
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I don't know how true this is, but I was mentioning to a clerk, at the Lexington Park Office as I was mailing out a bulk package, that I did most
of my bill paying online, and she said:

"Yes, the decreased business for the Post Office - because of that venue is going to drive up the price of stamps, too."

Less money coming in to the Post Office? Win some, lose some............
 
K

Kizzy

Guest
Yes Penn that is true. I have heard that complaint before, but you would think, less mail, less employees. Like I said earlier, I am not complaining about the price of a stamp, 41 cents is cheap to send a letter across county, but I've always wondered why they just don't privatize the entire postal system.
 
Penn

Penn

Dancing Up A Storm
willie said:
Why does a monopoly buy prime time TV advertising? Sponsor the Tour de France team?
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Willie, I may be dense as he!!, but I am not seeing the tie-in to the Tour-de-France and the Post Office/stamp rate-hike story?

It's not mentioned in the article; please explain.
 
Penn

Penn

Dancing Up A Storm
crabcake said:
:yeahthat:
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Serious, you know?

With the old way, you had to open every bill envelope, check it out, detach the paystub part,(the damn thing never tore where it was supposed to), fill in the amount tendered, then fill out your check, stuff it all in the return envelope, lick the SOB, hope you remembered to put both the check and the stub in it, write you name on the address line, and lastly, lick the stamp and affix it to the envelope as straight as you're eyes will let you.

I pay all 7 of my bills in that amount of time. :lmao:
 
jazz lady

jazz lady

~*~ Rara Avis ~*~
PREMO Member
:yay: for on-line banking. I only have two bills I can't pay on-line...yet. :banana: I've also gone to paperless billing when I can. :banana:
 
willie

willie

Well-Known Member
Penn said:
Willie, I may be dense as he!!, but I am not seeing the tie-in to the Tour-de-France and the Post Office/stamp rate-hike story?

It's not mentioned in the article; please explain.
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The Postal Service is not like Budweiser. It has no competition in this area of mail delivery. The sponsoring of various events and the exorbitant cost of TV advertising is for what? Get customers that are already captives? Don't you think some part of the cost of postage goes toward this unnecessary expense?
 
willie

willie

Well-Known Member
Here's a few lines about their monopoly. I thought it was only in the letter area but you sure have to give UPS a lot of credit for competing so successfully with the handicaps they are given and USPS is exempt.
http://slate.msn.com/id/1095/
This is only part of what has aggravated me every time I stuck a stamp on a bill:QUOTE from above link:
The Postal Service's advertising campaigns have drawn fire in the past--in 1992, it spent $90 million advertising in the Olympics in Barcelona, Spain, and Albertville, France; and in 1994, developing a new logo cost $7 million.
 
willie

willie

Well-Known Member
Penn said:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2004-11-24-stamps_x.htm


The price of a First Class stamp is going up apparently, to .41 cents per.

Boy, am I glad I bank and pay my bills online!
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All that link says is that our government sponsored monopoly is slipping us the shaft and insulting us with this lame reasoning.
quote from link:
The Journal says the expected new rate increase stems partly from the failure of proposed legislation that would have allowed the post office to take advantage of pension-fund savings. UNQUOTE
What does that mean? They are prohibited from stealing from pensioners?
 
W

Warron

Member
All this electronic commerce is great the vast majority of the time, but that one is a million chance of a screw up can make up for the convience real fast.

My brother was accidently double payed a few years ago using direct deposit. So they decided to take the money back directly as well. And they took, not only the overpayment, but the amount he should have gotten, and the entire rest of his checking account. Took him 2 weeks to get is fixed, during which he had zero money and had to beg and borrow from friends and family to get by.

Seeing that first hand has made me cautious of giving anyone direct access to my checking account, although I am finding that its being forced on me more and more often. I cant even write a check for my rent anymore as of this month.
 
Spanky

Spanky

New Member
willie said:
All that link says is that our government sponsored monopoly is slipping us the shaft and insulting us with this lame reasoning.
quote from link:
The Journal says the expected new rate increase stems partly from the failure of proposed legislation that would have allowed the post office to take advantage of pension-fund savings. UNQUOTE
What does that mean? They are prohibited from stealing from pensioners?
Click to expand...

This explains it a little clearer.
 
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