The Postal Regulatory Commission officially approved the USPS requested postage rate increase. These new rates are all effective as of  Sunday, May 31, 2015.

The overall average of all increases is about 2%, but as in years past, the weight of the increases is always more pronounced in certain classes of mail.

Consistent with recent history, Every Door Direct Mail is subject to the largest percent increase. Every Door Direct Mail is a type of non-addressed “Flat”, saturation style of bulk mail that is very popular with small businesses.

The precise 4.762% increase means that Every Door Direct Mail pieces increased from the Retail rate of 17.5¢ each to 18.3¢ each. At Success Printing and Mailing, Inc our Commercial EDDM rate is 16¢ each.

As an example of how aggressive the USPS has been about increasing postage for Every Door Direct Mail, it was just 14.2¢ apiece back in 2011. This represents a 29% increase over just a 4 year period.

Presort Standard Mail Presort standard letter-sized mail increased 1.741%. *Average rates for this style of bulk mail were around 28.5¢ each, and have now increased to about 29¢ each. Letter-sized mail is generally considered 6.125″ x 11″ or smaller but there are some exceptions due to weight or aspect ratio (shape). At Success Printing and Mailing, Inc. we can achieve the lowest postage rates possible with our sophisticated postal software and our years of mailing knowledge.

Presort standard flat-sized mail (aka “catalogs”) increased 2.549%. *Average rates for this style of bulk mail are were 38.5¢ each, and will now be about 39.5¢ apiece. Catalog-sized mailers have been another recent favorite target for higher than average rate increases.

First-Class Mail To appease the general public who are not engaged in bulk mail marketing, the USPS has opted to leave the first-class letter rate unchanged at 49¢. This means that cost of forever stamps will remain unchanged as well. Additional ounces are now 22¢ per ounce.

Currently, businesses that use metering machines used to receive a 1¢ discount on every piece of letter-sized mail, but this discount is now reduced to 0.5¢ so metered mail increased from 48¢ each to 48.5¢ each.

Individually mailed postcards increased 1¢ as well going from 34¢ to 35¢. (There is no bulk mail “postcard” rate.)

Standard first-class international mail increased from $1.15 apiece to $1.20 each.

First class presort mail for letter-sized pieces, used to *average around 39¢ each and now it is closer to 40¢ each.

Nonprofit Mail Nonprofit mail is considered a subset of presort standard mail and will be calculated at 60.2% of the new presort standard rate. *Average rates for this style of bulk mail were around 16¢ each, and will now be about 16.5¢ each.

The above information represents a rough, quick summary of the 2015 across-the-board postage rate increase. More detailed information can be found in the 133-page PDF published by the Postal Regulatory Commission titled Order No. 2472.

*The exact amount of postage it will cost to mail your job depends upon several different factors. You can be confident that the staff at Success Printing and Mailing, Inc. knows all the latest rules and regulations. Together with our sophisticated postal software and years of knowledge in the mailing industry we can guarantee that we will mail your project in the most efficient manner and receive the lowest possible postage rates available. Call us today 203-847-1112 or email us csr@successprint.com for more information.