USPS 2021 Rate Increases: All You Need To Know

Effective August 29th, 2021, the USPS has received approval from the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) to increase postage rates across the board for its “market dominant” services. Generally, this will impact the postage pricing that commercial mailers (like Postalytics) receive between 6% to 11% on a per piece basis.

Why The Summer Price Increase?

Typically, the USPS raises prices in January of each year, and these price changes are aligned with changes to the Consumer Price Index, meaning they’re roughly in line with inflation.

The Postal Regulatory Commission (the governing body that regulates the USPS) recently completed a review of the rules that determine how much the USPS can raise rates in a year. With this price increase, they’re taking advantage of additional pricing authority provisions that were granted to the PRC in their “10-Year-Review” final ruling of 12/3/2020. The Postal Service is also taking advantage of “Banked Unused CPI Authority” as well as other provisions. With the goal to restore financial stability, the USPS decided to move up their annual rate change to help expedite their ability to generate new revenues.

You can download the details of the entire USPS August 2021 postage increases by using the Postal Explorer website from the USPS.

One Big Price Drop: 6×9 First Class Postcards Down 20%!

A silver lining that is buried in the details of this complex overhaul of postage pricing is that the USPS has reclassified the 6×9 First Class Postcard so that it will receive a lower postage rate, in the ballpark of a 20% drop. This is something that the commercial mail industry has been pushing for years, and this reclassification is a welcome development for all mailers.

How Will This Impact Postalytics® Pricing on 8/29/21?

At Postalytics, the good news is that in addition to the roughly 20% drop we’ll be passing along on the 6×9 First Class Postcard, we’ll also be able to absorb some of the price increases, and not pass along the full amount for some of our formats. Fortunately, we’ve been growing steadily, and we’ve been working on efficiencies with our print partners as we scale our volume.

Our full pricing will be published on our website and in the application for the 8/29/21 changeover. Until then, here’s a quick guide to help you anticipate the ballpark changes for each of our formats.

First Class Products

4×6 First Class	$.04 increase
6×9 First Class	$.14 – $.22 drop
6×11 First Class	$0 – $.03 increase
Letter First Class	$0 – $.03 increase

Standard/Marketing Mail Products

6×9 Standard Class	$.02 – $.04 increase
6×11 Standard Class	$0 – $.03 increase
Letter Standard Class	$0 – $.03 increase

Extra pages and custom envelopes are not impacted by this pricing change.

How Can I Save Money After This Postage Increase?

Fortunately, with Postalytics®, you can lower the cost of your mailing by leveraging our unique “Direct Mail Credits” tool, available with all Postalytics® subscription accounts. This gives you the ability to pre-purchase at bulk rates, and then send campaigns out in smaller batches. Our unique model lets you send mail out with no minimum send or spend, meaning you can send a single piece of mail, or a batch of 100,000, and it all gets treated the same. So, you can pre-purchase direct mail credits for any of our formats in anticipation of the mailings you’ve got planned, drop your rate per piece that you spend, and then use those credits on Smart Send or Triggered Drip campaigns over the coming year.

Can I Save Money By Upgrading To An Annual Plan?

Absolutely! We’ve recently begun working with our clients who’d like to lock in on lower rates by introducing annual contracts for the Pro and Agency Edition plans. We can work with you to tailor a plan for your organizations specific needs.