<p>Do you think if you mail stuff today you have to pay the higher rates?</p>
<p>I don’t think so, unless it’s not going to be postmarked until Monday.</p>
<p>Wait! Postal rates are going up? How’d I miss that? To what?</p>
<p>Okay, I just googled it - goes up to 41 cents on May 14, so you’re still good today at the old rates.</p>
<p>41 cents. You can also by Forever stamps which you’ll supposedly be able to use…forever. Stock up today!</p>
<p>Yeah, I’m wondering if I put something in the Post Office mail box today, does anybody look at it until Monday? Or do they “know” it was mailed prior to Monday? Sigh.</p>
<p>The new rates are stupid. They don’t even have the stamps printed yet for postcards (which I do a lot of for work) or the stamp for the incremental ounce (which is now 17 cents - used to be 24 cents, same as the post card rate…). Plus I see that large envelopes are WAY more expensive now. First ounce 90 cents!</p>
<p>If it’s in the box today, it will be OK at the old rate.</p>
<p>Yet another reason to pay bills online…</p>
<p>Ha – my son received his college orientation materials in the mail today with a “choose which session you want” form and a postage-metered envelope to send it back in. How much was the envelope metered for? 39 cents, of course!</p>
<p>He filled out the forms and we dropped it in the post office slot this afternoon just before their 3pm pickup/postmark deadline. Heh.</p>
<p>I was at the post office on Thursday, 5/10 last week, and the lady behind me asked about the rate increase. I told her it went into effect 5/14. She laughed and said that she asked a postal worker who was at the customer service window (getting “held” mail and accepting packages that already had the postage)…the postal worker had no idea that the rates were going up. Okayyyyy…</p>
<p>i don’t know if you guys know this but just because postal rates went up if you have 39c you can still use them on envelopes. so the small envelopes that require one stamp, you can use one stamp of 39c till you run out. my dad used to work in a post office so we do this all the time and nothing has backfired. however, i’m not exactly sure on all the specifics of bigger envelopes where you don’t always know how much they cost to ship them.</p>
<p>so save and use your 39c stamps.</p>
<p>I think you’re supposed to add penny stamps to make up the difference. That’s what I’ve always done. </p>
<p>I suppose I could be wrong though. I’ve always thought of them like shopping cards: you get x credit toward purchases, and if the price goes up in the meantime, too bad for you.</p>
<p>Post office was doing a brisk business on Monday, selling penny stamps to people who needed to use up their 39 centers. Sure kept it secret if this was unecessary.</p>
<p>My uncle also used to work for the postal service. If a letter came postage due, it was up to him to decide if he could trust the person he was delivering to to make up the difference. It came out of his pocket if he didn’t get paid for it. That’s why sometimes you get “postage due” letters, and sometimes they get returned to sender as “insufficient postage.” If you have something critical to mail, I wouldn’t take a chance on getting it returned (and wasting the 39 cents, since you have to start from scratch at that point.)</p>
<p>He’s been retired for years; I have no idea if they still do it this way.</p>
<p>The only good thing from the post office recently is the new 41 cent Jamestown stamps. They’re triangular! and look very cool.</p>
<p>^^I assume because the Jamestown fortress was triangular.</p>
<p>Eggzactly.</p>
<p>(10 char) :)</p>
<p>We mailed out a ton of letters on Monday in one of the blue boxes with an 11 AM pickup using the 39 cent stamps. They all arrived without problems - I just assumed there might be a grace period? Now I discover I have 2 sheets of 2 cent stamps and no more of the 39 cents.</p>
<p>I guess you are going to have to use 21 of those 2 cent stamps on your next mailing.</p>
<p>LOL, guess I better find a big envelope!</p>
<p>I have a friend whose a mailman. There was an elderly lady on his route who used to clip the no postage due squares off of envelopes and tape them to her letters. He ended up just buying stamps and stamping her letters for her, because she wouldn’t stop doing it, and he couldn’t stand to get her in trouble.</p>
<p>Hahaha, that should be double-posted on the frugal post!</p>