The Post Office wants stamp prices to rise five times over the next three years

New York (CNN) — Three things seem certain to happen in life: death, taxes and the prices of stamps going up.

The United States Postal Service announced that First-Class postage, currently at 73 cents , will go up five times through 2027, according to a detailed document submitted this week to the Postal Regulatory Commission.

The next price hike is planned for July 2025 and will then repeat “each January and July thereafter” through the end of 2027, the agency said. However, all price changes must be approved by the Postal Regulatory Commission and the specific price hikes weren’t announced.

The USPS confirmed that it won’t increase prices in January 2025, a temporary pause despite its new twice-a-year hike schedule.

“Our strategies are working and projected inflation is declining,” Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said in a statement. “Therefore, we will wait until at least July before proposing any increases for market-dominant services.”

The USPS added that it “remains committed to continued cost saving measures and to keeping its products and services affordable” and notes that “only a handful” of countries charge less for the price of a stamp.

The price of a First-Class stamp reached 10 cents in 1974, just before the 200th anniversary of the service. As recently as 2002 it stood at 34 cents, or half of the current price.

First-Class mail is becoming a smaller part of the Postal Service’s business because of online communication. The number of individual letters sent each year has fallen by about half in the past decade.

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