As we make our way through January and winter, the annual postal rate increase just took place on January 24, 2021. If there is a positive – for mailers this increase is less than the one in 2020 with Marketing Mail rates seeing an average increase of $.003 per piece.

Key changes include –

• Marketing (Standard Class) and Nonprofit mailings increase approximately $.003 per piece.
• Presorted Commercial First-Class Letters and Postcards are increasing about $.01 each.
• Retail First-Class Forever Stamps remain at 55 cents and Postcards increase to 36 cents.

Download J&Q’s Postal Rates and Reference Guide for the 2021 postage rates, mailpiece qualification specifications, postal optimization tips and more.

First-Class Mail

The First-Class Forever stamp remains the same as the past two years at 55 cents, while the cost of postcard stamps is increasing from 35 cents to 36 cents. Presorted Commercial First-Class mail is also increasing an average of $.01 each.

Marketing Mail

Even though it is tough for mailers to continually add to their postage budgets each year, the Marketing Mail change is less than the average increase of $.005 per piece experienced in 2020.

SCF entered mail increased more than mail entered at the NDC or the local post office. For the past couple years, the USPS has been reducing the savings for the work mailers have been doing to presort and ship the mail to the SCF which is further into the mail stream. The USPS evidently miscalculated the savings for these type of drop shipped mailings.

J&Q ships most of our clients’ mail to the SCF’s. Although discounts are not as large between NDC and SCF mail, it still provides a savings.

If you love all the detail and want to see the USPS price rate charts for all postal mail classes and services, download them here.

For many of our new clients we have been able to offset postal increases by using our Hybrid Postal Optimization Solution in combination with producing their direct mail programs on color inkjet presses, which allow multiple versions to be combined in one print and postal processing run. We have provided companies with significant postage savings compared to their previous service providers by optimizing the mail and using a combination of drop shipping and commingling to achieve the lowest postage and freight rates, while meeting in-home dates.

If you have questions or need more information on how the rate increase may affect your direct mail budgets, contact us at 847.588.4800 or jqinfo@j-quin.com and ask for Sales.