Change in Postal Rates could Lead to Big Problems, Costs :
Using the U.S. Mail is about to cost you more. Starting Monday, the price of a first class stamp will go from 39 cents to 41 cents.
But there are even more changes coming, potentially costly changes.
Instead of determining postal cost by weight, now the size and shape of your letter will decide how much you'll pay.
"It costs us more by the size of the mail than the weight of the mail," says Savannah Postmaster Linda Shall.
Shall promises by Monday, every clerk will know the new rules, and each post office will be ready to cut through customers' confusion.
"We've had to train every person who works at any of our windows so that is massive, and that's been going on in the last two weeks," explains Shall.
But business experts say the post office isn't telling you the whole story.
"Its just a very quiet, here's what's going to happen and unfortunately businesses are going to find out the hard way when their postage starts skyrocketing," claims John Stevens
John Stevens works for Ashley's, which specializes in business shipping. He believes changing the rules businesses are used to, could end with big costs for consumers.
"Even if you are using stamps, if you don't change the way you are packaging things your postage could go up, and dramatically," exclaims Stevens. "This envelope is now today 87 cents. On May 14 its going to jump to $1.14. That's a 31 percent increase, far different than the 2 cents they are talking about."
Envelopes have to be less than a 1/4 inch thick and meet minimum and maximum height and length requirements to be declared letters. Otherwise they become "flats" or "parcels" and will cost you more.
"That means the square thank you notes, invitations, notices will automatically jump to the 80 cent category," says Stevens. "You can use a regular envelope if you have 1-5 pages. You will use 6" by 9" for 5-20 pages and if you are 20-150 pages you will use an envelope like this."
Stevens believes businesses will see a 12-20% increase in mailing costs, and that number could be even higher if they don't follow the rules correctly.
"They're spending $10,000 a month on postage where are they going to find an extra $5000 tomorrow?" wonders Stevens.
"The ripple effects are going to be huge and its going to take quite some time to for all of this to filter itself out."
The U.S. Postal Service is doing their part to help. they send out mailers to businesses in the last few weeks, and are offering a class to give businesses a tutorial on the new postal rules.
If you would like to join the class, you have to call the post office to reserve a spot.
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