I just stocked up by ordering online at usps stamp store at the current rate before it goes up again. I agree with you that the selection of forever stamps is pitiful right now. I picked 3 different ones but they are not very interesting. In the past they had very nice, pretty, interesting stuff.

Catticus, I’ve never been a card person. I call, I will email but mostly, I text. Even gift cards are sent electronically. I think the sheet of stamps I have were bought when the price was around .40 cents a stamp.

You'd have to use an awful lot of stamps before saving 5 cents per would amount to anything. I can't imagine most people would ever use enough for the savings to be worthwhile.

Those who want to save money spent on postage will save much more by finding ways to minimize how much mail is sent and thereby reducing stamp usage altogether. That's 50 cents at a crack or more. One avoided mail piece = 10 stamps on which you saved 5 cents.

I bought more than $200 worth of Forever stamps, so I'm set for a while....

I still enjoy writing letters. I tried sending electronic cards (Hallmark) back when they were free. Just isn't the same as getting one in the mail.

Of all the things I waste money on ... stamps and cards don't even register. I've always appreciated the beauty of most commemorative stamps. Wish I had stocked up on my state stamp years ago. One of CC Lockwood's amazing photographs.

https://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2011/12/cc_lockwood_phtograph_is_chose.html

I rarely use a stamp. I pay every bill I can online. I'm not adding more money to the bill with a stamp. I love Jacquie Lawson electronic greeting cards. I pay $20 for TWO years of unlimited cards.

I did have to write checks on Monday for the estimated taxes and put stamps on the envelopes. If I send a Christmas card, it's one I email.

Anglo, federal estimated tax and other individual tax payments can be made online. Search for EFTPS. It's quick and easy to use.

Many states offer a similar system for income tax and many areas also do for property tax. ( property tax is collected by counties in California) No need for stamps!

My post office told me before Christmas that stamps were going up. When I organized the Christmas card exchange, I mentioned it then that postage would go up sometime in January. As I enjoy making and sending cards, I use a lot of stamps. I sent out 100 hand made cards for Christmas. And that doesn't count any I send the rest of the year. I am well stocked. I still had some from last year, and stocked up again this year. I could probably wait another 2-3 years before buying more, if I wanted to. I like sending and receiving cards. Much better than bills and junk mail!

Some municipalities have a hefty surcharge for paying taxes online or by credit card, that's why it's better for many to still pay them by check.

Property tax is typically collected by counties and states, not municipalities. I'm sure that may vary from place to place.

The ones I cited, from my own personal experiences, are ACH payment facilities (federal income tax and California income and property tax in two different counties) that are completely free. No charge. I won't presume it's always the same elsewhere but I know of a number of states that similarly have no charge for ACH income tax payments.

Typically when there's a charge, it's because it's a credit or debit card transaction and the charge is imposed by the for-profit company that processes the payment, and a pass through in part from the credit or debit card company. Not a fee charged by by the governmental agency. They only want to be paid and receiving any payment electronically (instead of by check) saves them money via reduced processing time and reduced handling.

Elmer, I am old school still. I use ten to fifteen stamps a month, so forever stamps are nice to keep stocked for me.

Both counties I pay property tax in now accept E checks with no fee. All my bills are paid online. With mail theft on the uprise and the risk of ID theft I feel it's foolish to pay bills via snail mail. A few utilities/services are even allowing payment via credit card now without the additional middle man fee.

Unfortunately I do belong to a social group of old ladies that want one to send a check to pay for events. But it is what it is. That's about the only time I use a stamp or write a check.

I don't use to many stamps. I suppose for someone mailing a ton it will add up quickly however that 55 cents can send a letter the entire way across the US. That seems pretty cheap looking at it that way.

About the only thing I use stamps for now are the various cards we send to family members and hubby's son and family and grandchildren. Those are special occasions and deserve a special card. Bills are all online.

I do make use of the US Postal Service and I find that it is yet an important part of my life. It would be a great loss if we should loose it.

I sell patterns and use 2 stamps on each one. I go through stamps pretty quickly so I have stocked up. I won’t need to raise my shipping prices for a while.

I have a dozen young nieces and nephews and six siblings...i still send birthday cards to all. And we pay our taxes and water bill by check to our township - there is a hefty percent fee for paying by credit card. So I think I’ll buy a roll of stamps. It may not seem like such a great savings, but when I save where I can, it all adds up.

Elmer, I've lived in different parts of the country and yes, there are areas that discourage electronic payments with high fees on local taxes. Where I currently live it's lower than another place I've lived, currently it's 3% of the total bill so for a bill of $5,000 the fee is $150. That's huge to the average person.

A municipality can be any governing body that body may have the ability to tax.

LOL I missed when they went up to$.50!! I was more than a tish surprised at the cost when I purchased my Christmas stamps. The best invention ever is the FOREVER stamp!!!

Our gas and water departments won't let us do automated credit card payments. I do have it set up so I can pay online through my bank, but I refuse to let any company automatically take payment from my checking account. Been there, done that, and got screwed. I still need to pay doctor and hospital bills with a check, so I use stamps there. I can pay county property taxes the same way I do water and gas, or DH will walk in and pay in person with a check. (His dad payed all of his bills in person, never wrote a check, or mailed in payment).

I have one monthly bill that must be paid by mail unless I want to deliver it myself. Now and then the odd bill or form needs to be mailed as well. There is also a small group of people I regularly send greeting cards to for various occasions and sometimes just to let them know I am thinking about them. One of my best friends lost her husband a year ago and as her friends and relatives drift away because they are busy with their own lives, I like to let her know she's not forgotten.

I also use the USPS to send out jewelry I have sold. 99% of the time when I mail a first class package from California to the east coast it arrives within two days. For these packages, I use an online shipping service because I get a discount and because these packages often weigh more than an ounce. It's amazing to me when I think about how many letters and packages the USPS handles and how rarely something goes missing while charging a relatively small fee for their services.

We just bought a roll of forever stamps. The savings may not be that much, but I like the convenience of having stamps on hand when I need them, rather than having to go to the post office to buy one or to stop whatever it is I'm doing to purchase online. Just reach in the drawer and slap a stamp on there - doesn't get much easier than that!

As many have mentioned, not everything can be handled electronically or by auto-debits. Or even in person. And many do send real cards or even letters now and again. So a handy roll of Forever stamps for those times when the USPS has to be dealt with is a convenience, not a hardship! It's really not that much of big deal.........

I didn't know the cost was going up. I'm down to just a few stamps left and was planning to stop by the PO to pick up another book this week. I think I'll pick up enough to last a year or so. I pay my water bill by check and sometimes a few others each month. I also do several seed trades a year and sometimes stick several on a padded mailer if I'm too lazy to take it to the PO to get the exact postage amount.

Wow, thanks for the heads up. That's a big increase.

“Elmer, I've lived in different parts of the country and yes, there are areas that discourage electronic payments with high fees on local taxes. Where I currently live it's lower than another place I've lived, currently it's 3% of the total bill so for a bill of $5,000 the fee is $150. That's huge to the average person.”

Might you be confusing credit card payment with online payment.? My bank’s Online bill pay program will mail a check to those that do not yet accept electronic payments. There is no surcharge.

Municipality means city or town. It's not a word with a flexible or ambiguous meaning, to my knowledge.

Agree, maddielee. A quick check of about 10 states, small and large, showed that all have a means of free online payment from bank accounts. Same was true of a number of counties around the US I checked. I like to think about e-payments as being of two kinds, pull and push. Both kinds are made through the national ACH system unless it's something like a bank pulling a loan payment out of an account you have under the same roof.

Pull - you go on the website of the receiving entity (whether a government unit or a business, like a utility) enter your bank routing and account numbers, and authorize a payment amount. Or, as with a utility, normally they ask you authorize that each monthly bill be paid automatically X days after they send you the bill. Then that entity initiates a withdrawal from your account for payment. Same as with a mortgage or car payment made by what's sometimes called "direct debit". These are usually completely free of charge.

Push- You initiate a discrete payment or recurring payments with your bank, to be sent to a recipient. Depending on the recipient, many businesses are pre-registered within the banking system to get such payments in ACH form within a day or two, even if you've specified to send a check. If the payment is going to a recipient not so registered, the bank prints a check and mails it, arrival in 3-5 days. No charge, it's free.

The IRS system and the state income tax systems I use and checked are all Pull systems. The counties I pay property tax to have Pull systems too. All free. Calif DMV car license payments can be made to credit cards only but there's no service charge. I think they figure they're happy to pay the card issuer charges, and prob have negotiated a discount - this route saves them money in handling and they get the funds quicker.

I once looked up postal costs in other countries when we had an increase and everyone was fainting over the cost. We have about the lowest postal rates in the world and we have one of the largest countries at the same time. A stamp that will mail your garbage bill to the next town over will send a piece of mail to Alaska or Hawaii. Countries smaller than some of our states have significantly higher postage rates. You might think the postal service is outdated but your federal government uses it to communicate with you-you get a valuable hard copy of your interaction with them. Not something to toss over a five cent increase. I this increase is larger than normal because they has been running behind for many years.

The USPS has been running a deficit since forever. Our basic postal rates are indeed much lower than abroad but they also don't cover operating costs.

From my experience of living in Europe, I think postal service there is far superior to here. A good comparison is the German Post. It was privatized over 20 years ago and is now a publicly traded company. It owns DHL, by the way. It operates at a profit every year. Yes, postal rates are higher but so too is service. Postal service in other continental Western European countries is also excellent, as far as I've experienced.

As with everything, you get what you pay for. I think the USPS does a decent job but every day they run their races with their shoelaces tied together. It's not their fault.

Nope, on the back of the payment receipt is says "all forms of payment except check will include an additional 3% processing fee".

Municipal is a common work in used many business titles, not a highly specific word.

Elmer - nope I've never seen a single employee at the post office or delivering mail with their shoe laces tied together...

I see you only checked states and since many taxes, even state taxes, are collected by counties you need to check every county next. Then you need to check each of the parishes in Louisiana. Some states have independent cities so you need to check all of those. If your going to live up to your "know it all" attitude you have decades, maybe centuries of research ahead of you, Elmer.

Nope, on the back of the payment receipt is says "all forms of payment except check will include an additional 3% processing fee".

So there would be no surcharge if paying with your bank’s online bill pay. Because most banks would send a check (paying the postage).

Maddie, that may vary by bank, at my bank, they only send a check for businesses that don't accept electronic transfers. So far I've only dealt with one business that didn't accept electronic transfers.

Catticus - thought I'd return to Elmer the favor of being so very knit-picky. :) Glad you enjoyed the humor.

When someone knows something you don't, you dispute it. If your experience is with rural countries of Louisiana, it's no surprise that you're so ill informed.

It happens in this case, my information borders on a lifetime of professional practice in areas I continue to advise people about.

Have a nice day, try to be a bit less rigid in your views, there's lots you don't know.

If your experience is with rural countries of Louisiana, it's no surprise that you're so ill informed.

Oh, the irony!

The correct word would be counties, except they're not. We have parishes in Louisiana.

Clearly there's lots you don't know.

Not only do you have parishes (in Louisiana) but some of the most delicious food I've ever had! Beautiful scenery in the Atchafalaya Basin too.

Thanks Elmer for such a hilarious post!

Typo from use of smartphone.

Parish and county are synonyms, no? Just like city and municipality. If you knew what I was referring to I used the right word.

Why is it that exchanges with some of you are like a trip back to elementary school? Bye,

You know, they make a thing called bug spray.

I have a question, please. I know the forever stamps last forever. I still have some 2015 postcard stamps. Are they forever, too? Doesn’t say the value on them. Didn’t see these at the postal store.

Good to know that I can make those Estimated tax payments online! Thanks, Elmer!

I cannot pay my municipality property taxes except by check. The good thing is that it's for a small subdivision (6th Class City) and the City Treasurer lives a block away. We all just stick our envelopes with our checks in her mailbox. Yes, the mailman DOES allow this.

My county property taxes may be paid online using a credit or debit card. There is a pretty substantial fee - far less costly to buy a stamp! I can't renew my state license tag online as I drive a leased vehicle. I can pay my state re-sale tax online but there is a fee for doing so - it's small so I pay it that way.

It's a big country, made up of innumerable tax districts and their individual rules. The nice thing is that we can easily Google and find out if and how online payment might be possible.

Hard to believe that anyone is concerned about 5¢ extra to mail a letter, unless one is mailing thousands. Like catticusmockingbird, I think this is laughable. My brother remembers when postage went up 1¢ and people were up in arms. But it went from 5¢ to 6¢, which was 20% instead of 10%. Still, we are talking about pennies and nickels. If you are sending large packages, that is a different matter. It cost me $20 to send a Christmas package to my sister via UPS (which was cheaper than USPS), but I understand the costs in shipping. I will not be stocking up on more Forever Stamps - I think I have enough to last me for a several months. If I bought too many, I might misplace them.

Single stamp for small weight (about 4 letter pages) envelope - a buck(Cdn), for in-country delivery.

Pack of 10 for $8.50. Same price for the permanent ones, that have a "p" (for "postage", "permanent", "?", I think.

Quite a bit more to go over border, or overseas.

Daughter paid U. S. $15.50 to mail a wrist watch (in a somewhat larger - but not very big - box) to me for my birthday a few years ago.

Had she mailed me the total cash ... could have bought a fancier (also Timex) watch.

ole joyful

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Iris, congrats - those are "forever" stamps!

Lars - Cactus was laughing at my giving a hard time to Elmer.

I tried to get my smartphone to misspell Parrish as County, nope, didn't happen because those two words do not have a single letter in common. Conclusion?

The 5 cents makes a difference to me, I will be sending less mail out. It will make a difference to those on a fixed income or on disability.

I don't think its very nice that some people find it "laughable" that this creates a burden on some people.

I'm more than done with the childishness some display but I have to say that you're the gift that keeps on giving.

"I tried to get my smartphone to misspell Parrish as County... "

It is actually a federal offense to put unstamped mail in a mail box. You don't get to put fliers and such in your neighbor's boxes but you can stick a stamp on them and be legal. Having said that being prosecuted for such an offense is unheard of but some people's mail carriers will pull them out. Depends on the post master.

the US postal service is some years behind on recouping costs due to inflation etc. They cant just raise rates or adjust like any regular business, they have to go through congress although they are no longer exactly a federal entity except the employees are sort of. Confusing right? the present administration thinks the USPS is costing us money tax wise(not true) so is OK with raising rates since the idea is to make you think privatizing will be cheaper. that is a ball of wax. Access to your mail box is a plus for private businesses since only mail can currently be put in your mail box. What private companies will not want is all the scattered mail boxes in the boonies. Package deliver companies already have contracts with the USPS to deliver packages to all those out of the way places where they don't make money delivering to because the USPS has to go there already. And what if they do not? think it through if you are not suburban or city. Suddenly an extra $.05 doesn't sound so bad.

Thanks for the heads up. I write all the thank you notes for donations to our library, so I will buy a couple hundred now before the price goes up.

It's not employees of the USPO whose shoelaces are tied together, it's the way the postal service is set up and regulated by our government...not allowed to be *profitable*.

I have no complaints about the service we get. I do wonder why it takes two weeks to get a letter from Canada -- longer if it's sent 'air mail'. Wha? (They do have gorgeous stamps, though.)

I'm aware of that, I was being facetious in response to Elmer's nit-picking.