Anyone Buying The New Cheaper US Stamps Yet?

Now that forever stamps are now 47 cents, has anyone ran out to buy a bunch? I've been losing money mailing out things using my forever stamps I spent 49 cents on, so I'm not reaping the benefits yet. I spoke to my contract post office and they said that they would not get a refund on the stamps they acquired from the nearby full service post office so they now have to sell the stamps they bought at 49 cents for 47 cents now. Kind of strange! I did save a dime today mailing out a flat envelope (the cost on those fell too)

I don't have enough of the 49 cent to worry about it, probably less than a dollar difference. I am on a budget but a dollar bill isn't critical to me.

I use older postage so I was able to start putting the lower amount right away. I cant imagine anyone has so many they use for postage that it will hurt them.

I thought this was some kind of dumb joke, that USPS lowered their rates, but with all you guys talking about it, I guess it must be true. Why? They claim always to be short of money. They have no real competition. Nobody is going to write a letter rather than send an email because it is now $.02 cheaper.

The USPS, as compared to the old post office department, is not an integral part of the government, but it isn't really independent, either. How much does Congress have to say about postal rates?

Don

Quite a bit thanks to The Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006. The USPS can only raise rate to match inflation.

The new lower rates have nothing to do with getting more people to send a letter. The USPS lost a lawsuit against the bulk mail industry to remove the emergency rate increases.

The above act is also why the USPS is "short" on money. It has nothing to do with sales or services, but rather the prefunding of employee benefits in advance.