US Postal Services Add Debit Cards, Loans

Merely a proposal -- far from a certainty and it seems to me it will have a lot of start-up costs to make it viable. If you are interested in the USPS OIG "White Paper" that makes the recommendations, you can access it at this link:

https://www.uspsoig.gov/sites/defau...p-14-007.pdf

Right now, the USPS hasn't even updated their USPS Store or USPS ebay websites to allow for purchases of the new 49c Ferns stamps or the Forever Star Spangled Banner stamp (issued today) and NOT available for purchase at local post offices unless they special order them. USPS Facebook and Twitter references these new stamps as being available, although the link they provide brings you to the Harry Potter Stamps.

If the USPS can't get something that simple right, what kind of a track record do you think they'll have to offer "financial services"? And what about the lines? If you think the USPS has long lines now, if they implement these kind of services, things can only get S-L-O-W-E-R.

Let's see if anyone else cares to chime in with their opinion.

Many years ago (late 70's early 80's), with the birth of electronic data transfers etc., the USPS was thinking about keeping up with the new media by offering fax service, which they did for awhile, and even swung a deal with Western Union for mass electronic mailings. The USPS also was considering a 'secure' site for paying bills with an electronic stamp signature (for revenue) and was considering electronic savings bank, (like ING) through a commercial USPS web-site. The Board of Governors, with Congressional input (better known as interference), decided that the USPS should stick to current non-electronic services and deliver mail the old fashioned way. This was an influence by the private mailer & banking lobbyists to keep the unfair, non-competing USPS out of the trending electronic services market. Now it's catch-up time. Aside from missing the opportunity to keep up with the modernization of the communications media, and banking process, the USPS must now try to enter this lucrative market significantly late and at a significant capital infrastructure investment.

I give them credit for trying to come up with a system to get them out of the deficit. There is a certain part of the population that will go for this idea. I have
Tom

That explanation of their website sounds like most other business and government websites out there.
But don't they do these types of services in other countries, or am I misunderstanding the ads I fly by on other websites?

Regardless if they add it or not, the line will never get slower than my last trip 3 months ago, one clerk, 35 minutes of him trying to explain to this hipster how mail forwarding and yellow address stickers work. Maybe...just maybe the clientele isn't ready for more services?

I belong, and use the US Postal credit union. They offer all the services a bank does. I wonder if a conflict could arise if the USPS got into the banking business.

moldman: I do not think the Credit Union is run by USPS. It may be chartered (named as a USPS Credit Union) as a credit union for employees of the USPS and they may have am office in the post office, but not run or administered by USPS management. Employees may be officers of the CU but this association is distinct & separate from any USPS offered services, and they are paid by the credit union not USPS. I belonged to the Boston Postal Employees Credit Union, (now Priority One)which allowed only employees & family to join, no outside members. The Credit Union charters are much different from commercial banking and it has only been in the last decade that the CU's could offer a broader commercial service. As far as I know (and I could be wrong) the USPS is not in the banking business. The Credit Union space is leased to the CU from the USPS, they carry the Identification (as USPS affiliated) because it is required by law for the charter to limit membership to a specific group. Many labor unions have Credit Unions for their members only, but these have no relation to the company to which the members work for. There is a Federal Employees Credit Union that services Federal workers only (including the USPS) but I do not believe that the Federal Government participates in its operations. A Postal Service Credit Union is in name only by charter, to identify the specific member group. (Unless things changed in the last 30 months. So there would be no conflict of interest, just confusion of entity (and competition for employee CUs).