Cost Of US & World Postage Stamps

How to Reduce Your Postage Costs

Today, it makes sense to save money every way you can, and one of these ways is to reduce your postage costs. Check out the following tips on how you can do just that.

The first place to start is to consider whether or not what you.re planning to mail actually has to be mailed. If you.re sending a letter, can that letter be sent via email or fax? Sometimes you can even scan information into your computer and send that as an attachment. Another option for sending large documents is to save the document on a flash drive and mail that instead of a large number of pages.

If the item can.t be emailed or faxed, can it be delivered in person? While making an extra trip just to deliver a package or letter doesn.t make sense, it may be a reasonable choice if that errand can be combined with others.

Your next consideration should be whether or not you can reduce the size of what you need to mail. A letter printed on the front and back of a piece of paper will take up half as much room as a letter printed only on one side of the paper. The difference between a 12 point font and an 11 point font may not seem like much, but sometimes a change this simple can reduce the total page count of your document. Similarly, enlarging your margins slightly can make a difference as well. A staple weighs less than a binder clip . or if a staple won't work, will a rubber band?

Always weigh the materials you.ll be weighing. If you guess that a letter weighs two ounces when it only weighs one, then you.ll waste money by putting extra postage on the letter. If you use a second first class stamp for that additional ounce of imagined weight, you.ve also wasted money . the second ounce or part of an ounce costs less to mail than the first ounce. This kind of money can really add up if you do a lot of mailing.

If you.re mailing a document, rather than sending it flat, consider whether or not it can be folded into a standard business envelope. While some materials . photographs, for example . can.t be folded, many items can. Standard sizes mail for less postage than unusual sizes.

In addition, if you.re using a postal scale at home, you should regularly check the accuracy of your scale. A scale that.s weighing materials heavier than they really are is costing you money. Balance beam scales are more accurate than spring scales, and digital scales can provide the most accurate weight information . with older scales that use a gauge, it can be hard to tell whether a letter is just above or just below an ounce.

Next up, consider how quickly the material needs to be delivered. Books, for example, can be delivered very quickly using first class or priority mail, but these options are expensive. Media mail is much less expensive and although delivery times are longer, they.re still quite reasonable.

The same is true with overnight delivery. Find out if overnight delivery mean the next day or the next business day. You generally pay a premium for weekend delivery and it.s seldom necessary. Overnight delivery can mean either at any time during the business day or by 10:00 a.m. on the business day. Again, you pay a premium for early morning delivery, when it may not be necessary.

Finally, consider the flat rate packaging offered by the post office. While these types of packaging don.t make sense for every mailing job, they can save you money on a number of items . particularly those that are heavy for their size.

Finally, if you do a lot of mailings, consider using bulk mail options. While this entails a little more work in terms of preparation, the cost savings can be significant.