Adding extra postage to compensate for 2010 increases...I do

[johnnylightning]

I don't know about america but in canada the postage rates go up every january and in 2010 they are going up from 2 to 7 cents depending on the weight and size so because alot of requests take 6 months to a year to hear back i have been putting a extra 10 cent stamp on all my sase i have sent within canada since august,and a extra stamp on us requests...I was wondering who else does this because if you don't there is a good chance they won't realize and mail it and get a return to sender and who knows how many requests you might never see because of it and never even know...I would hate to have it sent to me and lose it over insufficient postage of 5 cents because don't think the post office will let it slide everytime because i know they don't and chances are if it gets returned to the agency or wherever they wont bother going and paying the postage to resend it.

[scarybun]

I don't know about america but in canada the postage rates go up every january and in 2010 they are going up from 2 to 7 cents depending on the weight and size so because alot of requests take 6 months to a year to hear back i have been putting a extra 10 cent stamp on all my sase i have sent within canada since august,and a extra stamp on us requests...I was wondering who else does this because if you don't there is a good chance they won't realize and mail it and get a return to sender and who knows how many requests you might never see because of it and never even know...I would hate to have it sent to me and lose it over insufficient postage of 5 cents because don't think the post office will let it slide everytime because i know they don't and chances are if it gets returned to the agency or wherever they wont bother going and paying the postage to resend it.

I believe US increases occur in May.

Regardless, I don't worry about losing a letter because of not having enough stamps on it. If a letter has insufficient postage and no return address (since celebs often leave that blank) the post office will inform the addressee (the person in the To field) that they have a letter which needs to be picked up and paid for. Sometimes I'll ensure that this will happen by writing my address both in the To and From fields of my SASE. As long as the post service has an address to work with, it will deliver the letter. They'll just make you come cover the remaining postage before they hand it over to you.

[johnnylightning]

Still it makes your chances of getting it less than if you just have the proper postage,plus as far as the return address goes i always write that in as well as my address on the envelope and i don't put my address as the return address also because the mail man told me they don't like when people have the same address for to and from because its suspicious looking and they really don't like no return address on the envelopes.

[dfreely]

I don't.. I use mainly non-denominated postage (Forever Stamps and IRCs) so price increases doesn't affect me.

Just an FYI, there's no point in adding an additional stamp for your US requests because there won't be a price increase in 2010 for First Class International mail.

[scarybun]

Still it makes your chances of getting it less than if you just have the proper postage,plus as far as the return address goes i always write that in as well as my address on the envelope and i don't put my address as the return address also because the mail man told me they don't like when people have the same address for to and from because its suspicious looking and they really don't like no return address on the envelopes.

I don't doubt that the post office doesn't like this, however when it comes down to it, they aren't going to throw your letter away. They'll deliver it to (or inform the person at) the address that's on the envelope, no matter whose it is.

[dobie516]

I have been told that the US rates will not go up in 2010.

Buying "forever stamps" is really the way to go. I've been using them exclusively since they came out for all of my return envelopes.

[RYAN J.]

I always use the forever stamps too, so I don't need to worry about it.

RYAN J.