Friday 14 April 2017

Lowering the Costs of International Postage

Hey, All!

Just wanted to remind everybody that the world's post offices can stick it to you with international postage if you're not careful.

It costs about $3 here in America to mail something out of the country. However, if I add any bulk - anything they can "feel" (gems, buttons, more than 1/4"-thickness of lace, etc.), they add about $10 to the cost! Nobody wants to spend $13 (or more) on postage for a card, right?

Another thing about the higher cost is your card's reclassification as a "package." (Now you've done it!) "Packages" (even though they're envelopes) can take much longer to arrive than "official" envelopes.

You aren't required to send anything other than your card, but if you want to send a little something extra, stamped images, or die-cuts, or stamped die-cuts are flat and shouldn't add anything to the cost of postage.

(Unless you stick about 80 of them in there.) LOL!

Feel free to do whatever you like, of course, but we don't want anybody to ever feel like they're obligated to send any "extras" - the gift is in the card itself!

Have a great weekend,
Deborah, Gail, and Jo

2 comments:

Cat Craig said...

From the US - First-Class Mail® International Letter**
Max. length 11-1/2", height 6-1/8" or thickness 1/4". I have a piece of cardboard that I cut a slit in that is 3/16 of an inch wide. If my card slides through that even if its a tight fit, I know I am good for standard postage. Square envelopes and rigid envelopes (non - machineable) cost just a bit more. Standard us postage right now is 1.15 for "normal size and shape" rigid or square is 1.36. At 1.1 oz to not more than 2 oz the costs are 1.98 to 2.19. Once you get beyond that 1/4 thickness regular size e envelopes whether US or International become packages and the price goes up quite a bit. I mail quite a few things and visit the usps.com sight quite often.

Unknown said...

Thanks, Cat! I'm going to put this in a post!