Yahoo Finance Australia Post price hike set to hit customers next month
The consumer watchdog says it won’t oppose the postal service’s plan to hike prices for letters.
It could soon become more expensive for Aussies to send letters, after the consumer watchdog announced it would not oppose Australia Post’s plans to hike prices on the everyday essential.
The national postal service plans to increase the prices of stamps from April 3 this year, which will mean a 25 per cent increase on its reserved ordinary letter service.
This would raise the price for ordinary small letters from $1.20 to $1.50, large letters up to 125 grams from $2.40 to $3 and large letters between 125 and 250 grams from $3.60 to $4.50.
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There will be no price increases for concession stamps, which will stay at 60 cents each for eligible concession card holders. The price of seasonal greeting cards will also stay the same at 65 cents.
For the average Aussie who sends about 15 small letters per year, the price hike will mean an extra cost of $4.50 per year. However, customers will be impacted differently depending on the number, size and type of letters they send.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) said it did not object to Australia Post’s proposed price increases on a cost-recovery basis.
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However, the consumer watchdog made several recommendations to improve the postal service’s financial modelling, particularly if further price hikes were proposed in the future.
“Our recommendations seek to improve how Australia Post incurs and accounts for the costs of its reserved letter services, so consumers are not paying more for stamps than they should,” ACCC commissioner Anna Brakey said.
“We acknowledge the concerns raised in our consultation processes about the impact of the price increase on consumers and businesses, especially in light of cost-of-living pressures.”
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The price increases come after the postal service reported a $384.1 million net loss in its letters business over the 2023 financial year. The volume of letters delivered by Australia Post is expected to reduce by 11.3 per cent a year until 2025-26.
At the same time, online shopping has been on the rise. Australia Post today revealed 9.5 million households shopped online in the past year, or 82 per cent of all households - up 1.4 per cent, year on year.
Millennials spent more online than any other generation at $22.1 billion. While younger generations were cutting back on online spending in response to the current cost-of-living crisis, Australia Post found Baby Boomer’s online spending was actually up 7 per cent to $12.5 billion.
