The price of mailing a letter in Australia is set to go up for the first time in four years, if you haven't figured out email yet

• The price of posting a letter in Australia is set to rise by ten cents after the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) decided not to object to the increase.

• Australia Post will now increase the price of mailing a letter from $1 to $1.10 for ordinary letters.

• The last price increase was in 2015, when Australia Post controversially jacked the price up t0 $1 from 70 cents.

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If you're still in the business of sending physical letters, either because you're a committed Luddite or because you simply love the experience, it's about to a marginally pricier experience.

The ACCC has announced it will not object to Australia Post's plan to increase the cost of a standard letter stamp from $1 to $1.10, meaning the plan now be implemented from January.

“We are satisfied that the proposed price increases are unlikely to result in Australia Post recovering more than its cost of providing monopoly letter services, given the forecast decline in letter volumes,” ACCC Commissioner Cristina Cifuentes said in a statement.

“Although Australia Post has exceeded the efficiency targets it set for its monopoly letter services in 2015, it has not yet attained the efficiency levels of comparable overseas postal operators, but is on a path to bridging the gap.

The ACCC said it will "continue to monitor Australia Post’s progress" in the above areas should another price rise be on the horizon.

Australia Post originally announced its intention to increase the price back in August.

In addition to standard letters, large letters up to 125 grams are up from $2 to $2.20, and letters between 125 to 250 grams are up from $3 to $3.30.

The last significant price increase on postage stamps for ordinary letters was back in 2016, with a far more significant increase from 70c to $1.

Despite only being a 10c increase, Australia Post was required to send an extraordinarily detailed price notification to the ACCC justifying it. This is because there is an expectation, as a Commonwealth-owned corporation, that Australia Post will price and operate as efficiently as possible.

You may be of the impression that email has supplanted ordinary letter-sending across most households in Australia, but Australia Post estimates that the average Australian household sends "between 10 and 20 letters per year".

Of course, there could be a handful of prolific pen pals who are tipping the scales on that one.