Sending a letter will cost more on January 1 next. In a press release published on Thursday, La Poste announced an “evolution” of its prices at the start of next year. And the addition turns out to be salty for lovers of postcards and other missives. A year after the entry into force of its new range, marked in particular by the end of the red stamp, all prices will increase, by “8.3%” on average, overall.
In detail, the increases vary according to the product concerned. Two are unchanged: the red e-letter, on the one hand, and the “tracking” sticker, on the other. At the same time, the green letter will see its price jump by 11.2%, to 1.29 euros and the “service plus” letter will cost 2.99 euros, against 2.95 euros today. Similarly, the price of registered letters has risen by 11%, from 4.83 euros to 5.36 euros, and international letters have increased from 1.80 euros to 1.96 euros. An increase of 8.9%, again, but which makes it possible to send letters “to all the countries of the European Union and the rest of the world”, justifies La Poste.
The other products are also affected by this increase. On the Colissimo side, sending a parcel weighing less than 250 grams will cost 0.8% more, or 4.99 euros, and “the prices of Colissimo for individuals, all destinations combined (France and international) will increase by an average of 5.6% “. Similarly, companies will have to pay 6.8% more for their industrial management mail, and 5.2% for direct marketing, “in order to make it easier for companies located in France to promote their offers in a multi-channel approach” .
For the postal group, these developments will be “without impact on the household budget”: while the number of letters sent each year continues to decline, households spend only “33 euros” per year on average on postal products, i.e. 0 .1% of their annual budget. However, this share will remain stable, even once these new tariffs come into force. But the company will benefit from these increases, which will “ensure the sustainability of the universal postal service with high quality in a context of inflation and falling mail volumes”.
This expected increase comes as La Poste faces the inexorable drop in mail, replaced, little by little, by digital. Households now only send five priority letters per year, compared to nine times more in 2010, the company pointed out last year. Similarly, the household budget devoted to sending has fallen sharply, from 45 euros to 37 euros, in six years. What weigh on the accounts of the group, which hopes to save several hundred million euros thanks to its new pricing policy. In the meantime, sending a postcard to loved ones will therefore cost more next year. Inflation does not even spare love letters.
