In a few months, you will have to pay more to post a letter or send a parcel. La Poste has just announced new increases in its prices, including for the basic green stamp.
From 2025, postal shipments in France will undergo some significant changes. While the good old letter continues to have its place in the lives of citizens and businesses, its prices continue to rise. For several years, La Poste has in fact begun a restructuring of its services and prices, in response to a continuous decline in the volume of traditional mail.
Thus, the universal postal service rates had increased by an average of 8.3% at the start of 2024, with the green stamp increasing from €1.16 to the current €1.29. In two years, it has therefore increased by 19.8%, while the registered letter increased by 18.8%. However, La Poste is continuing on its momentum and announcing new rate increases on 1 January 2025, starting with the green letter, which will see the biggest increase.
In detail, it will go from €1.29 to €1.39, an increase of 7.8%, while the service letter will cost €3.15, and no longer €2.99, which is an increase of 5.4%. For its part, the price of a 20 g registered letter will be increased from €5.36 to €5.74, an increase of 7.1%, and the international letter will be set at €2.10 instead of €1.96, an increase of 7.1%. As for the “services plus” letter, for “the most important document shipments requiring follow-up notifications”, It will increase from €2.99 to €3.15, while parcel shipping rates will increase by an average of 5.2%, all destinations combined.
Finally, the services offered to businesses, industrial mail and direct marketing, will increase by 5.8% and 3.1% respectively. On the other hand, the price of mail tracking and the red e-letter – which replaced the legendary red stamp for priority mail – will not change, remaining at 50 cents and €1.49 respectively.
According to La Poste, “these developments make it possible to ensure the sustainability of the universal postal service with high quality in a context of inflation and falling mail volumes”However, La Poste assures that the price increase does not lead to an increase in household budgets for postal services.
“In 2024, a household’s budget for postal products represents 29 € per year on average, or 0.1% of its annual budget”, indicates the group. “Given the decline in mailings, this expenditure on postal products should show a decrease of 3% in 2025”, whereas it was still €48 in 2015. We are reassured.
The fact remains that while La Poste is still essential in France for sending traditional paper mail, this is no longer the case for sending parcels. New service providers such as Relais Colis or Mondial Relay offer relay point delivery services that are often more economical than the historic operator.