Greeting cards are available in various shapes and weights, and they include “musical” cards. Most greeting cards, including “musical” cards, meet uniform thickness standards and are sufficiently flexible under the new shape-based rules for letter mail. Do not charge postage due if these cards show postage applied by the Postal Service using meter stamps or PVI indicia, which indicate that the mailpiece was already reviewed for compliance with shape-based mailing guidelines.
Square greeting cards are charged the $0.17 nonmachinable surcharge in addition to the First-Class Mail postage, if the card is less than 6-1/8 inches high. Greeting cards exceeding the maximum letter-size height of 6-1/8 inches are classified as flats — not parcels — and the appropriate flat-sized rate is charged. Greeting cards and other mail weighing more than 3.5 ounces, regardless of dimensions, are not considered letters and are priced as flats. Envelopes for these cards are often already marked “Extra Postage Required.”
If you have any questions about a mailpiece, uniform thickness, or size standards, please notify your supervisor, who can contact a retail associate or the Business Mail Entry manager.
To qualify for flat rates, large envelopes must be rectangular, somewhat flexible, and meet uniform thickness requirements. Do not charge postage due if the mailpiece shows postage applied by the Postal Service using meter stamps or PVI indicia, which indicate that the mailpiece was already reviewed for compliance with shape-based mailing guidelines.
The maximum weight for flats is 13 ounces. A mailpiece that exceeds 13 ounces is considered a Priority Mail item.
Notice 3-S, First-Class Mail Shape-Based Pricing Template, is the perfect tool to help determine mailpiece prices.
