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How to Send a Letter of the alphabet or Postcard: Domestic

Sending a letter of the alphabet with USPS^® is like shooting fish in a barrel! Our video will aid yous with near letters and postcards y'all transport domestically (inside the U.South.), including U.S. territories and armed services bases in the U.Due south. and abroad.

For how to ship a package, see How to Send a Bundle: Domestic.

Footstep ane: Choose Envelope or Postcard

Envelopes are for sending flat, flexible things, similar letters, cards, checks, forms, and other newspaper goods. For merely i $0.58 First-Form Mail service^® Forever^® stamp, yous can send 1 oz (about 4 sheets of regular, 8-1/two" ten 11" paper in a rectangular envelope) to anywhere in the U.S.!

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Envelopes must exist rectangular and made of paper to qualify for letter of the alphabet prices. Your envelope can exist a maximum of xi-1/2" long 10 half-dozen-1/8" high. (A standard No. 10 envelope is 9-1/2" long ten iv-1/eight" high.) You can fold what you put in your envelope, but information technology needs to stay flat—no more than 1/4" thick.

If you desire to transport letter-sized papers without folding them, you lot can utilize a big envelope (called a "flat"); the stamp for flats starts at $i.sixteen. If your large envelope is nonrectangular, rigid (can't bend), or lumpy (not uniformly thick), you'll have to pay the package price.

TIP: If your envelope can't fit through USPS mail processing machines, or is rigid, lumpy or has clasps, string, or buttons, it'southward "nonmachinable" and you'll have to pay $0.30 more to send it. (Come across additional postage in Step 3.) You'll besides have to pay more if your envelopes are square or vertical (taller than they are wide).

Postcards are for short messages that you don't need to put in an envelope. Save coin using a $0.40 postcard stamp to transport a standard-sized postcard anywhere in the U.S. Standard postcards are ordinarily made of paper, are betwixt five" to 6" long and 3-1/2" to iv-1/four" high, and are betwixt 0.007" and 0.016" thick.

Size & Weight Requirements – Postcards & Envelopes

Step 2: Address Your Postal service

Envelopes: Write your address (the "render" or "sender" accost) in the tiptop left corner. Write the delivery address (the "recipient" address) in the bottom center.

Postcards: Postcards come in different formats, so write the commitment address in the space it gives you lot (on the same side yous write your bulletin and put the stamp).

Print your return address and the delivery address conspicuously, in the right spots, to make sure your mail is delivered on time.

Accost Format Tips

Print addresses neatly in capital letters.
Use a pen or permanent marking.
Exercise not use commas or periods.
Include the ZIP+4^® Lawmaking whenever possible.

Write Sender Address

Write your address (the "render address") in the top-left corner. Include the post-obit on separate lines:

Your total name or visitor proper name
Flat or suite number
Full street accost
City, Country, and ZIP+4 Code

Write Commitment Address

Write the delivery address (the "recipient" accost) in the bottom heart of the envelope. Include the following on separate lines:

Recipient's full proper name or visitor name
Apartment or suite number
Full street address
City, Land, and Zippo+four Code

Advanced Tips for Secondary Addresses (similar Flat or Suite) Postal Addressing Standards

Special U.S. Addresses

Puerto Rico

Some Puerto Rico addresses include an urbanization or community lawmaking for a specific area or development. Addresses with an urbanization code, abbreviated URB, should be written on four lines:

MS MARIA SUAREZ
URB LAS GLADIOLAS
150 CALLE A
SAN JUAN PR 00926-3232

More than Puerto Rico Address Examples

U.S. Virgin Islands

Virgin Islands addresses have the same format equally standard addresses. The right abbreviation for this territory is "VI," not "U.s.a. Vi" or "United states Half dozen":

MS JOAN SMITH
RR 1 BOX 6601
KINGSHILL VI 00850-9802

Military and Diplomatic Mail (APO/FPO/DPO)

Mail to military and diplomatic addresses is treated differently:

Practise non include the city or state name when you transport something to an APO/FDO/DPO accost in another country. This keeps your mail service out of foreign mail networks.
Do include unit and box numbers if they're assigned:

SEAMAN JOSEPH SMITH
Unit 100100 BOX 4120
FPO AP 96691

More Details on Military Addresses

When you're done addressing your envelope, put what you lot're sending inside the envelope, then close and seal information technology (using the envelope's glue or tape).

Postage stamp for messages mostly depends on weight and size/shape. You lot can counterbalance your letter with a kitchen scale, postal scale, at a cocky-service kiosk, or at the Mail Role^™ facility counter.

TIP: As a dominion of pollex, you can send 1 oz (4 sheets of regular 8-1/ii" x 11" paper and a business concern-sized envelope) for 1 First-Course Mail^® Forever^® stamp (currently $0.58).

The postage for a big envelope (or apartment) starts at $1.16 for 1 oz.

Where Can I Buy Postage?

The Postal Store^®
Shop online for all stamps and add-on postage for oversized or heavier envelopes.
Post Office Locations
Buy stamps at Post Function locations, self-service kiosks, or at Canonical Postal Providers^® such as grocery and drug stores.

TIP: If you're sending larger envelopes (flats) using Priority Mail^® or Priority Mail Express^® service, you lot tin apply Click-North-Transport^® service to pay for and print your ain stamp online.

Additional Postage

If your envelope weighs over one oz, you can buy additional postage stamp in the corporeality yous demand:

Each boosted 1 oz is $0.20, for letters up to 3.v oz and large envelopes up to 13 oz.
Nonmachinable items, including envelopes that are lumpy or rigid, or have clasps, cord, or buttons volition price $0.30 more than to ship. You'll besides take to pay more than if your envelopes are square or vertical (taller than they are wide).
You can as well purchase i¢, 2¢, iii¢, 5¢, and ten¢ stamps at The Postal Store^®.

TIP: Put the postage stamp on last; that way, if you brand a mistake at any other point, you won't waste a stamp.

Calculate a Cost

Add-on Services

If yous want insurance, proof of commitment, special handling, signature services, or other optional services, you'll have to pay extra.

Our Insurance & Extra Services folio has more details; some of the more common add-on services for messages include:

Certified Mail service^®: Proof that you mailed your detail and that the recipient signed for information technology
Registered Postal service^®: Requires that the recipient sign for the post to confirm delivery (or attempted delivery)
Render Receipt: You'll get a printed or emailed delivery tape showing the recipient'due south signature
Adult Signature Required: Simply an adult (historic period 21+) tin sign for the mail after showing a valid regime ID

Pace 4: Send Your Mail

Once your envelope or postcard has the correct addresses and postage, you lot tin send information technology several ways, including putting it in your mailbox or dropping information technology in a bluish collection box or at the Post Role.

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Source: https://www.usps.com/ship/letters.htm