View Full Version : Adjusting to slower USPS mail delivery
dado potato
10-19-20, 9:44am
What changes are you making (and considering) in Personal Finance as a result of slower mail delivery?
My past practice has been to pay my and DW's credit cards by check. I received the printed statements and held on to them until the first of each month. Payment was due on the 13th of the following month. I put the 2 checks in the mail on the first of each month.
Regarding the 10/1/20 checks, on 10/13/20 I had an email from the credit card company stating that unless I made a payment that day of at least $29, my credit card could not be used at Point-of-Sale beginning 10/14. The same message was received concerning DW's card.
In effect, the 2 $29 payments were "late penalties".
In addition to the late penalties, interest was charged to the accounts on the unpaid balances. This was a lifetime first for me. I had always paid the balance in full, using the US Postal Service.
Monitoring the accounts on a daily basis on-line, I noted that on 10/17 the mailed payments were credited to the account. The transit time for 2 first class letters was 16 days. (I can hardly believe my eyes. But there it is.)
I don't protest the late fees or interest on the account ... the credit card company fully disclosed exactly what they would do in case a minimum payment was not received, in advance, in writing.
In the future, on the first of the month I plan to make the credit card payments immediately without depending on the U S Mail. I can do so on-line or on the telephone.
We pay only one check by mail and it is sent 10 days prior to the due date. So far, that has been enough time. With everything else, we switched to either online or auto-payments years ago after being charged a "late" payment fee when it was overdue by one day. They removed the charge when I called to complain however.
I haven't noticed any lag in mail service and I usually mail payments one week before due dates. I haven't had any problems with them being received late.
I wonder if payment processing on the receiving in may be affected by the pandemic?
catherine
10-19-20, 10:43am
All of my bills are paid online, so mail delay is a non-issue for me, except for the times when I would really love to be able to rely on Amazon next-day delivery, but I've adjusted my expectations there.
Actually, I do pay my Medicare quarterly payment by check, and I haven't had any real issue there, either.
Teacher Terry
10-19-20, 10:44am
I ay everything online through my bank. Our mail is slow at times.
iris lilies
10-19-20, 10:46am
I don’t know if DH is mailing bill payments earlier or not. He still pays a fair number of things through the US mail.
But we now at least pay our big credit card bills online through automatic online payment, so that is good.
We just paid off the car- I wrote the check and it had to go Dallas...I thought a bit about that...but I mailed it the 8th or 9th and it was due the 18th. It got there!!! So I was happy.
I haven’t noticed a difference. Which surprises me a little.
I ordered a blanket from Iceland on Wednesday evening, it was here Thursday afternoon. Straight from the shop in Reykjavik.
I mailed something to a fellow who lives 4 miles from me down in town, it took 1.5 weeks.
frugal-one
10-19-20, 3:15pm
What changes are you making (and considering) in Personal Finance as a result of slower mail delivery?
My past practice has been to pay my and DW's credit cards by check. I received the printed statements and held on to them until the first of each month. Payment was due on the 13th of the following month. I put the 2 checks in the mail on the first of each month.
Regarding the 10/1/20 checks, on 10/13/20 I had an email from the credit card company stating that unless I made a payment that day of at least $29, my credit card could not be used at Point-of-Sale beginning 10/14. The same message was received concerning DW's card.
In effect, the 2 $29 payments were "late penalties".
In addition to the late penalties, interest was charged to the accounts on the unpaid balances. This was a lifetime first for me. I had always paid the balance in full, using the US Postal Service.
Monitoring the accounts on a daily basis on-line, I noted that on 10/17 the mailed payments were credited to the account. The transit time for 2 first class letters was 16 days. (I can hardly believe my eyes. But there it is.)
I don't protest the late fees or interest on the account ... the credit card company fully disclosed exactly what they would do in case a minimum payment was not received, in advance, in writing.
In the future, on the first of the month I plan to make the credit card payments immediately without depending on the U S Mail. I can do so on-line or on the telephone.
I would call and have the fees waived... especially since this has never happened before. I had this happen recently too and fees and interest were waived.
mschrisgo2
10-19-20, 5:37pm
I have been paying bills online, some directly, some through the bank’s bill pay, for several years now. I only write 1 check a month and it gets hand delivered, though I have just learned of a way to pay that electronically as well. Yay!
I have had quite a number of important things never reach me in the mail over the last couple of years, most notably W-2s, and 1099s, but also the pink slip from DMV when I paid off my car, and a $100. Voucher won in a raffle. I get everything possible electronically, but there are still a few things that need to come in the mail. I keep a list of things I’m expecting, the postmaster here knows me by name now, because every time something disappears in the mail, I go check with them before I file the complaint, i.e. I give them a chance to find anything they have lost and laying around. (Was only fruitful once, but, hey, It was worth my time)
Right now, I’m getting tons of election flyers - already voted- and all the drama of wanting me to change my Medicare/health coverage. I will be very glad when the season for each is over!
Odd that it should come up. I mailed a handful of common household bills a while back in what I thought was ample time. The next billing cycle a couple of them had a carryover balance that I had paid. There was not a penalty and it worked out fine. Maybe I was just slow in paying. What I have noticed is the turn around time on my Netflix DVDs is at least a day and maybe two days slower. I suppose it's possible that it's Netflix and not the post office.
It is 1 or 2 days slower, not a big difference. In one case I found out people at the lockbox were sitting on mail for several days due to a fear of corona. It was not the USPS.
What I have noticed is the turn around time on my Netflix DVDs is at least a day and maybe two days slower. I suppose it's possible that it's Netflix and not the post office.
Wow. That’s old school! Do you also get movies from the one remaining blockbuster?
We get other peoples mail a few times each week. Not people with our address on the mail, but people with a difference address on the envelope. It happens sometimes daily. If it’s junk mail we reticle it. If it looks important we give it back to the mail carrier when we see them again. They never seem concerned. Even when we give it to the same mail carrier many times. We have several mail carriers. It doesn’t seem like there is one assigned one to our route. Some days no one goes by. Some days we see 2-3 different carriers go down our street about an hour apart. Some days we get more than one delivery from different carriers.
It makes me wonder what we are not getting that belongs to us?
Wow. That’s old school! Do you also get movies from the one remaining blockbuster?
Netflix has a way of keeping a lot of the higher quality movies and series on DVD, like Game of Thrones and The Wire for example,. I do stream some excellent B horror movies on Netflix, also. My way of getting around cable, I guess. I consider cable old school.
Netflix has a way of keeping a lot of the higher quality movies and series on DVD, like Game of Thrones and The Wire for example,. I do stream some excellent B horror movies on Netflix, also. My way of getting around cable, I guess. I consider cable old school.
You kids you! I consider 3 VHF and maybe 1 UHF stations brought in by a state of the art outside antenna (which had to be repositioned for at least 2 of those stations) old school. In my mind, cable's still new.
iris lilies
10-19-20, 10:05pm
Netflix has a way of keeping a lot of the higher quality movies and series on DVD, like Game of Thrones and The Wire for example,. I do stream some excellent B horror movies on Netflix, also. My way of getting around cable, I guess. I consider cable old school.
Cable IS old school.
hey Roger, it’s interesting that Netflix is still dealing in DVDs. I wondered that recently if they were still mailing them out.
I watched many of the early classic cable shows like the Sopranos, the wire, the shield, on DVD. That’s when everyone else had cable or were streaming but I was late to that game.
Now there’s so much content to stream, It’s crazy. But it’s also hard to pick out the really good shows.
SteveinMN
10-20-20, 11:11am
hey Roger, it’s interesting that Netflix is still dealing in DVDs. I wondered that recently if they were still mailing them out.
They are, but they'd rather not (far more expensive than streaming) so they're trying to minimize that part of the business. Wouldn't surprise me at all if the difference between what's available on DVD and on streaming or if the delays in getting DVDs to customers is part of that "strategery".
Are they still charging more for people to have both the dvd and steaming service?
Are they still charging more for people to have both the dvd and steaming service?
Yes, it's two separate charges.
I've noticed a few of the DVDs I watched a year or two ago are starting to show up on the streaming menu. I suppose with film making limited by CV-19 they may start running out of fresh material.
SteveinMN
10-21-20, 12:09pm
I suppose with film making limited by CV-19 they may start running out of fresh material.
For a while we were renting from Redbox fairly regularly so I joined their rewards program and we got their weekly email blast. In that email we've found fewer and fewer movies we want to see; most we had never even heard of. About since last Christmas I've seen maybe one movie I'd want to see enough to bother going to the nearest Redbox. I'm sure COVID-19 has put a wrench in production for many films so the pickings are slimmer. But today I just unsubscribed from the email. I figure if there's a film I want to see, I'll hear about it some other way.
frugal-one
10-22-20, 1:04pm
Headline in today's paper (Madison, WI) .... Election 2020/Postal Service... 15,000 contact Baldwin ... Voters share concerns for counting absentee ballots on election day....
Thousands of WI voters and postal workers have raised concerns with US Sen. Tammy Baldwin that the US Postal Service isn't ready to handle the high number of absentee ballots come Election Day.
A repairman at the USPS Madison office and one of the postal workers who contacted Baldwin's office, said in an interview that only one of two automated flat mail sorting machines, which handles larger mail such as absentee ballots, is operating for the Madison Post Office.
"If something goes wrong, the sorting machine could be down for 12 hours". "Right now, we are doing OK, but I'm not sure what will happen when we get to Election Day."
Balwin sent a letter to DeJoy... which included pictures of signs on a connected sorting machine in the Madison Post Office directing that it should not be run or operated. The repairman said the signs were posted to ensure that the machine shows up as connected in USPS data, but is not actually used.
ETA: The repairman was named in the article. Wonder how long he'll get to keep his job?
Voting by mail--always good.
Sabotaging the USPS--always bad.
iris lilies
10-22-20, 3:00pm
Dado, when you posted this thread I thought to myself is there actually a nationwide slow down of the mail? Are there studies showing this to be true? And why is that, are the postal workers in need of another raze? Are they slowing down their work deliberately? I mean, I know that the head of the post office is a bogeyman and of course the occupant of the White House is always to blame for everything including that non-functioning machine in Madison Wisconsin, but I have to wonder what’s really going on here.
I did experience a ridiculous lag time of some thing with a postmark from the next-door state and it takes me 3 1/2 hours to drive there but it took a good 10 days if not more to get here. But I don’t know in general how long is taking things to get here.
Or maybe we will find out on November 4 with Joe Biden‘s victory that all these problems, real or imagined, magically Go away.
I can’t help but think those Russian disinformation bots are doing a very good job with their work of spreading distrust of the US mail system.
frugal-one
10-22-20, 3:10pm
Dado, when you posted this thread I thought to myself is there actually a nationwide slow down of the mail? Are there studies showing this to be true? And why is that, are the postal workers in need of another raze? Are they slowing down their work deliberately? I mean, I know that the head of the post office is a bogeyman and of course the occupant of the White House is always to blame for everything including that non-functioning machine in Madison Wisconsin, but I have to wonder what’s really going on here.
I did experience a ridiculous lag time of some thing with a postmark from the next-door state and it takes me 3 1/2 hours to drive there but it took a good 10 days if not more to get here. But I don’t know in general how long is taking things to get here.
Or maybe we will find out on November 4 with Joe Biden‘s victory that all these problems, real or imagined, magically Go away.
I can’t help but think those Russian disinformation bots are doing a very good job with their work of spreading distrust of the US mail system.
huh? Postal workers are reporting and taking pictures of problems. How is that russian disinformation bots? I talked to the mail lady recently and she says it is ridiculous how much mail she has... if the sorting machines are not being allowed to be used but reported as such (as in the above newspaper article and verification by postal employees) imagine how much more mail is not being sorted. Also, overtime and cuts have been made to postal employees. Coincidence?
iris lilies
10-22-20, 3:17pm
huh? Postal workers are reporting and taking pictures of problems. How is that russian disinformation bots? I talked to the mail lady recently and she says it is ridiculous how much mail she has... if the sorting machines are not being allowed to be used but reported as such (as in the above newspaper article and verification by postal employees) imagine how much more mail is not being sorted. Also, overtime and cuts have been made to postal employees. Coincidence?
who gave the order for the “sorting machines ...not being allowed to be used...”? Curious. Didn’t the newspaper article explain that? On first reading,
I assumed it was broken but you imply it is deliberately is not being used. Why?
“...overtime and cuts made to postal employees “ And sudden splashes of news about lack of functionality, perhaps not coincidental.
Why does the mail lady have so much mail? I thought the uspo wanted people to use their system. Should we hold back, at least sending mail to Wisconsin?
There was extensive coverage of DeJoy, his new draconian regulations (just in time for mail-in voting), his conflicts of interest (ownership of stock in competing companies), and his general incompetence and unfitness for the job, which he got by being a Trump campaign contributor. Postal employees are doing the best they can under daunting conditions.
iris lilies
10-22-20, 3:28pm
There was extensive coverage of DeJoy, his new draconian regulations (just in time for mail-in voting), his conflicts of interest (ownership of stock in competing companies), and his general incompetence and unfitness for the job, which he got by being a Trump campaign contributor. Postal employees are doing the best they can under daunting conditions.
There was a lot of publicity. I just don’t know how much is noise, true reduction in resources, squeezing existing resources, alice of employees, Media hype.
I still like the Russian bot theory, not for all of the media stories of course but for some. Usually that is one you embraced Jane! Why wouldn’t the Ruskies be involved in this particular leg of voter disinformation?
frugal-one
10-22-20, 3:37pm
There was a lot of publicity. I just don’t know how much is noise, true reduction in resources, squeezing existing resources, alice of employees, Media hype.
I still like the Russian bot theory, not for all of the media stories of course but for some. Usually that is one you embraced Jane! Why wouldn’t the Ruskies be involved in this particular leg of voter disinformation?
If you have an opportunity, try and talk to your delivery person. They may give you a different perspective, if they have a second to talk.
While it is true the Russians like to sow discord, they are on record (Putin, who controls Russia with an iron fist) as preferring Trump. They certainly worked hard enough on his behalf last time. And the FBI says they're doing it again. https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/17/politics/fbi-director-wray-russia-election-interference/index.html
Postal employees, as was pointed out, have been extensively documenting the disastrous DeJoy directives.
iris lilies
10-22-20, 3:47pm
If you have an opportunity, try and talk to your delivery person. They may give you a different perspective, if they have a second to talk.
I actually do have a friendly relationship with the various postal people who deliver mail here. I find them pleasant. Although they’re not Mr. White who delivered mail to my house for more than 30 years. This modern group changes all the time. We have a different delivery person every time I turn around and all of them wear earphones and are talking when I see them on the street. In order to talk with them
I might interrupt their important personal conversations.
But that said,
I expect they sincerely wouldn’t mind me doing that.
Simplemind
10-22-20, 6:42pm
When the wildfire smoke was so bad here awhile back, I put a bottle of water and a thank you note in the mailbox which is a community box out at the end of our street. She actually drove up to the house and knocked on the door to thank us back. I couldn't believe how difficult it must have been to deliver mail in an open truck breathing that horrible air. Now they are picking up double routes and some of us are getting mail at 10pm.
A recent package from Australia took 2 months to arrive. When it did appear I found out why - U.S. customs had ripped it open and examined it for some reason. They didn't damage anything, but I've never had that happen to me before.
My city has set up a box outside city hall for payments I will start using for water, sewer, property taxes etc.
rosarugosa
10-30-20, 5:25am
My city has set up a box outside city hall for payments I will start using for water, sewer, property taxes etc.
I've always done this as one of my teeny, tiny frugals - I save on stamps! It is only a five minute walk from my house.
I just paid my property tax on line. Hope it gets there. :~)
Teacher Terry
10-30-20, 5:48pm
I pay online also.
rosarugosa
10-30-20, 6:37pm
That's right - I was using the drop box but now I'm doing it online like all my other bills. I do still go to town hall to drop off census forms and ballots.
dado potato
10-30-20, 7:51pm
I discovered another of the payments I mailed on Oct 1 vanished in the mail. This was a car insurance premium payment. I called the agency about it. They said I was still in "grace period", and they suggested I come in and write a check for the premium. This I did, and I received 2 beautiful and unexpected drinking-in-the-car cups. So I am paid up on my car insurance now. The agent said, worst case scenario would be if the lost check was eventually delivered to the head office. She said if that happens, I will receive a check from the head office. <In the mail, of course! Ha, ha, ha!>
I never got my water bill, had to call for the amount. Tried the city website and it did not work.
ApatheticNoMore
10-31-20, 11:40am
Talking with brokerage, yes mail is slow they said, I didn't bring it up. So yes I'm pretty sure there is a slow down in mail going on. The people who are in on a conspiracy to lie about the mail being slow are what now wall street? Absurd.
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