Postal Service posts $8.5 billion loss

[BleedBurgundy]

Originally Posted by firstdown

I think you would be surprised at how many people still whip out the checkbook at all levels of income and education. I think my parents write checks for most of their purchases. They are both educated and very well off I think its the physical act of writing and having that check as proof of purchase that they are stuck in.

I honestly don't think I've seen anyone write a check in the past two years. And I live in the most backward ass area on the east coast...

[firstdown]

Originally Posted by BleedBurgundy

I honestly don't think I've seen anyone write a check in the past two years. And I live in the most backward ass area on the east coast...

Most of my older customers write checks and I'll write checks now and then but I have to go looking for my check book to write one. My parents still write checks and sit down once a month to balance their check book to the penny. I guess after doing that for 50 yrs why change at age 72. One advantage of writing checks is that they are easier to read what they went to on a bank statement. I also write 20 or checks a month for my business. Now that I think about it I have 5 checking accounts to keep up.

[CRedskinsRule]

I wrote a check for my son's school the other day, and after finding the checkbook, realized the imprinted address was about 4 years old. I don't write many checks. Although, with my bank, they send out checks for a couple of bills on a weekly basis that they actually print out checks and send via us postal service.

[KLHJ2]

Originally Posted by firstdown

I don't mail much personally but my business does. I try to fax, email, set customers up on ebill, but there is still a large % who don't like that and want a bill. Hell I get 5 to 10 people who come into my office to pay their bill by check and then want a receipt. That I don't get. I can give people a 15% discount off their auto ins. if they do automatic withdraw and ebill and only about 40% of the people will sign up for that.

Wait, you sell insurance? It must be nice to work in a business in which the government forces people to use.

[SBXVII]

All I can say is in an era when everyone wants you to use the internet to send letter or chat immediatly or pay a bill, the US Postal Service will start seeing more loss of revenue.

I thought that there was a time when the USPS encouraged people to pay their bills on line like around the 90's? Oh well.

[firstdown]

Originally Posted by Angry

Wait, you sell insurance? It must be nice to work in a business in which the government forces people to use.

It would be just fine with me if the government stopped forcing people to purchase auto ins. Thats just a small % of what we sell and my house hold make up here is the 35 to 45 year old couples with 1.7 kids with incomes around $150,000 plus. Most of them purchase ins. to protect their assets and not because they are forced to buy ins. If that was the case they would just buy the minimum coverage and not increase their coverages. If I wanted government help I'd be for more regulations which drives up the prices and my commissions. Good example of that is New Jersey and New York. I've had customers move from NY to Va. and save $4,000 just on their auto ins. If Va was regulated like NY that would be another 4 grand I would get paid commission on. To be fair some of that is higher labor cost but allot has to do with heavy regulations.

Also the state of Va. does not force anyone to purchase auto ins. If you don't want to buy ins you just have to pay DMV the $500 and your good to go.

[saden1]

USPS is explicitly authorized by the Constitution but whatever. Maybe we can get Republicans to defund it? That seems to be all the rage these days. Something needs to be done for sure.

[firstdown]

Originally Posted by saden1

USPS is explicitly authorized by the Constitution but whatever. Maybe we can get Republicans to defund it? That seems to be all the rage these days. Something needs to be done for sure.

Its funded by postage. I actually think the post office does a good job at delivering the mail but it must do a poor job at managing expenses and cost. They are not force to make budget because the tax payers bail them out. I'd also bet in their good years when they had a surplus it was spent on pay increases, bonuses, new hires, etc... amd they never plained on any tough times.