All postage rates to increase in new year

The cost of sending a letter in Belgium is going to increase by nearly 10% as of 1 January.

National postal service Bpost is introducing a new priority stamp (€1, next-day delivery), as well as raising the price of a non-priority stamp to €0.95. What might interest expats is if the cost of mail leaving Belgium is also increasing. Yes, it is.

Currently a standard stamp to send a standard size letter weighing less than 50 grams within Europe is €1.36 per stamp. Starting on 1 January, that will go up to €1.46. A standard letter sent to a country outside of Europe currently costs you €1.58. That will also go up by 10 cents to €1.68.

If at least five stamps are bought at a time, the price goes down to €1.40 and €1.62, respectively. The countries considered to be within Europe are designated on Bpost’s website.

Bpost also issues special edition stamps, which costs more. Postage also increases for letters that do not conform to a standard dimension or that weigh more than 50 grams.