Just a letter.
It will probably depend on the country to which you’re sending the letter. It certainly does for international post from Australia.
More specifically, the USPS’s Domestic and International Postage Rate Calculator. Having a postal scale would be handy, though.
Just take the letter to the post office and ask.
No, I got it using the USPS site- thanks.
One ounce to Mexico or Canada is $0.60, and to everywhere else in the world is $0.80.
Yep- or $1.11 if you just stick 3 37centers on there like I did. 
In NZD - $1.50 to Australia, $2.00 to the US and UK. That’s airmail, mind. None of that “surface mail” lark.
Also keep in mind that you will be required to fill out a customs form, even for a letter to Canada. This year they (Canada Post) implemeneted some rather snarky regulations about how envelopes must be addressed for delivery. I had one returned because I did not have the word “CANADA” in all caps.
Weird. You might be right, but I’m surprised we’re that picky. Are you sure firstly that it was Canada Post that bounced it and not USPS (for not properly indicating a foreign country) and secondly that it related to “CANADA” and not some other aspect of the address (e.g. I’ve had letters bounce within Canada because I got the postal code wrong)? Also interesting that you had to fill out a customs declaration for a letter - I would have thought the rules were more or less reciprocal and I’ve certainly never filled out one for the US (I don’t even take US letters to the post office - I just stick the appropriate postage on and throw it in the mailbox).
I’ve been mailing letters US-Canada on a weekly basis for a couple of months, and I’ve never had one bounce for lacking a customs form. The post office person who sold me my 60 cent stamps said nothing about a customs form, either. I’ve even tucked small items (pressed flowers, coins, etc) into the letter and had them get through just fine.
From Australia to the UK, New Zealand or the US, roughly $1.10 (that’s regular airmail on a letter that’s no more than 240mm x 130mm, no thicker than 5mm and weighing 20g or under). It might be the same to most/all other countries, I don’t know. All the random countries I tried came up at that same price. Check for yourself if you’re curious.
$1.10 Australian = $0.83 US = £0.46 UK = $1.03 Canadian
This is incorrect, according to anything I can find.
Canada has implemented stricer policies but they don’t correspond to what anson says.
http://www.usps.com/communications/news/press/2004/pr04_069.htm
However, I send out letter-sized and larger-sized mail to 30 or more countries on a regular basis. You do not need to fill out a customs form for ordinary air mail under 16 ounces.
http://www.usps.com/global/customs.htm
You do:
Er… okay, I’m not sure if my letter to Munich, Germany that I just sent with $1.11 postage will make it okay, but I’m not worried. Do they require forms too? 
Learning experience. And you thought letter writing was a dead art.
Never mind, I just read the above post. :smack:
[QUOTE=Exapno Mapcase]
This is incorrect, according to anything I can find. Canada has implemented stricer policies but they don’t correspond to what anson says.
Hmm. Not sure what you mean, since the issue I described was right there in the piece you quoted (bolding mine).
As for the need for customs forms, I’ll stand corrected. I send CD-ROMs to Canada, not letters, and I have been asked for the customs forms.
Postal Employee checking in (ease up there, I’m Australian and un-armed):
1.
The cost of sending a letter from any one country to any other country is remarkably uniform. Sending a letter is not like buying a glass of local whisky (which might be US$12 in Tokyo and US$0.70 in Vientiane - pulling figures out of the air here). The very international nature of mailing a letter petween two countries means that external forces tend to equalise cost: airline charges and transfer payments (what postal administrations pay one another) are going to be near the same for a third world country as for a G7 nation (more or less). Distance and weight do make some impact, but not as much as you might think. Mailing something to the antipodes might be less than half as much again compared to sending something just across the border. The upshot of all this is that the cost of posting a standard letter from anywhere to anywhere else in the word is usually within the relatively narrow range of about US$0.75 to around US$1.80. If you get a letter from the Third World, remember it has probably cost the sender a significant chunk of their day’s pay.
2.
I’m not sure what is up Canada’s bum here, but this is the first I’ve heard of such strict rules. Australia Post (and every other postal administration I’m aware of) do attempt to effect delivery wherever possible, and with ten or twenty percent of ex-international mail being incorrectly addressed, most countries do pretty well at this. All countries tend to publish guidelines for correct addressing and they do their best to encourage folks to adhere to them, but I’ve never heard of a letter with an obvious address being thrown back on a plane because the country name wasn’t in all caps. I can’t imagine this rule lasting - the Universal Postal Union would hardly be pleased with it (nor would the USPS which has to return them all).
3.
Under UPU regulations, I am not aware of standard letters requiring any customs documentation in or from any country. It generally works as follows:
- Sending a standard letter overseas requires no more documentation than sending one down the street. It just has to bear the correct address and postage.
- Enclosing objects (even pens, buttons etc) within a standard letter is forbidden. If you do this, expect the receiving postal administration to hand it over to their customs officers to be opened and inspected before delivery, or for the article to be returned to you. For even a small object, send a parcel instead.
- Large envelopes (up to A4 size) are generally treated as “standard letters”, although obviously postage is higher for them. These do not need customs documentation either, but it might be a good idea to write “documents only” somewhere on the front. Don’t enclose objects.
- Parcels need the green customs slip, with the exception of parcels containing thick wads of documentation which can get away with the handwritten “documents only” or “printed papers only” treatment.
Yeah, the idea of ‘customs forms’ for letters is baloney, but if you’re shipping items of some sort, watch the heck out.
I shipped a bunch of personal CD players I sold on eBay to the States, and had to fill out nearly a dozen forms. One of them was for the FCC saying whether they conformed to radio emission regulations, and I had to put the city where the manufacturing company is. Fortunately the UPS lady helped me figure out where Sony’s HQ is, and it apparently went through. :rolleyes: