Postage costs are rising. Could digital help?

AUGUST 2026 | Reducing the cost of customer comms.

BingMail will increase its postage costs from 1 September, following Australia Post’s latest increase to the Basic Postage Rate. This will add approximately 15 cents to the cost of each mailing—and other mailhouses are likely doing so too.

No one enjoys hearing that another cost is going up. But it does give us a good reason to pause and look at how much mail is still being sent and whether every communication really needs to arrive in an envelope.

Of course, paper will remain important for some customers and some types of communication. But there are likely to be plenty of customers who would happily receive their service comms by email instead. The challenge is knowing who they are and making sure their preferences are properly captured.

Does your core banking system record whether a customer prefers paper or digital communications? Is that information current? Can customers easily update it? And can your communication processes reliably act on it?

If not, there are a few ways to start. Preferences could be captured during onboarding, through Internet Banking or your app, using an online form, or as part of a broader customer information refresh.

It is also worth looking at the communications you send most often. Some may need to remain as letters for regulatory, security or practical reasons. Others, such as reminders, confirmations, notices and regular service updates, may be well suited to email or SMS.

You don’t have to change everything at once. Moving just one high-volume communication to digital can make a meaningful difference.

Many of our clients have saved tens of thousands of dollars each year by moving some or all of their service communications from paper to digital. The benefits go beyond postage too, with faster delivery, less printing and handling, and better visibility of whether a communication has been successfully sent.

The aim is not to stop sending letters altogether. It’s about giving customers the right choices, capturing those choices properly and finding practical opportunities to reduce unnecessary postage.

If you would like to explore where your biggest savings might be or simply talk through a few ideas - have a chat with the Spark team. We would be happy to share what we’re seeing across the industry.