Every Post Office in the country will be closed on Monday, October 12 for Columbus Day, the Postal Service said in an October 5 announcement, and regular mail delivery and retail counter service resume on Tuesday, October 13. The Federal Reserve observes the same holiday, so FedACH, the Reserve Banks’ electronic payment network, pauses from early Saturday until Monday evening. For people who mail checks and bills, buy postage or wait on a Social Security deposit, the closure moves a few dates by a day, and it falls inside the window of a temporary parcel price increase.
The Postal Service’s wording is plain: “All Post Office locations will be closed.” Delivery and counter service both come back on Tuesday, which means no routine mail delivery on Monday itself, so letters that would have arrived that day show up a day later at the earliest. The announcement does not say whether collection boxes will be emptied on the holiday, and it does not describe Priority Mail Express service for the day, so those two questions have no official answer in the release.
The people most exposed are those with something in the mail late in the week before the holiday: a check headed to a landlord, a payment to a utility, a package with a Monday delivery estimate. Nothing in the Postal Service announcement shifts any due date, so the closure matters mainly for items that were mailed close to the wire. For everything else, the useful question is what can still be done on Monday without a counter.
The temporary parcel add-on, $0.50 on a light Priority Mail package, is a number that changes once more, at 12 a.m. Central time on January 17, 2027.
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What still works with the counters closed
The Postal Service lists two channels that stay available. On usps.com, customers can order stamps and free USPS boxes, put in a Hold Mail request, file a Change of Address, rent or renew a PO Box and buy Click-N-Ship prepaid labels. Self-service kiosks in select lobbies also keep running, and many of them are open around the clock. At a kiosk, a customer can buy postage for Priority Mail, Priority Mail Express and international shipping, buy stamps, weigh and mail a package and track an item.
A third group of options is described as expanding rather than universal. The announcement names Rapid Dropoff Stations, merchant QR-code label printing and USPS Smart Lockers for dropping off and picking up packages, and it says these are not confirmed for every location. A customer relying on any of them on October 12 would be going on the announcement alone, since the Postal Service does not list which lobbies, merchants or lockers will be working that day.
Postage prices during the closure week
Kiosk postage for Priority Mail and Priority Mail Express falls under a temporary rate change announced in an August 25 Postal Service release. The new rates were scheduled to take effect at 12 a.m. Central time on October 4, pending review by the Postal Regulatory Commission, and to remain until 12 a.m. Central time on January 17, 2027. They cover Priority Mail Express, Priority Mail, USPS Ground Advantage and Parcel Select, and the release says no other products or services are affected.
The amounts are stated in dollars. Retail Priority Mail in Zones 1 through 4 for packages up to 3 pounds rises by $0.50, and Priority Mail in Zones 5 through 9 for 4 to 10 pounds rises by $2.10. Ground Advantage in Zones 5 through 9 for 26 to 70 pounds, and for oversized parcels, rises by $7.50, while Priority Mail Express in Zones 1 through 4 for 26 to 70 pounds rises by $12.70. The Postal Service describes the change as a way to help cover extra handling costs in the holiday season.
Reserve Banks and the payment calendar
Columbus Day on October 12 is on the Federal Reserve’s list of 2026 holidays, along with Veterans Day on November 11, Thanksgiving Day on November 26 and Christmas Day on December 25. The Reserve Banks’ own schedule gives the one operating detail published for this holiday: FedACH processing, the network that moves most direct deposits and electronic bill payments, ends at 3 a.m. Eastern on October 10 and resumes at 5:30 p.m. Eastern on October 12. The schedule page does not address Fedwire, check services or FedNow for that day.
Social Security’s October calendar does not run into the holiday. The 2026 payment schedule pays beneficiaries with birthdays on the 1st through 10th on Wednesday, October 14, those born on the 11th through 20th on October 21 and those born on the 21st through 31st on October 28. Beneficiaries in the 3rd-of-the-month group were paid on October 3, and SSI recipients on October 1. None of those dates falls on or next to October 12, and the schedule notes that a payment that has not arrived should be given three additional mailing days before anyone contacts Social Security.
The next closures through Thanksgiving
The Reserve Banks’ next two observed holidays are Veterans Day on Wednesday, November 11 and Thanksgiving on Thursday, November 26. The Postal Service announcement covers only October 12 and says nothing about mail service on the later dates. The Fed’s page says that when a holiday falls on a Sunday, all Reserve offices close the following Monday, a rule that does not come into play for any of the dates above.
November 11 is also a Social Security payment date for the birthday-1-through-10 group on the Social Security Administration’s schedule, which states no holiday rule. That overlap is the next place where the federal holiday list and a benefit calendar meet.
For October 12 itself, the two published timetables are short. Counters and delivery return on Tuesday, October 13, and FedACH processing restarts at 5:30 p.m. Eastern on Monday evening. Neither the Postal Service nor the Reserve Banks announces a change to any payment due date, and the Social Security calendar has no payment that week.
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This article was produced with AI assistance and reviewed by The Money Overview’s editorial team.
