Three Ways to Pay Bulk Mail Postage

Paying postage to the US Postal service for bulk mailings can be done with any of the following methods:

1. Stamps

2. Permit

3. Meter

Really, those are the only options. But also keep in mind that the way you pay postage does not necessarily affect the amount of postage that you pay. Yeah, it sounds confusing but it really is pretty simple.

Here's an example:

Let’s say that you want to mail 500 letters via mail class “Marketing Mail”. Let’s says that you are using a mail service and they are processing your mailing list with CASS certified software and presorting for maximum postage discounts. After presorting your list, they tell you that your postage is calculated to be $129.50.

Following are your postage options:

Option #1: If stamps are used, you will purchase 10 cent precancelled Marketing Mail stamps from the post office. You will only need 500 stamps. Although the 500 stamps only cost $50, your postage is still going to be $129.50, so you will have extra postage to pay. Your mail service provider will pay the difference for you, which is $79.50 and your total postage paid will be $129.50.

Option #2: If you have a mail permit on your letters, then the permit owner will be charged the exact postage calculated when the mailing is presented to the US Postal Service. This will once again be $129.50.

Option #3: If you meter the pieces, each piece will be metered with the appropriate amount of postage. Assuming it is .259 each, then the total of all 500 pieces will still be $129.50.

As you can see, regardless of the payment method, the postage comes out the same.