The End of Postage Prepayment?

This week the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) approved a USPS request to allow mailers to use credit to pay for their mailings. However, this won’t affect most mailers for awhile.

Whether you pay for your mailings with an Imprint permit, meter, or even a CAPS account, today you must hand over your funds to USPS when or before you mail. For most mailers, this won’t be changing any time soon. Only mailers who are using Intelligent Mail Full-Service and have a Negotiated Service Agreement (NSA) with USPS will be eligible for the credit option. For the majority of these mailers, this NSA will include a promise to increase mail volume over the next three years. So the way most mailers and mail service providers pay won’t be changing.

However, this does show a bit of USPS’s hand. Requiring mailers to pre-pay is cumbersome. Offering limited payment options isn’t encouraging mailers to come out of the woodwork. This week’s announcement may be just the beginning. There has been talk of other payment methods including Paypal, invoices, and possibly credit cards. While these options may be far off on the horizon, this credit option is an important first step.