What Are Postage Paid Envelopes?

Postage Paid Envelopes are one of the most time saving, and oftentimes money saving items available for those needing to send letters, packages, or documents. They come with a pre-printed stamp, and once the envelope is sent, all fees associated with getting it from point A to point B are covered by the sender.

In the United States, there are many different forms of prepaid envelopes that can be purchased for sending items out. These envelopes can include a precanceled stamp, metered postage, or a permit imprint. Permit imprints are generally only used by large businesses and require a special approval process. With this form of postage paid, the business must pay an advance deposit account to use this method and each time a letter or package is sent out, the cost is deducted from the account.

For example, a company might use these envelopes to encourage recipients of their magazine publications to return the forms they include with their magazines. This is referred to as Business Reply Mail (BRM) and the company paying for the envelopes must first pay the postal service a periodic permit fee to be allowed to use this system. They must also pay for any envelopes returned by their recipients that need additional postage to be delivered.

In a review, McColl et al found that there was no evidence that BRM increased return rates when compared to stamped envelopes. This is likely due to the limited studies of this topic and the fact that most were conducted in market research or educational research journals. Only a few trials focused on health topics, and most of these only surveyed health professionals or the general population rather than patients.