I was under the impression that putting the “deliver to” address in the “return address” are was illegal. The idea behind doing this would be to mail a letter without postage. Since the return address is the same as the deliver to address, ths post office would send the letter back to “the sender” postage free. My car insurance company sends me an envelope for my payment and their address is pre-printed on the envelope and my payment coupon has the same address so that when I put in the envelope, it shows out of the window on the front.
I haven’t tried to mail it without postage, but I wonder how they can get away with this. BTW, I put my return address label on the back of the envelope just to be safe.
Mr. Blue Sky, I have always wondered if this would work too.
I once had a letter sent to me that had some, but not enough postage. The USPS left a pick-up note in my mailbox. I had to go to the post-office and pay the remaining 17 cents in order to pick up the letter.
My WAG is that they might do the same in this case.
Of course, they take mail fraud pretty seriously and if they suspected that you were trying to send mail without paying for it, they might take a different course of action.
I do this all the time when sending out manuscripts, but no one’s ever called me on it. Not because my stories get accepted, but because I put the correct postage on it. You know you’re a crappy writer when even the post office rejects your submissions.
I asked the “nice man” at the post office about this on Thursday. My concern wasn’t steaming from the thought of cheating on postage, but from the terrorism standpoint. [sub]Not that a terrorist would put their actual return address on their anthrax laced letter…but, anyway[/sub]
Many businesses that send return envelopes do this…
I’ve done this several times, but always with the correct postage. For example, I’ve sent SASE’s to athletes looking for autographs. I’ve done the same thing when I mailed things from school to my family at home. It feels silly putting the same address twice on the envelope. But I always put the stamp on anyway.
I, too, wondered about this thing and I simply did an experiement. I sent unstamped mail to non-existent addresses and then put the actual, intended addresses (including my own address) into the return address space. All were delivered, all right, to the location of the return address, usually with the p.o. stamp saying something like, “addressee unknown.” hee hee. I’m going to turn myself in to the postal authorities as soon as the police are done with me for removing the tag from a piece of furniture.
Having worked for the US Postal System, I know this one.
The answer is 1 cent.
The letter will arrive 36 cents postage due.
Also, in the case of insurance companies, the fee for arriving via “return address”, if that happens (which is optional with the first post office to pick up the letter), is the same as for business reply mail. If they have an open account with money in it, then the postage due is taken from that. If not, then a regular postage due notice is given.
Big companies always pay, so the notice is a semi-bluff. “Semi-” because although the USPS is under no obligation to deliver the letter, they almost always do because the utility will pay.
I would think that the insurance company’s address in the return corner would be to insure (no pun intended) that the letter would get to them (albeit with proper postage) even if you didn’t have the correct address showing through the window, i.e., if you put the card in the envelope backward, and the window showed blank.
It does not appear to be illegal to mail an envelope with the return address the same as the deliver to address (like the envelopes my gas company always includes with the bill), if you include proper postage on the envelope. If you’re doing this and deliberately not including proper postage on the envelope, then you are violating 18 U.S.C. 1725:
It doesn’t say what the fine is, but it’s probably rather more than 37 cents.
It looks from the dates that I brought this to the top, but I’m not sure how I got here, since I don’t normally go past the first forum page, and don’t search. Perhaps there was a link somewhere else that sent me here?
Draft registration cards have the same Selective Service address as the deliver to and return address. So I tried to be a badass and send mine without postage. Damn post office people cleverly read the registration information on the other side and sent it back.
Talk about adding insult to injury, making me pay to be cannon fodder… :mad:
The insurance co. would ENSURE that the letter would get to them, although they could INSURE the mail through a fee paid to the USPS. I ASSURE you this is the case.
I do this sometimes, too, in case something happens to the address. Usually I do it if I’m on vacation sending myself something I bought. When I was a kid I remember hearing about sending letters without postage by addressing the envelope so that the return address is where you really want it to go (and it doesn’t have to be the same as the one on the front of the envelope), but since I’m in my sixties I figure the post office has figured it out by now.
