# Postage paid? Only once. **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 15, 2000, 8:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/postage-paid-only-once/45721 "2000-12-15T08:36:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![SSgtBaloo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ac91a4/32.png) [@SSgtBaloo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SSgtBaloo)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2000, 8:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/postage-paid-only-once/45721/1 "2000-12-15T08:36:45Z")
> [@](#): > > Hello Everyone… > > Tired of getting all those pre-approved letters in the > mail for everything from credit cards to 2nd > mortgages, and junk like that? > > If the answer is, “Yes!” read on. If “no”, read on > anyway since many of us don’t care for banks and > credit card companies. As you know, most, if not all > of those letters come with a postage “PRE-PAID” > envelope. > > Why not get rid of some of your other junk mail and > put it in these cool little envelopes! > > If you didn’t get anything else that day, then just > send them their application back! Just make sure your > name isn’t on anything you send them. Heck, you can > send it back empty if you want. Keep 'em guessing > that way. Let’s turn this into a chain letter! > > Eventually, the banks will begin getting all their > crap back in the mail. Let’s let them know what’s its > like to get junk mail, and best of all . . . THEY’RE > paying for it! Twice! Only in America! > > Send this to a friend or two or three… A friend who shall remain nameless sent me the message above. I know it can’t work because there’s some sort of code on the postage-paid envelopes that clue the post office in to where it _should_ have entered the mail stream, so they can tell if you’re authorized to be sending mail with the postage-paid codes on the envelope. However, I don’t know the details, so I can’t authoritatively debunk this. Please help shoot this thing dead. Thank you. ~~Baloo [sup]Besides, I hate chain letters, even when they’re sent by good friends.[/sup] ---
**Author:** ![Nanook\_of\_the\_North\_Shore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bc8723/32.png) [@Nanook\_of\_the\_North\_Shore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nanook_of_the_North_Shore)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2000, 8:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/postage-paid-only-once/45721/2 "2000-12-15T08:41:32Z")
What are we debunking? I’m not seeing it say anything about using the envelopes for anything other then sending junk mail back to the company that sent it to you in the first place. Thats kinda the idea behind them giving you the postage paid envelopes. Though of course they’re expecting you to send back the completed application or whatever it is they’re selling. ---
**Author:** ![brad\_d](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@brad\_d](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brad_d)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2000, 8:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/postage-paid-only-once/45721/3 "2000-12-15T08:50:34Z")
The wording of that quoted message is a little vague, but I think it may be talking about those “Business Reply Mail” envelopes the some junk mail has in them. What I’m thinking of doesn’t involve somehow re-using the envelope that the junk mail originally came in, but rather using the _enclosed_ envelope intended for you to return the application material in. I usually just destroy my junk mail without even opening it, but I would imagine that many of these pre-addressed reply envelopes are of the “Business Reply Mail - Postage to be Paid by Addressee” sort. Put that envelope in the mail, containing the filled-out form they sent you (or empty), and it’ll be sent to the soliciting business _at their expense_. I’ve also heard this tactic suggested with all of those little cards that any subscription magazine is littered with nowadays. For a while I even did it, out of some perverse sense of spite - rather than tossing them in the garbage, I tossed them in the mailbox. 🆒 I stopped when I decided that, rather than persuading the magazine to stop putting the cards in the magazine, I’d probably just be wasting their money and ultimately causing my subscription rate to go up. ---
**Author:** ![SSgtBaloo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ac91a4/32.png) [@SSgtBaloo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SSgtBaloo)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2000, 9:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/postage-paid-only-once/45721/4 "2000-12-15T09:03:11Z")
Drat! That’s what I get for posting whilst tired. It still seems like it’d be a lot less trouble to pitch the offending mail bits into the circular file than to manually process each little bit and stuff it into a mail receptacle. Never mind. ~~Baloo ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2000, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/postage-paid-only-once/45721/5 "2000-12-15T14:22:57Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Baloo \* > \*\*It still seems like it’d be a lot less trouble to pitch the offending mail bits into the circular file than to manually process each little bit and stuff it into a mail receptacle. > \*\* You just have to seal the envelope and collect the magazine inserts. It’s true that it probably won’t make any difference to a large company, but it does give you satisfaction that it has to spend those few cents in return for bugging you with junk mail. And if we all band together…Oh, now I sound like those chain letters…arg. ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2000, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/postage-paid-only-once/45721/6 "2000-12-16T03:18:09Z")
Visit [www.junkbusters.com](http://www.junkbusters.com) and take a look around for instructions on preventing junk mail from repeat offenders. I don’t mean any silly “opt-out” services, but a USPS form to demand the stoppage of pornographic junk mail. Supposedly the US Suprememe Court has ruled that this demand can apply to _all_ types of junk mail. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2000, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/postage-paid-only-once/45721/7 "2000-12-16T04:13:11Z")
There’s some people who really want to make them pay for sending junk mail, so they tape or glue the envelope to a brick. The idea being that the originators of the junk mail will have to pay for the full cost of mailing the brick rather than just a regular letter. However, I understand that the postal service will no longer deliver things attached to business reply envelopes. At one time, I used to return the part of the letter with my address along with a short note asking them to remove me from their mailing list. It seemed to work to some extent. But then I got a reply to one of these notes. It seems I’d trimmed off the codes above and below the address on that one and they couldn’t do anything without the codes. After that, I gave up on doing this. ---
**Author:** ![SSgtBaloo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ac91a4/32.png) [@SSgtBaloo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SSgtBaloo)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2000, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/postage-paid-only-once/45721/8 "2000-12-16T11:53:49Z")
I still say it’s a lot shorter walk to the wastebasket than the mailbox. ~~Baloo ---
**Author:** ![ignatzmouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b2d939/32.png) [@ignatzmouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ignatzmouse)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2000, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/postage-paid-only-once/45721/9 "2000-12-16T15:43:08Z")
For a few months, I returned every form to the senders in their own envelopes. I used a big red pen to scrawl slightly unhinged messages on each reply.(GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!! BAD, BAD JUNK MAIL. I AM ANGRY!!!) I did some cute angry face drawings too. It was really quite fun for a while. Anyway, although I have no control group to verify my conclusions, I can tell you that the volume of junk mail I received declined noticeably after that. ---
**Author:** ![RoboDude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bbe5ce/32.png) [@RoboDude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RoboDude)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2000, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/postage-paid-only-once/45721/10 "2000-12-16T20:43:36Z")
* * * There’s some people who really want to make them pay for sending junk mail, so they tape or glue the envelope to a brick. The idea being that the originators of the junk mail will have to pay for the full cost of mailing the brick rather than just a regular letter. ## However, I understand that the postal service will no longer deliver things attached to business reply envelopes. What if you stuffed the envelope with something like lead fishing weights? ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2000, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/postage-paid-only-once/45721/11 "2000-12-17T00:26:07Z")
Thank God for [Cecil](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_356.html).