Postmarks & credit card statements

Just noticed that none of my credit card statements are postmarked. Neither’s the mortgage note. Do these guys pay extra to not have their envelopes postmarked?

No they just pay a sepecial mailing rate. In order to qualify for such a rate they have to agree to such things like use of a 9 digit zip code, use of a bar code at the bottom, you have to bundle and sort all your out going mail a certain way and other things. The cost depends on what your mailing, how it’s getting mailed.

Similarly I recall many eBay sellers now will choose to use the stamp or envelopes without the value of the stamp listed. That way they can charge what they like on shipping and you won’t know. (Or at least they did, I think eBay has since cracked down on this). For example if I charged $5.00 s&H and you see a 44¢ stamp, you know I would have made $4.60 on shipping (minus the cost of labor and envelope). But if an eBay seller wants they can use the type of postage without any price on it. So that when the buyer gets a package he/she has no idea what the seller actually paid for postage.

In order to qualify for the “pre-sort” rate, the sender has to bundle the outgoing mail according to zip code, so that it can bypass most of the handling steps at the post office, including postmarking, address scanning, etc.