Paying For USPS Services With Stamps

Can postage be used off a cover to pay for USPS services? Say I want to send something Registered mail, but there's not enough room on the emvelope for all the stamps. Could I apply the stamps to, say, a separate sheet a paper, allow them to be cancelled, and the clerk then make a postage label to apply to the Registered cover? Can similar be done for payment of a PO Box rental fee? My guess is my local post office will immediately refuse both, unless perhaps I can prove it by quoting something like the DMM.

It would appear that the stamps must be affixed to the piece:




https://pe.usps.com/archive/html/dm...0315/604.htm

I see no provision for postage stamp payment of PO box fees anywhere.

Also depends on your relationship with the clerk. Some will allow stamps on the back or if a package, the sides. Once accepted and at least a zero meter strip is affixed, the item is presumed to be fully paid.

Also a clerk may let you put on a layer of stamps, postmark them all and then allow a second layer of stamps to be postmarked.

That said, no, you should not expect to pay for $40 in postage and registered fees with some quantity of sheets of one or two cent sheets.

I envision full postage would indeed be affixed to the cover per DMM, in the form of a label. Payment would happen via postage applied to a separate sheet and postmarked there.

The only postage labels would be a meter strip which is considered the sale of new postage. You can pay for a meter strip with the same value of postage stamps. That would be like swapping your old unused postage stamps for the same amount in new postage stamps, currently not allowed.

I think that the problem is the post office has no way to reconcile payment in stamps which are not affixed at the end of the day. The register will have cash and checks, and card payments are electronically accounted for. But what to do with that sheet of paper or scrap envelope with stamps affixed and canceled. Those stamps on paper would need an associated transaction number. I doubt that the USPS retail system has a place for it. Maybe back in a certain era (?) but not now.

Hope that John Becker weighs in on the topic.

Not all "stamps on paper" are accounted for now. For example when I receive an item which is postage due, I provide stamps to pay the amount due. The clerk places them on the item and cancels them. Likewise for certificates of mailing, if I supply my own postage, nothing is tracked.

Now for most computerized receipts, there is a space to enter "customer's postage" to indicate the item was prepaid with zero or a lesser than total sum applied by the clerk for which payment is collected.

Since asked for input,
KISS - keep it simple, ...
Especially if you have something important to mail.
Yes, use some multiple older issues, but keep it reasonable.
Mailing a registered letter can get complicated enough for new clerks.

More humorously, would you want to wait in line behind yourself at the PO while the clerk counted how many 3's and 4's you had plastered on?.

No. Postage stamps aren't legal tender.

But postage stamps can be used for ALL kinds of services and products in many of the US prisons.
Don

I wouldn't use the prison system, Federal or state, as a model or example for anything, if I could help it. Prisons have a unique (in)formal economy. But to the point, just because a stamp isn't legal tender, doesn't mean it's not a store of value.
Can you go to a retail bank and exchange stamps for coinage? Or use stamps to buy a donut? Rhetorical questions, of course.

Perf10: If you ever cover the entire envelope with stamps, feel free to add a photo of it to this thread.

http://goscf.com/t/72808

3c? There's no need to make it so complex: even sufficient Forever commemoratives might not fit on the envelope. I want to mail a letter Registered, I have sufficient current Forever stamps, but apparently USPS says there's no way I can use them to pay the postage. That's a paradox, or in modern parlance, Huh? If there were a way to do it, I would buy more postage stamps. I seem to recall within the past month someone here mentioning they affix stamps to a separate sheet for similar use as I propose, but now I can't refind that message.

You are overlooking that millions of people do so every day: they apply a postage stamp to a letter to pay for USPS First Class mail service.

IMO it comes down to stamps being purchased for a specific task/service, signifying that you have paid to send something through the mail. You can't reasonably expect to rock up to the PO counter with a sheet of stamps and purchase shipping supplies or do anything other than actually mail something. If the USPS started accepting stamps as payment for everything it would be a free-for-all with everyone buying stamps in bulk on the secondary market and showing up to get their 50-70% discount. The postal service received their monies for the face stamps in the past and would be providing service in exchange for no new income. Then what to do with all of the stamps.

If you can fit all of the stamps necessary for payment on the actual mail, great. If not, whip out the old wallet.

See https://pe.usps.com/cpim/ftp/manual...otice123.pdf page 41 for the allowed dimensions of a "letter" as opposed to a "large envelope (flats)"

You can then use a larger than #6 or #10 envelope (if your mailing is 3.5 oz or less). That will give you much more space for your stamps.

For Registered, no value, the fee is $14.65 and if having value the lowest fee is $15.25. To put that in terms of "Forever stamps" the first is 24 whole stamps plus 25 cents and the postage cost. The later is 25 whole stamps plus 25 cents and the postage cost.

Fitting 24 or 25 coil size (not commemorative) should be a breeze with planning. Write the addressee's address small but readable in upper case block letters. Do the same with you return address which can be placed on a back. You will be able to fit 4 horizontal rows of stamp, 5 or more if the envelope is taller than a #10. Six stamps in each horizontal row is no problem even on a #10 envelope. 4 rows x 6 per row is 24 forever stamps. Done carefully, you should leave enough room for the needed registry label. I have used a #10 for registered mail with forever stamps, but a larger envelope is easier.

If this is not going to be a one time mailing, but you will be doing regular registered mailings and you are concerned about space pick up a few dollar values, $1, $2 or $5 of the regular issue size at a discount or even at face. That will cut down on the number of forever stamps you need to use (taking less space).

Also you need not use just your stamps if there is a lack of space, put on what you can leaving space for a meter strip which pay the rest due.

Finally if your mailing are over 3.5 ounces or are in the large envelope size range using forever stamps becomes easier as you have more space which will allow for some commemorative size forever stamps to be used. Remember the the commemorative stamps take twice the space as the coil forever stamps.

Lastly I was once asked by a window clerk if I actually expected her to count up the stamps on a large envelope. Yes, that is why each winder clerk has a calculator function their computer screen, or you can take may word for it. She used the calculator function. Any pre-1975 clerk would have been faster with their adding machine and the real old timers would just count them up in their head or with a quick note or two on the envelope as that was their calculator of the day.

Here is a registered I sent today: