What happens to mail with insufficient postage and no return address?

September 2, 2013 2:46 AM

I heard through the grapevine that an old school friend has fallen on hard times (long term unemployed and the sole care provider for a seriously ill mother, car died, on the verge of losing their home, etc), so I dropped a check in the mail for her last week. I don't really know them anymore, but I can afford it and good karma and all that. But today I realized that, like an idiot, I used a 44 cent stamp and the current first-class rate is up to 47 cents.

From searching, it seems that the normal policy is to send back letters that don't have adequate postage. But I'm in the middle of a moving to a new city for a new job and don't know my next address yet, so I left the return address off because I didn't want this person sending any potential replies after I've moved out.

Does anyone know what happens to mail sent with insufficient postage and no return address? Is there a chance it'll reach it's destination? Other than waiting to see if the check gets cashed, I'm not sure what to do. Any advice? I could send another check, but if both end up getting delivered when I only wanted to make one donation for $X00 then that's a little bit awkward.

I don't have any other contact information for this person. Their phone number and internet are both disconnected.

posted by jlh to Law & Government (14 answers total)

Granted, this is a small town and I know my mail carrier pretty well, but she would deliver it postage due and I would tape a nickel in the mail box the next morning.
posted by halfbuckaroo at 3:07 AM on September 2, 2013 [1 favorite]

Here in Austria, the recipient has the option to pay the missing postage plus an extra fee. USPS seems to deal with this situation in a similar way, if I understand 8.1.1 correctly (“delivered to the addressee on payment of the charges marked on the mail”). If your friend refuses, the letter will be “[t]reated as dead mail if it has no return address” (8.1.2 c.).
posted by wachhundfisch at 3:21 AM on September 2, 2013

Just to ask: are you positive you used a stamp that has '44 cents' printed on it: not a 'forever' stamp that you merely PAID 44 cents for, and that doesn't have any specific value printed on it? Because if you used a 'forever' stamp, thee's no problem.
posted by easily confused at 3:28 AM on September 2, 2013 [1 favorite]

Seconding easily confused. According to the USPS website since 2011, all first class stamps are Forever stamps except the kind that come on huge rolls. Was your stamp older than that (or from a roll)?

If it was insufficient postage and no return address, I have no idea what happens to it. I think there's a slim chance it'll get delivered anyway...
posted by Kriesa at 4:37 AM on September 2, 2013

I would wait a month to see if the check has been cashed and, if it hasn't, send another one with a brief explanation.

Tell them, also, that if they receive the other check at any point they should feel free to cash that too.

This is assuming you will be able to afford to write another check in a month. If you can't, then I guess you will have to get your bank to issue a stop on the first check before you send out another.
posted by tel3path at 4:41 AM on September 2, 2013 [1 favorite]

Here in the UK you get a note asking you to pick up the piece of mail from the sorting office. You then pay a £1 administration fee and the missing postage. When the UK changed how it charged for postage, moving from a weight system to a weight/size system I found myself paying the charge only to be given a piece of junk mail from a mobile phone company.

Anyway, USPS guidance on insufficient postage.

Mail of any class, including mail indicating special services (except Express Mail, registered mail, and nonmachinable First-Class Mail), that is received at either the office of mailing or office of address without enough postage is marked to show the total (rounded off) deficiency of postage and fees. Individual such pieces (or quantities fewer than 10) are delivered to the addressee on payment of the charges marked on the mail. For quantity mailings of 10 or more pieces, the mailer is notified so that the postage charges may be adjusted before dispatch.

Ie. if the postage were short, your addressee would have to pay the missing sum and a fee to get the mail, like my UK example. Mail entirely missing postage is returned to sender.
posted by MuffinMan at 4:41 AM on September 2, 2013 [2 favorites]

When that has happened to me I have just had to pay my letter carrier the difference. No fee, no issues. It will all be fine.
posted by Slinga at 5:23 AM on September 2, 2013 [1 favorite]

I discovered a couple years ago in Chicago that all my mail gets delivered normally no matter what the weight (1st class business/letter size envelopes) with one forever stamp. I put a return address but it is never returned, always delivered to recipient on time. I am talking about business mail I send out weekly, ALWAYS over weight for 1st class letter limits. They just don't bother to weigh and/ or return it. I think your chances lean heavily towards sucessful delivery. How kind of you to be so generous!
posted by Lylo at 5:27 AM on September 2, 2013 [1 favorite]

You could put a stop payment on the check and send another check later (make sure you use your current address). Most banks charge a stop payment fee, but at least you'd know the first check wouldn't get cashed. The tricky part is guessing when/if your friend has tried to cash the check in the interim; if she tries to cash the check and you've already put the stop payment on it, her bank could charge her a bounced check fee. That would suck, but I think if you mailed a new check with an explanation about your move and the subsequent screw-up, she'd probably be very grateful to receive the second check.
posted by LuckySeven~ at 6:52 AM on September 2, 2013

Agree with Lylo, it'll go through -- dealing with 3¢ postage due's too much hassle for the USPS these days.
posted by Rash at 7:04 AM on September 2, 2013

FYI, current stamp price is $0.46. Also you can buy non-forever stamps that are current postage rate.
I would imagine they would just deliver I and not care about 2 cents.
posted by KogeLiz at 8:57 AM on September 2, 2013

Did you literally use a "44 cent" stamp, or just an older First Class (Forever) stamp? If you remember the design, or if you have more of those stamps, it's easy to verify.

Also Nth-ing everyone else - it'll get delivered. At worst there will be a note on it saying "$0.03 postage due". Certainly don't bother with putting a hold on the check etc.
posted by RedOrGreen at 10:22 AM on September 2, 2013

Response by poster: For everyone asking, yes the stamp definitely says 44 cents on it. It's from ~2010.
posted by jlh at 11:35 AM on September 2, 2013

My friend just got a letter with insufficient postage and had to pay the difference. My only concern would be that your friend might decline to do so given that it's presumably anonymous on the outside because it doesn't have a return address? You might try to figure out her local PO and call them-- maybe you can pay over the phone or just get them to forgive it.
posted by charmcityblues at 11:45 AM on September 2, 2013