Patent ID: 8190525

Claim:
A method for paying for business reply mail being returned by a recipient of the business reply mail to a mailer of the business reply mail, the method comprising: establishing, by a reply mail payment system, a master payment account with a postal service, the master payment account adapted to make payment for business reply mail under a plurality of different business reply mail permit numbers that are not assigned to the reply mail payment system, the plurality of different business reply mail permit numbers including a business reply mail permit number assigned to the mailer; receiving, by the reply mail payment system, authorization from the mailer to pay for business reply mail being returned by the recipient to the mailer, the business reply mail being associated with the business reply mail permit number assigned to the mailer, the authorization including information related to the business reply mail; receiving, by the reply mail payment system, a communication from a post office to which the business reply mail is returned for processing to return to the mailer; providing, by the reply mail payment system, the information related to the business reply mail to the post office for comparison with the business reply mail returned to the post office; and providing, by the reply mail payment system, payment to the post office for the business reply mail returned by the recipient and accepted by the post office for return to the mailer from the master payment account.