Last November, Pitney Bowes revealed a new service called EasyPermitPostage that allows mail houses to request postage on a client's behalf and receive payment in 24 hours or less. Often it is postage payments that hold up bulk mailings since postage must be determined and requested by the mail house and the mailer must then arrange for postage to be sent to the mail house or USPS. This process can often lead to delays and accounting departments, budgets, purchase orders and mailing postage can only increase delays.
The EasyPermitPostage service functions as a credit line for mailers and a bank account for lettershops. By simply logging on to http://www.easypermitpostage.pb.com and requesting the postage amount from a client's account, the funds are electronically transferred directly to the lettershop usually in less than 24 hours. The mailer receives a monthly statement detailing all transactions and offers the choice of paying in full or make payments.
Pitney Bowes offers the service free to mail houses and charges an annual service fee to mailers. The fees are based on the amount of annual postage use and range from as little as $179 to $1,999. When mailers' balances are not paid in full a finance charge is also accrued similar to any credit line.