Prepaid Mailing Options?

[Anonymous]

I am taking over bill paying for an out of town client who is 94. I am working to set up his bills on e-bill/auto pay but he inevitably receives some misc bills and solicitations that he wants me to sort through and action for him. I’d like to provide him with a prepaid mailing envelope he can just put them in and send to me each week or so.

Does anyone else do this and do you have any recommendations for a prepaid mailing service that is economical? USPS? Fedex? UPS? Other?

Thanks for any input!

[Anonymous]

I ordered prepaid, flat rate envelopes from USPS for this kind of situation. You can have them preprinted with the return address and have them mailed right to the client. He would need to address them to you still. You could send him labels so he could just stick the label on the envelope and drop them in the mailbox.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the info Caitlin! I’ll check that out.

[Anonymous]

Rick, I do the same thing as Caitlin. USPS supplies the envelopes for free so your client is just paying the priority mail postage and a small handling fee. I ask the client to let me know when they get down to the last 1 or 2 envelopes so I can order more. And I pass the cost on to the client. I also ask the client to affix the tracking label to the front of the envelope and take a picture of it with their phone. Tracking labels come with the envelopes. This last thing might be hard for your client though.

[Karen Ethridge]

Hi Rick,

Thanks for the question. I appreciate the responses from my wonderful colleagues Caitlin and Lynn, which show how DMMs do things differently. Prepaying postage for the client vs getting the postage supplies for them and having them pay the cost are both appropriate ways of handling this situation.

I’ve spoken with a number of DMMs who ask for the “right” way to provide services for their clients and my take is: if it is within our AADMM standards and ethics, your business should fit your style and comfort level.

[Anonymous]

Rick,
We also use pre-paid flat rate envelopes from USPS. We address them and affix the tracking labels. There are smaller labels with the tracking number and we keep those and affix them to a tracking sheet and check them off as each envelope arrives so we will know when they are down to their last 1 or 2 envelopes. We try not to leave anything for the client to do except put the documents in it, seal and send! We put the cost of postage on the client’s invoice.

[Anonymous]

Lynn, a belated THANKS for this information. Most helpful!

[Anonymous]

Hi Barbara! Thanks for the input on this! Hope all is well with you!

[Anonymous]

Leah, a belated THANK you for this. What a great system! I’m going to give that a try. Hope all is well with you and look forward to catching up one of these days soon!

[Author]

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