Courtesy reply mail, or CRM, is a type of mail in which a business sends pre-printed, self-addressed

envelope An envelope is a common packaging item, usually made of thin, flat material. It is designed to contain a flat object, such as a letter or card. Traditional envelopes are made from sheets of paper cut to one of three shapes: a rhombus, a shor ...

s or

postcard A postcard or post card is a piece of thick paper or thin cardboard, typically rectangular, intended for writing and mailing without an envelope. Non-rectangular shapes may also be used but are rare. There are novelty exceptions, such as wood ...

s to customers, who then affix

postage stamp A postage stamp is a small piece of paper issued by a post office, postal administration, or other authorized vendors to customers who pay postage (the cost involved in moving, insuring, or registering mail), who then affix the stamp to the fa ...

s to the envelopes or postcards and mail them back to the business."Courtesy Reply Mail"
from the USPS The business can also disseminate the envelopes or postcards with stamps affixed, similarly to

metered reply mail Metered reply mail, or MRM, is a type of mail in which a business sends pre-printed, self-addressed envelopes or postcards to customers, with postage prepaid on the envelopes or postcards with a postage meter. It is thus similar to courtesy reply ...

. Courtesy reply mail differs from

business reply mail Freepost is a postal service provided by various postal administrations, whereby a person sends mail without affixing postage, and the recipient pays the postage when collecting the mail. Freepost differs from self-addressed stamped envelopes ...

in the manner of payment of postage, namely, by stamp when the mail is sent, rather than by the permit holder when the mail is received. Courtesy reply mail is typically used when a response is practically guaranteed, such as bill payments. In the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, the

United States Postal Service The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or Postal Service, is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for providing postal service in the U ...

specifies that the envelopes or postcards for courtesy reply mail should be printed with a

FIM FIM may refer to: Organizations and companies * Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme, the International Motorcycling Federation * Flint Institute of Music, in Michigan, United States * Fox Interactive Media, now News Corp. Digital Media * ...

A code. The

POSTNET POSTNET (Postal Numeric Encoding Technique) is a barcode symbology used by the United States Postal Service to assist in directing mail. The ZIP Code or ZIP+4 code is encoded in half- and full-height bars. Most often, the delivery point is add ...

bar code can be printed on the envelope or postcard. It can also be printed on a payment coupon, so that the bar code is visible through the window of a window envelope when the payment coupon is inserted.

References

{{postal-stub Postal systems Philatelic terminology Philately of the United States