Tag Archives: USPS

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2 Strategies for Buying USPS Forever Stamps Online (AMEX Business Platinum Card $20 Monthly Benefit)

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Good morning everyone.  On May 1, American Express introduced many new (temporary) benefits to the American Express Business Platinum Card, including a $20 monthly credit for shipping (which includes USPS, UPS & FedEx) that is valid from May 1, 2020 to December 31, 2020.  A few days ago, I wrote How to Purchase & Print USPS Shipping Labels Online (AMEX Business Platinum Card $20 Monthly Benefit).  I’ve also read a few other blog posts where travel bloggers said that they will buy $20 of stamps every month, even though they have no need for stamps.  I thought it would be a good idea to share 2 strategies for buying stamps online.  Just a heads up, the USPS charges a small $1.30 shipping charge for buying stamps online, but if you would rather avoid the $1.30 fee, you can visit your local post office.

Strategy 1: Buy Stamps Throughout the Year for the Holidays

You might be surprised to know that there are 40 different versions of Forever Stamps currently available for sale on the USPS website, with new stamp designs added throughout the year.  If you are someone who sends Christmas / Hanukkah / holiday greeting cards, there are several options available and you can purchase the necessary stamps monthly throughout the year.  If you live in Alabama or Maine, there are also specific stamps featuring your state.

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New AMEX Business Platinum Shipping & Wireless Phone Service Credits Post Fast

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Good morning everyone.  A few days ago, American Express unveiled several new benefits for several of their personal and business cards.  Doctor of Credit has all the details regarding the card benefits, but for today’s post, I am going to talk about the monthly $20 Shipping and $20 Wireless Phone Service credits for the American Express Business Platinum Card.

These benefits were announced and went live on May 1, so I waited no time testing out the credits.  On May 1, I wrote How to Purchase & Print USPS Shipping Labels Online (AMEX Business Platinum Card $20 Monthly Benefit).  I purchased a $10.90 shipping label through the USPS website to ship an item I sold on Amazon.  Later that day, I made a one time $20 payment to my AT&T wireless phone bill.  Both purchases posted on May 1 and the subsequent statement credits posted on May 4.  That is a really fast turnaround time for the statement credits to post.

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How to Purchase & Print USPS Shipping Labels Online (AMEX Business Platinum Card $20 Monthly Benefit)

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Updated 10:20am PT on 5/14: Purchasing shipping labels through PayPal does not trigger the $20 credit (according to Doctor of Credit)

Updated 12:00pm PT on 5/2: Unfortunately, it looks like USPS First Class Mail is not available for packages under 1 pound (16 ounces).  Only USPS Priority Mail and USPS Priority Mail Express are available on the USPS website.  If you need to print USPS First Class Mail or USPS Media Mail, you can do that through the PayPal shipping center (read this post).

Good afternoon everyone, what a busy May 1 is.  American Express announced today that several of their credit and charge cards will have limited time benefits to offset the travel benefits that are not being used due to the coronavirus pandemic.  Doctor of Credit has a great summary of all the new card benefits, but for this post, I’m going to focus on the $20 monthly statement credit for shipping purchases (USPS, UPS and FedEx) on the American Express Business Platinum Charge Card (valid from May 1, 2020 through December 31, 2020).

As luck would have it, I sold an item on Amazon earlier today and needed to print a shipping label for the package.  Normally, I would print the shipping label through the Amazon Seller Central platform, but I decided to purchase the shipping label from the USPS website to show you the steps (and so I could test out the $20 monthly statement credit for shipping).  The steps are exactly the same whether you are using the AMEX Business Platinum Card or any other payment method.  To get started, go to the USPS website.

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USPS Lost my VirtualPostMail Package Full of Gift Cards & Credit Cards

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Buenos dias everyone.  A few months ago, I wrote about VirtualPostMail, the service I use to receive, scan, and forward my physical mail. I typically have them collect items for me over the course of a few weeks, and then I select the items I want to keep and have them shipped to wherever I’m going next. Since I was heading to Washington, DC for work last week, I asked VPM to mail a package to my post office box in Washington, DC a few days before I was going to arrive. This package included several important items:

  • My replacement AT&T Access More Credit Card (since someone tried to hack my account)
  • My new Discover It Credit Card in a different design
  • My Amazon Prime Store Credit Card
  • 1 $50 Hotels.com gift card from Amazon
  • 2 $50 Petco gift cards
  • 6 iTunes gift cards from Staples (3 x $100 and 3 x $50)
  • 2 sets of Cabela’s gift cards I purchased from SVM on eBay
  • My Hyatt Explorist welcome packet
  • My new Blue Cross Blue Shield insurance card
A screenshot of 12 envelopes of various sizes from my virtualpostmail dashboard

Will I ever see these envelopes?

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USPS Informed Delivery – A Step By Step Guide

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I recently logged into the United Stated Postal Service (USPS) to check some shipping rates, and there was an ad on the USPS Homepage for a product called Informed Delivery notifications. Informed Delivery is a really cool service that sends you an email with the pictures of the mail you are going to receive that day in your mailbox!

I really love this product, because when I work late I can see in advance if there is anything in my mailbox worth stopping for on my way home. If there’s not, I just head home and pick up the mail on another day. Another benefit is you can see if the Postal Carrier didn’t deliver all your mail. There is an option to notify the Post Office if you didn’t receive a piece of mail. Here is an example of what the email header looks like and a example of the image you’ll receive of your mail:

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