GLOSSARY
Courtesy Reply Mail
By Justin Winter · Updated August 28, 2026
A pre-addressed return envelope a business includes with outgoing mail, where the recipient — not the sender — pays postage when mailing it back.
Courtesy Reply Mail is the everyday pre-addressed return envelope included with a bill or statement: the layout is designed to USPS specifications so it barcodes and sorts efficiently, but the recipient still has to add their own postage before dropping it in the mail.
That is the key difference from Business Reply Mail, where the sending business prepays postage and is billed only for envelopes that actually come back — Courtesy Reply Mail costs the business nothing extra per response, but asks the recipient to pay to reply.
See also
- Business Reply Mail — A prepaid reply format: the recipient mails something back without a stamp, and the permit holder pays postage only on the pieces actually returned.
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