SECURE POSTAGE PAYMENT SYSTEM AND METHOD

摘要

In a postage payment system (100), a secure integrated circuit (IC) card (180) is used to manage postage funds, and create encrypted postage indicia (305, 605, 705). Among other things, the system (100) is capable of performing charge-back accounting of postage expenses and generating mail contents (300). In accordance with an aspect of the invention, the postage indicia (305, 605, 705) are applied to selected locations on the mail contents (300) while they are being generated. In the preferred embodiment, each mail content (300) is placed in a window envelope (340) such that the postage indicium (305, 605, 705) on the mail content (300) exposes through a window (347) of the envelope (340) to facilitate inspection of the indicium (305, 605, 705). In accordance with another aspect of the invention, by including transactional data (708) in addition to the traditional postal data (709) in a postage indicium (305, 605, 705), the indicium (305, 605, 705) can be used to pay bills, purchase products and services, including any courier service different than the postal service, or used as cash, a traveler's check, or money order.