Not that this is scientific but I am not the most tech savy person (by choice, not ability) and yet I use the banks bill pay for almost everything....so very few stamps for me and the reason why the post office is failing miserably.
...how is the bank able to send it without stamps?
Unless it's directly to their bank account, in general bill pay just shifts you buying the stamps to the bank, no? So yeah, it's a great option I use, but I don't see how it would cause "the post office to fail miserably". (Email has much more of an impact than bill pay.)
Commercial companies generally use machines like these from Pitney Bowes, to print a barcode stamp directly onto outgoing mail. Not likely to be many buyers there... :)
Right, I didn't mean the bank was literally running out to buy stamps, but rather that bill pay wasn't killing the post office because the bank was still paying that postage even if you weren't (besides the ones directly deposited).
And tooq's right, some of the transfers are done automatically when they have an agreement set up, but for many you type in the whole address and a physical check is sent (my 5 HOAs, for example). In these cases, the post office makes just as much money as me using a stamp (unless the bank worked out a lower rate with the PO I suppose), it's just shifted the cost from me to the bank (which will be shifted back to the bank's customers, obviously).
Anyways, I think we're all on the same page. :)