Frequently Asked Questions

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Q: What should my permit look like?
Q: How will bulk mailing services save my company money?
Q: What is the minimum quantity my mailing has to be to qualify for discount postage rates?
Q: What is the difference between a standard bulk rate mailing and a discounted first class mailing?
Q: What is Ancillary Service Endorsement (ASE)?
Q: What is the benefit to using the mail tracking services on my material?
Q: How much room do I need on my material to print the delivery address allowing for automated discount postage rates?
Q: I want to update my company database to ensure the addresses are the most accurate before mailing my material. Can Alamo Mailing help me with this process? (National Change of Address or NCOA)
Q: I want to purchase a list of name & address for my next mailing. Does Alamo Mailing offer this service?
Q: What is the Intelligent Mail Barcode (IMB) and why do use it on my mailing?
Q: I want to apply for a position at Alamo Mailing. Where can I get an application?
Q: I am a member of the "By Referral Only" (BRO) program. How can I get more information about the program?
Q: How long is the average turn around time at Alamo Mailing?



Q: What should my permit look like?
A: There are several different options for your permit that the post office will allow. Here are some basic layouts. First Class Permit Example:

Standard Bulk Rate Permit Example:

Other samples can be seen at: http://pe.usps.gov/text/qsg300/Q604d.htm

Q: How will bulk mailing services save my company money?
A: If you do the mailing yourself then you will most likely spend your time and energy putting the mailing together, as well as paying the full postage rate for each piece of mail. This can get time consuming and extremely costly.

Send your mailings to Alamo Mailing to save you both time and money! A letter size standard bulk rate mailing will have the average discounted postage rate of $0.23 per piece, not $0.41 per piece that you will pay at the post office. That is already an average savings of $0.18 per piece! Your time is worth a lot as well so let us fold, insert and address your mails at competitive rates that will still leave you with savings on postage alone. It is almost like we are paying you to do your mailings for you. You can't beat it!

Please contact us at bulkmail@alamomailing.com or (210)637-0404 for any additional questions on how we can save you money with our services.

Q: What is the minimum quantity my mailing has to be to qualify for discount postage rates?
A: Per Post Office regulations, a discounted first class rate mailing requires at least 500 records to receive any reduced postage rates. A standard bulk rate mailing requires at least 200 records to qualify for a discount.

Q: What is the difference between a standard bulk rate mailing and a discounted first class mailing?
A: A standard bulk rate mailing offers a much higher discount by almost half of the full first class postage rate. This services has an average delivery time of 3-7 business days within Texas, but is not guaranteed by the Post Office. The minimum quantity for this discount is 200 records, anything less will result in full rate first class postage.

Alamo Mailing strongly recommends using the standard bulk rate service to allow our customers to save the most money on postage. Generally the only time that Alamo Mailing recommends using the discounted first class service is if the material is for a dated event that falls within a week of receiving the material or if the material is required by law to be delivered with the first class services.

A discounted first class mailing offers all the same benefits that you would receive with full rate first class postage but at a reduced cost. Standard delivery time is 1-3 days guaranteed by the Post Office. The mail that is not deliverable will automatically be returned to the address listed on the return. The post office requires that your mailing has a minimum of 500 records to qualify for discounted first class postage rate. Anything less then 500 records will go out at the full first class postage rate.

Q: What is Ancillary Service Endorsement (ASE)?
A: The Ancillary Service Endorsement (ASE) is the service offered by the United States Post Office that will send a customer back the mail that was either not deliverable or has a new forwarding address. This service is also known as "Address Service Requested" which is the phrase that is physically printed on each piece of material before the original mailing.

While the ASE is a useful and functional service to request for your mailings there are also hidden fees from the USPS that are involved with this service that may later affect your budgets bottom line. Alamo Mailing would like for our customers to consider the National Change of Addresses (NCOA) service for the very reason the possible hidden fees. Please see the information about NCOA in the FAQ area of our website.

Q: What is the benefit to using the mail tracking services on my material?
A: This is a new and exciting service that is now offered by Alamo Mailing to help you keep tabs when your mail is scheduled for delivery in homes or businesses. Your mail will be embedded with tracking information within the Intelligent Mail Barcode and once it is delivered to the destinations post office, the material will be scanned for tracking. You will be able to log on to the Alamo Mailing website with a unique user id and password, so that you can see where your mail is in the delivery process real time.

Q: How much room do I need on my material to print the delivery address allowing for automated discount postage rates?
A: The Post Office requires a completely blank box with no color or background which includes shadows & watermarks, and requests the size to be 2 inches high by 4 inches wide to allow for proper addressing and bar coding.

Q: I want to update my company database to ensure the addresses are the most accurate before mailing my material. Can Alamo Mailing help me with this process? (National Change of Address or NCOA)
A: If you are concerned that you might have invalid information in your database then you need to consider the National Change of Address (NCOA) service offer at Alamo Mailing through the United States Post Office. The process starts with you sending your "dirty data" to Alamo Mailing and then we fill out the necessary paper work for the NCOA process to begin at the Post Office and send it to them for review. Once the data is reviewed and the "dirty data" is corrected, the entire list is sent back to Alamo Mailing ready for us to mail out your material. This process will provide forwarding address information when available so that your database will be as accurate as possible and will help prevent returns to you. This process is also available for business addresses but it does not offer as high result accuracy due to corrected information being made available to the USPS. Please allow up to 72 hours to process (not including weekends and holidays). Once the corrected information is made available to Alamo Mailing then we can provide you with the corrected information so that you may update your database for mailings.

Please note that effective November 23, 2008 the United States Post Office will require all databases to undergo a "move update" process prior to mailing any material. Lists purchased through Alamo Mailing will already include this process. However, customer provided lists will need to go through NCOA to qualify for postage discounts. The USPS will require that all lists be updated within 95 days of mailing all material from that date forward.

Q: I want to purchase a list of name & address for my next mailing. Does Alamo Mailing offer this service?
A: Alamo Mailing has several options available for our customers to purchase lists for their mailings. The first step is to decide where you want to mail and what demographics you would like to use to find your audience for an individual mailing. The destination of where your mail will be delivered can be made by a radius search, individual zip code, county, state and so much more. Just let Alamo Mailing know where you want to go.

When it comes to your demographic selection there are almost endless possibilities! Alamo Mailing can purchase a list for your mailings that can be as general as basic resident lists of every household in a given area, to as specific as households that only have a home value of $250,000 or more and own a dog.

Alamo Mailing can purchase resident lists as well as many different types' of business lists. Once you figure out your ideal list, we will see what we can put together for you. Please note that lists purchased through Alamo Mailing can not be provided to the customer and must remain in house for mailing material only. Selections are available for one-time use mailings or multi use mailings within a period of one year. For more information on purchasing a list for your next mailing, you can either request information from our online quoting service or contact us at bulkmail@alamomailing.com or (210)637-0404.

Q: What is the Intelligent Mail Barcode (IMB) and why do use it on my mailing?
A: The barcode printed on your mail is filled with information about your materials final destination and allows that information to be communicated to the sorting machines at the post office. The postnet barcode that is most commonly seen today but has limits to the information embedded to just delivery information. The new Intelligent Mail Barcode (IMB) allows more information beyond just delivery information. The IMB is what allows your material to be tracked for delivery, request any return services and many more exciting options to be developed by the United States Post Office in the foreseeable future.

Alamo Mailing is one of the first bulk mail houses in the area to use this new technology to better serve our customers. We have been using the IMB system since July 2007 and have seen exciting results. We highly recommend our customers consider using this system in coordination with some of the other services offered at Alamo Mailing.

Please note that the IMB technology will be enforced to use as the standard barcode by the USPS as of January 2, 2009 and Alamo Mailing is already confident in the process.

Q: I want to apply for a position at Alamo Mailing. Where can I get an application?
A: Alamo Mailing is frequently looking for qualified candidates to fill various positions with in our company. Please feel free to fill out our application made available below and either email it to bulkmail@alamomailing.com, fax it to (210)637-0081 or call (210)637-0404 to make an appointment.

Thank you for showing interest in making Alamo Mailing your employer, we look forward to hearing from you!

Download pdf application here

Q: I am a member of the "By Referral Only" (BRO) program. How can I get more information about the program?
A: This program is available for Alamo Mailing customers that are in the real estate industry that are referred by an existing customer. This seamless program allows our customers the ease of completing a mailing without doing most of the work for one simple price. Please visit the area of our website that is designated to the by referral program for more information.

Q: How long is the average turn around time at Alamo Mailing?
A: The general turn about time for Alamo Mailing is 72 hours from the time that both the material and the database is received at our facility. Please note that weekends and holidays are not included in the 72 hours.

If a project requires Alamo Mailing to produce the material or if there is hand work needed to complete the project then it is possible the general 24 turn around may require additional time. This will be evaluated on a case by case basis.