Abstract: A postal customer obtains (directly or indirectly) from a post office one or more labels, each having a unique identifier. At the time of obtaining the labels or later, the customer associates a payment account such as a credit card account or bank account with the label identifier in a database and authorizes postage charges to the payment account. At a later time, a label is addressed and other delivery information is supplied, and then affixed to a package for delivery. The package is delivered to and processed at a post office, where the label is read and the appropriate postage is determined by the post office without interaction with the customer. By accessing the database, the payment account associated with the unique identifier is determined and billed for such postage by the post office.