My membership says I have a free postage once a quarter, does that mean I get to print a wrapper and the postage is free for me to mail the book? If so, how do I use it?

The postage isn't free just the printable postage fee of 55 cents. This will give you credit assurance so once you mark the book mailed you get an instant credit.

From the kiosk page:

"Courtesy Postage Fees - Enjoy the convenience of our Printed Postage without the 55-cent Postage Printing fee, once every quarter ( = once every 3 months; up to $2.20 annual savings)."

From the Help Center:

How do I use it?

• Just click Print Wrapper on a request, and the Wrapper Settings page will come up.  You can choose the Print Postage option on that page. 
• You need to have PBS Money in your account to use printable postage.  You can add PBS Money to your account in the Kiosk (using PayPal or a credit/debit card).
• Note: If you are using Printable Postage to send a Mail-to-Friend (noncredit) transaction, you need to create that transaction first from the Book Details page as described in Can I send a book to a friend or a non-member, or to myself at an alternate address? and then follow the instructions above.

ETA: better explanation

Be aware that if you don't already have money in your PBS account, you will have to pay a .50 cent transaction fee to put money in there.

Because of that, I personally didn't think it was worth doing since I'd still have to pay 50 cents.  Probably the only time I'd consider doing it is if I get a request from someone with a APO, FPO, DPO military address as tracking usually doesn't update after the package has left the U.S.

YMMV.

Be aware the media mail tracking at PBS is not working, The PBS offer is a possible ,not always, insurance for an instant credit. Even though I am entitled to  it, I have never used it because I want the package accurately weighed  and am advised via this forum accurate weights are iffy on PBS. My PO is so close it is not an incovenience to drop it off.

Mary Anne

"Be aware that if you don't already have money in your PBS account, you will have to pay a .50 cent transaction fee to put money in there."

I never liked using my charge plate on the internet - I would send in a personnal check (or Postal Money Order) via snail mail. The address is:
PaperBackSwap 
3651 Peachtree Parkway Suite E-390 
Suwanee, GA 30024 

With your check you also need to add:
Your Name (as used at PBS)
Your Nickname (as used at PBS) 
Your Address (as used at PBS) 
You Phone Number (as on file at PBS) 
and I would also add a short note asking for PBS to credit your account with the funds from the enclosed check (or Money Order).

They will do so when your check clears the bank or when they cash the Money Order - usually takes about 5 to 10 'working days' 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
At some point in life I got over not using my charge plate on the internet - I now use the Kiosk and pay the 50 cent transaction fee. 

 

You only pay the 50 cent fee once no matter how much you add at a time. If you add $20, you can mail 6-8 books before you have to refill. I personally post one WL book per month so I can use up my free credit.

My Post Office is a nightmare so it is so much easier and less stress to wrap my books, weigh them on my scale and print postage from PBS. It is worth the 55 cents to me. I get the instant credit too. Then I can watch its journey through the tracking on the site. There were some USPS updates that disrupted the tracking in June/July and it took some time to sync everything up again with Endica (PBS's Postage Provider) and there was another recent hiccup but everything seems resolved again. 

A great feature of printable postage/instant credit is that if you use it on a multiple-book shipment, you get all the credits awarded simultaneously once you've marked them mailed. And those types of packages are almost always less expensive to mail anyway. So with one 1 book to mail at $2.63 and even if adding another book or two increases the rate to the next weight tier of $3.12, (or the third tier of $3.61) you could still mail several books for less than mailing two books separately for a total of $5.16 (2x$2.63). Including of the fee would total $3.18, $3.67, or $4.16 because you only pay it per package, not per book. As standard members get one of these every month, I try to time it to use it for bigger orders, but even if I've already used it, for multiples it's worth it to pay the fee. I buy PBS money in batches every three or so months, depending on my balance so I don't have to pay the $.50 fee too often; I try also to combine a PBS postage purchase with my annual membership fee.

Be aware the media mail tracking at PBS is not working, The PBS offer is a possible ,not always, insurance for an instant credit.

This is not quite correct. Instant credit and tracking are two completely different things and they are not connected to each other. Unless you have a past history of many lost books mailed from your account, you will always get instant credit when you mail a book with PBS postage. The credit is put into your account the moment that you mark the book mailed, way before USPS could possibly have or send a tracking record back to PBS. 

Only if you have a history of using printable postage to get instant credit and then marking books mailed without actually sending them (i.e. if you have committed fraud by collecting against the credit insurance for transactions you did not faithfully complete), then PBS will turn off instant credit in your account and you will no longer be eligible for it. This is certainly not a typical situation though. The vast majority of members follow the rules, mail books when they say they will, and aren't stealing from the site, so they are getting instant credits when they use printable postage.

I coordinate my free monthly printable postage transaction with the posting of WL audiobooks since they are 2 credits each.

I never liked using my charge plate on the internet

Also, Danny - I chuckled at your use of your terminology.