I was in a hurry and wrote a check for a magazine subscription. Put check in envelope, sealed enve and put it with outgoing mail.

...YES, I forgot to put stamp and return address.

Does anyone know what happens to mail like that, since there's no return address? I don't know if the recepient will pay postage due :/

Should I cancel the check? Help!

most businesses like that will not pay postage due.

It will go to the dead letter office. it will be mixed in with lots of other undeliverable letters and after some time they are shredded. even with undeliverable letters the post office adheres to the "sanctity of the mail" and potentially private corrospondance is not opened up. 

Now that I think about it, I think I read that the dead letter office has a machine that can detect the magnetic ink in the checks and those are seperated out and opened and the check sent back to the owner of the check, but I'm not 100% sure of that. I do know that it is a months long process.

I would not stop payment on the check I would wait to see if it slips by without postage (that does happen occasionally)

Wait 10-14 days to see if the envelope somehow arrives at it's destination.  If not cashed by then, you might want to consider stop payment.

I'm wondering what twas the total of the magazine subscription. Most banks will charge a fee (mine is $35)  to put a stop payment on the check.  I would wait 3-4 weeks to see if it was presented, if not I'd just send another check. Whether or no I put a stop payment on the first woul ddepend on the value of the check.

From the USPS website:

What is a Mail Recovery Center (MRC)?

Undeliverable mailpieces are sent to the USPS Mail Recovery Center (MRC). At the MRC, letters are scanned by machines to determine if they contain items of value (Checks, Credit Cards, Money Orders, etc.). Letters and parcels that are determined to contain items of value are opened in an attempt to identify an address where the piece can be forwarded or returned.

If the mailpiece cannot be delivered or returned, and the item is worth less than $25.00, it is destroyed. If the mailpiece is determined to be an item of value, meaning the content is worth more than $25.00, it will be held for a variable amount of time according to the services included on the mailpiece.

In the instance where an undeliverable letter contains a check, the check is shredded and an explanation letter and image of the check are mailed to the address on the check.

Great suggestion, Mistie. The check was $27.00. Yea, not worth paying $35 for.

Thanks, Diane. Guess it's a matter of wait and see.

I do know I will never do that again LOL I have been triple checking everything since I realized my mistake

Rose,

Don't beat yourself up - either the letter sneaks through without postage, in which case the subscription will start. 

Or, it ends up "dead letter", in which case you can just re-send, and the subscription will start a bit later.

Really, no loss either way :-)

The last time I did something like this, the USPS opened the letter to find out from the contents how to send it back to me. It may well show back up in your own mail box after a few days.

Sometimes magazine subscription envelopes have prepaid postage.  If it did you might be fine.

Check was processed on 1/15! Thanks again for all the input, folks! :)  I'm surprised!! Wow  :)

It wasn't a prepaid enve, Theresa.

That's great, Rose!  Magazine companies are hurting so much now a days that they probably didn't mind floating 45 cents for a 27.00 subscription.  Or maybe as someone else suggested it just slipped right through.  I know there have been times my postman hasn't charged us postage due.

thanks for the update