Print names and addresses on anything you mail? Should we do that?

[raccoon]

I just thought of that this morning. I sent a check to pay for a magazine subscription.

As I prepared the envelope, I had a thought. Maybe I'd better print name and address.
What if there's a young person working at the PO who can't read cursive?

Anyway, I ended up printing it.

Some of you may say, not to worry, machines/robots do it all. Which may be the case.
Someone who's in the know, please post.

[dembotoz]

1. well my printing sucks to but not as bad as my writting

i would suggest printing in a legible form as you can

just safer

[tblue37]

2. Many of my college students cannot read cursive any more. nt

[Buckeye_Democrat]

5. Amazing! I could read some cursive before it was covered in elementary school, at least...

... to some extent.

I figured out the letters by comparison to print, I guess.

Surely an adult could learn the letters on their own if they gave it much effort.

[Hekate]

3. How about one of the 1001 address stickers we all have in the house from hopeful charities?

Be bold. In July, use stickers with Christmas scenes.

[MineralMan]

4. I always print addresses, if I write them by hand on mailpieces.

All Caps block letters. Everything is machine read these days. Machines can read block lettering and numbers. Cursive is another matter. depending on its style and legibility, it might cause problems for address reading equipment.

For all mail that I send regularly, I print labels from my computer, also in all caps and in an Arial Bold font at at least 12 point size.

[GrapesOfWrath]

6. A friend of mine went to her bank to cash a personal check

she had been given and the young teller had to find an older coworker to read it because it was in cursive,

[BumRushDaShow]

7. "What if there's a young person working at the PO who can't read cursive"

Most of the mail is auto-sorted by machine using the zip code. And if you use the 9-digit one, it gets further sorted down to a small block of addresses.

As a note, I always print the address and try to make sure the zip code is clear. Once it hits the correct PO, the names and number of streets is narrowed. And in your case, since you were sending in a subscription, these usually go to a P.O. Box anyway (which is at the Post Office).