Electronic postage scale system and method

An electronic scale system comprising:

• a system memory;
• a weight evaluator for determining the weight of a package to be shipped via a selected service;
• a first receiver for receiving an integrated circuit card having a card memory;
• an interface within said first receiver for transferring data and information identifying said data between said card memory and said system memory;
• a second receiver for receiving an authorization code which is derived from at least said information, said second receiver different from said first receiver;
• and
• a processing element for generating an authorization code based on at least the transferred information, for verifying the received authorization code with the generated authorization code, and responsive to said data for determining at least a shipping cost of said package only after the received authorization code is verified, said shipping cost being a function of said weight.