System and method for instant online postage metering

A method for a vendor to dispense metered postage over a network to a remote personal computer, the method comprising:

• establishing from a postal service a postage meter license that is not allocated to a particular customer of the vendor, the meter license being associated with a meter account maintained at a computerized data center;
• receiving, by a processing device at the computerized data center via the network, a transaction request for postage from a customer using the remote personal computer, the customer not previously associated with the meter license, said transaction request including information from the customer corresponding to the transaction requested and payment method;
• processing, by the processing device at the computerized data center, the transaction request by creating evidence of postage payment and to account for the created evidence of postage payment in the meter account;
• effecting payment for the transaction based on the information received from the customer;
• and
• sending, by the processing device, the evidence of postage payment from the computerized data center to the remote personal computer for use by the customer, thereby enabling the customer to obtain metered postage from the vendor without using an individually associated meter license from the postal service.