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How Much Paper Can Digital Services Save?

October 12, 2016/in Online Fax /by KateH

There are plenty of reasons to replace paper with digital services, from security to efficiency, but one that’s often overlooked is the environmental impact.

It goes without saying that digital services like email, cloud storage, and online faxing save paper, since they don’t require any. But just how much paper is saved by using those services?

According to some estimates, the average office discards about 350 pounds of paper each year, per employee.

Take faxing, one paper-intensive office tool, as an example. If you have a physical fax machine that’s printing faxes out – which are later tossed – that adds up, even for a small business. If you have 25 people in your office, your company is using more than 8,700 pounds of paper per year.

Google Faxing estimates that online faxing can save roughly one tree per year, and further reduce paper use beyond your initial fax since all sending, editing, and receiving can be done on your computer or mobile device.

If it’s difficult to imagine just how much paper that adds up to, MyFax provides some more numbers on how environmentally intensive general office paper use can be:

In the US, annual office paper consumption is enough to build a 10-foot-high wall that’s 6,815 miles long. That’s more than the distance from New York to Tokyo.
Producing one ton of paper (200,000 sheets) requires 20,312 gallons (76,889 liters) of water. In the UK alone, 12.5 million tons of paper was consumed in 2005.
Reducing paper use by 10% in the US alone would prevent the emission of 1.6 million tons of greenhouse gases — the equivalent of taking 280,000 cars off the road.

Faxing is by no means the only digital solution in offices these days; another is eSigning. Because it allows you to sign and send documents online, eSigning lets you skip printing out additional paper.

eSignature provider DocuSign says that its electronic signature service has reduced approximately 837 tons of paper – or more than 14,000 trees – since its founding in 2003.

Switching to online forms, filing, and reports is also an effective way to cut paper use. According to an InformIT report, the Bank of America cut its paper consumption by 25% in part by using online forms and reports. And Yale University recently on a paper-saving initiative in 2013, encouraging faculty, staff, and students alike to share information via programs like PowerPoint instead of handouts, by distributing meeting materials electronically, and by using message programs or emails to exchange information. Yale estimates that before it took on the paperless initiative, it consumed 211,033 reams of paper in one fiscal year, or about 12,662 trees worth of paper. When the university started going paperless, it was able to cut that by 2.4%, with a long-term goal to cut paper consumption by 25%.

With the rise of cloud storage, filing and sharing documents without paper is another way to cut paper use and save money. Storing physical documents costs money – for the storage system and the space – and may mean higher labor costs, too. Using cloud storage like Dropbox can eliminate those costs, and save a significant amount of paper.

It goes without saying that most people communicate with email instead of snail mail nowadays, but when it comes to marketing, there’s still a lot of direct mail being sent. Email marketing programs like Campaign Monitor not only save paper, they have a much higher open rate than direct mail – an average of 22.8%, compared with 4% for physical mail.

Finally, internal notes, memos, and copies can be eliminated through to-do lists and note-taking apps like Evernote and Trello. Both programs allow you to message colleagues and share documents online, which means you don’t have to print out clips you want to share.

The Future of Faxing

September 6, 2016/in Online Fax /by KateH

Mike Charalambous is the CEO of SRFax, a Canadian-based Internet fax service provider that provides services in the U.S. and Canada. FaxCompare Kate Harrington sat down with him to talk about the fax industry and the future of Internet faxing.

FaxCompare: Roughly how many new subscribers do you see each month?

SRFax: On average we see about 1,000 new subscribers each month. We’re not a huge company – if you look at a company
like one of j2’s [Global, owner of eFax and MetroFax], they probably get 50,000 new subscribers a month. I think the faxing industry is improving, and we’ve seen great growth. Consultants are, for the first time, saying that demand for online faxing service is now surpassing in-house fax service.

And that’s amazing, because the enterprise market is the biggest fax user, and most of them have in-house servers because they have seen that as more secure and cost effective. But the forecast for the next three to five years is that the online fax market will surpass the server-based market in revenue. That’s exciting for us.

FAF: Have you seen certain industries embracing Internet faxing?

SRFax: I think the biggest growth market has been the medical industry. We’ve got a few electronic medical records companies that have integrated their software with our software. On the whole, healthcare, finance, and legal are heavy users of online faxing.

FAF: What feature requests do you most often hear from customers?

SRFax: I think portability – being able to bring your number with you when you switch providers – is the biggest one, which we do supply. And then there’s a demand for an app. With smartphones today you can do just about anything, and faxing is no exception. If I had to say one of the things we need to have – and are in the process of developing – it’s a smartphone app.

Another big request, which we do offer, is HIPAA compliance. We are also one of the few online fax companies that will sign a business associate agreement.

FAF: What business size do you see the most online fax demand come from?

SRFax: It’s really split in two – we have a lot of customers with smaller, home-based businesses who are buying the Home 200-page plan. Then on the business side, the majority of customers are well over the 2,500-page plan. About 10-15% of our customers buy plans in the middle from 800-2,500 pages per month. The rest are either small business owners or large corporations that need well over that amount.

FAF: What do people not know about the fax industry?

SRFax: There’s been a lot of growth in this industry in IP faxing. But I don’t think it has staying power. Faxes are transmitted by sound, and that Internet phone line doesn’t always work well for that. If you get any noise interference on the line, it’s lethal for faxing. The general public and even some businesses don’t understand that an Internet phone line doesn’t work that well. People will go to VoIP-based systems, it doesn’t work, and they end up coming to us.

FAF: What’s the most interesting thing that’s happening now in the fax industry?

SRFax: That the industry is moving toward cloud-based services. A lot of people don’t know that Internet faxing or cloud-based services exist, and it’s exciting to see that trend reversing and people looking for services like ours, as opposed to looking for hardware or legacy service.

People have been predicting that the fax will die for a long time, but I don’t see that happening. There are too many industries that need it – there would have to be a major shift in thinking across many industries for faxing to start tapering off.

I think another thing to be aware of is that for cloud-based services, the waters have been muddied badly over the last five or six years. When we started 10 years ago, there were only six or seven providers. Today there’s probably 50. But of those 50, half of them have terrible customer service and aren’t reliable. Customers sign up with a cheap service, have a bad experience, and end up thinking the entire industry is bad. But if they’re serious about remaining with a cloud-based service, they’ll get to a good provider.

Conclusion

Whether you’ve got a home office or are building a business that will have to scale up rapidly, faxing is an important tool. Now that faxing has been freed from the fax machine, it can provide an easy, secure, and mobile way to send and receive documents. And as with many industries, the growth of cloud-based technologies will only help Internet faxing grow and become more feature-rich.

Five tips to regain control of your own healthcare

June 7, 2016/in Online Fax /by KateH

Almost all of us, at some time or another, are going to depend on healthcare professionals and the medical industry. With a quickly-changing healthcare landscape shaped by technological advances and shifting insurance, billing and privacy laws, that can be overwhelming. intimidating and frustrating – especially when trying to decipher the alphabet soup of health care terms and policies. With that in mind, here are five tips that you can implement that will give you more control over the process and even help you save money.

1. Get your own digital copy of your medical records

Having your own copy of your medical records can really come in handy when you change primary care doctors, see a new specialist, or a variety of other individual reasons. This is especially important when you have a procedure like surgery or other specialized care, because your primary doctor and any future doctor won’t have access to those records until you provide them or specifically request in writing to have the specialist office send over the records.

Because of privacy laws, doctor’s offices cannot send or receive medical records via email. Instead, you can only receive them via fax, mail or in person. The “hack” here is to sign up for an online fax service (if you don’t already have one) and have the doctor’s office fax the records to that number. The fax will be automatically converted into a digital PDF file and sent to you as an attachment. If you do this one time, you can sign up with a company that offers a 30 or 60 day free trial and get the documents for free. However, some services are so cheap (less than $5 per month) that having one available for the occasional fax is probably worth it. Another example where you might need to fax with a doctor’s office is to send them information from your insurance company to get help with billing issues (they won’t accept this via email either).

Dealing with a medical condition or a switch to a new provider can be messy and stressful, but having easy access to your records – and not having to wait for snail mail – can make the whole process much easier.

Nancy Finn, author of the book e-Patients Live Longer: The Complete Guide to Managing Health Care Using Technology, says in this interview with Healthcare IT News that patients should also create a personal health record that includes medical histories, medications and allergies. “Digital communication tools will help you become an empowered patient,” she says.

2. Know your insurance plan

While very, very few people look forward to delving into the thick book that arrives each year with your health insurance card, there’s some really crucial information in there that you will be glad you know when it comes time to schedule appointments, see specialists, or contest something from your insurer.

You don’t have to read the whole tome, but you should familiarize yourself with the deductible, co-pay, and out of pocket maximum.

The deductible is the amount that the policyholder pays toward your medical costs each year before the insurer begins to pay its share. A co-pay is the flat fee you pay for certain expenses – including a trip to a doctor’s office or a procedure. And an out of pocket maximum is the total amount you can expect to pay each year for costs that include your deductible and copays (although some new plans don’t include copays in their out-of-pocket calculations). Once you hit that number – and it may vary from less than $1,000 to more than $10,000 – insurance pays for 100% of your healthcare costs. Deductibles, co-pays, and out of pocket maximums vary from plan to plan, and from year to year. And because our insurance landscape is changing very rapidly – in part due to the Affordable Care Act, and in part due to health care and prescription costs – you should never assume that your plan will be the same as it was last year.

Some insurers cover certain visits, like annual checkups, at 100%, no matter where you are with your deductible. And most include a set number of specialist visits, like mental health of physical therapy.

Secondly, read the fine print about who is in and out of network with your plan and what treatments are covered. For instance, a hospital may be in network with your plan, but an individual doctor may not be. If you’re planning a non-emergency procedure, take the time to double check that all the providers are, in fact, in network – it may save you thousands of dollars and a lot of time.

3. Speaking of deductibles…

If you know you’re going to be scheduling a non-emergency procedure, figure out how much you have left in your deductible, and how much time is left in the year. If you can meet your deductible with the procedure with time left in the year, you’ll get more mileage out of your coverage. If it’s late in the year already and you haven’t used much of the deductible, consider waiting until the beginning of the following year, if you’re able. That way, any procedures that come up for the remainder of the year won’t require any more payments toward your deductible.

For instance if you have $1,000 left until you meet your deductible and more than 6 months left in the year, getting an elective or non-urgent procedure could mean you meet your deductible and therefore have only copays (or, depending on the plan, no copays) left to pay for any additional healthcare costs for the rest of the year.

4. Use a broker

This may not apply to everyone, but for those who have special medical needs, or buy insurance for someone who does, a broker is an invaluable resource. If you’re a business owner, it’s also a great idea to work with a health insurance broker, as they know the ins and outs of the insurance landscape and can help you find the best plan for your needs.

Not everyone buying an individual plan will need a broker. But if you’re buying an individual plan to cover a specific treatment or therapy – many states mandate that individual insurance plans cover medical costs that employer plans may opt out of covering – then a broker can help you find a plan that covers your specific provider needs. Many families with children on the autism spectrum rely on brokers to help match them with plans that cover behavioral, physical, and speech therapy, for example.

Brokers stay on top of all the market changes, including which plans are available, shifts in plans like a change from PPO to HMO plans that can affect hyper-local markets – sometimes a plan is available in only a few counties in each state – and changes in laws that require employers to buy certain coverage. Whether you’re looking for the best plan to fit your family’s needs or are trying to stay on top of legal requirements, a good broker will save you a lot of time and stress.

5. Record information about doctor’s visits

Having digitized healthcare records (see #1) is a great step toward keeping track of your visits, procedures, and recommendations. If you’re going through an intensive healthcare treatment process, like cancer treatment, you may also want to consider keeping your own records.

That can include a healthcare journal, where you record names and contact information of the members of your healthcare team, questions for your doctor, and daily experiences with treatment. Include your doctor’s answers to your questions too – that can come in handy of one specialist recommends something that seems to contradict what another provider says. Or, if your doctor allows it, record your visit. That way you can hear specific information that your doctor gives you, and replay it for other members of your healthcare team or for family.

Staying Out of Porting Purgatory: What You Need to Know if You Want To Keep Your Phone Number

April 13, 2016/in Online Fax, VoIP for Business /by KateH

Finding yourself suddenly without your business phone or fax numbers because of a porting pitfall can be more than an inconvenience: imagine having to change numbers on all of your printed business material, from business cards to brochures; updating websites; reaching out to all your contacts; and trying to remember everywhere you’ve listed your numbers. Then there are contracts, accounts, and other filings that you will have to go back and update if you are forced to get new numbers. Avoiding that is worth reading some fine print and understanding how to port a number from a VoIP or online fax carrier before you need to do so.

In these days of mobile technology, your VoIP phone or online fax number is more than just a convenience; it is a vital part of any business’s communications, whether you’re a sole proprietor or part of a company with 100 employees. It’s easy to take for granted that you’ll always be able to keep our phone and fax numbers, since many providers allow you to port an existing number in or out to a new service.

But what happens if you get a phone or fax number with a VoIP or online fax provider that doesn’t allow you to take that number with you when you change to a new provider? While number portability is common, it’s not a given, and in fact some companies have steep penalties for taking a number with you to another service. Others make porting possible, but only if you follow an exact series of steps or agree to pay a fee.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and Congress first mandated number portability in 1996, and that means that all telecommunications carriers must allow number porting. However, some carriers refuse to port out numbers by claiming that they’re not telecommunications carriers, and that they therefore aren’t subject to number porting rules.

Carriers that have successfully made that claim, including online fax companies owned by J2 Global, Inc., have done so by stating that their cloud services exempt them from U.S. telecommunications services regulation. In other words, even though they transmit information over telephone lines, the service they provide can be classified as “information services” instead of “telecommunications services.”

“Ports involve a ‘losing carrier,’ and most of the pitfalls arise around the losing carrier not correctly responding to port-out requests, or delaying, or asking for money,” says Andrew Benton, CEO of Charge. “There is a lot of fine print about porting that’s never read when first choosing a service provider. It pays to be careful and ask questions to document what a carrier’s porting procedures are before establishing service. Of course, the losing carrier doesn’t have any incentive to assist you when switching service. This is an obvious source of issues.”

Benton says that in order to port most non-mobile numbers – including “virtual” numbers from VoIP providers – you need a Letter of Authorization, often provided by the new carrier you’re trying to port into.

For instance, Nextiva and RingCentral are among those whose porting policies require a LOA in order to port a number out. Others, like Google Voice (a free service) require you to unlock your number before porting it out, and pay a $3 fee.

Almost all providers require you to keep your number active while going through porting, another detail which can be easy to overlook. Paying attention to details like the wording in the LOA and keeping the account active can make or break a porting experience.

“Porting is really a straight forward process as long as you follow the carriers guidelines,” says David Xiong, vice president of technology with JDigital Voice. “Most of the time, that includes making sure the phone is currently active and not disconnected and making sure you correctly spell the name of the business on the LOA form to match exactly the invoice. That is the BIGGEST problem people have. You MUST make sure you follow the spelling of the name EXACTLY. Any character wrong and it poses a potential to get rejected. Every period, comma or LLC extension must match exactly. Not following these two guidelines will get your port request rejected.”

John Kinskey, founder of AccessDirect, Inc., says number porting in general can be an arcane and often confusing process “If you’re ever having trouble getting a number ported, I really recommend contacting a supervisor and explaining, plainly, what you are trying to do. Porting numbers doesn’t come up enough where frontline customer service is fully trained to answer those questions.”

Some providers simply don’t allow porting at all. J2 companies, which include online fax providers eFax and MyFax, put language in their customer agreements about not porting numbers out (in all caps for added emphasis!): “YOU FURTHER UNDERSTAND AND AGREE THAT YOU ARE NOT THE OWNER OF ANY eFAX NUMBER ASSIGNED TO YOU BY j2 GLOBAL. OWNERSHIP OF ANY SUCH eFAX NUMBER IS VESTED SOLELY IN j2 GLOBAL…YOU ARE EXPRESSLY PROHIBITED FROM CAUSING OR ATTEMPTING TO CAUSE THE eFAX NUMBER ASSIGNED TO YOUR ACCOUNT TO BE TRANSFERRED TO ANY OTHER SERVICE PROVIDER, TELEPHONE CARRIER OR ANY OTHER PERSON OR ENTITY.” What’s more, if you do port a number from a J2 carrier to another service, whether intentionally or by accident, J2 will automatically charge your credit card $500.

Benton says that since carriers like eFax do not consider themselves telecommunications carriers, they’ve been able to refuse to port out numbers. Whether or not that would hold up in court remains to be seen, he adds.

The bottom line is that it pays to do some advance reading before picking a VoIP or Internet fax provider. Chances are that you won’t stay with the same provider forever, and if you don’t want an unpleasant and expensive surprise when it comes time to change to a new service, you should know your options before committing to a provider.

Best Online Fax Services of 2015

October 21, 2015/in Online Fax /by KateH

If you’re looking for the right right online fax service, it helps to narrow down your choices based on your needs. Here’s our list of top picks within several categories – use it to help you find the right provider for you, and don’t forget to look for exclusive deals through FaxCompare.com!

Most Feature-Rich Service: eFax

eFax is the largest online fax service provider, and offers a huge range of plans and features that can work for corporations, individuals, and everyone in between.

While its plans are also pricier than those its competitors offer, perhaps making it better suited to larger companies, eFax has more features than any other provider. Those include:

HIPAA compliance (although eFax does not sign a Business Associate Agreement)
Mobile fax app for both Apple and Google devices
e-signing
24/7 phone support
Microsoft Office integration
local fax numbers in 50 states

Best Service for HIPAA Compliance: SRFax

SRFax is one of only two providers (FaxAge is the other one) that will sign a Business Associate Agreement as part of its HIPAA compliance policy.

When a fax provider signs a BAA, they agree that they are an organization that performs certain services for a covered entity (such as a doctor’s office) and that they are accountable for protecting the personal health information being transmitted through the service.

While other providers can legally claim they are HIPAA compliant without signing a BAA, experts say it’s safest to use a provider that will sign. Click here for more about BAAs and online faxing.

SRFax offers five business plans ranging from 200 pages to 2,500 per month.

Highest Volume Service: FaxAge Unlimited

FaxAge offers a variety of plans, mostly aimed at small to medium businesses. While it doesn’t allow a free trial, FaxAge does offer high volumes in its plans, including its “Unlimited” plan.

That plan costs $64.95 per month, plus a $5 setup fee. Despite the name of the plan, it comes with some fine print: FaxAge requires that you purchase one line for every 5,000 minutes of monthly fax sending or receiving you make. That comes out to about 1.3 cents per minute on the Unlimited plan. You can add up to three lines, or 15,000 minutes of faxing per month, which costs $194.85 per month. While it’s not truly unlimited, it’s still a good deal for a high volume.

If you need more than three lines, FaxAge has a Carrier plan that is scalable.

Best Value: Nextiva’s Single User Plan

If you pay annually instead of monthly, Nextiva’s single user plan is very inexpensive – $4.95 per month, which includes 1,000 pages per month and up to five users if you sign up through the FaxCompare discount link.

If you don’t need a feature-rich service – Nextiva doesn’t have features like e-signing or mobile apps – this is a great choice for a low price.

Microsoft Integration in Online Fax Services

October 6, 2015/in Online Fax /by KateH

Microsoft Integration is a feature that some online fax providers offer. As the name suggests, it allows users to send a document directly from Microsoft Office applications without having to switch out of that application.

Different providers will offer different versions; some integrate with Microsoft Office 2003, 2007, 2010, and Office 365, while some only integrate with Office 2003 and 2007. Either way, the integration will allow users to fax Word, Excel, PowerPoint, or Outlook documents directly from Microsoft Office.

Providers that offer Microsoft Integration include:

Most providers will ask you to sign into the service from Microsoft to get started. You can then fax directly from the application.

Quick Guide to Choosing an Online Fax Service

September 25, 2015/in Online Fax /by KateH

Choosing an online fax service means you can ditch the fax machine and the expensive phone line that goes with it, since you can use your computer or mobile device to send and receive faxes.

If you’re beginning the process of searching for an online fax service, here are some considerations that will help you narrow down your search and find the right provider for you:
Do You Already Have a Fax Number That You Want to Keep?

If you already have business materials with an existing fax number printed on them, you’ll most likely want to keep that number. If this is the case, look for a service that allows you to port your old fax number into their email system.

How Much Faxing Will You Do?

Most services offer several tiers of plans, with a set number of pages included that vary according to plan. While some offer you a certain number of pages that can be any mix of inbound and outbound, other plans divide up how many inbound and outbound pages you get per month. And all will charge for going over the set number of pages, so it’s worth doing the math to compare which plan will get you what you need.

Think About Which Features You Need

The features available to you through online faxing vary from provider to provider, and also from plan to plan. Features can include 24/7 phone customer support, electronic signing ability, smartphone apps, and integration with other cloud storage services, like Dropbox. Before you pick a service, consider how you use faxing, and what you anticipate your needs will be. If you only need to send and receive the occasional fax, the plan and provider you choose will be much different than that for say, an international or growing business.

HIPAA Compliance

If you work in the medical field, it’s worth taking the time to study the fine print for providers that say they offer HIPAA compliance. Not all providers who say they are HIPAA compliant will sign a Business Associate Agreement. Click here for more on what a BAA does and what it means when it comes to service providers.

If you’re looking for more interactive help in finding the right online fax service, this tool can get you started.

image via Creative Commons

International Faxing: A Complete Guide

August 20, 2015/in Online Fax /by KateH

For many companies that do business in other countries, faxing is a critical part of a communications strategy. Online faxing in particular can be a boon; instead of waiting by a machine at 1am for a fax, you know it will go to your email.

Most online fax providers make it very easy to send international faxes (look here for a list of fax providers that allow you to send internationally.) If your international faxing needs go beyond sending the occasional non-North American fax, here’s a guide to the ins and outs of making it work.

Getting an International Number

If you’re interested in getting a non-U.S. or non-Canadian fax number, for the most part it’s an easily integrated step within the process of signing up with a new provider. If you already have an international fax number that you wish to port in, first check to make sure the provider you have in mind allows number porting for that country.

Providers that offer international numbers include MyFax, MetroFax, eFax, RingCentral, and HelloFax.

Some providers will let you pick the country code you want your number to come from as you sign up online; for some, you may have to call the company to get an international number. MetroFax, for instance, offers only U.S. and Canadian numbers through its online signup, but upon calling customer service we were told that it is possible to obtain a non-North American number.

Others, like HelloFax, offer international numbers to an extent – outside of the U.S. and Canada, it offers numbers throughout the U.K.

It may take up to 10 business days for your international number to become active after you sign up for a new account. Some providers charge an extra fee, typically about $15 per month, to have an international number.

If you’re outside the U.S. or Canada and you’re trying to get a non-U.S. fax number, you may still be able to use a U.S.-based provider; some have expanded to provide local numbers European countries, while some, like eFax, have a presence in other countries (the U.K., in this case.)

Using an International Number and Faxing From the U.S. to an International Number

Once you have your number, sending a fax – whether from a U.S. number or an international number – is a simple process. You’ll need to remember to enter an international call prefix (from the U.S., it’s 011), a country code, and then the area code and number you’re dialing.

Costs

If you’re dialing an international number from the U.S., international rates will apply. They vary slightly for each provider, so be sure to check out what your provider charges. Here’s an example of RingCentral’s international dialing rates.

Some providers offer what’s known as a “free faxing zone,” which means you can send faxes to those countries at no extra charge. Here’s an example of MyFax’s free faxing zone. Each provider has different free faxing zones, so check with different services before choosing which one to sign up with.

You may be wondering why those international charges apply if your fax provider is sending faxes online; does the provider actually incur a fee for sending internationally, or is that just an extra revenue stream? The answer is probably both: some online fax providers do actually send to physical fax machines, in which case they have to use a telephone network.

image via Creative Commons

Top Five Reasons To Use An Online Fax Service

July 30, 2015/in Online Fax /by KateH

It would be easy to assume that faxing is obsolete – with email and cloud sharing, much of the fax’s role has been usurped. But while it may be true that fax machines themselves are practically relics, online fax is very much alive and well. Here are the top five reasons you might want to consider using an online fax service:

1. Your John Hancock An actual signature is necessary sometimes, and not just because old fogeys don’t trust email. In certain industries, like legal, government, and medical, legally binding signatures are mandatory, and the most efficient and cost-effective way to send those documents is by online fax.

2. National Signing Day! OK, maybe you aren’t a top college football pick. But just in case you have a son who is someday, you’d better have faxing capability on the ready. While other sports have switched to signed PDFs for signing day, college football programs still use faxes to seal the deal.

3. Because Hackers Remember that time the U.S Government got hacked? And the time before that major retailers like Target got hacked? While email encryption is an ever-evolving science, emails still aren’t as secure as Internet faxes (as long as you disable the “attach the fax to the email notification” feature. Online faxes are also more secure than physical faxes, for obvious reasons: anyone walking by a fax machine could theoretically just pick up the papers. For industries like healthcare that must follow strict privacy guidelines, online faxing is the best way to go.

4. Domo Arigato Faxes are a big part of the business world in many other countries – and in Japan they’re used by almost every business. Faxes can be seen by those businesses as more personal because of customized details like a signature, so if you’re doing business with overseas companies or organizations, the ability to fax will be a big plus.

5. Reach Back to the Stone Age Some businesses will only accept or send documents by fax. Since online faxing services will send a printed copy of your document to physical fax machines, you can reach the dinosaurs (and overseas companies, per #4 above) still using them.

image via pixabay

Using FaxFile

July 13, 2015/in Online Fax /by KateH

FaxFile is a free app that works with both iOS and Android devices, and allows you to send PDF, doc/docx, and photo files to fax numbers in the U.S. and in Canada.

There isn’t a monthly subscription cost, but you do need to buy fax credits. Credits are available through either the app store for iOS or the Google Play store for Android. Credit purchases range from $2.99 (for 50 credits) to $49.99 (2,000 credits). A typical fax is 10 credits per page, so if you’re planning to send a high volume of faxes it makes sense to buy more credits at once to save money.

Installing FaxFile is easy – just find it in your phone’s app store, install, and you’re ready to go. To send a fax, make sure you have enough credits (you can purchase them directly from the app), then hit the icon that says “send fax.” You’ll be prompted to select files and add recipients. To add photos, either browse your existing photos or take a new photo and add it to the queue. For documents, open the app that’s home to the document (for instance, Dropbox or Drive) and use the “open in” command to send a copy of the document to FaxFile.

You can either add recipients from your contact list, or enter a fax number directly. Should the fax fail, FaxFile automatically retries without charging you extra credits.

FaxFile will also let you add a cover page, although you may have to install FaxCover, which is also free.

And that’s it – your fax should be on its way, all from your mobile device. FaxFile wins points for its ease of use and good transmission quality. However, it’s not the cheapest way to send faxes from a mobile device. If you fax regularly on the go, you might get a better deal by using an online fax service that includes a smartphone app.