Chances are, you’ll want to send (or receive) a fax or two this year. Right?
If you don’t do enough faxing to justify buying a fax machine and hooking up a separate fax line, here are your options:
- Use the fax machine at work (…not always convenient, or private).
- Use the faxing services available at places like FedEx Office or The UPS Store (…for a fee).
Neither of the above options is very attractive if you just need to send a short fax to someone in a hurry.
There is a better alternative — and it’s FREE!
Why Most Online Faxing Services Aren’t Perfect
You may have heard about a number of different online faxing services that let you send OR receive faxes for free.
The catch: It’s hard to find one that permits free faxing both ways. Either you can send for free or you can receive for free — but not both.
Good news! Lee Seats at Freebies.about.com has done his homework and found the best options for sending and receiving faxes… for FREE!
Best FREE Online Faxing Services
All you need to do is use 2 free services, one to send your faxes and another to receive faxes. —Lee Seats
#1 – To RECEIVE incoming faxes without a fax machine… use eFax. I’ve used it for years. It’s simple and very quick.
When you sign-up for the eFax free trial, you get your own “fax number.” Whenever someone sends you a fax, it arrives in your inbox as an e-mail attachment!
The best things about using the eFax free trial:
- It’s completely FREE for 30 days.
- There’s no limit to the number of incoming faxes you can receive.
- It shows up in your e-mail, which you already check regularly anyway.
- There’s no need for a separate phone line just for faxing.
- There are no “busy signals”.
- You can organize all your faxes online.
- It works instantly, seconds after you sign-up.
- You get to choose a local or toll free eFax fax number.
#2 – To SEND free faxes online… use FaxZero or GotFreeFax.
FaxZero allows you to send a limited number of short faxes for free. At this writing you can send 2 faxes per day of up to 3 pages each. It may not be high volume, but it can come in handy when you need to get few pages faxed out. The free faxes have an advertisement on the cover page. There is no registration required and you can send faxes for free to anywhere in the US and Canada. —Lee Seats
I haven’t tried FaxZero yet, but I trust Lee’s recommendation, and I look forward to trying it the next time I have to send a fax.
I’ve used GotFreeFax before. Here are some reasons to use GotFreeFax — you can:
- Add rich text to adjust the font and format of your documents — because a more aesthetically pleasing fax appears more professional than a simple plain-text document.
- Upload and send PDFs and JPEGs — in addition to regular Word documents.
- Add your own cover page — or use the service’s standard, basic cover page.
GotFreeFax does not include ads on its free faxes, as many competitors do. The advertisements serve to generate revenue for the company that is offering the free service, but as a consequence, your faxes will look unprofessional. Instead of plastering unsightly ads all over your faxes. Source
By the way, another reputable computer guy who uses both eFax and FaxZero to send and receive FREE faxes is Rick Broida from PC World.
Here’s his review of eFax and FaxZero.
#3 – To SEND & RECEIVE free faxes online — or from your smartphone — these are also highly rated:
NOTE: One nice thing about these FREE online faxing services is that it doesn’t take long to sign up and start sending or receiving faxes. We’re talking a matter of minutes. So the next time you have to send or receive a fax, have no fear. Just sign up & go, without a lot of headache!
Always on the lookout for a good bargain, I consider myself a frugal person — but not cheap. And not afraid to spend money on the things that matter.
I like to share good deals with others when I find them. One of my favorite ways to save money is to reuse items in ways other than their intended purpose — so I write a lot about outside-the-box ideas that most people wouldn’t think of!
When I’m not saving money or looking for good deals, you’ll find me at the corner of Good News & Fun Times as publisher of The Fun Times Guide (32 fun & helpful websites).
