Send And Receive Fax Via Email
Are There Any Pay-As-You-Go Online Fax Services?
” The simple answer is yes. There are several fax providers who will offer you a pay-as-you-go plan which can be a real money saver because you only pay for the faxes which you need.
For example, one of the plans from Popfax will only let you send faxes and you don’t have a fax number, but you can pay for your faxes as they are needed. With other providers like Faxage, if you go with the lite fax plan, you pay a small monthly fee for a fax number and faxing is 5 cents per minute.
Keep in mind, some providers charge per fax and others charge per minute. What’s the difference you ask? Well, it usually takes on average around 40 seconds to send a fax but if it’s a large fax or has numerous pages, it might take several minutes to send your fax. Some providers charge 5 cents a minute so you can do the math. Other providers charge you per fax which can be equal to the same amount depending on the provider.
The same thing applies to overage rates, most fax providers will give you around 300 to 500 (incoming and outgoing) faxes per month, with the average monthly cost being around $8 to $10. But if you should go over that monthly limit, any extra faxes will usually cost you around 5 to 10 cents per fax. Some providers will charge per fax and others will charge per minute.
The reason these costs are just estimates is because each online fax provider or company will have slightly different fax plans and rates. So it does pay to do some quick comparison shopping before you sign on the dotted line. If you go with a monthly plan, this will be an ongoing business expense and you can save a lot of money by doing a little homework now.
Online fax services are relatively inexpensive so it might be worth your while to check into acquiring a monthly plan instead of a pay-as-you-go plan. Depending on the number of faxes you send, a monthly plan may work out to be even cheaper. The great part is most providers will offer you a 30 Day Trial so you can check out their services and also see if your fax requirements justifies going with a monthly plan. Also most if not all providers offer local sending fax over internet or toll-free fax numbers with your account. Your faxes are sent as an email attachment, mostly in a Pdf or Tiff file.
On the other end, there are corporate fax plans which can be especially tailored or designed to exactly meet your company’s needs. These plans can be quickly scaled up or down depending on your requirements. In a changing economy this flexibility can be a great money saver, as you only pay for the fax lines that your company needs.
Regardless of which fax plan or fax provider you choose, as mentioned before, it would probably be smart to shop around before you buy. Even with pay-as-you-go services there will be different rates and you must check out the quality of any service you’re considering using, regardless of the price. No good getting a great price, if the quality of the service provider is inferior and causes more problems than it’s worth. Choose wisely.
