Free Inbound Faxing
"I occasionally need to receive an inbound fax, but I don't own a fax machine. Going to Kinko's or the local drugstore to pick up a fax is a nuisance, and nothing is private there. Is there some way to get my faxes online, but still have a real phone number that people can use to send faxes to me? Oh, and free is nice..."
Receive a Fax for Free
Yes, you can get inbound faxes delivered to you electronically, for free. There are several ways to get a free fax number that will forward incoming faxes to you via email or web, and the senders will never know you don't have a real fax machine. Fax machines are so 1990... free online faxing (both inbound and outbound) is the way the cool kids do it now. :-)
My favorite free inbound fax service is Faxaway. This company has been in business since 1995 and despite their "Web 0.9" website, the service is rock solid. Sign up for a free Faxaway account and it will allow you to receive faxes and voicemails for free via your email account.
Here's how it works: Faxaway gives you a real fax number that you can give to anyone who wants to send a fax to you. When that fax number receives an inbound fax, Faxaway answers the call, saves the fax as a TIF image, and forwards it on to your email address. I don't care if they do it with computers, pigeons or monkeys -- but it works great. The only downside is that you probably won't get a local fax number. Mine is in a Seattle area code, and I'm in New York, but that's never been a problem for me.
I've had a Faxaway account for years, even though I do have a fax machine. I live out of my inbox, so it's nice to be able to search and refer back to faxes I received a while ago. Oh, and I get to choose whether or not they are printed. If you've ever come home and found 100 junk faxes piled on the floor beneath your fax machine, unplug that beast and make the switch to email-based incoming faxes.eFax is another well known free fax service online. They offer three different account types. The eFax FREE account, also referred to as their Limited Account, will provide you with a non-local fax line and up to 20 incoming faxes. But be aware that they call it "Limited" for a good reason. If you receive more than 20 fax pages in any thirty day period, eFax may terminate or suspend your account if you do not upgrade to a paid subscription service. The eFaxPro package will let you receive 200 faxes a month and will allow you to send faxes from your email for less than $20 per month. The eFaxPlus program is a few dollars cheaper per month and will let you receive up to 130 faxes per month, as well as send faxes through your email account. You can also bring an existing number to eFax, if you want to junk your dinosaur fax machine and go digital.
Benefits of Using a Free Fax to Email Service
Online based fax services offer users several advantages. First of all you don't have to waste valuable desk space on a bulky fax machine. You don't have to spend money on a fax machine that will most likely be outdated within a year or two. Online based fax services also allow you to send and receive faxes anywhere you have access to your email account and a computer. This means that you can retrieve a fax while at your office, while at a client's office or while you are out of town. Finally, online fax services are environmentally more friendly than a traditional fax machine, because there's no paper waste, no toner, and no obsolete machine to ultimately junk or recycle.
In addition to Faxaway and eFax, there are other fax-to-email services, some of which offer free trials. I can't personally recommend any of those because I have not used them. If you've found one that you like, feel free to post a comment below...
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Posted by Bob Rankin on July 11, 2008 08:56 PM
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Article information: AskBobRankin -- Free Inbound Faxing (Posted: July 11, 2008 08:56 PM)
Source: http://askbobrankin.com/free_inbound_faxing.html
Copyright © 2005 - Bob Rankin - All Rights Reserved
Most recent comments on "Free Inbound Faxing"
(See all 22 comments for this article.)Posted by:
Barry
04 Nov 2008
www.k7.net did the job for me as I only needed an incoming fax number. Thanks!
Posted by:
Ron McLendon
20 Dec 2008
Neither K7, eFax, FaxDigits, nor JConnects are free. I cannot find any free inbound services.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Here's the link once again for the FREE eFax account: https://www.efax.com/en/efax/twa/signupFree
Posted by:
RT
01 May 2009
I just signed up for efax.com's free inbound fax service. As I'm on linux, I was concerned I wouldn't be able to view the proprietary .efx file format. But I sent a msg to efax.com cust.
service explaining my concern, and they changed my format to .tif, easy to view Linux. Professional. Their web interface
(what they call eFax Message Center) is nicely done: uncluttered and functional.
Posted by:
BJ
23 Jul 2009
One note of caution... eFax has good service, but LOUSY support systems. God help you if you ever cancel your account, because they will NOT stop billing you. I had to contact their president TWICE about billing issues. They claimed inefficiency but it was starting to seem downright fraudulent.
So, my advice is if you use eFax, stick with the free service, and find someone else if you need a paid subscription.
Posted by:
Rich
11 Oct 2009
I used k7 to receive faxes for several years, but a hidden caution (it IS stated in the fine print, but...) is that if you don't receive a fax within any 30-day period, they cancel your personal fax number. So, there were 2 instances when there was no occasion for incoming faxes, and it took me over a week after the 30-day period ended to find that my number wasn't mine any more. That's a big pain, since many people had my number. I even used calender reminders to make sure I sent myself a fax every 3 weeks, but forgot just once more, and there it went again.
Posted by:
Claud
10 Dec 2009
I have been using eFax inbound fax for years. It has been free. However, I don't receive many faxes. I just got a new computer and their software is not compatible with Vista 64 bit. I cannot find a free inbound fax service for the life of me. I do use gotfreefax.com to fax outbound. You get up to 2 - 3page faxes per day. there are other services that offer this also, so if you have more than that look for them on the internet.
Posted by:
Mike
30 Jan 2010
faxdigits.com is no longer a valid website
Posted by:
dona
30 Jan 2010
I need a local fax number for inbound faxing. I don't want to pay long distance when I fax myself files which is often. Are there any free fax services that provide local numbers?
EDITOR'S NOTE: Not that I know of... you could always move to the area where your free fax number is assigned. :-)
Posted by:
Fran
28 Feb 2010
There is a prepayment of $10.00 (U.S.) when you sign up for Faxaway. When you sign up with a credit card, your card is charged the $10.00 upon your account activation. Each time you send a fax we subtract the cost of that fax from this prepayment. When your balance is depleted, we “recharge” your account by charging another prepayment to your card. If you send a broadcast fax that exceeds your account balance, we will charge that amount to your card.
Posted by:
alice
02 Mar 2010
Axiatel is an online vendor of faxing services.
They sell in France,Italy,Spain,Belgium,UK,Canada ,Australia.
Axiatel fax to email service allows the user to send and receive its faxes converted into email attachments.
Offering customized package,the fax to email is really affordable (from £ 5.9/mo),there is no set up fee and you get a month entirely free with no obligation to purchase to try the product.