There are many online faxing services now available over the Internet and these offer a range of benefits over traditional faxing that include:

•             You can send faxes using any Internet enabled computer just by logging into your online fax account. This means you will not have to buy a separate fax machine just to send faxes, which will save you money not only on purchasing and maintenance costs but also on supplies such as paper and toner cartridges.

•             If you only send faxes now and again you can take advantage of the many free online fax offers available, which allow you to send and receive around 5 faxes for free every month.

•             Online fax services provides you with a low cost local fax number and some accounts also come with toll free fax numbers which makes it cheaper for customers and contacts to send you faxes.

However there are also some downsides to online faxing that you will need to take into account when choosing a service:

•             There are limitations on how many faxes you can send and receive per month with most online faxing services.  If you go over these limits you could be charged overage fees, or your account may be suspended.  So if you do sent a large number of faxes per month (over 500 pages) then it may actually be more cost effective to use a traditional fax set up.

•             Online fax storage is offered in most online fax accounts, but this is only usually for a set period (industry standard 30 days) so if you want to keep faxes you will need to remember to save them onto your hard drive or a memory device, or print them off in hard copy.

•             If you receive a fax that needs signing then you will need to print it off, sign it and then rescan the document into your computer so that you can send it back again.  Some online fax services do provide an electronic signing service so that you don’t have to print off and rescan documents but these are few and far between.