How to Choose the Right Internet Fax Service
Choosing the right internet fax service is more of a “researching” task than anything else. There is an abundance of internet fax service providers available to choose from and each one has their own special areas of expertise or “freebies” to offer. Be sure to research an internet fax service provider so that it fits what your needs.
You might miss an important aspect of a provider that you are looking for so, even though great lengths have been taken in trying to cover all topics, in no way should this been construed as all areas of importance to look for.
-
Reliability of the Internet Fax Service Provider: Be sure to research what their “up-time” ratio is. “Up-Time Ratio” is a reference of how often their server is up and running. You want to pick one that has a higher “Up-Time”. It will be in a form of a percentage. “How to Choose the Right Internet Fax Service” will not make mention of any particular Internet Fax Service Providers out in the market right now but, there is one out there that has a 99.5% Up-Time Ratio. That is a really good figure and just use this as an example for you to base your decision on. If one is only up and running 70% of the time, then that means that 30% of the time you won’t receive or be able to send your faxes. This ratio is important if you rely on your faxes as part of your normal day-to-day operations.
-
Set-Up Costs for the Internet Fax Service: There are a few providers on the market today that charge what is known as a “Set-Up” cost for you to get onto their systems. This cost can range anywhere for $1.99 to $29.99, depending on the Internet Fax Service Provider and the plan that you sign-up for. Quite a few of these providers waive that cost to try and entice you to sign-up for their service. Don’t be thrown off by this or think they are going to get you in some other way. This is not a “gimmick” or anything else. They are just honestly waiving the cost of the set-up to have you “on-board” with them. If the plan that they offer is worth it to you, and they have all of the options you are looking for, sign-up with them! You’re only going to save money if you do.
-
Faxed Page Limits: All Internet Fax Service Providers have limits on how many pages you can send and receive. Certain Providers just charge minutes instead of pages. They can range from 30 to 200 “Sent” pages and 150 to Unlimited “Received” pages. Do your research well on this item because if you have “overages”, then it might cost you more than you are willing to pay. Most “overages” range in the neighborhood of $0.08 per page to $0.29 per page. The Providers that charge by-the-minute have about the same “overage” rates as any cellular phone company that’s out on the market today. Just put some good decision making into this one. You don’t want to pay for extra faxes that you never receive or send but, at the same time, you don’t want to be way off in your estimations on how many faxes you send and receive only to find out in an “overage” statement.
-
Monthly Costs of Internet Fax Service: The last item that “How to Choose the Right Internet Fax Service” will cover, remember this isn’t ALL of them to consider, is monthly price. Naturally, you can never go wrong with choosing a “FREE” Internet Fax Service Provider as long as they meet all of the other criteria that have already been mentioned. Be sure you are getting your money’s worth and not paying for a monthly service that you aren’t really using. This is a personal decision that you must figure into your monthly budget. On a side note, if you already are paying for a second phone line, a fax machine with all of the maintenance that goes with it, then you should have quite a bit of room in your budget to fit in the Internet Fax Service Providers monthly payment. You should even have some money left over!
Filed under: Internet Fax
No comments yet.