This post was last updated on October 26th, 2021 at 05:21 pm
Odds are you probably haven’t used a fax machine in decades, perhaps not ever in your entire life! So you’re right to be completely perplexed when you’re told you need to send a fax in this day and age. Fortunately, if you’re scrambling for “fax services near me,” you’ve got plenty of options. You might be surprised just how many places near you allow you to send a fax at a reasonable price.
Technology has made it a lot easier to send a fax without a fax machine. There are services that provide virtual fax numbers, which let you receive a fax from a machine. The file will be sent to your email or even directly to a printer. It works the other way, too: You can upload a file, and it’ll be sent to a fax machine somewhere else.
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Fax Services Near Me | What Are my Best Options?
1. Fax at Office Supply Stores
Office supply stores are often one of the best places to go if you need to send a fax in a hurry. Most office supply stores have a self-service station where you can make copies and send faxes quickly. It might not be the most conspicuous station out there, so ask a worker there if they can point you in the right direction. Don’t be afraid to ask for help if you’re not sure how to work the machine.
Office supply stores might not seem like the most obvious place to send a fax, but it makes sense. After all, they do sell fax machines. However, it’s always a good idea to make a quick call before you drive out to a location. Faxes are so rarely sent these days that a machine might not even be operational at the location you visit.
Office Max and Office Depot
Office Depot and OfficeMax merged back in 2013. While some stores still carry the OfficeMax name, most have been converted to Office Depot locations. If you search “Office Depot fax services near me,” you’ll find your nearest Office Depot location on Google Maps. You can then click the redirect link to that store’s specific website and scroll down to see if they offer faxing services.
The cover sheet is included in the cost. A single page starts at $1.50 when sent to the same area code. Sending a fax anywhere in the US will run you $2. International faxes will set you back a whopping $8 for a single page. Additional pages cost nearly the same as the first, so try to keep your page count light.
Staples
Staples is Office Depot’s biggest competitor and also provides faxing service through its business center. They have self-service machines that also allow you to pay at the machine instead of having to speak to an attendant. The prices for sending a fax are similar to Office Depot’s, coming in at $1.79 for a single-page document sent within the United States.
Interestingly, Staples also advertises fax receiving services. So, if you’ve absolutely got to receive a fax and have no machine at home, you can send it to Staples’ fax number and pay $1 per page received.
2. Shipping Centers
Another great place to go if you’re in need of faxing services is a shipping center. Unfortunately, the United States Postal Service does not provide faxing service, so you’ll have to head over to one of the private shipping providers to get what you need. Ever since FedEx bought out Kinko’s, they’ve become the most widely recognized name in shipping services. But they’re not the only option.
FedEx Office
FedEx Kinkos has since been branded FedEx Office and provides all of its printing services and fax services through that brand. If you search “FedEx fax services near me”, you’ll be sent to a link to search for a FedEx location that has fax services. There’s a big “Find a Fax Machine” button that you can click. From there, just provide your location or zip code, and you’ll see all the locations with fax services near you.
FedEx prices their fax services similarly to their competitors. At $1.89, it’s not the cheapest option, but we’re splitting hairs over cents here. Ultimately, what matters is that you find the most convenient fax service, so the closest location is probably the best one. They also support international faxing and give you a free cover sheet. There’s no extra charge for asking an attendant to help you out, so feel free to ask.
The UPS Store
The UPS Store proudly boasts that their fax machines are “always ready to go.” That’s the first company we’ve come across with that level of confidence. The UPS Store claims to have fax machines at every location, so you can just use their search tool or search in Google Maps to find your nearest UPS Store.
Prices at the UPS Store are actually quite good! At only $1 per page for local faxes within the same area code, they’re one of the best deals around. Sending one anywhere in the US, however, runs $2 per page, which is higher than most competitors. International faxes start out at just $3, so they could be a great option if you’re trying to send a fax overseas.
Postal Annex
If you haven’t heard of Postal Annex before, you’re not alone. They started out as just a small business in California but have since expanded out through franchising across much of the southern United States. You can find Postal Annex locations now all the way over in Florida and even as far north as New Jersey. They offer a lot of other extra services, including private P.O. Boxes and duplicate key cutting. They even have notaries on-site!
Since notaries are one of the few businesses that still rely on faxing, it makes sense that the two would share a single roof. Their prices vary by location, but range between $1 and $2 per page. See if there’s a Postal Annex near you and give them a call.
3. Supermarkets
You might be surprised to find that some of your local supermarkets still offer faxing services. Many supermarket chains have a small customer service center that handles things like money orders and check cashing. They might still have fax services available. This is especially common in smaller towns that might not have office supply stores or a shipping center.
Chains like Kroger, Winn-Dixie, HyVee, and Albertson’s sometimes have fax services available. Give them a call and find out if they still offer this. If they do, it can be a really convenient place to send your faxes since you likely visit there all the time to buy your groceries. This service has been getting phased out, though. Larger locations may not have it anymore.
4. Your Bank’s Local Branch Office
Like the local notary, your bank also sometimes has to fax things. Certified financial statements or legal documents related to your mortgage are just a few examples of the kinds of files banks fax regularly. So while you might think the fax is dead, it’s alive and well at your local branch office. So, can you send a fax at your bank? Searching “bank fax services near me” won’t likely yield anything. Typically, banks don’t advertise fax services.
But that doesn’t mean they don’t have them. Some banks will simply let you send a fax or two for free if you stop by the branch and ask nicely. Others may charge your account for the service. Local credit unions quietly offer this service a bit more often since they tend to provide extra services for their members.
5. Travel Service Providers
Travel service providers also tend to have faxing services. It’s one of the last places you’d expect, but it’s actually extremely smart on their end. When you’re on the road, and you get hit with an unexpected fax, you need somewhere to send it. And you’re not going to take a long detour off the highway if you can avoid it. Enter mobile rest stops and travel services as a perfect solution.
These fax services were designed for the road warriors: Truckers, Van-lifers, traveling businessmen, and families on those long road trips. But if you need to send a fax in a pinch and you’re in the middle of nowhere, these might just be your best bet.
Pilot Flying J
Pilot and Flying J are two brands of rest stops operated by the same company. They provide your usual truck stop fare: cheap food, gas pumps, and amenities for truckers. But they also have a nifty trick up their sleeve. You can send faxes from over 350 Pilot or Flying J locations across America. The service is provided by a self-service kiosk called TRANSFLO OnDemand.
These kiosks let you scan documents and email them or print from email. You can also scan a document and fax it to anywhere in the US. They even have a mobile app called TRANSFLO Mobile+. The app allows you to quickly scan any document and fax it right away. While these services are meant for truck companies, individuals can walk up to a kiosk and use them in a pinch.
AAA Auto Club
Here’s another one you probably never thought about. If you’re a AAA member, you can actually get free faxing services if you go to any AAA office. There are a lot of AAA offices all throughout America. This service is more of a courtesy than anything else, but it’s certainly appreciated.
Your AAA membership also gives you discounts at the UPS Store, so you could cut your fax cost down a little bit if you show your card when you stop by.
Local Travel Agents
Local travel agents are an especially useful resource if you need to fax something internationally. Odds are they’ve done it before. Similar to your local bank, faxing isn’t typically a service that travel agents advertise, but they’re probably able to do it for you if you ask nicely.
American Express
American Express cardholders, especially those with premium concierge service, can request faxing services. Amex has a sort of unspoken rule about doing whatever the customer needs. Platinum cardholders can ask for just about anything, and the concierge will take care of it. So you could ask them to help you out.
It’s unclear how reliable this method is, though. Not every cardholder is eligible for full concierge service, and they could tack on a fee to your bill that might be higher than other options on our list.
Hotel Concierges
Speaking of concierge service, local hotels often have faxing services available. However, these are probably the most expensive places to send a fax. Hotels are notorious for overcharging for simple services like this, so it’s probably not the best route. But if you’re on a business trip and can expense your whole trip, it might be the fastest option.
Some hotels may have a business center with a pay-per-use fax machine that could be cheaper than going up to the front desk. Ask if there’s a self-service machine first. You may not be able to use the service as a walk-in customer either, so keep that in mind.
6. Online Faxing
Put down your phone and stop searching for “faxing services near me” because you don’t even need to get off the couch to send a fax anymore! That’s right; there’s a way to send a fax over the internet instead of heading out to your local fax machine. Now, there are two ways that this can work. One method is a “virtual fax” or “e-fax,” which goes directly to email and is not printed from a fax machine.
The other way is to get a virtual fax number that can send faxes to actual fax machines. These virtual numbers are connected to the telephone grid, so you can upload a document, specify the destination number, and your fax will arrive as if you’d sent it through a machine. Here are a couple of options to consider.
RINGCENTRAL FAX NUMBER
RingCentral provides a variety of communication services for individuals and business customers alike. Their main product is a VoIP number, a virtual phone number that you can use to make and receive unlimited calls in the United States. If you only need a fax number, you can get a fax plan separate from everything else, but the option to use your VoIP phone number for faxing is also available for $8 more per month as part of their Standard plan.
The fax-only option costs $10 per month and allows you to send up to 750 pages, making it an extremely affordable option for heavy faxxers. You can use RingCentral’s mobile or desktop apps to handle your faxing, and you can receive any fax to your email. Sent faxes can go to email or a machine; it’s up to you! RingCentral is our favorite for a reason.
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EFax
EFax is probably one of the most popular online faxing services around. However, it’s not the most economical option. EFax mostly focuses on virtual faxes, but does include the option to send faxes to a machine. It costs $16.95 a month to use EFax with a maximum of 150 pages. While that’s certainly cheaper than heading down to FedEx if you’re sending a large document, it’s not a large page count for such a pricey monthly membership.
Efax has done a great job of marketing itself as the best solution for online faxing services, but in reality, it’s a service that you can find from several other providers for less. If you suspect you’ll send a lot of faxes or have a need for a higher page count, you might want to consider another service. For one-off fax jobs, just go somewhere local.