International faxing is one of the most secure and time-tested ways to instantly send documents across borders. It’s a simple process with a few key differences to traditional faxing – chiefly that it’s more expensive and complicated! However, online faxing solutions make international faxing easier and cheaper than ever before.
Read on to learn all you need to know to fax internationally!
Local, National and International Fax – What’s the Difference?
Difference #1 – The Price
If you go into your nearest UPS or Staples store and look at the options to send faxes, you’ll probably see them priced into three different categories:
- Local fax – cheapest
- National fax – more expensive
- International fax – most expensive
It makes sense that using traditional fax machines, it’s always been cheaper to send faxes to local fax numbers – because the transmission makes a much shorter journey over the phone line. Then for national faxes, long-distance fees kick in and make it slightly more expensive. But using fax machines, it costs much more to send an international fax – up to three times as much! For many businesses and people this can be off-putting, which is why the right online fax service can make a huge difference in bringing the cost down.
In most cases, online fax services charge extra for international faxing, but Municorn’s FAX App for example has no extra charges for international faxing!
Difference #2 – Using An International Fax Number
This is where you have to do something slightly different to send an international fax. Instead of just dialling the recipient’s fax number, you’ll need to include an international dialing code, also known as a country code, before the fax number. Here’s an example:
- Original fax number: 212-123-4567 (212 is a New York area code, so dialling this would work anywhere inside the USA).
- International fax number: +1 212-123-4567 (We’ve added a +1, which is the USA’s international country code).
Luckily, the FAX App will easily set up all of this for you, if you enter the country you are faxing to. Or if you’re using a fax machine, Wikipedia keeps a really helpful page to find the correct country code for any country here. You can look at the diagram below to see the different countries and their codes!
It’s pretty simple, right? Well, there’s one more slight complication. See that + in the international fax number? If you dial the ‘+‘ sign before any telephone or fax number, that’s the universal symbol for an exit code – meaning that your phone or fax company will know that your transmission is going to another country. When you send international faxes you have two choices before you type the country code of your recipient – you can use the ‘+‘, or you can instead type your country’s exit code instead of the ‘+‘.
So if I were in France and faxing to the same number we used above, I could either use France’s exit code or a ‘+’, and then dial the fax number. If France’s exit code is 00, and the USA’s country code is 1, this is how that could look (both of these numbers would work):
- +1 212-123-4567
- 00 1 212-123-4567
How To Send An International Fax
Method #1 – The Old Fashioned Way: Using A Fax Machine!
To send an international fax transmission using a fax machine, you’ll need to follow these steps:
- Load the machine’s paper feeder with the documents you want to send, including a cover page.
- Dial a ‘+’ or the exit code of the country you are faxing from (not all fax machines have a ‘+’ button).
- Dial the right country code of your destination country (check here to make sure), then dial the full fax number of your recipient, including any local area codes.
- Press send, and wait for your transmission receipt to confirm a successful delivery!
There are a few things you should certainly make sure of before you start sending international faxes, especially from your own home’s machine. Firstly, it’s a good idea to call your telephone company and ask what the charges will be. It can cost a lot of money to send or receive international faxes, and the extra charges can be even more depending on where in the world your faxes are going. You don’t want a large unexpected bill!
Secondly, you may want to check the privacy and security laws of other countries when you are faxing to them, which can vary depending on the country. In the USA, HIPAA laws mean that sensitive information is incredibly secure when faxed – which is why faxing remains so popular – but if for example you are faxing your healthcare or financial information overseas, you may want to check how your data will be handled.
Method #2 – Send International Faxes Online!
An increasingly popular way to fax internationally is by using an online fax service. The process is very similar, except you aren’t using a clunky machine like you are with traditional faxing, instead you’re using your phone, computer or email account – all three ways can be used to send faxes online. Here’s how it works:
- From the ‘New Fax’ page, prepare and attach your fax documents by scanning them using the FAX App (or uploading them from the cloud or your device).
- Click on the country flag in the ‘Send to’ section to select any destination country – all other countries with a code will appear on the app, so there’s no need to research it for yourself!
- Type in the regular fax number of your international recipients (the FAX App can convert it into an international number for you).
- Just hit send, and the app will do the rest. The app will send you a notification after a minute or so, to confirm that the fax has delivered correctly.
Fax Machine vs Online Fax Service – Which Is Better For International Faxing?
For over 50 years traditional faxing has been a preferred way for businesses and their customers to send and receive documents, thanks to the extra security that fax transmissions benefit from, even when compared to email messages.
However, the way we send and receive faxes has evolved significantly in the past decade or so, with many people choosing to use an online fax service instead. Let’s take a look at the advantages that online fax services provide.
- Price. Traditional faxing means phone line costs, maintenance costs, ink costs, paper costs, basically – lots of costs! When you send and receive faxes online, you can simply use your device to do everything a fax machine can do – making the entire process much cheaper.
However – most online fax services charge extra for international faxing, especially those that operate on a ‘pay per page’ plan. Luckily, Municorn’s FAX App basic subscription includes unlimited faxing all over the world – which means you aren’t ever charged extra after a certain number of pages, and you can fax to different countries at absolutely no extra cost, making it the best value for international online faxing. - Convenience. International faxing is easier for people and for businesses when it’s done online. Firstly, this is because you can use a computer, phone, or any other device with cloud based faxing. This means you can also do it from anywhere – whether you’re in a different country or stuck in an airport lounge, you don’t need your fax machine. You can also link your international fax service with your cloud storage systems and email accounts – something that online faxing makes much easier.
- Security. When you send online faxes, you are benefitting from the extremely secure infrastructure that faxing provides, but you can also benefit from newer technological features which add extra layers of security. For example, the most basic subscription with the FAX App includes full HIPAA compliance and full end-to-end encryption as a standard feature – something even top email services like Gmail and Outlook do not provide. This gives you the confidence to send important documents across the world knowing that they’ll be protected.
- The environment. Faxing online means less paper, less devices, less ink, and therefore less harm to the environment. It’s the eco-friendly way to send your documents anywhere in the world, without compromising on security.
The Best Way To Fax Internationally
To send and receive faxes internationally, an online fax service is the way to go.
However, it’s important to remember that most online fax businesses charge their customers more to send faxes internationally. Others will also limit the number of pages you can send, before hitting you with extra charges!
To save money and get the best service, Municorn FAX App is the answer – you can choose a flexible subscription, and even the basic subscription includes unlimited fax pages and international faxing at no extra cost, with unbeaten security features. This is why it’s the highest reviewed fax app on Apple’s store – and it makes it even better for those who need to send faxes around the world.
We hope this guide helps, but if you ever need advice on international faxing, just send the Municorn team a message from inside the app and they’ll be happy to help!
