Sent a fax from my computer! http://myfax.com/free/

[Pleasedeletethis]

My health insurer charged me a premium twice in the same month, and to get credited back they asked me to fax(!) them a copy of that month's bank statement, since apparently health insurers still use 1980s technology instead of email.

Turns out that it's possible to send a document from your computer to a fax machine.  Who knew?

A google search turned up a site called MyFax at http://myfax.com/free/ that lets you send up to 10 free faxes from your computer.  You can pay $10 a month for the premium service, but since faxing is pretty rare the free service was good enough for me.

Thought this could be useful for those one-off requests that ask you to fax (wtf) something.

Next time I'll be sure to send them a picture of my middle finger.



There's probably some way to make money off an affiliate link for that site, but that's not what I'm here to do.

[FIREdancer]

Your health insurer asking for a fax rather than an email probably has more to do with HIPPA than technology.  Doctors and other medical providers generally still use faxes because it is still considered somewhat more secure than email for HIPPA purposes.  If you email your private information it can be intercepted as it's transmitted or on third party servers where it's stored, etc.  With a fax, it could be intercepted physically if it is sent to the wrong number or if an unauthorized person takes it from the fax machine, but apparently faxing meets the reasonably acceptable safeguards necessary for sending sensitive information.

That being said, a lot of medical practices are also moving toward secure e-faxing or other secure online messaging systems for those who want some sexier technology than a fax machine.