Rental Costs Franking Machine Advice

Renting or leasing a franking machine can be quite daunting.

Its important to remember the difference between a rental / rent and a lease or lease purchase.

Quite simply, a rental is where you simply pay a monthly fee direct to the supplier without having to enter into a formal ‘finance agreement’. Rentals usually do not require credit clearance and are a less formal arrangement between the franking machine supplier and the customer.

A lease agreement is completely different and this is where you do enter into a formal finance agreement usually with a third-party equipment finance / leasing company or a finance company owned by the supplier / manufacturer. The later only applies to larger franking machine manufacturers such as Neopost or Pitney Bowes. That said these type of finance companies are a completely separate entity to the supplier / manufacturer such as Neopost Finance Ltd and Neopost Ltd or Pitney Bowes Finance Ltd and Pitney Bowes Ltd. These so called ‘In house’ finance companies lease rates are usually higher than the more specialised separate finance companies. If you have a lease agreement and terminate it early you would have to pay a settlement figure or roll the outstanding balance into a new agreement which means you would be financing finance.  This practice can often be hidden as many customers assume that this money is simply written off when taking out a new agreement especially when the customer believes the finance company and supplier are the same entity as may be suggested by the sales person which is almost certainly not the case.

There is not wright or wrong thing to do when deciding whether to lease or to rent a franking machine as it often depends on the individual customer requirements or the size of franking machine required. If you only want a baby franking machine to rent over a short period of time then a rental maybe the best option. If you want a higher volume  franking machine this will have a much higher capital value which will need to be paid for so a lease may be the only option for your new franking machine.

Most customers believe that if you rent or lease a franking machine that the service or all extras are included and again this is not the case. Sometimes on small franking machines the service or machine replacement may be included but most suppliers make much of their money on low volume franking machines on the extras such as ink, Royal Mail price change software updates, recrediting charges and logo’s.

When taking out a lease agreement look out for the initial ‘ADMIN FEE’ as this is now between £75 and up to £150 added to the first rental payment. Some companies such as Mailcoms don’t charge such a fee. Also most finance companies now apply a small ‘ Service Fee’ which can often be hidden in the terms and conditions and usually around £40 per annum!

For a competitive rental or lease price for your franking machine complete the short form on the left or call us on 01543 572 776.