Should I Trade Up My Copier Lease?

Updated Feb, 2024 –

You are probably about 6 months before the completion of your copier term.  Let’s say your contract is $200 per month currently and your copier company has called and told you how you can upgrade now and pay less.  That sounds good, right?  It may be, but you may have something else happening.

If you are unhappy with your copier, this can be a way out of your current lease and an opportunity to upgrade to something that is working better.  Though not financially optimized, there are soft costs with labor than can still make it a good decision to move forward with an upgrade.  However, if you are really happy with your current copier, our general advice would be wait til you get a bit closer to the end of the term before making the switch to a new unit.

So how does a copier lease work anyway?

When you are leasing a copier, the basics of how the transaction works are as follows.

•  The copier company determines what copier suits your needs
• The copier company works using a lease rate factor times the financing amount to determine the monthly costs.
• The copier company sends you a contract you sign and then you make payments.
• The copier company is paid at the beginning, not month to month.  This means the copier you have that is 4.5 years old, the copier company got their check from the bank back then (unless they self-finance).
• So with 6 months left, the copier company comes to current clients for upgrades.  Why then and why not wait?  There are a few reasons.
  • Having additional payments puts them in a competitive advantage because the buyouts for a lease are higher than just the remaining payments of the lease added together. They can work with the bank to get rid of these fees, as the originator of the deal, where other dealers are unable to get the same opportunity.  This can be helpful if you really are having issues with your copier as it can make that change less painful than paying the whole rate, but can work against you if you are generally really happy.
• The copier company takes the remaining payments due and rolls them into your new lease. Waiting means there are less payments to roll into the new lease.  Buyer Beware: If you wait until the end, with shipping constraints, etc, it could mean you have no copier at all for a while if you wait too long.  Our general “ideal” timeframe would be 3 months prior to the lease expiring with a maximum time of about a year.  Any more than a year will make the new lease a lot more expensive than it needs to be.  If you do it at three months, it will likely get ordered and installed with less than 2 months remaining so that operations will continue smoothly.

If you are happy with your copier, wait.  It is better for you if you negotiate without the existing debt.  If you are unhappy and it is hurting your business, you have to do what you have to do.

Please give us a call or fill out out form if you have copier leasing questions! We work with companies across the USA to get them competitive copier leases.