There are two ways you can go about buying a franking machine for your business. You can either buy a franking machine outright, which is expensive upfront but means you cut down your monthly costs. Or you can rent a franking machine and pay a monthly fee to use one.
New franking machines typically cost between £1,000 and £27,000 to buy outright. Renting one can cost between £20 and £500 a month.
But this isn’t all the costs using a franking machine will bring. Now you’ve got the physical machine, you have to work out how much you’ll be paying monthly.
Of course you have the costs of envelopes and paper, as well as postage; which you would have with stamps.
But, franking machines also have standard running costs, unique to them, like:
- Consumables- franking machines require ink to print the indicia and trust us, they’re not cheap! Buying cheaper non-branded ink can also result in your warranty being voided, so be careful.
- Service or maintenance contracts- if your franking machine breaks down or needs a service, you’ll either have to pay for a call out, or have a contract in place which you pay a fixed fee for any repairs and services
- A top up fee- some companies a charge each time you want to prepay for your post
So, before you buy one, it’s worth reviewing the often hidden costs of franking machines so you can decide if it’s right for your business.
With franking machine companies like Pitney Bowes and Neopost urging customers towards 5-6 year franking machine contracts, savvy small business owners are shopping around for the best deal because they don’t want to be tied down.
When choosing a franking machine it can often help to run a cost exercise to make sure there is a business case for owning one. In a lot of cases you need to be posting over 800 letters per month before it begins paying for itself.
If you’re posting things like:
- General correspondence letters
- Invoices, statements, credit notes etc.
- Reminder letters
Take a look at the alternatives to franking machines out there or even see what online franking can do for you.
