Printer lease comparison · Birmingham
Lease A Printer Birmingham
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What we do
Compare Advantage is a free comparison service. Tell us once what you print and how much, and up to 4 suppliers that cover your postcode will quote on the same specification, so you can compare their prices side by side and choose, with no obligation. Already leasing? We compare a switch against staying put, too.
- Up to 4 quotes from suppliers covering your B postcode
- Switching from an existing lease? We show you the real cost
- Free, with no obligation to go ahead
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Compare before you choose
Compare printer lease quotes in Birmingham
Birmingham has 38,605 businesses, and more of its mid-sized firms are in health and care than in any other sector. Many of them already lease a copier and are wondering whether to renew. Comparing up to 4 quotes on one specification shows you what the same machine costs from each supplier, and whether switching beats staying where you are.
- 1
Tell us once
A minute on the form: what you print, roughly how much, and your postcode.
- 2
Suppliers quote
Up to 4 suppliers that cover your area quote on the same specification.
- 3
You choose
Compare the quotes side by side and pick one, or none. It is free and there is no obligation.
Why comparing pays
Lease quotes rarely line up on their own. One supplier offers a lower monthly payment with a higher cost per page; another a longer term, or a service plan that leaves out toner. Asking every supplier to quote on the same specification is what makes the prices comparable, and the printer lease calculator gives you a ballpark to measure them against.
What to compare in Birmingham
- Your current deal against new quotes. Put your present monthly cost and page prices next to the new quotes, so you know whether moving is worth it.
- Any settlement, in plain figures. If a supplier offers to pay off your old lease, compare its quote with and without that amount.
- The notice date on your agreement. Check how much notice your current lease needs, so it does not roll on while you compare.
- Secure printing for patient records. Practices and care providers should compare print release and the data wipe, not just the price.
- The service, not the brand. Compare response times and page prices. Most major brands are reliable; the supplier behind them is what differs.
The city’s firms
Where Birmingham’s mid-sized firms are
Of the city’s 38,605 businesses, 4,055 employ between 10 and 249 people, 10.5% of the total. That is the size of business that most often leases a multifunction copier, and the ONS counts show which sectors they are in.
Health and care comes first, with 595 mid-sized firms: GP and dental practices, clinics, care homes and home-care agencies. That is 14.7% of the city’s mid-sized businesses, against 11.5% across the UK. Hotels, restaurants and bars follow with 490, then manufacturers with 445, which at 11.0% of the mid-sized total is also above the UK share of 8.8%.
Across businesses of every size, the city stands out for retail (12.2%, against 7.7% across the UK) and health (7.5%, against 4.4%). So a quote that suits a design studio in Digbeth will not suit a dental group in Edgbaston or a manufacturer in Tyseley. Telling suppliers what you actually print is what makes their quotes comparable.
Health and care
Printing in Birmingham’s practices, clinics and care homes
A GP surgery, dental practice or care home prints less than it used to, but what it prints matters: referral letters, consent forms, care plans, medication records and staff rotas. Much of it contains patient information. And when a printer fails on a Monday morning, a practice cannot wait days for an engineer.
Three things deserve more weight than the monthly price. Secure release holds each job until the person who sent it logs in at the machine, so letters are not left in the tray for anyone to read. Scanning straight into the clinical or care system saves staff time on every referral and form that arrives on paper. And the data wipe at the end of the lease: the machine’s hard drive stores copies of what it has printed and scanned, so agree in writing how it will be wiped and that you will get a certificate.
Organisations that access NHS patient data and systems complete the Data Security and Protection Toolkit each year. A copier does not make you compliant on its own, but encrypted storage, user log-ins, secure release and a certified wipe all support the controls the toolkit asks about. Ask each supplier to explain how their machine handles each one, and keep the answers with your toolkit evidence.
Practice groups and networks
Staff who work across several surgeries need the same machine and the same log-in at each one. One agreement covering every site keeps the model, the service terms and the billing consistent.
Special stationery
If you print on pre-printed forms, labels or heavier paper, tell suppliers. Paper trays and the paper path vary between models, and the wrong one jams.
A worked example
Three practices, one agreement
Take a dental group with three practices in the city, each printing about 2,000 A4 pages a month, half of them in colour. Our printer lease calculator puts one practice at about £43 a month on a 60-month lease, including the machine, service and toner, so roughly £130 a month for all three.
If the practices only need mono, with colour kept for the occasional patient leaflet printed elsewhere, each comes to about £33 a month, or £98 for the group. These are planning figures from our calculator, not quotes, but they show where the money goes: colour pages, not the machine.
One practice, half colour
£43
Three practices, half colour
£130
Three practices, mono only
£98
One agreement for all three practices does not automatically cost less than three separate ones, but it is simpler to manage, and a supplier quoting for three machines has more reason to sharpen the price. Ask for both, and compare.
Already leasing?
Switching supplier in Birmingham: renewals, notice and settlements
Plenty of firms in the city are already part-way through a copier lease. If yours is coming to an end, or you are unhappy with the service, here is how to compare a switch properly.
1. Find your notice date
Many lease agreements carry on after the fixed term unless you give written notice, often several months before the end date. Miss it, and you may be committed to a further period at the same payment. Find the end-of-term clause, work out the last date for notice, and send it in writing even if you have not decided what to do next: you can usually agree to carry on, but you cannot easily undo a renewal.
2. Ask for a settlement figure, in writing
If you want to leave before the end, the finance company will give you a settlement figure: broadly, what is left to pay, sometimes with a discount for paying early. Get it from them directly, not from a supplier, and note the date it is valid until.
3. Look carefully at “we’ll pay off your old lease”
A new supplier may offer to settle your current agreement. That money is rarely free: it is usually added to the new agreement, so you pay for the old machine and the new one over the new term. That can still make sense, but only if you can see it. Ask every supplier to quote with and without the settlement included, and compare the total cost over the term, not just the monthly payment.
4. Compare staying with leaving
At the end of the term your current supplier may offer a lower payment to keep the old machine, or an upgrade. Treat that as one more quote. Put it next to the new ones on the same lines: rental, term, mono and colour page prices, service and response time.
5. Plan the changeover
Agree who collects the old machine and when, make sure its data is wiped first, and line up the new installation so you are not without a printer, or paying for two, for longer than necessary.
Sector by sector
What Birmingham firms usually need
The six largest groups of mid-sized firms in the city, with the number of each, the kind of machine they usually lease and what is worth comparing most closely.
| Sector (mid-sized firms) | Typical set-up | Compare closely |
|---|---|---|
| GP, dental and care (595) | A4 machines at each site, secure release, scanning into the clinical system | Response time, data wipe, the same model at every site |
| Hotels, restaurants and bars (490) | A small mono A4 in each back office | One agreement for all venues, a low minimum charge |
| Manufacturers (445) | A3 in the office for drawings; A4 on the works floor | Engineer cover for industrial sites, sturdy paper handling |
| Professional firms (415) | Fast A4 or A3 colour, double-sided scanning | Colour cost per page, scan-to-folder set-up |
| Business support (380) | High-volume mono with fast scanning | Mono cost per page, annual price rises |
| Shops (355) | Mono A4 in the store office; colour at head office | Branch-by-branch billing |
Manufacturers are worth a word more. Firms in the city’s industrial areas, such as Tyseley, Aston and Nechells, often want two different machines: an A3 colour model in the office for drawings and quotes, and a simple, sturdy A4 machine near the works floor for job paperwork. Quoting them together on one agreement is usually cheaper than two separate deals, but check the service cover reaches both.
New or refurbished
Is a refurbished copier worth it for a Birmingham office?
Some suppliers offer refurbished machines: ex-lease models that have been serviced, had worn parts replaced and been reset. The rental is usually lower than for a new model, and for an office printing steady, moderate volumes the difference in day-to-day use can be small.
The questions are the same ones you would ask about a used car. How old is the machine, and how many pages has it printed? Is it still a current model, so parts and toner will be available for the whole term? Does it come with exactly the same service agreement, response time and page prices as a new one? And is the term shorter, to match a machine that is already part-way through its working life?
A refurbished machine on a five-year term with weaker service is rarely a bargain. One on a three-year term with full service, from a supplier that will swap it if it proves unreliable, can be. If you are open to either, say so on the form, and compare a new and a refurbished option from the same supplier side by side.
Brands
Does the brand matter?
Less than most people think. Canon, Konica Minolta, Ricoh, Sharp, Kyocera, Xerox, HP, Brother and Toshiba all make office multifunction machines that print, copy and scan reliably. We do not favour any of them, and the suppliers who quote through us sell a range of brands.
What differs is the supplier behind the machine: how quickly their engineers arrive, how they price each page, how they deliver toner, and how easy they are to deal with when something goes wrong. Two quotes for the same model can differ by a lot on those points.
So compare the service and the page prices first, and the badge second. If your team already knows one brand’s menus and you would rather not retrain them, say so, and suppliers can quote it.
Across the city
Areas we cover
Suppliers cover every B postcode in the city. These are the districts where most offices, practices and works sit.
B2 and B3
Colmore Business District
The banks, law firms and professional offices between New Street and Snow Hill stations.
B1
Brindleyplace and Westside
Canal-side offices west of the centre, out towards Five Ways.
B1, B3 and B18
Jewellery Quarter
Workshops, studios and small offices in the Soho & Jewellery Quarter ward.
B5
Digbeth and Southside
Creative businesses, the Bullring and the streets south of the centre.
B15 and B16
Edgbaston
Offices, clinics and private healthcare around Edgbaston and Five Ways.
B6, B7 and B11
Aston, Nechells and Tyseley
The industrial and trade areas north and east of the centre.
B31
Northfield and Longbridge
The south-west of the city, including the Longbridge & West Heath ward.
B72 and B73
Sutton Coldfield
The town in the north of the city, with its own offices and practices.
Questions
Leasing a printer in Birmingham: your questions
More on printer leasing, photocopier leasing and managed print, or see all the areas we cover.
We already lease a copier. Can we switch supplier before the end?
Usually, but the old agreement still has to be paid off. Ask your finance company for a settlement figure in writing, then compare new quotes with and without that amount included, so you can see what the switch really costs.
Our lease seems to have renewed itself. Is that normal?
Many agreements carry on after the fixed term unless you give written notice, often several months before the end date. Check the end-of-term clause in your agreement, and diary the notice date as soon as you sign.
Which brand of copier is best?
There is no single answer. Canon, Konica Minolta, Ricoh, Sharp, Kyocera, Xerox and others all make reliable office machines. The supplier’s service, response time and page prices usually matter more than the badge.
Can a GP practice or dental surgery lease through you?
Yes. Tell us what you print, how many sites you have, and whether you need secure release for patient documents, and suppliers will quote on that.
Does a leased printer help with the NHS Data Security and Protection Toolkit?
A machine on its own does not make you compliant, but features such as secure print release, an encrypted hard drive, user log-ins and a certified data wipe at the end of the lease support the controls the toolkit asks about. Ask suppliers to explain each one.
Is a refurbished machine worth considering?
It can be, for steady, moderate volumes. A refurbished machine should come with the same service cover as a new one. Ask its age and page count, and compare the full monthly cost against a new model.
Can several practices or branches share one agreement?
Yes. One agreement can cover several sites, with the same model in each, one invoice, and usage shown site by site.
How quickly can a machine be installed?
Often within a week or two of signing, depending on stock and how much network set-up is needed. If you have a deadline, such as an office move, say so when you ask for quotes.
Do you cover Sutton Coldfield and the outskirts?
Yes. Suppliers cover every Birmingham postcode, from the city centre to Sutton Coldfield, Erdington, Northfield and Longbridge.
What happens to our old machine when the new one arrives?
If it is leased, it goes back to the finance company, usually collected by the old supplier. If you own it, the new supplier may take it away. Either way, make sure the stored data is wiped before it leaves.
How many quotes will I get?
Up to four, from suppliers that cover your postcode, each pricing the same specification so you can compare them side by side.