If your copier lease ends in the next six to nine months, get the replacement quoted now. The lenders that finance office equipment are warning dealers that lease rates are expected to go up, and a lease is priced on the rate in force the day you sign it. Here is what is known, what is not, and what to do about it.
Who Says Rates Are Going Up?
On November 5, 2026 the trade publication Industry Analysts ran an interview with Ryan Wheeler of DLL, one of the large lenders behind office-equipment leases, under the headline “Lock In Deals Before Lease Rates Rise.” Its summary: “with leasing rates expected to climb,” dealers have a short window to get customers into new equipment before costs go up. That is a lender’s view, not a published rate. Nobody gave a number and nobody can promise one. But the people who set the rates are telling the industry which way they expect them to move.
Why It Matters on a Copier
A copier lease runs 36 to 60 months. The finance rate on the day you sign is built into every one of those payments. A slightly higher rate is a slightly higher payment — paid up to sixty times. Signing before an increase keeps the lower rate on the equipment for the whole term.
What to Do if Your Lease Ends in the Next Year
- Find your end date and your notice window. Most copier leases need written notice well before the last payment, often 90 days or more, or they renew automatically.
- Get the replacement quoted now. A quote costs nothing and shows you the payment at today’s rate.
- Ask about upgrading early. An older lease can often be rolled into the new one. Be clear on what that means: the remaining payments do not disappear, they move into the new lease. Ask for that figure in writing.
- Ask about a deferred first payment. Wheeler calls a deferral of up to 90 days the standard. On approved credit, you sign at today’s rate and make the first payment next quarter.
- Put it on one lease. Phones, software, and security or access-control equipment can often go on the same lease as the copier: one payment, one end date.
What Not to Do
Do not sign five years on the wrong machine to beat a rate change. A copier that is too small for your volume costs far more in downtime than any rate difference. Size it first: our copier cost calculator gives you a monthly figure from your page volume in about a minute. And if the need has an end date — a project, a temporary office — renting may fit better than leasing.
What a Lease Costs Today
Our copier leasing page lists a monthly figure for every model. Leases start at around $69 a month, and a new Ricoh IM C2510 color copier starts at $159 a month. If you are stuck in a lease you want out of, read how to get out of a copier lease first.
RDS Team has leased and serviced copiers for Florida businesses since 2010, from offices in Miami and Orlando. Send us your current lease and we will tell you your end date, your notice window and what a replacement would cost today: call (888) 242-4242 or request a quote.
