Buy it. Here is the arithmetic.
A $79 monthly lease over 48 months is $3,792 for hardware that retails for a few hundred. Leases are also non-cancellable, held by a third party, and outlive your processing agreement. Buy the terminal.
What this page settles.
Three questions, in the order most people ask them.
The arithmetic
Take a current-generation countertop terminal that handles chip, contactless and PIN.
Buy it: a few hundred dollars, once. Call it $350 for a mainstream countertop model, more for a wireless or Android-based device.
Lease it: $59 to $99 a month is the common range, on a 36 to 48 month term, plus tax, plus in many cases a monthly insurance or program charge.
At $79 a month over 48 months that is $3,792, plus tax, for the same device. Roughly ten times the purchase price.
Then the parts people do not count:
The lease is non-cancellable. You owe the full remaining schedule whether you still use the device, still trade, or still use the processor.
It is held by a third-party finance company, not your processor, so leaving the processor does not end it.
Many leases continue month-to-month after the scheduled term unless you actively terminate and return or purchase the device. This is how merchants find themselves in year six paying $79 a month for a terminal that was financed to death in year four.
Title may not pass automatically. Some agreements require a separate purchase payment at the end for you to actually own the hardware.
There is no version of this comparison where the lease wins on cost. Equipment lease fees, in full.
Why leases are structured the way they are
Not a conspiracy, and worth understanding because it tells you what to expect in the sales conversation.
A terminal lease is a profitable product in its own right, often more profitable to the party selling it than the processing attached. It is frequently funded by a leasing company that pays the selling agent an upfront commission on the full value of the schedule — which means the agent is compensated immediately for a four-year obligation you take on.
That incentive explains three things you will encounter:
Leasing is offered first, and buying is not mentioned unless you ask.
The monthly figure is presented and the total never is. “$79 a month” is a smaller-sounding number than “$3,792”.
“Free” equipment is a lease. The word free is doing work that the document does not support.
None of this makes leasing fraudulent. It is a legal commercial product, properly documented, and the documentation says what it says. It does mean that nobody in the room has an incentive to hand you the total, and you should calculate it yourself before signing anything: monthly payment × months, plus tax, plus any end-of-term amount.
Free terminal placement
Distinct from a lease, and better, but not actually free.
In a placement, the processor provides the equipment at no monthly charge for as long as you process with them, and you return it when you leave. The hardware is not yours and you cannot take it elsewhere.
That is a reasonable arrangement, and considerably better than a lease. Two things to check:
What the processing rate is. The hardware cost is in the rate somewhere. Compare the placement deal against buying the terminal and taking the better rate, over three years. A $350 terminal against a 0.15% higher rate on $40,000 a month is $60 a month — so the “free” terminal costs you $2,160 over three years. Run your own numbers; sometimes placement genuinely wins at low volume.
What happens if you do not return it. Placement agreements usually specify a charge for unreturned equipment, and it can be well above the device’s value.
The honest framing: placement is a rational choice for a low-volume business that wants no capital outlay, and the thing to confirm is that the processing rate is not carrying the cost twice over.
The only honest case for leasing
There is one, and it is narrow.
A new business with genuinely no capital, which needs to take cards to trade at all, and for which a few hundred dollars up front is a real obstacle. In that situation a lease is expensive financing for a necessary tool, and expensive financing beats not trading.
Even there, three better options usually exist first:
Take payments on a phone. Software-based contactless acceptance needs no hardware at all. For a mobile trade or a new business, this removes the problem entirely.
Buy a low-cost mobile reader. The small Bluetooth readers are well under a hundred dollars.
Rent month-to-month from a provider who offers it. See below.
So the honest case for leasing is really “when none of the three alternatives fit”, which is rarer than the number of leases in existence would suggest.
Renting, which is different
Worth separating, because the words get used interchangeably and the products are not the same.
A rental is month-to-month: you pay a monthly amount, you can stop any time, and the hardware goes back. No term, no non-cancellable schedule, no third-party finance company.
Typical rental rates are lower than lease rates and the commitment is nothing. For a seasonal business, a pop-up, or a merchant who wants to try a device before buying, it is a sensible product.
The test for whether you are being offered a rental or a lease is one question: can I stop next month? If yes, it is a rental. If the answer involves a term, a schedule, or a finance company, it is a lease regardless of what it is called on the quote. Ask for the answer in writing. Agreement red flags.
What to buy
Four things to get right when you do buy.
Buy an open, widely-certified model. Terminals from the mainstream manufacturers are supported on many processing platforms, which means the device can move with you if you change processors later. A proprietary device cannot, and that is the point of it. Can I keep my terminal?
Buy current generation. Chip, contactless and PIN as standard. Contactless is not optional — it is faster at the counter and sits in the best interchange treatment. The EMV liability shift.
Match the connection to your site. Ethernet is the most reliable for a fixed counter, wi-fi is fine with decent coverage, and cellular is the answer for mobile trades and for sites where the internet is unreliable.
Buy one spare if you are a single-till business. A terminal failing on a Saturday with no backup costs more than the spare did.
Budget a few hundred dollars per countertop device and somewhat more for wireless or Android-based units. Expect five to seven years of useful life before network mandates and software support make replacement sensible — which is about one lease term, for a fraction of the money.
What we charge
Interchange + 0.50% + 10¢ in person, interchange + 0.75% + 25¢ keyed, with no contract, no monthly fee and no monthly minimum. We sell hardware outright and we do not lease equipment.
We will quote you the device price and the processing price as two separate numbers, because that is the only way you can tell whether either is fair. If the right answer for you is to take payments on your phone and buy no hardware at all, we will say so.
While we are on the subject
Is leasing ever cheaper?
Over the full term, essentially never. The only scenario where a lease wins is one where you genuinely cannot find the purchase price and the alternative is not taking cards at all.
Do I own the terminal at the end of a lease?
Often not automatically. Many leases require a separate purchase payment for title to pass, and many continue month-to-month until you act.
What about free equipment with a processing deal?
Read the document. Free equipment is usually either a lease in all but name or a placement that you must return, and it is paid for in the processing rate.
How long does a terminal last?
Five to seven years is realistic before software support and network mandates make replacement sensible. Which is roughly one lease term, for ten times the money.