Buying a Franking Machine

3^rd October 2012

 

A Newcomer to Franking Machines

 

As a new comer to the franking machine world, I’ve been trying to find out all I can to understand why a franking machine can help me in my business and maybe able to help you. So, over a series of articles I will look into the different stages in deciding on what franking machine and which franking machine supplier to choose.

 

As usual the internet was the place to start; with searches for “franking machine basics”, “franking machine advice” and “franking machine supplies” these gave me reams of information, so I’m going to try and succinctly say what I found concerning basic costs.

  

Firstly a franking machine can save me money over buying stamps, but I need to know to what extent. It is clear that franks from the franking machine are cheaper than a stamp, but I will need to consider the price of topping up my machine with credit for posting, almost all of the big players, such as Neopost, Pitney Bowes and Frama make charges for these top ups. But I found that a small independent company Mailcoms make no charges for crediting your machine, nor for any updates that Royal Mail make to their tariffs during the year. All of the main franking machine companies charge an annual fee to service your machine during the year.  The franking machine company that you choose must be royal mail approved for this maintenance.

So, the first point to consider when choosing a franking machine is the service agreement and any fees that may be made for topping up your machine with postage credit, or charges made for Royal Mail changes, which are completely out of your control!