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Think twice on Apple business leasing!!

P

pmcheng1707

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 4, 2014
1
0
Let me give you some facts on what “Apple business leasing” really costs you!

On 30 July 2014, we got told by Apple financial service (operated by BOQ finance) that we’ve to pay a ridiculous purchase amount to buy out the five Macs.

In summary, for the 5Macs we’ve paid $18,908.77 over 50mths with original price at $10,182.2
Now, after 50mths, we got asked to pay $2640 to buy them out.

Mate, I don’t know how you think but this buy out price is ridiculous.
It’s almost 30% of the original price considered we’ve already paid 186%.
Other options they offered are to return the equipment or upgrade.

If I’ve paid 186% to cover the cost and the interest of it and I don’t get to keep the equipment, what kind of logic is this?

Details on the 5Macs:

Imac 21.5 purchased on 25Feb 2010, original price $1976.95
Paid $72.71/mth over 54mths total $3926.34
Apple finance is asking for the purchase amount $400.00 + GST.

Macbook Pro 15.4 purchased on 18Mar 2010, original price 3064.25
Paid $107.49/mth over 53mths total $5696.97
Apple finance is asking for the purchase amount $500.00 + GST.

2xMacBookPro 13.3/2.4 purchased on 26Mar 2010, original price $3512
Paid $123.2/mth over 53mths total $6529.6
Apple finance is asking for the purchase amount $1100.00 + GST @$550.00 + GST each.

MacBook Pro 13.3/2.4 purchased on 26Oct 2010, original price $1629
Paid $59.91/mth over 46mths total $2755.86
Apple finance is asking for the purchase amount now $713.38 + GST
( this includes remaining rentals of $163.38 and buyout amount $550.00 + GST).
 
Z

Zwhaler

macrumors 604
Jun 10, 2006
7,091
1,565
I would say think twice before leasing anything. If you can't afford to buy it, leasing it will usually cost you more in the long run.
 
RedTomato

RedTomato

macrumors 601
Mar 4, 2005
4,155
442
.. London ..
Ouch.

Taking your first example:
pmcheng1707 said:
Imac 21.5 purchased on 25Feb 2010, original price $1976.95
Paid $72.71/mth over 54mths total $3926.34
Click to expand...
$75 /month over 12 months is $900, which is almost half of the price of the computer.

If you could have got a loan or a credit card for that much, you could have paid it off entirely in around 2 years, plus you would still have a computer to use or sell at the end.

Or you could have saved on the purchase cost by buying Apple refurb.

The key question is: did you make enough profit using the computers for it to be worth it all? If yes, consider yourself lucky and move on.

Given your financial situation at the time of signing the contract, I don't know if you had any other options. I assume you ran the numbers before signing, I really hope you did, and that you went into it with your eyes open, knowing that in return for a heap of shiny mac ware right now, you would get shafted a few years down the line, and planned accordingly.

You were either stupid, in which case Apple can't be blamed, or you ran the numbers and did what you had to do, in which case you were taking a rather large gamble (since your credit/resources were too bad to get money at a cheaper price) and you were at high risk of being unable to keep up payments. Apple knows this and priced their lease accordingly in return for taking on your risk.
 
PinkyMacGodess

PinkyMacGodess

Suspended
Mar 7, 2007
10,271
6,226
Midwest America.
There are significant tax savings over leasing than buying IT equipment but like everything, I'm sure there is a catch, a 'sweet spot' where the lines cross and it becomes a much better deal to lease.

The idea with leasing also allows the outdated equipment to become someone elses problem. You box the stuff up and out it goes. Probably to end up on ebay or something...

The company I owned offered leasing for equipment, but most clients were only getting small amounts of equipment and leasing didn't make sense, but for a business getting hundreds of computers and servers and other toys, it probably does make sense.

Tangent: I leased an Audi A4, and then got a job as a field support tech. Had to use my own car. I loved that car, but the mileage cap each year for the lease was blown out of the universe. I was so mileage heavy at the end of the lease, we had to sell the car to save on the mileage charge. Thank Ford it had a high resale value. Leasing isn't good for everyone...
 
N

nostresshere

macrumors 68030
Dec 30, 2010
2,708
308
Most leasing is just smoke and mirrors.

As to the original post... they bought the computers almost twice already. So much for being able to just box it up, etc.

Recently did two large purchases and sales folks kept point out how I could finance and/or lease and it would make it cheaper. Never does. If people would look at the OVERALL cost as the cost, purchasing would be way different.
 
RedTomato

RedTomato

macrumors 601
Mar 4, 2005
4,155
442
.. London ..
nostresshere said:
Most leasing is just smoke and mirrors.

As to the original post... they bought the computers almost twice already. So much for being able to just box it up, etc.

Recently did two large purchases and sales folks kept point out how I could finance and/or lease and it would make it cheaper. Never does. If people would look at the OVERALL cost as the cost, purchasing would be way different.
Click to expand...

Absolutely right, especially with mobile phones. If people bothered to add up the total cost of a 2 year contract, then compared it to the overall cost of buying a new or second hand phone outright, then paying for a sim-only contract / pay-as-you-go, there are often huge differences in overall costs.

Additionally, sim-only contracts / pay-as-you-go sim cards are often short-term / monthly rolling, so you can take advantage of falling prices for new offers. A 2 year contract that looks good now (compared to current monthly sim-only offers) will probably look 50-100% overpriced in 12-18 months time.

We are paying peanuts for our iphones + mobile services.

- iphone second hand: purchase upgrade every 2 years £240, after selling old model for £120. Overall yearly upgrade cost: £60,
- o2 pay-as-you-go unlimited sms + 1GB 4G mobile data allowance + 200 mins: free if add £15 credit per month, at end of year credit is £180; then use up credit at £15 month over another year (on a different monthly tariff) to bring credit back to zero. Total yearly cost of service: £90

Compare this to current 'cheap' offers of around £30/month for a new iPhone 4s - total cost about £720 over two years for a phone that's going to look very sad in two years time when the 6S is out. We'll be on the 5S by that point as well as paying less than half of what most people pay.
 
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