When it is time to shop for a copier, those conversations with the sales rep can get pretty convoluted. However, if you make sure that your ears perk up whenever you hear the following phrases, hundreds or even thousands of dollars might be saved. Those terms are “doc fee” and “loss payee.” Here are some ways to prevent your enterprise from ending up on the losing side of any of such terms.

Doc Fee

Boy, have documentation fees gotten popular in everything from car leases to copier leases. If you want to have fun, ask the rep to try to define the term “doc fee.” Or, just ask him or her to “make it go away” and save your Las Vegas area business a quick $50 or $100 or more. You’d think that some medieval scribe had to hand-write the contract in the finest calligraphy. On the contrary, in today’s world, the computerized entry of information specific to your copier lease takes very little time or effort. When a doc fee is included in a lease contract, it represents virtually pure profit for the lease company.

Loss Payee

The sales rep could just have you contact your agent to add the lease company to your business policy before the contract signing. However, that would eliminate a chance for the lease company to make hundreds of dollars or more over the typical five year life of the lease.

Here’s what can happen — the lease company innocuously faxes a “loss payee” form to your accounting department a couple weeks after the lease is signed and the copier goes into service. Your staff ignores the form, and “automatic” insurance that the lease company provides kicks in. This is a real profit center for the lease company, so the premiums are typically inflated. $25-$50 monthly premiums are common.

The solution to avoiding this trap is simple. Be proactive, and call your agent at the time you sign the copier lease. Agents add loss payees to policies all the time. He or she will fax the proper form to you. You fax the form to the lease company, and you stop a potential problem in its tracks.