Credit card terminal lease calculator
Multiply your monthly lease payment by the number of months, add any buyout, and compare the total with the price to buy the same terminal.
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Example numbers. Change them to match your lease and a price you can buy at.
Include any monthly insurance or protection fee billed with the lease.
What you pay to keep the terminal. Enter 0 if there is none or you will return it.
Look up the same model. Square Terminal, for example, is $299.
Total cost of the lease
$2,352
$49 a month for 48 months
More than buying it outright
$2,053
About $513 a year, $43 a month
- Break-even month
- Month 7when payments pass the price
- Lease payments a year
- $588
- Price to buy
- $299
A short quiz about your card sales and what you pay today.
Leaves out sales tax, late fees and the value of the money over time. Your lease contract is the number that counts. Not a quote.
How the math works
- Total lease cost = monthly payment x months, plus the buyout. $49 a month for 48 months with no buyout is $2,352.
- More than buying = total lease cost minus the purchase price. Against a $299 terminal, that is $2,053.
- Per year = that difference / the lease length in years. Over 4 years, about $513 a year.
- Break-even month = the first month in which payments made pass the purchase price. $299 / $49 is just over 6, so month 7.
The defaults are example numbers. The 48-month term is the lease length named in an FTC complaint, the $299 price is Square's published price for Square Terminal, and the $49 payment is only an example: enter the number on your own lease. The tool leaves out sales tax, late fees and what money is worth over time.
A terminal is one cost of taking cards; the rate on every sale is usually the bigger one. To check that, use the processing fee analyzer.
Watch out
Before you sign a lease, ask for the full contract, the total of all payments, whether it can be cancelled, and what happens to the terminal at the end. Do not sign pages you have not been given a copy of.
Common questions
Sources
- FTC v. Merchant Processing, Inc., First Amended Complaint, D. Or. (2007) ("a 48-month Non-Cancellable Lease for equipment"), accessed Oct 20, 2026
- FTC, FTC Takes Aim at Oregon Operation That Targeted Small Businesses (press release, Apr 13, 2007), accessed Oct 20, 2026
- Square, Square Terminal ("$299 or $27/mo for 12 months"), accessed Oct 20, 2026