Whether you are self employed, part of a business or just a home user, the cost of printer cartridges can be a real pain in the pocket, especially if your printers are laser and require toner cartridges but even inkjet printers can prove costly.

The reason for this is that printer manufacturers – HP, Canon, Lexmark and the rest – know that you are very likely to go back to them for new cartridges when yours run out. In fact, many people do not even realise there are alternatives.

Brand name printer consumables bought directly from the manufacturers are high in price because the companies can charge more in the knowledge that most people don\’t bother or know to look elsewhere. However, money can saved by looking online for discount office supplies companies or even, more specifically, discount printer supplies companies.

Dedicated office supplies companies can offer reduced prices as they buy and supply in bulk and the same goes for those stores providing printer consumables too. This is not the case for OEMs, as they generally focus on the printer, not the consumables so don\’t plan for stocking for the business or consumer worlds, instead happy to supply to the aforementioned supply companies.

However, there is an alternative to buying brand name printer cartridges. There are quite a few companies that manufacture and supply compatible printer cartridges – that is cartridges that work with your printer but are not, obviously, made by the original printer manufacturer.

It is often said that these compatible cartridges provide lower quality printing and could invalidate the warranty on your printers but this is not the case. Independent testing has proven them to be as good as, if not better, than the originals and even printer manufacturers own small print states that warranties will not be affected by the use of alternative consumables.

So what sort of savings can be made by using compatible toner and ink cartridges? Well, if you compare the cost of a HP toner cartridge (£92+) to that of a compatible toner cartridge (£50) you can see that savings of almost 50% CAN be made in some cases. Typically savings are between 25-50% on most laser and inkjet cartridges so over the course of a year for a business or a consumer there is quite a lot of money to be saved.

It is easier for businesses to save money than it is for consumers as they have the advantage of having dedicated suppliers for all their office equipment, including consumables. However, there are several high street suppliers of compatible printer cartridges offering significant discounts to consumers.

The key to saving money is to shop around, both on the high street and online until you find the biggest saving there is. As you won\’t be replacing your cartridges more than once every few months at most it is worthwhile spending the time to find the cheapest price you can, whether that is online or on the high street.

Ben Greenwood is writing on behalf of Cartridge World, providers of ink cartridges and toner cartridges.

Ben Greenwood is writing on behalf of Cartridge World (http://www.cartridgeworld.co.uk), providers of printer consumables such as refill ink cartridges and toner cartridges.

Author Bio: Ben Greenwood is writing on behalf of Cartridge World, providers of ink cartridges and toner cartridges.

Category: Computers and Technology
Keywords: office supplies, printer consumables, inkjet cartridges, toner cartridges