Excavator Financing: What are Payments on Used Excavators?

Looking at buying or leasing an excavator?

What will your monthly payments will be for excavator financing? 

If you only need the excavator occasionally, it may be cheaper to rent, but only if you're going to use it almost never.

Rental prices on excavators can easily run $5,000 a month, and that's typically for a unit you could buy for about $200,000.

If you're planning on using an excavator regularly, your best bet is going to be to buy or lease the excavator. Depending on the size of your business and your budget, you can finance or lease either a new or a used excavator. 

Loan Vs. Lease for an Excavator: Which is Better?

If you're buying with cash, that's easy, write a check and you've got yourself an excavator.

Excavator costs depend on the age, hours of use, whether it's a full excavator or a mini-excavator, and the model.

In general, a used mini-excavator will run you between $15,000 and $30,000 while a used full excavator can run from $50,000 up to $250,000+ depending on the size, age, condition, and hours on the machine.

If you don't plan to pay cash up front, you can do either an excavator loan or a excavator leasing.

The main difference between the two:

• with financing, you own the equipment at the end (for a final payment of one dollar)
• with the lease, you can walk away at the end, or choose to buy the equipment for a balloon payment (the specific amount varies by contract)
• leasing can be cheaper in terms of monthly payments than financing.

The vast majority of businesses choose financing. That's because excavators hold their value... so it's likely a lease would result in a large residual to keep the excavator after your last payment is made. 

Bored of reading? We'll get you an estimate of what you can qualify for here

Many folks acquire construction and heavy equipment finance through leasing, though equipment loans are sometimes the best choice. 

Excavator Financing: What Are The Qualifications?

Will you qualify to finance an excavator?

It really depends. 

If you have been in business for 2+ years and have financed in the past (and paid your payments on time) it's usually pretty easy.

 What does easy mean? 

Usually you can qualify with just an application. 

If your credit is blemished... or your business is fairly new... 

It's likely you'll be asked for bank statements. Those bank statements should demonstrate:

• That you have some money in the bank. How much depends on the situation, but at the minimum you should have 3 payments sitting in the bank. 
• If you're not a startup, that there is a reasonable amount of money being deposited monthly

Do You Need a Down Payment To Finance an Excavator? 

The down payment needed to finance an excavator really depends on your situation.

Depending on the program, sometimes your down payment is zero. Just a few hundred dollars (up to $1,000) for documentation fees which cover things like wires, site inspections, UCC filings, and so forth.

In most cases, you're looking at one to two payments upfront, plus those fees. 

Sometimes, especially in tougher credit or startup situations, the down payment can be higher, 10-20%, or more. It just depends on how ugly the situation is.

Incidentally, in many cases, you can skip your first 3 (or 6) payments or pay a reduced (typically $99) payment in the beginning so that your excavator can start earning money before you deplete your bank account.

Excavator Leasing Rates: What are they?

We explain equipment financing rates in depth here, but... 

Here's a calculator that will give you an estimate of what your payments might be: 

Click here to find what you qualify for and your actual payments to finance an excavator.

The big differences between payments based on different credit profiles is due to the risks the lender takes. Used equipment depreciates, fast especially since you're (hopefully) putting it into a lot of hard hours. In order to stay in business, lenders have to charge a rate high enough to cover the costs of the companies that don't pay their equipment loan and still have enough left over to make a profit.

 Smarter Finance USA can help you get an honest quote to finance or lease an excavator. Call us at (866) 631-9996 or click in the picture below to get a quote.