Which funding products does this apply to?

Term Loan, Equipment Financing. Each has its own page listing the funders in this directory that offer it and what each one publishes about its terms.

Is this specific to construction?

It is written around how a construction business actually generates and collects cash, which is what makes its funding problem different. The mechanics transfer; the arithmetic may not.

The Find Me Funders research desk. Some drafting is AI-assisted, and every page that is says so at the top, including whether a person has checked its claims yet.

How do I know a figure here is right?

Where a page carries the green notice, its claims were checked against the sources listed at the end and a reviewer is named. Where it carries the amber one, nobody has verified it yet and you should confirm anything you plan to act on.

Are the examples real deals?

No. Every worked example is labelled illustrative and exists to show the arithmetic. What any particular lender charges is on that lender's page, where it publishes it.

Why do you never say what a typical rate is?

Because we cannot source it. A market average assembled from lenders who do not publish prices is a guess with a decimal point on it. Where a lender publishes a figure, we show that figure and say where it came from.

Is this financial or legal advice?

No. It is general information about how these products work. Outcomes depend on your contract and your state, and a lawyer or accountant licensed where you are is the person to ask about your situation.

Can I reuse this content?

Quote a paragraph with a link back. Do not republish whole articles.

Vendor equipment finance: is the dealer's quote actually cheapest?

Vendor finance programmes: why the quote at the dealership is sometimes the best deal and sometimes not

The finance desk at the dealership is a sales channel. That does not make it expensive — subvented money can beat your bank — but it does mean you have to compare totals.

By Find Me Funders research desk Updated 14 September 2026 1037 words 5 min read

Drafted with AI assistance. Not yet independently checked. Nobody has verified the claims on this page against a source, so treat the figures and legal points as a starting point rather than as settled, and confirm anything you are about to act on. How we check things.

The finance quote handed to you across the sales desk was arranged by someone whose job is to sell you equipment. That is worth knowing. It is not, on its own, a reason to refuse it.

What a vendor programme is

A manufacturer or dealer partners with a finance company so that a payment can be quoted in the same conversation as the machine. The finance company gets deal flow it did not have to originate. The dealer gets a faster close, and sometimes a share of the finance income. You get a quote without filling in a second application.

Three things follow from that structure.

Speed and simplicity are real.The paperwork is pre-agreed, the equipment is known to the funder, and the vendor invoice is not in dispute because the vendor is in the room.

The dealer may earn on the finance.Some programmes pay the dealer points on the funding, or let the dealer mark up the rate the funder quoted. This is normal in the industry and it is rarely disclosed unless you ask.

Subvention is also real.When a manufacturer wants to move units, it buys the rate down — pays the funder a lump sum so a below-market payment can be advertised. That is genuinely cheap money. It is paid for out of the manufacturer's margin, which is exactly why it usually comes attached to list pricing.

The comparison people get wrong

You cannot compare a subvented rate to an outside rate. You have to compare total dollars, on the price each option actually gets you.

Illustrative only — a machine over 48 months, two paths.

Path A, the vendor programme:list price $95,000 at a subvented 3.9%. Payment about $2,140.76, total paid about $102,756.

Path B, your own funder:the dealer will discount to $87,500 for cash, financed elsewhere at 9.5%. Payment about $2,198.27, total paid about $105,517.

The vendor programme wins by roughly $2,761, despite the higher sticker and despite looking like the captive option. The subsidy is worth more than the discount.

Now change one input. If the dealer would go to $82,000 for cash, the outside loan totals about $98,885 and beats the vendor deal by about $3,871. Nothing about the rates changed. The cash discount changed.

Those numbers are constructed to show the mechanics, not to describe a market. The point is the method: the vendor rate is only comparable once you know the cash price.

The question that does all the work

Ask the salesperson: what is your best price if I pay cash, and what is your best price with your finance?

If the two prices are the same, the finance is not subsidised and you are simply being sold a loan — shop it. If the cash price is meaningfully lower, the finance is subsidised and you now have two real numbers to run the arithmetic on.

Some dealers will not separate the numbers. That is an answer too.

What else to check in a vendor document

Whether the funder is the dealer.Sometimes the paper is held by a finance company affiliated with the manufacturer, sometimes it is sold on to a third party immediately, and sometimes the dealer is only a broker. It changes who you call when there is a problem.

Whether the quote is a lease or a loan.Vendor quotes are frequently leases, and frequently FMV leases, because a residual assumption makes the advertised payment look better. Find out what you own at the end.

The end-of-term terms.Notice periods, return conditions and automatic renewals live in vendor leases the same as anywhere else.

Whether the equipment price includes soft costs.A "$95,000 installed" quote and a "$95,000 plus freight and rigging" quote are different deals.

Documentation and filing fees.Ask for them in dollars, in writing, before you sign.

The comparison the residual decides

Illustrative only — the same machine over 60 months.

A loan.$95,000 at 8.5%. Payment $1,949.07, total paid $116,944, and you own the machine.

An FMV lease.$1,690 a month for 60 months is $101,400 of payments, plus whatever the buyout turns out to be.

Buyout at 10% of cost, $9,500: total $110,900. The lease wins by $6,044.
Buyout at 20%, $19,000: total $120,400. The loan wins by $3,456.
Buyout at 30%, $28,500: total $129,900. The loan wins by $12,956.

The lease payment is lower in all three lines, and the answer flips twice. The variable that decides it — what the machine is worth at the end — is not in the document, by definition, which is what fair market value means.

So if the quote is an FMV lease and you intend to keep the equipment for its working life, ask for a stated purchase option or a cap. A dollar buyout, a fixed percentage buyout, or a capped fair market value each turns an unknown into a number you can put in the comparison. If the answer is that the residual cannot be capped, run the arithmetic at the top of your realistic range rather than the bottom, and treat the low advertised payment as the cost of that uncertainty.

When the vendor programme is clearly the right answer

The manufacturer is running a genuine subvention and will not discount for cash anyway.
The deal is small enough that shopping it costs more time than it saves money.
Your credit profile is awkward and the vendor programme has appetite that a general funder does not, because the funder knows the equipment and its resale market.
Delivery timing is tight and the vendor programme can document in days.

When to shop it

The dealer will discount hard for cash.
Your bank or an existing funder has capacity and knows you.
The quote is a lease and you intend to keep the machine for its whole life.
You cannot get a straight answer on price, structure or fees.

There is no rule that the dealership quote is a rip-off, and no rule that it is a bargain. There is only the arithmetic, and it takes about ten minutes once you have the cash price.