If you’ve been shopping for a new HP printer lately, you might have seen information cards encouraging you to sign up for their Instant Ink program. This program is a subscription service where you pay a flat fee for printing up to a set number of pages, and then pay an overage charge for going over your limit.
Costs
Their starter plan is $2.99, and provides 50 pages per month. That sounds great, but if you go over you’ll pay $1 for any part of each 10 pages you print. So, the 51st page costs another $1.
Even if you only print 5, 10, or 15 pages monthly, you still pay nearly $36 per year for the service. Quick math makes you think you’re paying 6 cents per page, but this is your lowest possible cost if you manage to print exactly 50 pages every month. If you print 30 pages, your cost is 10 cents per page. If you only print 10 pages, your cost is 30 cents per page! Plus, if you go over, you pay a MINIMUM of 10 cents per additional page if you print exactly 10.
HP does have additional, high volume plans – but the largest plan is $20 per month and still only allows 700 pages. For business use, this is essentially an immediate disqualification. And for home use, if you print that often you may want to consider an upgraded printer.
HP Instant Ink cartridges
Remote Monitoring, Sharing, & Updating
HP requires that your printer be constantly connected to the internet, and you expressly consent for them to not only monitor your ink levels and printed pages, but also what types of documents you print (PDF, Word, etc), and what devices you’re sending the print jobs from. HP also is allowed to share your contact information and printer model with the company you purchased the plan from. Finally, you agree to allow HP to remotely update your printer software, firmware, or programming (essentially, the printer’s feature set) without notice to you.
A Pixel Can Be A Page
A printed page on this program is a page “upon which any amount of ink” is placed on the paper. Of course, it works to your advantage if you primarily print full-page 8×10 photographs, but in daily use you’ll often pay for pages with little ink used. I know when I print an email or web confirmation, often unwanted straggling text will fall onto the last page. If you want to know how many pages you’ve used, you must log in to your account and check. And, if you go over your limit, HP does not notify you or move you to the next tier – they simply tack on the overage fees!
Are You Patient?
HP notes that replacement cartridges can take up to 10 days to arrive. But, even if it only takes two or three days do you want to be without your printer for that length of time? You cannot request cartridges in advance. HP will determine via their software when they think you will run out — if they are wrong because you needed to print a large print job, you’re out of luck.
Don’t Cancel Without Planning
If your credit card expires or is declined, or if you cancel the subscription, your cartridges will quit working. HP disables the cartridges upon the subscription cancellation, and you are not able to print until you purchase a replacement set of cartridges at your favorite ink retailer.
How to save money without sacrificing convenience:
The friendly people at One Source Imaging are ready to help. We sell Genuine HP branded ink at very competitive prices! We often beat the big box stores and even large online retailers. To save even more, you can select our remanufactured ink cartridges. We keep many cartridges in-stock locally for immediate FREE business delivery! Qualified businesses with larger volumes qualify for our absolutely free inventory management system! Give us a call today at 715-838-0986 and we’ll help you out!
Here’s a well-written article on HowToGeek with another user’s perspective on the HP Instant Ink program.
How-To Geek: HP’s Ink Subscription has DRM that Disables Your Printer Cartridges