It often comes as a bit of a shock to people when they go to buy a replacement printer cartridge and find that the price rivals that of the original printer itself. This is one of those open secrets in the printer industry. Every printer requires its own type of printer ink, and when you own a printer you are going to need to keep buying ink for it. Manufacturers are keen to entice customers towards their own brand of printer because in a way it is like getting customers to sign contracts for the ink. They can keep the printers at low prices because it is the ongoing costs of the printer ink where they will make their money over the long term.

If you are new to the world of printers and are looking to buy one for the first time, the best thing to do is choose one based on the price of the replacement cartridges. The printer will often come with a free ink cartridge but before you buy, take a moment to find out online or ask in the shop itself how much a solo cartridge is. Compare this price to others to find out if you have got a good deal. One word of warning however is in order to make accurate comparisons you need to compare the yield price. Cartridges often contain different volumes of ink and require different amounts to print per page. That means one cartridge may be cheaper than another but may only print half the number of pages. By comparing the yield price you can get a clear comparison between products.

This is all good advice, but it doesn't really help those who have already bought their printer and are faced with high ongoing ink charges. What can these people do to reduce their bill? The first thing to do is print economically. That means only printing in black and white if possible, avoiding printing anything that doesn't absolutely have to be printed and never printing from websites. Colour ink is more expensive than black ink so you will save money if you only have to regularly replace the black cartridge in the printer. Websites are often not set up to print well so when you print from them all the adverts are printed (which are often in colour) and often several pages comes out when you only really wanted the first section. Avoid doing this - websites will always be there for reference so you don't need to print from them anyway. Never print emails either, this is extremely wasteful. Emails can be forwarded on most of the time if someone needs to see them.

In terms of finding cheap printer cartridges, the web is the best place to buy from. Here there are often discounts available and lower prices than those found on the high street. With fewer overheads, online shops can keep their prices lower and because they have a wider audience too they can afford to take smaller profits per item sold. This is all good news for the customer. Buying online comes with additional benefits too such as delivery to your door which saves a trip out in the car to your local computer supply store. Sometimes there are discounts on buying in bulk and it is sometimes even possible to buy cartridges that cannot be sold in shops either because there is damage to the box or the box is missing entirely. These are sold at a fraction of the price of regular products.

It is possible to find yourself some cheap ink cartridges, you just need to know where to look. Whether it is cheap hp ink cartridges you are looking for or a dell 924 ink cartridge you should always begin your search online.