8 July 2009

Bartercard - anyone had experience with being a member in Canberra

| kieran AP
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Good afternoon RA hivemind,

I have been offered an opportunity to join bartercard. AS with all these thing, there are upfront costs and ongoings, so before I commit one way or the other I was wondering if anyone had any personal experience with how it works in Canberra.

Happy to discuss off line rather than in public if that suits people,

regards,

Kieran AP (0419 267792)

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Beware of Bartercard ! If you run into problems , they will want to take your home ! For a $4600 debt of Barter dollars , they are wanting to send the Bailiff to sell my house!
I say not worth it.

j from the block12:05 pm 14 Aug 09

In my dealings with bartercard as a florist (the only one in canberra at the time who accepted it, not sure currently) we got lots of business in (racked up a lot of barter dollars) but as none of our suppliers took bartercard, it left us in a bit of a bind. If you can see where you would spend your barter card dollars, not as in where the sales guy says you can spend them, but have a good look around, go for it.
Like anything in business, assess how it helps you, not the guy pitching it to you.

Actualy, there could be several reasons why some people dont’t like Bartercard. First is that they just don’t understand what they are doing. During my 30 odd years in business, I have discovered that there are two types op people in business. There are business owners and there are business people. Business owners are people who have simply bought themselves a job. Business people are those who are always looking for opportunities to increase their business.
After looking at the comments above I have to say that the vast majority are business owners. They do not have the capacity to look outside the square. When one looks at the majority of fortune 500 companies, you will see that they use barter to open up new markets and to improve their cashflow. If Billion Dollar, Multinational companies use barter to build their business, don’t you think that SME’s can use it too?
I know of Bartercard members who do 6 figure amounts every monthe both in and out of their accounts. They even spend millions on real estate on Bartercard. If someone says that bartercard is a bad idea then believe me they DO NOT KNOW WHAT THEY ARE TALKING ABOUT! After all, cash is just barter: “I will swap some of this coloured paper for those goods.”
Call some of the members in the Bartercard directory who are Platinum members. They are the “whales” who do big dollars. Don’t play with the turkeys fly with the eagles.
Pat

trevmachine said :

My dealings with past and present Bartercard members all say the same thing “I cant spend my trade dollars” These people simply do not understand the concept and are ignorant to alternative ways of doing business.

Or the system just does not work.

Having been a long time member and supporter of Bartercard, the argument about spending Trade dollars is completely ridiculous and well worn out. I can’t get enough of them. I have managed to increase my turnover 15% with the help of Bartercard.

True it does take a little more effort to spend trade dollars than cash, however there are many alternatives, which I am sure the great people at the brokerage can help you with. Sure you might not be able to spend EXACTLY with your desired merchant. But think outside the square people. It’s not that hard

My dealings with past and present Bartercard members all say the same thing “I cant spend my trade dollars” These people simply do not understand the concept and are ignorant to alternative ways of doing business.

Obviously the descision is up to you whether to join or not, however you may be missing out on extra sales and exposure to new clients that you otherwise wouldn’t get.

As the old saying goes, you never hear the positive stories, just the negative ones, by clueless people who are too set in their cash only ways!

#RandomGit Never said I was smart 🙂

You will likely have trouble spending your trade dollars.

You can get the initial setup costs (salespersons commission) waved if you really want to join. I would keep telling the salesman you are concerned about not being able to spend your trade dollars until he drops the setup costs which he definately can do.

If you need to ask people about the value of someone selling magic money beans then Keiran my friend, you are already halfway up the vine.

Get sliding.

ok, I think that is a fairly convincing argument!

Thanks one and all.

dont even think about it. it is very hard to get rid of barter dollars and therefore prices are incredibly inflated.
the best example of the batercard rort is that bartercard itself doesn’t let you pay their fees using barter dollars. they only accept cash!

A resounding run for your life verdict there..

I’m with harvyk1 above.

The only ones winding up with spendable currency in their pocket is Barter Card themselves.

Bet the admin fees arn’t on Barter Card.

As others have said, the problem with exclusive currency clubs is that you can only spend the currency with others in the club.

Steer clear of Barter Card, I have yet to hear anyone with only positive experiences with them.

Woody Mann-Caruso6:00 pm 08 Jul 09

There’s a reason why pretty much every civilisation on the planet uses some form of currency.

My friends small business accepted bartercard as payment for goods. When she decided that she wanted to trade her points it was like mission impossible. She eventually found something to use her points on, but the value of them was stuff all resulting in a substantial loss. She has declared that cash is the only reliable thing to use.

barking toad4:44 pm 08 Jul 09

Cash is king!

Clown Killer3:59 pm 08 Jul 09

Don’t even touch it with a stick.

A friend got paid with barter card once after a computer job she did for someone. She found it damn near impossible to use the value she got on the card. After the ordeal she went through I’d suggest just steering clear.

I have no direct experience, only the second-hand anecdotes of some of our previous customers who found that they were incredibly difficult to get rid of, but as the BarterCredits are treated by the ATO as ‘money’ for income tax liability (ie: carry the same notional value as legal fiat currency) so you’re sitting on a pile of taxable asset, but thanks to a different ATO ruling are ‘not money’ for Superannuation purposes.

Another downside is the risk of rampant devaluation in the private currency, so you may find you are are forced to use vastly more of them than the same value in hard currency to buy similar goods from fewer suppliers to actually realise the ‘value’.

I’ve a few friends who joined.
It cost them a bit because they couldn’t get rid of the Barter dollars.
Another company I worked for tried to use them as wages to get rid of the crippling build up.

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