Bartercard

[winton50]

Anyone here members of the above scheme?

If so what are your experiences/advice?

Stu

[clairemackaness]

Avoid it like the plague. I wondered how long it would be before they got a mention on here. I have never seen anything come out of them except lip service. They are in attendance at every networking event I go to and I never hear a good word said about them.

If you are up for bartering visit the UKBF barter board in the Geeral Business thread

[winton50]

Do you have any specific things that cause problems with them?

They claim to increase business.

[clairemackaness]

I just have never seen any evidence of their positive effects. Nobody I have spoken to at Networking events rates them. No specifics I'm afraid

[Belladonna]

I have been approached by them and I felt that it was no good for my business because I do not use a lot of suppliers due to the nature of my business and so I could not see any benefit.

Plus I did not like their selling tactics. As Claire says, they attend every networking session going on the 2 free visits basis and glean as many business cards as possible and then hard sell to them.

I felt that their costs were actually quite high as well.

[Alpha]

Suart

I did the accounts for a very small client who was using bartercard.

They may increase business as you effectively swap services but their charges for the service were in the region of 30%.

Would not advise anyone to use them

[fastfences]

Hi. I had been a member of Bartercard in Australia until 2003. It does help a business with a lot of 'downtime' and could be seen as useful in getting a 'headstart' in a new business. However, in my business (fencing) I had the problem where I couldn't spend my trade $ (as they were) on new supplies, because there was no timber supplier in the system. Don't forget that if you do 20 hours work on 'trade £'s', there's no money in the til. You must be able to expend it quickly, and not just on simple things like stationery - which you can often get cheap at Staples and the like- or other abundances of office equipment.

But - the BIG BUT - the fees extracted from your account, in my experience (note the disclaimer!) are high. You pay a % of the purchase and sale (5.5% cash & 1% trade) plus a monthly account maintenance fee of £12.50.

You have to weigh up whether you can 'carry' a certain amount of 'credit'. set yourself a limit of 'trade' deals. I know the joining fee is about £1,000 with some specials offered at around £700 + VAT. It will take a long while to re-coup that money, money I'd suggest best not spent while you're establishing yourself. Trade for a few months and re-evaluate - you may never need it. It relies on filling your 'downtime'. If you don't have downtime, you don't need Bartercard.

I did look at the system here and decided it was too dear for me, for the return I could expect. But I will look at it again in the future and may be enticed if the fees were lower.
Kind regards,
Nigel

[Write My Site]

I occasionally get prospects asking if they can pay with Bartercard - usually when they haven't got any proper money! Sadly the answer is always "no". I want cash in the bank!