Bartercard

[take5]

Hi

Was wondering if there are any members of Bartercard on here?

 

[DavidT]

Not a member but have been in the past.

Looking for information on Bartercard, or simply for members you could deal with?

 

[take5]

Not a member but have been in the past.

Looking for information on Bartercard, or simply for members you could deal with?

Hi was looking for trading members

Can I ask why are you no longer a member and what area are you based in

 

[DavidT]

Hi Pam

For sure. It was quite some time ago... 6 years and back in Aus, different businesses etc so I stopped when I moved to the UK.

I think the concept is good (regardless of being an Australian business ;-), but there were a few things I would be cautious about now, but would certainly consider it again.

Firstly I would only join if I could negotiate more reasonable fees than what we were on.

Secondly, I had problems with another supplier and Bartercard only wanted fees etc... and didn't care much about resolving the problem.

Although often paying a premium to others... my experiences were actually quite good, and we had a very good relationship with the Bartercard team (their office was only a few doors from ours).

 

[take5]

David

I have to say that my broker is great, I did have a situation with another member and it was resolved, they didn't want to lose my business and appreciated that they couldn't take a back seat.

In general I am very impressed with the whole concept allowing my business to grow much faster than originally anticipated and would and do recommend to lots.

If you re join mention me lolll

Do you know of any members over here

 

[lastminutedreamvillas]

I am a member-- I have boosted sales for my vacation villas by use of bartercard and its facilities BUT I have had difficulty spending the trade pounds which I have accumulated so only opertae bartercard sparingly now when it suits me.

That said it has given me significant access to hundreds of other traders and deals with these can be done outside the bartercard regime as necessary--bartercard do not like it as they prefer trade to go through their system thereby generating cash for their own business.

in conclusion ,used properly, bartercard can be beneficial to business but do not overtrade on it!

 

[computerfaq]

I was approached by them a while ago, and it looks like a good thing, but I turned it down as the rates were extorsionate!

 

[take 5]

I too am a member was looking for feed back of other , I have found it to be of great benefit to my business and in jut 9 months I am now expanding so really pleased the cash that I have saved has been great

 

[Jeewhizz]

I can't find anything on their site about prices.

Can someone give me an idea of pricing, and so on?

Cheers,
Jee

 

[lastminutedreamvillas]

the pricing structure is not advertised on their site--methinks that is a mistake but they obviously have their reasons! one assumes they want to get their sales reps to prospective clients

from memory I paid £750 to join and pay a monthly fee plus commission on any business done--I do not find the fees extortionate as others have stated but then that is down to opinion.

In the last couple of years I have traded well on it but recently turned down several thousands of pounds worth of rental from them as I have had difficulty spending the trade pounds on what I need for the business as opposed to easy spending on hotels,food and drink etc

However it has put me in touch with web designers etc who I urgently need to up date my web sites, SEO et al and to all sorts of other businesses [and their employees]

bartercard also run too auction sites[ a normal site and an e trade site] so there are avenues there to advertise ones products etc etc.

so not a perfect tool for business but an add on to your existing business contacts--if used properly it opens up other doors to business

 

[take 5]

I have no problem spending my trade pounds could do with more, advertise your villas in my mag for trade pounds and get the cash paying customers

 

[lastminutedreamvillas]

tell me more

iassume you can pm me or if not you can look up the web site and e mail from that point--cannot add an e mail address or web address yet!

 

[Mr. Mu]

hi , I'm a bartercard member. I'm currently on the fence about it. Great in principle, happy as larry to take us on board but things really slow for us because our products / services aren't as easy to trade maybe as others. Having said that, we did our first £T300 business Friday, another 300 next friday and a couple thou maybe over the next month... FINALLY.. ;-)

Will stick with it. Might be good to know who was a barter business on here... I could make up a graphic you / we could stick in our sigs... (those that have sigs..)

 

[APTBLINDS]

I can't find anything on their site about prices.

Can someone give me an idea of pricing, and so on?

Cheers,
Jee

from memory - monthly fee of £19 (or £29) and 5% buying and selling

 

[johngml]

I am not a member of Bartercard and would not even consider it. However my friends who run a florist type business are members. Their biggest customer insisted on them using Bartercard to continue working with them but after one year the customer dropped Bartercard as they could not find anywhere to use the barter pounds (?) they got. My friends are stuck with the equivalent of £20,000 worth of the barter pounds and they are next to useless. There are very few people using them and the only one that they have found was an accountant to do their books.
They would like to get a newer van for their business but very few vehicles come up and those that do are massively overpriced. This is a very common theme with using Bartercard. It appears that a lot of people that use/accept them are massively overcharging on their products or services, probably because of the fee's attached. I think they work for some types of business but are a nightmare for everybody else. All I can see out of it is that my friends nearly went under as they have to pay their bills in real money yet they have a large sum of credit that they cannot use.
I think you need to think very carefully if you can afford to have lots of products or services tied up in a credit scheme such as this that you may potentially never be able to use and this is not to mention the fee's which I think were £750 to join, a monthly fee plus around 10-11% (I think) per transaction.

 

[APTBLINDS]

Its £19.50 a month + vat plus 5% selling & 5% purchacing in cash
£5 a month plus vat - paid in points
£7.50 a month for debt fund paid in points

I think sign up is £700 - £800

I took it over from my dad who could not spend a penny of it - you have to work very hard to spend your money and be prepared to wait for things.

It has its pros and cons - when we purchaced our first house we had about £9k in points plus £5k free overdraft - the house needed gutting and i thought i'd save for this i.e plumber, carpets windows etc - we gave approx 3-4 months notice and every single tradesman let us down - so i had to use £16k cash - which hurt

I've just had leaflets printed, i gave a firm 6 weeks to print them as i needed them for a trade fair on a saturday (i supplied artwork) on the thursday afternoon they let me down so i hunted like mad to find another printer. same spec - cash world £199 for 20000 leaflets, barter £395 for 5000 leaflets (plus £19.75 purchase fee in cash). I complained at the over pricing which they said nothing they can do and the transaction had gone through. So i refused to pay barter - they said they was going to take me to court and i'm not using the system correctly.

I got very stropy, as you do, and i said i dont need wooly rugs that they keep offering me and the like. i need advertising and stuff to build my business up which i had trouble finding - holding back the money things camoe out of the wood work and i got radio advertising. bit expensive compared to Essex FM- approx. £3000 barter for 4 * 30 second adverts for 3 months, on a MW channel - Essex FM £1800 for 8 * 30 second adverts for 3 months - i'll keep you posted how well it does.

It depends on your business and your proffit margin - if you are a one man band and you do a days work labouring with a bit of materials - you loose £ for points - if you are and internet advertiser and its 1hr of your time or so then its good -

It'll also be a lot better if traders didnt let you down and sell for the same they would in the cash world -

Long winded LOL but i hope that helps

 

[Rock Solid]

I have been a members since 2001. I run a block paving business in Brentwood. Its been good for me, I am carefull not to take on too much business but have paid for general tool / equipment hire for my business and personal things like holidays and refurb of house.

 

[APTBLINDS]

On the pos side i forgot to mention - well not for the plumber on barter that let me down - i keep contacts and do alot of networking - I passed the new non barter plumber a lead worth, i think, 10k

do a good job and reasonable prices (unlike most barter customers) and you will get reccomendations that are in the cash world...

as the other guy said, keep a limit on your sales...

 

[Firegate]

Hi, ive used Bartercard in the UK and its no different to other exchanges in other countries, It seems us Brits are behind the times. This concept is widely used in the USA, Europe, Far East, Australia, not just Bartercard but loads of similar companies such as Bartex, EBB etc.

this concept works if you have spare capacity or unsold stock which you would like to sell to fund purchases.

If you havent got anything to sell or you dont buy anything like marketing, print, freight, stationery, restaurant, hoildays, vehicles etc then its not for you.

 

the question was who is a member? 75,000 businsses worldwide in twelve countries.the company is 17 years old, originating out of Australaia where there are now 60 offices. since inception it has turned over $ 12 billion in trade, and 13 million transactions. it may not work for every company in the UK yet, as there are only 4,000 companies on here and 11 offices. but that was the case 5 or 7 years ago in Australia, and in NZ, with only 4 million people they are trading $ 20 million a month with 7,000 buisiness. the UK are now focused on franchising to expand, so members who join now will see trading opportunities expand exponentially over the next 2 or 3 years.
the traget is 10,000 memeber in 3 years, and trade of £ 20 million per month
its a B2B netwrok, designed to increase profit, mostly for SME's.
"business tool of the year" in the UK last year, there are many hundreds of members in the UK who swear by it.
i guess their glass is half full..... and getting fuller

 

[sales trainer]

I have been involved with Bartercard for 8 years. As a business tool it is unbeatable but like most things worth having you have to work at it. Those who are negative are almost certainly not working with Bartercard to maximise the potential of this trading system. I saw something from someone saying they were being sued by Bartercard. This would only happen if you owed them fees and continually refused to pay over many months. Which is exactly what would happen if you were a non paying cash creditor anywhere in the world. Bartercard does work. I know one large company who earned and spent nearly a million quid and still cant get enough of the trade pounds. They work at it and it works very well for them apparently.

 

[garyk]

the question was who is a member?

Well not many on here by the looks of it and this is one of the busiest uk business forums with a good cross section of business owners.

75,000 businsses worldwide in twelve countries.the company is 17 years old, originating out of Australaia where there are now 60 offices. since inception it has turned over $ 12 billion in trade, and 13 million transactions. it may not work for every company in the UK yet, as there are only 4,000 companies on here and 11 offices. but that was the case 5 or 7 years ago in Australia, and in NZ, with only 4 million people they are trading $ 20 million a month with 7,000 buisiness.

I was a running a business in 2000 and we had a guy in, I was tempted but thought the sign-up fee (£900) was excessive on top of the 11% trade charge for buying/selling (which I could have lived with).

However I wonder why 8 years on it still has a very low market penetration and general awareness amongst the business community?

 

Extortionate fees, pushy sales reps. You may see that Bartercard in USA filed for Bankruptcy. It really is pyramid selling. Everyone thats signed up is encouraging others to sign in order for them to offload their barterdollars. I may start a new company called sillypound. You can buy sillypounds from me at 80p per silly pound. Anyone interested???? it will cost you £500 to join

 

[wevet]

The average yellow Pages edition lists around 11,000 businesses per YP area so 75k businesses worldwide does not suggest Bartercard will be an alternative to Sterling anytime soon.

 

[good sense]

my advice is be aware of anyone who asks you to part with a £1000.00 upfront with no offer of guaranteed results just promises.

There is a guarantee of a refund if Bartercard fails to send you new business equal to your joining fee, what you are not told is that the refund is in their trade pound currency not sterling.

Also make sure you read the terms and conditions before you pay your joining fee, they do exist and they are in the back of the directory you are given after you have paid your money not before.

There is also no formal cooling off period, make sure you get in writing from the local franchise owner a confirmed cooling off period that begins after your account manager has been to see you to complete your new members pack as you can not start buying and selling until this has been completed.

Be aware that certain high value products are not readily available despite in spite of what the rep tells you, new IT kit, cars, flights, and luxury electrical goods when available tend to be sold on the Bartercard auction site, when I was involved with Bartercard 32" LCD tvs worth 399.00 in shops regularly sold for 2-3000.00 and laptops upto 7 times the shop price.

Also ask for written confirmation of all cash charges before you part wih your cash, if DNET is not mentioned you do not have the full story, this is a cash charge for members who have used their interest free line of credit and are debt to Bartercard over 1000.00 trade pounds and have not made any sales in a month.

Joining fee - there are different levels to join at these start at less than 400.00 not 1000.00

When buying always make sure you get a VAT receipt or if asked to pay up front a proper invoice, do not let Bartercard account managers urge you to sign vouchers for payment nder premis the client will send you receipt or invoice later, if you buy something for a thousand pounds be it cash or trade pounds you try to explain to tax man where that money has gone with out a receipt.

In the of a dispute or complaint with another member Bartercard will not get involved as they are only the third party record keeper, the favorite saying is would you complain to Barclaycard if some one did not give you a receipt.... maybe not but you can ask them to refund your barclay card if you buy something with it and it is not delivered! please note Barclaycard is not associated with Bartercard.


The cost of trade pound will be worked out by your account manager, it is roughly based on the difference between your selling price and your cash cost plus the fees for the transaction what is not included in your cost of trade pound is your monthly cash admin costs which.

Also bear in mind that bartercard does not guarantee that members will trade and do not guarantee your ability to spend your trade pounds. If you want something and it is not readily available you will be asked for referals or for details of companies that you have contacted that will supply the goods in cash, the idea being a member of the sales team will call and try and bring them in to the system generating more cash for bartercard and a possibility of getting something that you want.

If you want to close your account and you are in debt to Bartercard in trade pounds you have 30 days to sell goods and services to other members to clear the debt, after this they can ask payment in cash to settle debt, there is no just walking away with the debt dissapearing if you are told this ask for it in writing.

If you want to close your account and you are in trade credit you must prepay the cash fees due on your entire credit up front and you then get a certain amount of time to spend your trade pounds, after this period of time any credit left unpsent will either be moved to a slush fund called unclaimed credit or you may be given gift vouchers depending on amount.

Although you may end up settling your trade debt in sterling, if you are in credit there is no exchanging the trade for cash.

If you are a member of Bartercard you are not allowed to join any other trade / bartering organisations, if you do they can cancel your membership and you would have lost your joining fee.

That aside, if you can keep your head and are prepared to work hard at it Bartercard card can be a useful business tool, dont be misled by promises at point of sale, the sales team are commision only and hence under great pressure to make sales so you will find Bartercard reps on these forums defending the system, they are normally distinquished by polished pro Bartercard statments and quotes from prominent business people singing the virtues of Bartering. your account manager will assist you to trade but ultimate responsibility is your own.


Hope this helps

 

[Network Yorkshire]

i think the key is, as you have stated, taking responsibilty for what you are getting in to, being sensible if you do get into, and then use it in the right way to help grow your business...

As i've mentioned a previous post it works really well for us!

But then again we don't go nuts booking holdiays or buying luxuries with it like an 18 year old with his first credit card. Use it in the right way and it can be a really useful business tool...

 

[myles-at-icomplete]

Bartercard is closing down in some countries. There is a new one in London now, can't remb the name, but they don't require full barter, you can have 80% cash, bal barter. It will come to me.

a story:

>>
John Walsh: 'Barter doesn't work. It's too naff, too flyblown, too close to the poverty line'
Tales of the City

Tuesday, 27 January 2009SHAREPRINT ARTICLE EMAIL ARTICLE TEXT SIZE NORMALLARGEEXTRA LARGE
It's often been alleged, by mocking north Londoners, that metropolitans forced to live south of the Thames aren't like ordinary people. Southsiders (they say) seldom see a quail's egg, or a truffle-oil dipping-saucer; they watch black and white television, eat the runts of their offspring in tough times, and, instead of buying goods with cash, they acquire them through some primitive form of barter.

I've always been shocked by such stereotyping. But as I discovered at the weekend, when it comes to the last-mentioned accusation, it seems that south London has indeed gone barter-tastic.

I attended an event called Give and Take, organised for Southwark council by a firm named Veolia Environmental Services. The idea is simple: you dig out all manner of knackered appliances, unused gifts, unread books, un-played-with toys, hideous crockery and démodé clothing, take it along and swap it for something you actually want. It's just like a trip to the Oxfam shop - but with Give and Take, you get to pillage the shop for something to take home.

Here's a tricky one - have I got any unused gadgets and clutter in my lovely home? Where do I start? I've had an electric wok gathering dust in the kitchen for years (it was supposed to be used in a student flat unblessed by a cooker) that had to go. A kind Irish aunt once bought me a multi-purpose washer, a plastic receptacle into which you introduced root vegetables and some cold water and, by some mysterious alchemy, the former emerged cleansed some time later. It's been in the "Keep, Then Lose" category for years. A pristine Krups espresso machine, a cheese fondue set, a Marilyn Monroe jigsaw (500 pieces, mostly flesh-coloured against a beige background - very frustrating) and some elderly books with titles like So You Want To Be a Dirigible Pilot? made up the remainder of the swag with which I filled the Alfa.

At the community centre, a place I hadn't associated with cutting-edge political initiatives, a band of locals stood in line with their unwanted bits. Unlike punters on Antiques Roadshow, who queue with their favourite paintings, chamber-pots and mahogany escritoires looking like fond pet-owners, the punters at Give and Take looked decidedly furtive, like thieves and murderers about to dump evidence of their guilt in the Thames. A silver-haired matron scrutinised the box I held. "An electric wok - how does that work?" she asked. "Does it toss the noodles and stuff up in the air for you?" "I've no idea what it does," I said coldly, disclaiming all connection with the thing, apart, of course, from the awkward fact of owning it. The same went for the multi-purpose washer, whose inscrutable function I was asked to explain to a mocking young couple from Penge. "I'm not here to demonstrate the bloody thing," I said, "I'm trying to get rid of it."

When the council people had taken all our contributions, we moved into the "Take" area where recently donated clothes, books, DVDs, kitchen stuff, lighting, plants and sporting gewgaws lay waiting for new owners to claim them. Conflicting impulses clutched my heart. One said: "Look at this stuff. It's all free. You could take it home before anyone else grabs it. You could take all of it..." while the other gazed at the tartan shirts, the dog-eared cookbooks, the 1950s terracotta dinner plates and the natural-childbirth DVDs and said: "Why are you standing amid all this crap, trying to snaffle a 1969 melamine standard lamp with Day-glo orange shade, which somebody else has abandoned, and install it in your living-room, where it will shout to all your visitors your new status as a victim of the economic downturn?"

Greed wrestled with distaste, and the latter won. I left the barter centre with an old video of Gigi and a pack of environmentally sound crystals to insert in the loo cistern. Not much to show for electric woks and vegetable cleansers. Barter, I decided, just doesn't work. It's too naff, too flyblown, too close to the poverty line for anyone with a morsel of self-esteem.

Back at work, I rang the Veolia people. "It's proving really popular," a voice told me. "Everyone's doing it now. Islington borough had its first Give and Take event at the weekend." So Islington is clambering on the bandwagon, eh? Well, blow me down. So we intrepid Dulwich-ites have been at the economic cutting edge all along...

 

[lastminutedreamvillas]

From previous posts you will see I have said there are good points and bad points.

Well we have just hit a major problemand bartercrd are effectively saying they can do nothing about it as they are a book keeping service only!!!.

Bartercard is heavily advertised as for traders and on that basis one would assume that any buisness conducted with a similar trader would be covered under the Sale of Goods Act 1979 in relation to new goods being sold.

It now transpires, however, that employees of Bartercard and supposedly of good standing are allowed to trade on the auction site as though they were traders and without telling anyone that they are employees. They can trade under any alias they want This appears to be a fundamental flaw in an organisation which loudly proclaims it to be a business to business user.

So having entered an auction for a brand new and boxed television and winning that auction I was pleased to win and therby parted with barter pounds to another trader. Fair does he got more than the normal list price but so be it.

Around 11 months later the television failed completely and the vendor has denied responsibility for the problem: the vendor has stated he is not a trader ( contrary to my belief and that which BARTERCARD Head office states) and is, therefore,not responsible for resolving the problem.

Had the television been purchased from Comet the first port of call would be................... to the vendor.

Can anyone please give me an authoritive statement as to the status of the vendor vis a vis the Sales Of Goods Act 1979 and, if that view is that he is a trader what legal processes are available to me against the vendor.

Should Trading Standards/Office of Fair Trading become involved and what ultimate sanction do they have in such cases.

Should the matter go to the County Court what consideration would they give in making a determination.

Incidentally I have documented proof that this vendor purchased 3 37 inch televisions on the same day for cash before entering one of them at least onto the bartercard auction site--this seems indicative that he is a trader but..............................

 

[garyk]

I'm pretty sure the sale of goods act only covers b2c transactions and not b2b ones but certainly check.

 

[Ronney]

The debit cards, being prepaid are the options for people who have not gotten the opportunity to approve or get the said credit cards. Having the same in your pocket includes many benefits either you have no credit or bad credit. These prepaid debit cards include various benefits.