Bartercard - yeah or nah?

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Forums › Finance and wealth management › Bartercard - yeah or nah?

CokemonZ

1051 posts

Uber Geek

#320019 26-Jun-2025 17:40

I've been referred by someone I know (another small business owner) to look at Bartercard.

They seem happy with it, and have got some good stuff - they do website design and hosting through it, advertising, business travel accommodation and food. They've also taken some out as drawings for house renovations and family travel.

However when I try and make it work the maths just don't make sense.

Here is my calculation - what am I missing?

CamH

569 posts

Ultimate Geek

#3387292 26-Jun-2025 19:22

I can't comment on your maths, but I looked at Bartercard many years ago and couldn't see any real value in joining.

The fees are astronomical, and more often than not, businesses on the platform either want to sell you only "low value" things with "trade dollars" and then want everything else paid in cash at full price, or inflate the cost of things when paid in trade dollars.

It's also worth checking out the Marketplace - it's often stuff that people can't move and isn't really worth much to anyone: https://marketplace.bartercard.co.nz/

We've had people offer us 2-3x our invoice value in trade dollars to clear invoices which makes me think that people are sitting on a lot of them and can't move them on anything useful.

CokemonZ

1051 posts

Uber Geek

#3387568 27-Jun-2025 09:25

Yeah, after looking a little more it does seem like cash with extra steps and charges.

When I spoke to them they weren't willing to give a list of suppliers, though would generally say what sort of things they could do.

For right now I think it's a no.

Handsomedan

7308 posts

Uber Geek

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#3387577 27-Jun-2025 09:47

CokemonZ:

Yeah, after looking a little more it does seem like cash with extra steps and charges.

When I spoke to them they weren't willing to give a list of suppliers, though would generally say what sort of things they could do.

For right now I think it's a no.

I worked for them as a TRade Manager for a short period a number of years ago.
THere are certain businesses that it works for, but "in demand" products and services were always hard to source and you couldn't pay your normal bills with TRade Dollars.
We were paid a % of our salaries in Trade Dollars and we ended up wasting most of it at cafes and restaurants, because everything else came with jacked-up prices.

I saw a laptop sell for double it's face value and a car sold for a significant premium, so that people could simply get rid of their Trade Dollars.

Also - it's designed to "fill the gaps"...i.e. a hairdresser would only fill those appointments traditionally hard to fill (like a Monday afternoon) with Trade customers and the rest would be normal paying customers...but many businesses didn't really understand that and ended up replacing "cash" customers with "trade" customers and it was detrtimental to their business.

Might have changed by now, but back then it didn't make sense for anyone but mechanics, panelbeaters and computer resellers.

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CokemonZ

1051 posts

Uber Geek

#3387589 27-Jun-2025 10:07

Thanks for the insight.

It largely matches what I've been able to figure out, there isn't a compelling reason for me to do this.

Will (over a beer) have a chat with my mate and see how it's really working for him.

sleepy

334 posts

Ultimate Geek

#3387596 27-Jun-2025 10:59

Found it to be a nightmare could sell things on bartercard easily but getting rid of it was a awful

and most things we tried to buy were at ridiculous prices was easier to pay cash for them

Got lucky with a retailer closing and bought his stock at below cost and used up all my bartercard dollars

and swiftly closed the account

MichaelNZ

1417 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Integrity Tech Solutions

#3387605 27-Jun-2025 11:31

As others have said and also consider you will be incurring a GST and income tax liability on these sales.

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Drelly

27 posts

Geek

ID Verified

#3396373 23-Jul-2025 09:00

I was using Bartercard about 25 years ago. The biggest problems with it are;

It's hard to buy things you actually need.
It's a massive drain on cashflow. You still need to pay tax on bartercard income with real dollars.

It works for a small minority of businesses but for most, it will mean the existing members who can't get rid of their trade dollars will see fresh meat and pounce on you, making their problem, your problem.

We ended up buying things we didn't need at marked up prices just to be able to get out of it. I was so pissed off at how damaging it was to our business (and others) that I blogged about it: https://www.energise.co.nz/blog/bartercard-is-a-waste-of-money-time/