Bartercard Pattaya

[kcallagmy]

I am a small resort owner and was approached recently to sign up for bartercard . Can any other business owners give e feedback (good or bad) about this card and system.

[Rico3000]

I am a small resort owner and was approached recently to sign up for bartercard . Can any other business owners give e feedback (good or bad) about this card and system.

Yes, I was with them for a while and it was a nightmare. A major problem is that, if you do get business through Bartercard, you will discover that none of their members has anything you will want to spend your accumulated credits on. If you do find a supplier on their list that you might want to buy from you inevitably discover that they have discontinued their Bartercard account.

They are also very economical with the truth and promise all kinds of benefits which they do not deliver and they have developed scams, contravening their own rules, in order to drum up business. They are an international company and if you contact a financial regulating authority abroad about their activities they quickly come to heel - they have now been de-listed from the London Stock Exchange.

[dre1247]

I am a small resort owner and was approached recently to sign up for bartercard . Can any other business owners give e feedback (good or bad) about this card and system.

Yes, I was with them for a while and it was a nightmare. A major problem is that, if you do get business through Bartercard, you will discover that none of their members has anything you will want to spend your accumulated credits on. If you do find a supplier on their list that you might want to buy from you inevitably discover that they have discontinued their Bartercard account.

They are also very economical with the truth and promise all kinds of benefits which they do not deliver and they have developed scams, contravening their own rules, in order to drum up business. They are an international company and if you contact a financial regulating authority abroad about their activities they quickly come to heel - they have now been de-listed from the London Stock Exchange.

I am 100% in agreement, all you can spend your credit on is on restaurants, and not on your suppliers. I moved out quickly, it does't work here, they say it is OK in Australia, but that is a little too far for me.

[Chunkton]

I am a small resort owner and was approached recently to sign up for bartercard . Can any other business owners give e feedback (good or bad) about this card and system.

Yes, I was with them for a while and it was a nightmare. A major problem is that, if you do get business through Bartercard, you will discover that none of their members has anything you will want to spend your accumulated credits on. If you do find a supplier on their list that you might want to buy from you inevitably discover that they have discontinued their Bartercard account.

They are also very economical with the truth and promise all kinds of benefits which they do not deliver and they have developed scams, contravening their own rules, in order to drum up business. They are an international company and if you contact a financial regulating authority abroad about their activities they quickly come to heel - they have now been de-listed from the London Stock Exchange.

I am 100% in agreement, all you can spend your credit on is on restaurants, and not on your suppliers. I moved out quickly, it does't work here, they say it is OK in Australia, but that is a little too far for me.

The idea is OK, I was with them in Oz, problem is high joining fees, and monthly fees that are paid in cash, not barter. And yes the real problem is finding anything useful to spend the points on.

One software biz did very well though, sold software at a premium and collected huge credits and spent it on Oz property. Doing dollars and cents though, forget it.

[Deke]

I agree with the sentiments above. It might be useful to some retail business but sure wasn't for me.

[Deke]

Another thought on the above. BarterCard portrays themselves as promoting barter but they charge for their own service in cash. What does that imply?

[monty]

Bartercard is good if you have high profit margin items.

I have a resort and it definitely works for me.

Filling up an empty room with a barter customer costs me very little. The cash fees, some electricity and the soap to wash the linen.

Spending the barterfunds can be harder, but you have to do your own research and not depend on your "business manager".

Two example in my case, all my cleaning products (laundry soap, floor soap, bathroom cleaner, window cleaner) I buy on barter, at virtually normal prices. Pure cash savings are around 65% compared to having to buy the stuff with cash. Adds up quickly in a 31 room resort!

Pest control is another one. Savings around 70% compared to having to pay cash.

And then you have the odd item pop up you can use, I bought one of those programmable full color LED text displays, price was about 30% higher then on a cash sale, but again, due to my high profit item I sell, still cheaper by 50%!

If you need to advertise, it can be useful as well.

I don't allow food and beverage on barter, again, too low a profit margin for me to be viable.

Just have to be very careful on their (or actually the members) offers, sometimes they are ridiculously highly priced, ends up more expensive then just paying cash!

[monty]

Another thought on the above. BarterCard portrays themselves as promoting barter but they charge for their own service in cash. What does that imply?

Well, that implies that they need cash funds to settle bills which can't be paid on barter. Electricity, water, salaries etc...

[Mercury]

Bartercard is good if you have high profit margin items.

I have a resort and it definitely works for me.

Filling up an empty room with a barter customer costs me very little. The cash fees, some electricity and the soap to wash the linen.

Spending the barterfunds can be harder, but you have to do your own research and not depend on your "business manager".

Two example in my case, all my cleaning products (laundry soap, floor soap, bathroom cleaner, window cleaner) I buy on barter, at virtually normal prices. Pure cash savings are around 65% compared to having to buy the stuff with cash. Adds up quickly in a 31 room resort!

Pest control is another one. Savings around 70% compared to having to pay cash.

And then you have the odd item pop up you can use, I bought one of those programmable full color LED text displays, price was about 30% higher then on a cash sale, but again, due to my high profit item I sell, still cheaper by 50%!

If you need to advertise, it can be useful as well.

I don't allow food and beverage on barter, again, too low a profit margin for me to be viable.

Just have to be very careful on their (or actually the members) offers, sometimes they are ridiculously highly priced, ends up more expensive then just paying cash!

Do you ever think that those people who use Bartercard would come anyway or might come if you had reduced charges ?

I know what you are saying about petrol, as you say you are paying for it with points earned from a room which you must be confident you could not have otherwise rented.

I also question the ability to use the points on things which you would have paid cash for. I can remember having a large credit voucher from a store which I used on items that I would never have paid cash for.

If the profit margin on food and drink is too low to use Bartercard, where margins must be 100/200%, then it would seem you could only accept Bartercard on items which cost you little or nothing produce / sell etc. Not many things which fit that bill.

I looked at it and thought it was a pseudo scam. The fact that they don't ever want to publish fees (even Mastercard does publish their fees online) or talk about costs and want you to always meet with a representative is all akin to the shit product, sell it to dumb folks at a high price, like Kirby cleaners in the UK or door to door rubbish.

I think they'd like the public to believe it is a success but the reality is that most people accumulate these points and cannot find anything to buy with them. Isn't that a semi pyramid type relationship ?

Maybe it does work for hotels but I guess they would rather have cash and just what do you do if someone wants to pay with these magic beans when you are busy and can fill the room with cash paying customers ? Difficult call there but an easy avoid elsewhere.

[monty]

It's just numbers!

The fees are 11% in cash, i.e. you pay 5.5% for recieving the "beans" and pay another 5.5% when spending them.

In a hotel you are very seldom full, in my case maybe 6 weeks of the year. In which case I just refuse barter bookings, no problem there.

My room rate is 1400 Baht. My cost is around 50 Baht (electricity,...) plus the 11% fees is 154 Baht, so all up I received 1400 Barter Baht at a cash cost of around 200 Baht.

Now I buy floor detergent and cleaning products on barter, admittedly about 10% more expensive then what I would pay cash buying bulk at a hotel supply wholesaler.

So I pay 1400 Barter baht for soap, which would have cost me cash around 1270 Baht. But my cash cost is only 200 Baht, so in my book I just saved over 1000 Baht.

Do the same math where your profit is 100% (i.e. you buy at 50 Baht and sell at 100) add to that the 11% fees and suddenly it gets much harder to get any gain out of it...

In my case, they didn't have to sell the card to me, I called them over!

I reckon overall I save around 15,000 Baht in cash, add to that trips to Koh Chang where the hotel is paid on barter as well.

And yes, none of those customers would have stayed here if they had to pay cash! They are mostly Thais who have companies themselves and use barter.

[seadoo]

Hey guys, the person asked about Barter card in Pattaya, where most of you guys are obviously not in Thailand and have some issues in your own country.

I cannot comment on other places, but I have had my guesthouse on Barter card here in Pattaya for more than 4 years, and love it.

I get customers from all over the world staying at our place, in fact, I have got a lot of extra cash customers from the regular Barter customers staying with us.

I have no problem spending, and I use it for many things and I recently ordered my new car through Barter Pattaya office, in fact I had to ask them for an increase on my credit limit and they happily organised this. I also use it for advertising, there is so much advertising available on Barter here in Pattaya - I never have to spend cash and that is a bonus.

The way I see it, you get out of it what you put in, I am very active in Barter here in Pattaya, sure everything has a plus and minus, but for me the great thing is I am filling up empty rooms, and I have quiet a few friends that have joined here in Pattaya who I recommended, and they too are doing very well.

To the poster, I too questioned about first joining, but never looked back.

[HowardJohnson]

We take it and use the points on our advertising mainly but it comes in handy for trips away and eating out.

Remember, its the profit margin on the product you sell that can make it worthwhile.

Cheers

HoJo

[seadoo]

To the poster, I had a quick think about some of the things we have spent our Barter points on just this year, which has saved me cash;

Advertising - this is great

Website

Air Con Service in rooms

Got the old car serviced and repaired, waiting for the new one now

All My legal work including visas

My accounting

Order some of my food for the restaurant

Cleaning stuff

Some tables and chairs

Rented some motorbikes for customers who gave me cash in return

Some printing work

Pest Control for all areas

Signage and banners

Staff shirts

Bought some wine a couple of weeks ago - this is not always available

Had some maintenance work done in a couple of the bathrooms

Personally

Took my holidays in Chang Mai

Go out on the town drinking and eating

and a lot of others things personally

Thinking about getting a tattoo on Barter

I am sure there are many other things, but that gives you an idea

And for the 5.5% both ways, I'd happily pay given how much I can save.

What's the old saying, use it or lose it, same applies with Barter - if you don't try and use it - there's no point blaming other people.

Sorry, I hate people who bash and blame other people or businesses - it was mention before about a problem with the stock exchange - I heard about this some time back, but if you do your research you will find it wasn't because of the barter card it was down to their stock exchange Broker and appearenlty they sued the Broker and won - I just googled it again and that is what happened.

Edited September 28, 2009 by seadoo

[stingray]

To the poster, I had a quick think about some of the things we have spent our Barter points on just this year, which has saved me cash;

Advertising - this is great

Website

Air Con Service in rooms

Got the old car serviced and repaired, waiting for the new one now

All My legal work including visas

My accounting

Order some of my food for the restaurant

Cleaning stuff

Some tables and chairs

Rented some motorbikes for customers who gave me cash in return

Some printing work

Pest Control for all areas

Signage and banners

Staff shirts

Bought some wine a couple of weeks ago - this is not always available

Had some maintenance work done in a couple of the bathrooms

Personally

Took my holidays in Chang Mai

Go out on the town drinking and eating

and a lot of others things personally

Thinking about getting a tattoo on Barter

I am sure there are many other things, but that gives you an idea

And for the 5.5% both ways, I'd happily pay given how much I can save.

What's the old saying, use it or lose it, same applies with Barter - if you don't try and use it - there's no point blaming other people.

Sorry, I hate people who bash and blame other people or businesses - it was mention before about a problem with the stock exchange - I heard about this some time back, but if you do your research you will find it wasn't because of the barter card it was down to their stock exchange Broker and appearenlty they sued the Broker and won - I just googled it again and that is what happened.

Well, i don't found any cars you can buy on barter. Only some down payment can be made, but the mounthly payments have to be in cash, just for a Mazda Pick Up Truck. But in another case noone really want to buy Mazda Trucks, as they all crazy about Toyota and Isuzu Trucks. So in the end of 4 years payment you want to sell the Mazda again, you'll take the loss.

[artygraph]

Not an ounce of help from Business Manager. Telephone calls and many emails gone unanswered. I lost 20,000 thousand in first few months and threw the card in the bin.

Constant calls to pay monthly fee which was answered by "get the manager to call me"? Ignored and no contact till the next month asking for payment. This went on for nearly 18 months.

Total waste of time and anyone who says different either has an exceptional business or is buying through barter stuff they don't really need at inflated cost.

Buyer beware!

[Aqualogic]

Another thought on the above. BarterCard portrays themselves as promoting barter but they charge for their own service in cash. What does that imply?

Exactly correct, that is so seedy and scam-like. The guy who owns the franchise here in Pattaya used to be a butcher, not a financial guru or accountant. Think of them here more like the Herbal weight loss people or the timeshare salespeople. To be avoided under all circumstances.

The other valid point mentioned elsewhere here is that businesses that got suckered into it and are selling on it are doing so at big margins because they know they cannot easily trade their credits and they pay huge fees (in cash) to Bartercard for the privilege. No serious business person would cop those conditions for long.

[jomtienbob]

To the poster, I had a quick think about some of the things we have spent our Barter points on just this year, which has saved me cash;

Advertising - this is great

Website

Air Con Service in rooms

Got the old car serviced and repaired, waiting for the new one now

All My legal work including visas

My accounting

Order some of my food for the restaurant

Cleaning stuff

Some tables and chairs

Rented some motorbikes for customers who gave me cash in return

Some printing work

Pest Control for all areas

Signage and banners

Staff shirts

Bought some wine a couple of weeks ago - this is not always available

Had some maintenance work done in a couple of the bathrooms

Personally

Took my holidays in Chang Mai

Go out on the town drinking and eating

and a lot of others things personally

Thinking about getting a tattoo on Barter

I am sure there are many other things, but that gives you an idea

And for the 5.5% both ways, I'd happily pay given how much I can save.

What's the old saying, use it or lose it, same applies with Barter - if you don't try and use it - there's no point blaming other people.

Sorry, I hate people who bash and blame other people or businesses - it was mention before about a problem with the stock exchange - I heard about this some time back, but if you do your research you will find it wasn't because of the barter card it was down to their stock exchange Broker and appearenlty they sued the Broker and won - I just googled it again and that is what happened.

Obviously written by someone at Bartercard Ha ha ha

[jomtienbob]

To the poster, I had a quick think about some of the things we have spent our Barter points on just this year, which has saved me cash;

Advertising - this is great

Website

Air Con Service in rooms

Got the old car serviced and repaired, waiting for the new one now

All My legal work including visas

My accounting

Order some of my food for the restaurant

Cleaning stuff

Some tables and chairs

Rented some motorbikes for customers who gave me cash in return

Some printing work

Pest Control for all areas

Signage and banners

Staff shirts

Bought some wine a couple of weeks ago - this is not always available

Had some maintenance work done in a couple of the bathrooms

Personally

Took my holidays in Chang Mai

Go out on the town drinking and eating

and a lot of others things personally

Thinking about getting a tattoo on Barter

I am sure there are many other things, but that gives you an idea

And for the 5.5% both ways, I'd happily pay given how much I can save.

What's the old saying, use it or lose it, same applies with Barter - if you don't try and use it - there's no point blaming other people.

Sorry, I hate people who bash and blame other people or businesses - it was mention before about a problem with the stock exchange - I heard about this some time back, but if you do your research you will find it wasn't because of the barter card it was down to their stock exchange Broker and appearenlty they sued the Broker and won - I just googled it again and that is what happened.

Imagine paying 11% permium IN CASH to bartercard for the privilege of buying all that stuff! The point is you are NOT saving. If you get normal business they pay you CASH which you can spend anywhere and even put in a BANK or in INVESTMENTS (gold etc) and get some interest etc. The relatively TINY amount of bartercard customers that MIGHT do business with you here are usually inconsequential in comparison to doing your normal business better than your competitors. Overseas customers? Ha! There were more than 5 million cash spending foreign tourists to Pattaya last year! I'll guess that not even a fraction of 1% of them had bartercard. It's only really big in Queensland in Oz, so even that is only a relatively small # of people. The numbers just DO NOT stack up for small business people. Oh yeah and you don't get de-listed from any stock exchange unless it is something serious. There is a whole string of protocols before they take such drastic measures and it is normally to protect the INVESTORS!!

[taffylee]

Please forgive my ignorance

I thought the whole purpose of Bartercard was to join people together in some form of co-operative??

Whats this 5.5% nonsense? and if it's buy and sell then does that add up to 11% commsion, and if so who gets this 11% commision?

[stingray]

Please forgive my ignorance

I thought the whole purpose of Bartercard was to join people together in some form of co-operative??

Whats this 5.5% nonsense? and if it's buy and sell then does that add up to 11% commsion, and if so who gets this 11% commision?

Barter Card, of corse!

[2wisemen]

Dont do it mate.

Australians have wised up, now Bartercard are forced to open new feeding grounds overseas.

Check out this forum,it tells heaps,especially the latest entries.

http://forums.whirlp...m?t=731669&p=17

Not a nice company.