Bartercard is a barter trading exchange. It is the largest in the world. Bartercard enables member businesses to exchange goods and services with other member businesses without using cash or cash equivalents, or having to engage in the direct two-way swap of goods and/or services.
In 2007, Bartercard Australia was sold in a management buyout. Currently, Bartercard continues to operate in 6 countries (Australia, New Zealand, the UK, Thailand, UAE and Cyprus).
Bartercard provides members with a line of credit which they can use to make purchases immediately, saving the business owners cash. Members earn Bartercard Trade Dollars for the goods and services they sell and this value is recorded electronically in the member’s account database, or goes towards repaying the credit that the member may have used.
Bartercard is a major sponsor of the Bartercard Cup, the top level rugby league club competition in New Zealand, and sponsors many other business and sporting organisations.
Trade exchanges require members who participate in a transaction to pay to the exchange a proportion of the nominal value of the price in cash. In Australia, bartercard charges 11% in cash as well as nominal monthly fees of A$35. The 11% consists of two charges of 5.5% (one payable when money is "earned" and one set of charges payable when money is "spent").
These relatively high cash costs (a typical VISA scheme has merchant costs of just 1.5%) make it considerably harder for members to buy low margin goods like milk, petrol, raw materials, metals, real estate, and motor vehicles, leading to hyperinflation within these
Bartercard works well for businesses that have surplus product where product would otherwise be ruined. A hotel could sell last minute rooms, for example - but selling them via the web for cash is preferred by many businesses.
Read more about Bartercard: Taxation