Webchat
30 Jan 2002 – BarterCard
Last
year Webchat looked at smart cards that are now available from some banks,
but a site that took my fancy recently, was all about another type of credit
card that doesn’t use banks and doesn’t actually use real money, but if
your in business, it could potentially bring real savings for your business
while attracting new clients at the same time.
You have
probably heard of the Bartercard
concept, or seen their advertising banners around sporting fixtures but
it’s not until you visit their website linked off the Webchat page this
week at WWWeb.co.nz that you can get an understanding of how it might work
for your business.
The concept
is certainly not new and is based on the traditional barter system, but
the enabling power of data communications provides more flexibility with
whoever you wish to barter with and offers a high level of security.
Bartercard
is a global business to business trade exchange that allows business owners
to pay for some of their business expenses with their own products or services.
Acting
as a third party record keeper, Bartercard uses virtual Trade Dollars to
monitor the value of transactions. Bartercard's currency of Trade Dollars
are equivalent to New Zealand dollars for all accounting and IRD purposes.
Each
Bartercard member is issued with a plastic card and trade amongst themselves
in a computerized barter system. You use your Bartercard just as you would
a credit card. But unlike paying your credit card bill is cash at the end
of the month, you pay for your purchases by providing your goods and services
to other Bartercard members at your retail price. Thus you save the equivalent
of your gross margin on your Bartercard purchases.
To see
if it’s worthwhile in your business, try out the Potential Profit Calculator
at the Bartercard website to get an idea of how much you could save using
Bartercard. Bartercard claims to have over 5,000 businesses in New Zealand
using the system with a further 57,000 businesses abroad.
Products
available include advertising, travel, printing, office supplies, plant
hire, maintenance, security, cleaning, vehicle leasing among many more.
So if
you like the idea of conserving cash and increasing your client base, find
out more about Bartercard at the webchat site this week at wwweb.co .nz
This
is John Mackie for Newstalk ZB
wwweb.co.nz.
