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Staff Accounts
Occasionally it works out that individuals have accounts with Bartercard. For
example, a radio station selling advertising will normally pay its advertising
representatives their commission in the national currency, but if the company is a
member of Bartercard it may want to pay the commission in trade dollars. The reps
will then have an account and a card with Bartercard, which they can use to buy
goods and services with participating businesses. Bartercard calls this a ‘staff
account’.
Membership Criteria
Unlike in green dollar schemes, Bartercard doesn’t automatically accept every
business. There has to be sufficient demand for their services, as the Bartercard
economy is a small one. This practice ensures that there are only sufficient members
within an occupational category to cover needs.
For the same reasons, Bartercard doesn’t accept specialists, and nor does it
accept members who are too vulnerable financially. Since all new members receive
an interest­free loan on acceptance, it is a risk for the whole system if any can’t pay it
back. Nor can Bartercard give too out much credit, because if a business goes broke
the whole system loses money. The company likens its security arrangements to the
credit check that credit card companies conduct.
Help for Members
Bartercard’s business support is essential to its success, as Roy Netzer said:
We employ trade coordinators (these later were called account managers) to educate the
members and help the cash flow. There is a ratio of one staff member per 100 members. … It
has proven to be the right thing to do because we find people need to be trained into new
habits. Barter is not something people are used to; the ways they can use it are not obvious to
them. It is a concept, a tool, and it works differently for every company. For some it is a
capital expenditure; for others hidden; for others personal. We work closely with our members
to expose them to the full potential of what we can do for their business, bring them anything
from 5 per cent to 15 per cent extra business and make a direct impact on their bottom line of
anything between 20 per cent and 60 per cent.
Very few Bartercard members leave the schemes – in New Zealand, for example,
fewer than 0.7 per cent resign each quarter through dissatisfaction. 20
The company helps members that are facing financial difficulties, sometimes