Become a member of the Bartercard ecosystem and buy and sell your products with others.

Bartercard has a strong membership base of over 32,000 cardholders across Australia and New Zealand.

There are over 700 categories of businesses from a – accommodation to z – zoo.

Check out our member category listing to understand what businesses are in Bartercard.

You can sell almost anything through Bartercard. Besides your own products and services there is nothing stopping you from selling something from home or even buying from a manufacturer or wholesaler at cost and then on-sell through Bartercard. Your trading is only limited to the efforts you are willing to put in to be successful.

A Bartercard transaction is similar to a credit/debit card transaction.

Members earn trade dollars for goods and services they sell and this value is recorded electronically in the member’s account. Members use their Bartercard transactional card to spend their credit balance on goods and/or services from any other Bartercard member. The flexibility of the Bartercard system is you don’t have to purchase from the same business that purchases from you; you can spend locally, nationally and internationally; and you can sell now and buy later.

Yes, you can limit the amount of trading you do. We suggest Bartercard members trade up to 10% to 15% of their total business turnover. We understand there are times when you may be operating at full capacity for a period or seasonally at your peak. Working with your Trading Specialist you’ll work out a plan for the amount of trading that best suits you and your business. You can start slowly and as you work with us to bring on more suppliers of your choice you can increase the amount of trade you do.

If there are insufficient suppliers available to suit your business requirements then Bartercard will work with you to bring on additional new members to satisfy your needs. Many of Bartercard’s top trading members have successfully improved their business profitability by being proactive in their recommendation and referral of new suppliers to provide them with the products and services they need to run a successful business.

By purchasing products or services with your trade dollars, you have already saved cash and kept that cash in your business. You can also buy items with your trade dollars and then on-sell them for cash, therefore converting trade dollars to cash. For example, a restaurant purchases wine on Bartercard and then sells within the restaurant for cash.

Trade dollars are not transferable for cash by Bartercard or any other Financial Institution.

Bartercard is a 100% trading system exchange. Upon joining every member agrees to trade at 100% full barter. There are practical exceptions to this rule. If a Bartercard member is unable to offer a particular product or service at 100% full barter, the member may advertise as ‘by negotiation’. Bartercard rules allow for real estate transactions to be conducted with a minimum of 20% barter component; transactions in excess of $100,000 can be negotiated; and continuous cash/trade supply agreements can be negotiated only with prior written approval of Bartercard authorised representative.

Yes, a tax invoice is required for a barter transaction as it is for any other business transaction. Where a member makes a taxable supply and the consideration is expressed in trade dollar credits, the tax invoice must comply with all of the usual requirements for a tax invoice.

No, Bartercard is not a pyramid-based model or a Ponzi scheme. There is no hierarchical setup within the network.

As any business does, we seek to bring on new members to expand the network and provide new trading opportunities to our members, as well as replace businesses operated by members that may have sold, closed or are otherwise unable to continue operating. We encourage members to introduce new suppliers to the network that they want to do business with or know of other business owners who could benefit from being a Bartercard member, and we reward these members for their successful introductions. Read more on bRewards, our referral program.

Barter transactions are assessable and deductible for income tax purposes to the same extent as other cash or credit transactions.

When an entity that is a member of a trade exchange makes a taxable supply to another member there is a tax liability, including goods and services tax (GST).

GST is paid and received by members in trade dollars.

The consideration paid for supplies between members of a trade exchange is the debiting of the recipient’s account and the consideration received is the crediting of the supplier’s account.

For tax purposes the ATO considers one trade dollar (T$1) equal to one Australian dollar (AUD$1).

Just like you would normally, we recommend that you get quotes from a variety of businesses before you decide to make a purchase.  To manage any form of overpricing, Fair Trading plays an important role in the ethos of Bartercard.  We advocate that prices must be consistent with that of a cash purchase; just because a transaction is being done in trade dollars, it shouldn’t be more expensive than a cash transaction.

Cash fees are payable to service our administration costs.  Not all aspects of running a business can be paid for using trade and we wouldn’t encourage anyone to solely run their business using trade dollars.

No, your trade funds do not expire if you are a Bartercard member, however, the physical Bartercard card you receive expires as per the date shown on the card. A new card is then posted out automatically.

If you are gifted a Bartercard Gift Certificate, the funds expire after 36 months from the date of issue.

Yes, businesses can be rated through both your experience and other member experiences. This can be done via Bartercard Search and is based on a star rating.