How many skills do you have that you are willing to trade? As you long as you can deliver on what you post, enter as many as you like. Actually, we do limit maximum offerings at any one time to five. If that's too restrictive for you, please let us know.
As for your needs, if you are like most people, there are a ton of services that you would be excited to receive. You can select as many as you like. In case you want to see everything available in exchange for your offer(s), we created the “Roll the Dice” option. If you want to target just one thing that you need, that's perfectly okay too.
In both cases, the more options you enter, the more likely you are to find a better selection of matches from which to choose.
You can always 'Roll the Dice.' That's why we made it the default. You can see what people are willing to offer you in exchange for your services.
The short answer is 'yes.' The IRS treats bartering as barter income. For more information you can visit any number of IRS pages, but here is one to start you off.
While barter exchanges are required to report every transaction to the IRS via a 1099-B, letSwap is NOT a barter exchange. We see ourselves as a platonic dating service for people who are looking to save money.
At the end of the day, as with most things in life, it's up to you. We do want you to know the law though because it's not on your side.
This age-old questions has been asked by all paranoid people throughout time. The classic response is, "Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean that they aren't out to get you."
But let's be serious for a moment...
First, here are some quick tips:
Now for the long answer:
We believe that barter is a necessary part of a healthy financial and social ecosystem, especially a capitalist one. Not only does it offer a means to improve material quality of life when money and credit are not available, it brings people together in ways that often are missed with the cold efficiency of standard business transactions.
We believe that building community (not just among our friends and interest groups, but BIG community) requires that individuals get out and talk and meet new and different people.
If you trust a stranger and are betrayed, it makes sense to avoid trusting other strangers in the future. The problem is that when you don't ever trust strangers, you never find out how trustworthy people in general really are.
At letSwap we believe in living into possibility. Don't turn off your evolved intelligence, but don't turn off your trust and participation in goodness either. If you don't participate openly and honestly, how can you expect the next person to do it.
Open your eyes and your heart.
We welcome your feedback on how we can improve trust across the community and would be happy to hear from you if you have any ideas.
If you still have concerns about getting burned and the quick tips above did not provide much comfort, our service may not be a good fit for you. That's okay too.
We don't support vigilante justice, but shame on them. Please let us know. We will do our part to support a better choice on their part. If the issues still does not get resolved, we will help bring shame to them on our website. That's about the most we can do.
You, of course, have other options that you could choose to pursue. Just like in a cash transaction, if someone does not live up to the terms of an agreement, you have can take plead your case in small claims court.
We hope that you don't have such a situation arise. To increase accountability, we recommend some form of a written agreement, even if it is a simple one. That way, if a difference of opinions does arise, you can refer back to a document that you created and signed with the other party prior to either party performing services.
A trade of services really is no different than paying cash, except that you are more likely to increase your trust in humanity when you trade. There seems to be greater appreciation between two people trading than is experienced through (usually impersonal) cash transactions. Try it, and share your story. We would like to know about your experience.
The financial “free-dumb” question is a fair one to ask. Thank you, in fact, for for giving us the opportunity to invite your participation in the response.
We played around with a freemium business model for two years because it seemed consistent with promoting a cashless economy. Eventually though, we determined that in order for the company to sustain itself, we needed to have a more stable path to revenue.
The only way that we could reconcile this apparent inconsistency is to charge users but only when they are getting value from the system. Unlike other barter sites, there is no subscription fee, no fee to post, and no commission to pay. You don't even pay to choose that you want to get in touch with someone after you have read through your match results. Only when you and the other party in the match have personally reviewed the match result and selected the “I'm interested” in getting in touch will the system charge you each a nominal fee.
For now though, while it's free, there is no better time to get to know the site, invite your friends, and give us feedback on how to improve the system.
Not really. We have a few cross-over categories that some people might consider services...food services for instance are listed as Farm Foods and Restaurants.
We are focused on people trading services because it helps strengthen community by building trust and confidence in our fellow humans. Local product trade makes a lot of sense and can provide a great service too. It's just not where we are choosing to focus our energies at this time.
No one on the site will see your contact information unless you choose to Swap contact information with them. That's where we came up with the name of the site. After you receive a match, you will have the option to click “I'm interested” or “No thanks”. Only if both parties to a match click “I'm interested” the system will move the match into the Swap category, where the other person's email address will be displayed.
