My Way Credit

If you’re cash-strapped and maxed out on your credit cards, try to barter (trade) a skill of yours - or stuff you already own – for whatever you need or want. It’s not hard, and chances are, you’ve already had some experience with bartering.

Have you ever watched a friend or neighbor’s kids one day – and then dropped your kids off on another day? How about car pooling? These are two good examples of how to begin to barter: Focus on people you know and practical items of identical value. 

Don‘t stop there! Since no money involved, trading is a great way to add some luxuries to your life – things you couldn’t afford to buy. When I was in grad school, I bartered some writing for one week's use of a professor’s fabulous second home in the Smokies. There’s no way I could have paid for that vacation on the $3.25 an hour I was earning as a research assistant!

This a good example of how trading can get tricky and why it’s important to ask a lot of questions. For example: How much writing did you have in mind? When would my deadline be? Can I see pictures of the house? What week did you have in mind?

Especially if you’re feeling deprived because of all the belt-tightening you’re doing, I urge you to give trading a try. Just be careful and clear about the terms. For small swaps, there’s probably no need to write out an agreement, but for major projects, say, some home renovations, write out what each person will do, when they’ll do it, and who pays for what supplies.

Direct barters are the easiest to arrange. Design an ad for an auto body shop in exchange for getting your dented fender fixed. Build a deck for the orthodontist as payment for your child’s braces. Swap day care for computer skills or a refinished antique chest or ... ?? The possibilities are endless!

Barter Exchanges and Clubs
There are pros and cons to these exchanges, which create opportunities for a broader range of trades by letting people accumulate credit for their products and services. You might paint a real estate office, but use your credits to buy a computer – assuming the real estate agent and the computer store belong to the same barter club as you do.

Exchanges publish member directories and report the transactions to the IRS. (Yes, unless you’re swapping two objects or services of identical value … it’s taxable.) But they do come and go … so it’s wise not to accumulate too many credits, lest you be left in the lurch if your barter club shuts down.

Craigslist Makes It a Snap to Swap
To see who is interested in trading what near where you live, I recommend a visit your local Craigslist, where you’ll find barter under the “for sale” category. There’s been quite an increase in the number of people proposing trades on Craigslist. In August of 2007, there were 83,385 barter posts, while in August of 2008, there were 145,567 of them.

Here are some of the recent offerings from the Craigslist near where I live:

• Will trade sewing alterations/embroidery for accounting services.
• Valuable pieces of jewelry for dental work.
• Tile Installation for permission to hunt.
• Nextel IC502 for firewood.
• Carpenter looking for laptop.
• Fridgidare electric dryer for baby items.
• My Chevy Cavalier for your truck or SUV.
• Home improvements for working van/truck.
• Reiki treatments for private yoga lessons.

Tips to Avoid Being Stiffed
Craigslist recommends the following five tips if you’re meeting with someone for the first time to work out the details of the trade:

1. Insist on a public meeting place.
2. Tell a friend or family member where you're going.
3. Take your cell phone along.
4. Consider having a friend accompany you.
5. Trust your instincts.

Craigslist also has a section on how to avoid scams and fraud that’s important to read, and here’s an extra tip from me: Unless you’re confident that the other person is reliable and capable, hold off completing your end of the bargain until you’re satisfied with what’s being exchanged. We once traded an old van for a storage shed. We set it up so the carpenter drove the van away on the day he finished the shed … not a day sooner! There were no problems, and we were all quite pleased.

I hope this inspires you give trading a try. Please let us know how you make out! And if you’ve already had some positive bartering experiences, please tell us about them. 

Nancy Castleman – Co-author of "Invest in Yourself: Six Secrets to a Rich Life" and founder of Good Advice Press. Nancy has spent the last 24 years teaching people how to get out of debt, save money, and live better on less. She writes on all these subjects for CreditBloggers.com.