Frequently Asked Questions

What's the difference between a "Community Shopping Card Program" from buy it*cards and a gift card program from others?

There are many differences, here are a few: 1.Buy it*cards is not a gift card program, it is a management system that allows YOU to create all types of card programs and manage them from the same system.  You can create  gift cards, university cards, loyalty cards, special branded event cards, special convention cards, more.  You are not limited to just 1 type of card with buy it*cards.  The system is YOUR management system to create what YOUR community needs and manage them cost effectively from the same system.  This allows you to create new products as you discover new opportunities and new buyer groups that might support your merchants. 2. Buy it*cards shows you how to set up your card program and provides management and operating tips. We help show you "the ropes" so you don't spend wasted time-- recreating the wheel.  Instead, working with buy it*cards helps accelerate your learning curve and reduces the time it  takes to get your program to market.   3. Buy it*cards includes customer management and sales tools to help you keep track of group buyers or other cardholders you gather information on so you can develop on-going communication and manage customer relations. 4. Buy it*cards also has numerous management reports to help you track and monitor the operation of your community card program.  5. Buy it*cards also includes marketing tips and sample templates to use, such as: sample Merchant Registration Forms, sample Program Policies & Guidelines, sample Cardholder Policies, more 6. Buy it*cards also provides  training and facilitation to help begin or transition your program.  We also provide support and assistance throughout the year. 7.Buy it*cards provides opportunities to learn about best practices from others- providing opportunities to learn from other programs, case studies and more. 8. Buy it*cards core business is card services for communities, unlike other companies whose primary business is transaction processing.  The focus of other companies is making funds off of your transactions, our focus is on your success. 9. Finally the most important difference between buy it*cards and other companies that produce  gift cards is our goal:  our goal is to help grow local economies and to support your community's success.  The goal of gift card companies is exclusively to make money.  We are the only company with real economic development professionals invoived in design, development and support of our produts and services.   We understand the challenges and circumstances of growing sales in micro-markets and want to help you succeed on behalf of your community effort.

What kind of cards can you create with  buy it*card programs?

The buy it*cards system is your tool to develop whatever cards work in your community- it's YOUR tool to create what YOU need.  You  can create custom cards with your own designs for special events, special conventions, special promotions, for colleges /universities, companies, special campaigns and more!  If you need help with designs, our art services are available too.

Where does the $ money go that is collected from the sale of cards in my program?

This is a really important point for you and us.  Funds from sales of buy it*cards in your city, community, market and programs are DEPOSITED IN YOUR (local) BANK, whatever FDIC insured financial institution you want.  This is your money and your community's money, not ours.  Names of persons who can access those accounts are decided by you, not us.  We help you set up your accounts and we process all merchant payments for you, but management of your accounts is your responsibility.   We require that you establish an entirely separate and designated account to hold card funds that is separate from all other program operating accounts.  If your accounts exceed a total of $250,000 in any one financial institution, we encourage you to establish additional accounts at another FDIC institution of your choice.  We help you set up good standards and practices in the management of funds but funds are held in your accounts at the financial institution(s) of your choice.

Is there an expiration date on stored value /prepaid cards that we sell as a buy it*card program affiliate? In general, cards created through our Buy it*Cards system will expire or begin to be charged an account maintenance fee against any unspent balances after 12 months of issuance.  The actual practice (account charges or expiration) will depend on applicable laws for your area.   Beyond Buy it's* policies, you may want to establish your own expiration policy , however, that is right for you your program. The pros and cons of expiration dates need to be considered in light of the goals of your program.  For economic development purposes, the goal is to get people to spend their cards as quickly as possible so they can circulate in your economy.  If that's the case, you must determine if you did not have an expiration date on cards-- would that motivate people to spend their cards in a timely manner?  If you decide to encourage people to spend cards their cards before a certain expiration period, then you must have a defined expiration policy then you need to define a policy and communicate that to cardholders.  It is your responsibility to identify and know what your state laws are regarding unspent funds and to establish any additional policies for your cardholders.

How do we sell cards with a buy it*cards program?

You sell the cards for your program.  We work with you to identify the best sales outlets and approach that works for your program.  There are many options.  In creating the right approach for you, we encourage you to balance maximizing sales for your card program versus sound cash management practices. Typically certain types of merchants are more inclined to be interested in being a designated sales location while others do not want to be bothered.  Your higher volume more fast paced merchant locations (i.e. restaurants) are usually less interested in being sales locations.  Slower paced retail locations may see it as an advantage to drive foot traffic into their stores that might not otherwise patronize them.  Other non-merchant locations may offer good alternatives as well, such as banks, other ticketing outlets or other service providers.  We help you understand the factors and define the right mix that will work for you.

How are buy it*cards licensed?  What geography can buy it*cards be used for- cities, revitalization corridors, downtowns, regions?  What about multi-geographies or multi-city programs?

The beauty of buy it*cards is it's your program.  Define the geographies to work for you and your program(s).      A basic buy it*cards license and system is for the single geography that you define.  With a single license, however, you can develop as many different cards or intiatives within that geography that you like.  Your license does not limit the number of card designs or cards you manage over 1 system.  If you want to run several different city programs from the same system- each having cards that are unique, merchants that are unique even unique web pages... we can do that too! A multi-city or multi-geography license would allow numerous cards and card programs to be developed by each sub-geography, each with their own identity.  However,   a regional or multi-geography license provides additional administrative and management access across all programs by a designated administrative entity you chose.   Multi-geography licenses allow potential consolidation of some of the management functions and perhaps shared marketing expenses to run the card programs in each location  (merchant billing and collection is the most obvious opportunity).  Administrative access across all programs also allows for a centralized location to monitor compliance and performance across programs.    Multi-geography licenses are typicallyless expensive per location than purchased individually/separately.     Buy it Local will not sell licenses to separate entities for competitive programs in the same geography.

What about management and funding a card program?

One entity needs to be accountable for operating the program, so that card holders, buyers and merchants all understand exactly who is responsible.  However, one entity is not sufficient to support the success of a card program.  You need stakeholders, champions, visible advocates and organizations who have a vested interest in the success of the program.  You need the program to gain as much visibility as possible and key people or entities in the community that will put their name and reputation behind its success.  You likely need additional financial resources too to start up your program and to offset operations for the first few years.  Card programs are ideal to offer "sponsorships" or partnership arrangements to key corporate or community entities, in exchange you can provide branding visibility with your program-even on your custom cards if they want.  Card programs are also ideal sponsorship or underwriting opportunities for specific types of organizations that have an economic development mission or imperative as well.  Some of these include:   *power companies *other utility companies *telephone providers *hospitals *insurance companies *federal government contractors *federal agencies Card programs might also be available for grant assistance through private foundations in your community or government CDBG monies. As a buy it*cards program, you can provide your partners and funding sources with specific data and results.  You can also provide estimates for the economic impact that is being made.

When is the best time to start a local or regional card program?  NEW

Card programs tend to follow similar patterns to the retail sector.  The busiest time for card sales tends to occur routinely in the 4th quarter of the year.  While there are numerous other ways to "even out" spending and purchases throughout the year and numerous other types of cards you can create and track with Buy it*, the largest stored value or prepaid card sales tend to occur in the last several months of the year.  If you are planning a new program, the best time to get started planning, identifying key partners and determining your funding is in the first half of the year.  We recommend developing your actual network of participating merchant locations and "rolling out" your card program to the public no later than early fall/late fall.  As a buy it*card program licensee, we provide an operating checklist on issues to address, tips on how to organize and get started.  We also provide tips on ways to grow your card program beyond a seasonal or holiday gift card program.

Is there a particular size community that card programs do or don't work well with?  How do you determine if it's worth it?  NEW

All card programs, regardless of community size need to at least have:  1. an attractive array of merchants that participate, 2. clearly identifiable and accountable management function  and  3. prospective card buyers.   It's extremely important before starting a program to clearly identify what your specific goals are and quantify the impact you and your stakeholders want to achieve.  Be specific.  How many people do you want to impact and would you define as a success?  How many cards would that mean that you would anticipate selling or distributing?  What, if any, dollar value per card would you expect for cards to have loaded on them (if stored value)? How much financial impact can you then expect to make? A basic index or measure of success is your expected total card sales (total number and total value).  If you can identify target card sales that your program would like to achieve, then you can determine a program return on investment (ROI) your community would achieve, based on the expected budget you develop for your card program.  Depending on the ROI,  you can determine whether this is a satisfactory objective or not to pursue.    Let us Help You for Free!   If you need help in determining a preliminary program budget for a new program, please contact us for a free sample budget.  We have developed a tool that can be modified according to your own assumptions to determine what ROI your program could achieve based on different card sales.  There is no charge for this analysis. Available only for prospective card program operators.  Contact us at: admin@buyitcards.com     How much time does it take to run a community card program?  Is this a full-time job?  What should we expect?  NEW Typically we find a community card program is a part-time responsibility for the designated  coordinator.  It is best if your card program can leverage an existing program or organizational structure for this effort, to optimize cost effectiveness.  For instance, you may get several phone calls per day about your card program, but you likely wont receive calls all day long every day.  Organizing and launching your card program requires more time upfront and could require full time efforts prior to launch and just after.  However, once you have kicked off your program, recruited some initial merchants and hopefully gained some initial group account commitments, the card program shifts from a merchant recruitment and technical process (getting your merchants up and going), to a sales and marketing function (identifying card buyers, adding new merchants and creating special events and programs to promote your cards).    Ideally your card program is integrated with other activities, events and objectives of your organization to gain the full benefit of cross-selling and cross-promotions for the benefit of your organization and to increase card sales opportunities. Are there revenue generating opportunities for card program operators (licensees)?  NEW Yes.  The most common sources of revenue licensees generate from their card programs are: 1.      Card Fees.  Liccensees can charge card buyers a card fee for each card purchase.  Sometimes prepaid visa or mastercards can cost up to $4.95 each when buying them from a bank or online, plus another $5 or more for shipping and handling!  We recommend a charge of at least $2 per card you sell, in addition to the face value of the cards you sell.    2.      Merchant Participation Fees.  We strongly recommend you consider charging your merchants some type of annual or other fee to participate in the card program.  Each merchant will be responsible for any one-time connection fees required to connect to our system;  however, program operators will be working to generate card sales on behalf of the merchants.  Additionally, you will be providing the merchants with additional advertising and promotion by being listed as a participating locaiton and providing other visibility for them.  We find that if merchants don't at least have some financial "skin in the game" they do not value it as much.  You will need to determine what fee level is right for your market and effort- balancing that against their price sensitivities.  As a participating Buy it*Cards location, we provide you with a sample merchant registration form and fee schedule.  3.    Sponsorships.  see "management and funding" (4 questions above)     4.    Advertising. There are many advertising or branding opportunities that you can offer            which can also generate revenue for your program.  You can offer logo or branding            rights on the actual design of your custom card for a corporate or organizational            sponsor or group of sponsors.  You can also create cardholders for your cards that can           provide advertsing or branding opportunities which can create revenue.  Other routine           advertising and branding opportunities are on "location cards", business size cards            you can create to go with each card sold that lists the participating locations (we have            example formats available).  Finally a popular branding and promotional opportunity           which you can leverage to generate revenue for your program is store point-of-sale           displays.  As you create your network, you can potentially create a promotional display            to locate inside each redeeming location and provide some branding or promotional            space on it too for a community underwriter.

Who are the creators of buy it*cards and who is Buy it Local? Buy it Local is the creator and parent company for buy it*cards.  Buy it Local is also the creator and operator of their own community shopping card program in Chattanooga, Tennessee.  Our program in Chattanooga was developed through a public-private partnership with the city's downtown economic development corporation, RiverCity Company, a non-profit organiztion.  Our partners include several highly esteemed and reputable local foundations and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee.  Our program operations in Chattanooga provide us a unique and real world understanding of what it takes to run a card program.  Buy it Local was created to develop tools to help grow local economies.  Amy Walker Cherry is President and CEO.  Her professional experience includes management consulting, financial services, banking, technology and economic development.  She served as Chief of Economic Development for the City of Chattanooga in Mayor for Bob Corker's Administration (now U.S. Senator).  It was in City Hall where she saw the gap in tools and resources available for communities trying to grow their local economies, especially related to local merchants.  After leaving office, she created Buy it Local to help transfer technologies and practices from the private sector that might be useful in supporting community economic development efforts.  Amy completed her MBA and MPH from University of Louisvile (Louisville, Kentucky) and University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.