Frequently Asked Questions

What's the difference between a "Community Shopping Card Program" by 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 community shopping card whose purpose is to support the local economy and local businesses.  Gift cards typically benefit a single merchant location; whereas buy it*® cards can be used at multiple merchant locations within the program.   2. buy it*® cards is a turnkey, licensed management system and network that allows YOU to create all types of card programs and manage them from the same system, not just a single card.  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.  Since the buy it*® network is a private network, you have lots more flexibility to tailor year round promotional cards and programs to support your community and your merchants.  3. 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.   4. 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. 5. Buy it*cards also has numerous management reports to help you track and monitor the operation of your community card program.  6. 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 7. Buy it*cards also provides  training and facilitation to help begin or transition your program.  We also provide support and assistance throughout the year. 8.Buy it*cards provides opportunities to learn about best practices from others- providing opportunities to learn from other programs, case studies and more. 9. 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. 10. 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 prepaid cards that will 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.   (coming soon! points and rewards programs)

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 A (local) FDIC INSURED FINANTIAL INSTITUTION In your city.  We believe transparency is extremely important and realize that card funds collected is  your money and your community's money, not ours.    We help you set up your accounts and we process all merchant payments for you, but you will have access to monitor clearly the balance of funds in your designated account.   We  establish an entirely separate and designated account ("escrow" account) to hold card funds that is separate from all other program operating accounts.  You can monitor payments made to merchants through your online record of payments and reconcile these transactions against bank balances.

Is there an expiration date on stored value /prepaid cards that we sell as a buy it*card program affiliate? Standard buy it*® cards do not expire (unless otherwise stated for special promotional venues or packages).  However cards which have not had any activity after 12 months will  begin to be charged an account maintenance fee against any unspent balances.  For economic development purposes, the goal is to get people to spend their cards as quickly as possible so the money can circulate in your economy and so that merchants generate sales.  If no inactivity penalties exist, there would not be much motivation for  people to spend their cards in a timely manner.  All buy it*® cards programs must comply and post publicly on their website buy it*® cards card holder terms and agreement.    It is the licensee's responsibility to know your state laws regarding unspent funds and to maintain compliance as required.  A portion of unspent balances that are collected for inactivity are returned to the buy it*® cards licensee for their reinvestment in the community and their card program.

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

You sell the cards, we help you set up your sales outlets.  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.  All sellers of cards must comply with the buy it*® cards Seller Policies and Guidelines.

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  different card styles 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             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, LLC is the creator and parent company for buy it*®cards.  The company is headquartered in Chattanooga, Tennessee but systems and operations support are also located in California, Colorado and Massachusettes.  Buy it Local is the creator and operator of their own community shopping card program in Chattanooga, Tennessee.  The initial program in Chattanooga was developed through a public-private partnership with a downtown economic development corporation.  Our partners in the initial program included several highly esteemed and reputable local foundations and corporations.  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 accounting and consulting, strategic planning, banking, technology and economic development.  She served as Chief of Economic Development for U.S. Senator Bob Corker when he was Mayor of the City of Chattanooga.  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 has her  MBA and graduated from the University of Louisvile (Louisville, Kentucky) and University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.