Is Karatbars International a Scam?
Name: Karatbars
Website: www.karatbars.com
Cost: EUR220 to EUR9,850
Income Opportunity rating: 2 / 5 Stars
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Karatbars is a gold reselling company with offices in over 144 countries. The company specializes in selling small amounts of gold and it also offers people the opportunity to become an affiliate to promote their Multi-Level Marketing (MLM) business.
The idea is to recruit new people and encourage them to purchase various packages so you can earn commissions and have new members on your team.
Some people say that Karatbars is a scam while other people say it’s a legitimate product. Sometimes it can be difficult to figure out who is telling the truth.
In this article we’ll research the company and see if the business opportunity is really worth promoting or if it’s just another scam to avoid.
What is Karatbars?
On the surface, Karatbars is a simple gold reseller where you can buy small amounts of gold for a standard fee.
I did a little bit of research and the price for gold from this reseller is actually a lot higher than any bank or reseller. Granted, the gold is legitimate and does include official certificates, but it’s a little more expensive.
For example, the standard price for one gram of gold (at the time of this writing on 27 December 2016) is USD36.62 and with Karatbars, it costs EUR56.97 which equates to USD62.49.
That’s a pretty big difference! You would have made an immediate 70% loss on investment if you’ve bought gold from Karatbars.
Most people believe that investing in gold is one way to secure your future financial state. Their reasons tend to revolve around the instability of paper cash and banks and the fact that gold will always be considered valuable.
Karatbars want you to believe that investing in gold will be an investment in the future and a way to save cash. The problem is that most people don’t have enough cash to invest in precious metals.
But the main reason this company is popular is because of the business opportunity it offers new members.
Is the Karatbars Business Opportunity Worth it?
A lot of Karatbars distributors claimed that it is worth all the money to buy into the business opportunity, however, I think they may have missed out the most important purpose of a Multi-Level Marketing Company.
The purpose of any kind of MLM company, is to distribute products which are unique to the market and has a marketable or brand value. For example, World Ventures is a MLM company that focuses on providing cheap travel packages, and Forever Living provides the best Aloe Vera product line, each has their own unique selling point.
However, in the case of Karatbars, I do not see any unique selling point other than being able to buy small pieces of gold which are laminated in beautiful looking plastic.
I have no doubt that a Karatbars distributor can make money if he/she knows how to promote the product well, and that is why so many affiliates are defending Karatbars. However, I am not sure if it is ethical to promote overpriced gold chip to unknowing consumers.
Let’s face it, if you have a good knowledge of Gold, would you buy overpriced Gold from Karatbars?
The Karatbars Business Opportunity
Alright, so you’ve decided to join the business opportunity, and I wouldn’t discredit it because the opportunity did make money for some. However, a caution for you that more than 95% of the distributors who joined the business opportunity failed.
So, let’s discuss on the business opportunity.
Like most multi-level marketing systems, the business opportunity is quite complicated. There are a lot of different things that you need to learn about such as levels, points, commissions, packages, team branches, bonuses, pool fund, and much more.
In a nutshell, like most multi-level marketing businesses, the idea is to promote the company and encourage people to buy packages and grow your team.
You’ll also be required to purchase a minimum amount of product from the store to maintain your membership status. This can be done be enabling the auto-purchase function that automatically orders small amount of gold from their store for you.
There are also a number of tools that you can purchase from the company to expand your marketing reach such as ready-made websites, advertisements, flyers, presentations, and much more.
As a member, the objective is to use these promotional materials to encourage people to sign-up so that they can join your team. You’re told to go after family members and friends and show them all the benefits of joining this business opportunity. Unfortunately, most of the time, family and friends are not the type of people that you want on your team.
To create an account you’ll need to enter your sponsor’s id as it’s impossible to create an account without a sponsor. Registering is free but in order to start promoting the packages you’ll need to purchase the package that you would like to promote. There are three main packages available: Bronze, Silver, Gold, VIP, and extra packages.
The standard membership is Bronze and it costs around $149 and you’ll be able to start promoting the business. However, with this membership you’ll only earn about 5% from direct referrals. The idea is to buy a more expensive package so that you can earn more commissions. On the other hand, with a Bronze package you’ll still be able to earn commissions from your team’s points.
For example, with the dual team system, the goal is two have two branches of teams that feed commissions into your account, but these teams must be somewhat balanced. So if one side of the branch earns 50 points and the other side earns 25 points, that still counts as being balanced, and you’ll earn a flat fee of 13$.
That might not seem like much, but when one of your team members sells a package, especially an expensive package, a lot of points will be added to your team. To earn more you’ll need to rank up so to speak and to do this you’ll need to make more sales. Each package has a level for “Directors” and in order to qualify a certain amount of sales must be made every month without fail.
For example, to qualify as a Bronze Director you’ll need to earn a minimum of 50 sales a month. These sales can either be direct referrals or team referrals, so there’s potential to move up fast if you have a solid marketing team. Being a Director will grant you more bonuses and features.
My Sincere Advice to You
If your main intention is to invest in Gold, I would suggest that you buy it somewhere else because you will lose 70% of your investment immediately after your purchase.
This opportunity is mend for people who wants to build a business by recruiting people and promoting premium Gold pieces. There are a minority who succeeded in this business, while the majority failed.
If you intend to join the business opportunity, make sure that the team that you are joining is willing to teach you to be a great salesperson, and a great online marketer, and puts your interest ahead of theirs, otherwise your chance of success is very low.
However, if you think that the Karatbars business opportunity is not for you, and you are still looking for an opportunity to make money from the comfort of your home, I would suggest that you check out this program.
This program has helped and taught thousands of individuals with no prior knowledge or experience to thrive in the online business scene, and the great thing about it is that you can create a business that you are passionate in. To know more about this program, you can check it out here.
Thank you for your time on reading this review!
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You may leave a comment below if you would like to discuss more on Karatbars.
Your pal,
Jack
I bought in to this company in 2013 or thereabouts. Over several years I bought maybe 5 or so of the gold cards. Then my life became very difficult for several years and was couch surfing for a year or so. I’ve been trying to contact these people for about 6 months. No response whatsoever. It would appear that they are, indeed, a scam. Bad experience.
Convinced that the American dollar really isn’t worth anything, I bought into the karatbars hype.
I got verified an an affiliate.
There’s supposedly 7 different ways to make more money … After you buy something from them as an affiliate.
One way is just to BE one, from which every time you or one of your team mates hooks/recruits someone else, YOU get paid too. And each time YOU buy, the whole team benefits.
I decided to test it and bought a piece of gold at the cheapest price which is $5.10 PLUS an extra charge for converting American into German money (not gold of course).
Why the conversion if you’re dealing in real gold?
Well anyway, I wanted them to and PAID for them to send the piece of gold chip or whatever it is. Nothing ever sent. And that was sent months ago.
I just want to cash out and get my money back. For mega billionaires, a few hundred dollars should be no issue, let alone a few dollars.
And I mean EVERYTHING cashed back to me, including the credit card fee.
It really doesn’t make sense to use your credit card to buy something that costs more (free included) and STILL have nothing to show for doing so.
I don’t think I’d be interested in losing money period
you were fortunate that you did not invest. The ones of us that did invest, lost most of our money if not all of it…
É realmente eu tenho muito receio de entrar em um negócio que fica muito longe do meu país.
E eu tenho procurado pessoas que já tenham entrado para este esquema de ouro, mas não encontro ninguém aqui na minha região.
Só conheço um amigo que me convidou para este negócio, porém ele mesmo ainda não começou a
trabalhar neste sistema, devido que a pessoa que o cadastrou, não dá nenhum suporte à ele e não se sabe por qual motivo.
Bom, depois deste blog eu fiquei ainda muito mais inseguro para entrar para este empresa Karatbars.
Google Translate:
It really is I am very afraid to get into a business that is too far away from my country.
And I’ve been looking for people who have already entered this gold scheme, but I can not find anyone here in my area.
I only know a friend who invited me to this business, but he has not yet started to
work on this system, because the person who registered it, does not give any support to it and it is unknown for what reason.
Well, after this blog I was even much more insecure to enter into this Karatbars company.
When there is doubt, and no one is there to clear it, don’t join at all.
There are many other opportunities out there.
You can even buy gold from your local gold retail shop and you will still profit if the gold price increases.
The only difference is that you can earn money by promoting Karatbars, which local retailers don’t provide.
Hope this helps!
Cheers!
~Jack (BareNakedScam)