Frequently Asked Questions

What is Heartcredits?

Heartcredits is a heart-based alternative to conventional money, using units of account called Heart Credits. You start your account off with zero Heart Credits and can begin trading with other members straight away, even with a zero balance. A negative and positive Credit Limit is applied to all accounts to prevent excess debt or excess surplus. This encourages responsible use of the currency and helps to prevent inequalities of wealth between people.

Do I need to use Money?

There is no conventional money involved in the Heartcredits system, and Heart Credits cannot be traded for any other currency. This ensures the currency stays independent of the conventional money system so that it can serve its purpose to facilitate heart-based trading. We want to keep this site free of membership fees and advertising, so we would welcome donations from members and patrons to keep it going and to support its growth.

How does trading take place?

Members list a maximum of ten Offers at a time, pricing each Offer in Heart Credits. An Offer can be a service or a product. This list is then added to the directory which can be searched by all members. A transaction can then be requested if neither party has reached their Credit Limit. Each member will have a list of requests they have made, and a list of approvals they can make or decline. Once a transaction is approved, members can message each other to arrange the fulfilment of the transaction, and the buyer pays the required Heart Credits to the seller.

What kind of things can be traded?

You can list anything legal as an Offer, including activities that are normally considered to be outside of the economy or not valued by it, such as caregiving and voluntary work. If you have a talent to share or a way of helping people, put it on your list of Offers. Think carefully about how you can serve the needs of Heartcredits members and list the benefits of what you are offering in your description. Browse the list of member Wants to understand what they would like most. Think about your list of Wants and how the Heartcredits community may be able to fulfil them.

Can I trade commercially using Heart Credits?

Heartcredits is a service intended for personal, non-commercial transactions (the vast majority of members will fall into this category), rather than business sales or purchases. If you are a business owner and want to trade in Heartcredits as a business, you can do so but will need to undertake your liabilities to the state for all taxation where it is applicable for your business, accounting for any Heartcredits transactions in your tax reports. We believe it is important for all businesses to think about the currency they trade in.

What about expensive items?

Your personal Credit Limit will prevent transactions above a threshold. This prevents excess positive or negative balances from occurring in the system. Your personal Credit Limit will be extended over time as you demonstrate responsible accounting and conduct. We may adjust the default Credit Limit for all members from time to time, raising it where it is sustainable to do so. You can always choose to trade in instalments, but it is the responsibility of both parties of the transaction to ensure a payment agreement is in place if you do. View Heartcredits as a parallel currency.

Can the system be misused?

The implementation of negative and positive Credit Limits ensures that every member has to balance their buying with selling to benefit from using the system. In contrast, there is much misuse of the debt-based money system, which has resulted in vast inequalities of wealth, such that the richest one-percent have more wealth than the bottom ninety-percent. To maximise accountability to others and promote responsible accounting, all Heartcredits members are scored, rated, and reviewed, and these metrics are visible to other members.

What metrics are used?

Your Heartcredits Score is a combination of your scores for making regular transactions, paying on time, returning your balance to zero, trading locally or regionally, earning positive reviews, leaving reviews, and showing good conduct. You start with a Heartcredits Score of 0 and have the potential of reaching 1000. Your Local Trading Score measures how local your transactions have been, with transactions in your local town earning the highest score. Your Peer Rating Score is a measure of the ratings you have received from other members.

Heartcredits and other alternatives

There are other complementary currencies being used in the UK, the most well-known of which are the local pounds and LETS (Local Exchange Trading System). This is good news as a diversity of currencies is needed for economies to be more resilient. However, the local pounds are convertible currencies, which means they can lose their purpose, and they are local only. LETS is also restricted to local trade. In contrast, Heart Credits are a non-convertible currency and are fully scalable: they can be used locally, regionally, and nationally, although local trading is incentivised.

Why is trading locally incentivised?

By keeping our currency tied to our local community, it prevents wealth from leaking out of that community and leaving the community impoverished as a result. Also, when trading occurs through regular face-to-face transactions in the local community, community ties are strengthened and friends and acquaintances are made, improving community and our capacity to support and help each other. Heartcredits members living in the same area may like to deepen their relationships by meeting up as a group for social events.

How can the Heartcredits currency protect you?

The problem with the debt-based money system is scarcity and its tendency to suck wealth out of communities into the hands of a few. There is never enough of it in circulation because money is created as debt while the interest to be paid on the debt is never created. Heartcredits avoids all of this as it is not scarce and no interest is charged. Being non-convertible, it is separate from the debt-based money system. It is resilient and doesn’t suffer from banking crashes, monetary collapses, or national debt crises. It is a lifeline to those who are unemployed or dispossessed, and increases social capital, fostering a network of mutual support.

How can I stay safe?

The scoring, rating, reviewing, and reporting systems in the Heartcredits system help to promote accountability and measure the trustworthiness of members. You can check out how people measure up before agreeing to a transaction. Just be careful what personal information you share. Work with Heartcredits members to build relationships of trust and help others to stay safe by rating and reviewing your transaction experiences and reporting anyone you suspect is misusing the system or behaving suspiciously. As the currency automatically builds community and doesn’t force people to compete for scarcity, it actually brings out the best in people.