Does Karatbars International SCAM You?

Karatbars International Review

What is this MLM company that sells gold? Does Karatbars International scam people of their money? Or is it a legit way to invest in a commodity that can withstand economic crises?

Welcome to my Karatbars International review.

Authorities in some countries have issued warnings against this so-called pyramid scheme. What does it mean for its members and people who are still undecided about taking up this opportunity?

How does its compensation plan work, and how much does it cost to join Karatbars as a member? Is it easy to profit from this, or are the odds stacked against you? We will answer these questions and more in this honest and in-depth review.

Besides gold, Karatbars International also offers cryptocurrency, KBC (KaratGold Coin), which will not be the focus of this article.


Without further ado, let’s dive right in now!



Karatbars International Review Summary


Product: Karatbars International

URL: https://www.karatbars.com/

Creator: Harald Seiz

Product type: MLM (multilevel marketing) company selling gold and cryptocurrencies

Price: Optional Business Package of between 150 euros to 3000+ euros if you want to participate in their Dual Team compensation plan

Scam / Legit? : Legit

Recommended or not? : Not recommended

Karatbars International sells gold at an overpriced amount, hence it will not be easy to find retail customers for your Karatbars business.

This means the main ways to earn are by recruiting people into your team, and having them buy products.

It will be no easy feat to draw people in and retain them, just like for any other MLM business. It takes a set of high income skills to consistently attract the right people searching for this kind of opportunity. And if you are unable to help them find success, you can be sure the drop off rate will be extremely high.




What is Karatbars International


A brief background of Karatbars International


Founded in 2011 by Harald Seiz and headquartered in Stuttgart, Germany, Karatbars International proclaims itself as the market leader in small denominations of gold, making this commodity available to everyone.

karatbars international founder


Intended as a form of security for one’s wealth in times of economic downturns, apart from its physical products made of 24 karat pure gold bullion, it has also diversified into Blockchain cryptocurrency.

Unfortunately, there have been financial regulators, most recently from Germany and South Africa, going after Karatbars International for the electronic money aspect of its business.

You can find some of the details on the BaFin (Federal Financial Supervisory Authority) website and in this FSCA (Financial Sector Conduct Authority) document.

It is left to be seen how things will work out here. For now, let’s just focus on Kararbar’s physical products, which is the gold bullion business that saw it taking off with.


Karatbars International Product Line


To be frank, I am rather impressed by the gold products. They are suitable as small and presentable gifts that are high in value.

The downside is that the pricing seems to be quite substantially higher than what you would get from the regular gold dealers.


Karatbars coin

This exquisitely designed coin has a brass outer ring, nickel silver inner ring and a 1.0g bar of 999.9 gold in the middle. It has a diameter of 35.1mm, and thickness of about 2.2mm.

karatbars international coin


At the time of writing, its retail price is 89.13 euros. This will change with fluctuations in the gold market.


1g Classic Card

Each 1g gold bar is inset into a card frame which is of a standard credit card size. Every gold bar is imprinted with a unique DNA to protect against counterfeit.

This is priced at 69.13 euros.


Multi Gram Card

This carries 100 pieces of 1g gold bars, for people who are looking to save by buying larger quantities of gold. At 6,463 euros, there is quite a bit of savings than if you were to buy 1g cards individually.


Country Karatbar

Available for a number of different countries, these are nicely designed cards with the 1g gold inset, currently priced at 74.13 euros.

karatbars international country


Karatbars International Product Quality and Feedback


There is no doubt about the quality of gold bullion produced by Karatbars International. Their products are elegant and nicely-designed.

The issue is whether people will even buy these highly priced items as retail customers, and whether this can work as a business opportunity for you to make an income out of.




Karatbars International Business Opportunity


How to become a Karatbars International Affiliate


There are four different levels of Business Packages that you can buy, if you want to earn through the compensation plan of Karatbars International.

Bronze Business Package costs 150 euros.

Silver Business Package costs 707 euros.

Gold Business Package costs 1509 euros.

VIP Business Package costs 3041 euros.

It is not compulsory to buy any Business Package, but that would just significantly limit your earning potential. You can still earn commissions as a free affiliate when people in your team consistently makes purchases on a regular basis. This may or may not happen, considering the gold products of Karatbars International are overpriced.


How to make money with Karatbars International


As with any other MLM opportunity, you make money with Karatbars International either by getting customers to buy their products, or by recruiting people and building your team.


Retail commission


From what I can see, very few people are going to make purchases as Karatbars International’s customers, simply because they can get the same great quality of pure gold elsewhere at lower prices.

This means that most people are in this for the earning opportunity, rather than for the value of the products themselves.

And this is precisely the reason why some people are calling Karatbars International a pyramid scheme. When a company gets most of its revenue through recruiting activities, rather than from retail sales, that makes it more susceptible to scrutiny from authorities about its legitimacy as an MLM business.


Recruitment commission


There are seven ways to get paid in Karatbars International. I will only be discussing two main ones.

Dual Team Bonus

Though Karatbars will claim that their Dual Team system is not the same as the binary system that you may be familiar with in many other MLM compensation plans, as far as I can tell, the only difference is that in Karatbars, the points do not flush out at the end of each month.

Instead, they accumulate until you meet the requirements for getting paid. Hence it may take a while depending on how well your business runs, but at least you know your efforts do not simply get washed down the drain for not meeting any monthly quota.

People whom you sign up get placed in one of two legs under you.

Once you hit 50 units (based on the value of the products they buy) in one leg and 25 units in the other, you earn your Dual Team Bonus: 40, 50, 60 or 80 euros depending on which level of Business Package you bought.


Direct commission

When people in your team sign up for any Karatbars International packages, you earn a commission, up to the third level of referrals.

When your direct referral buys a package, you earn 10% commission.

When a referral’s referral buys a package, you earn 3% commission. For yet another level of referral’s purchase, you will earn 2% commission.


Why Karatbars International may not work for you


Earning opportunities like Karatbars International will always be hyped up in order to attract more sign ups.

Once you get inside, the truth will start to sink in when you realize that to profit from the business, it takes a lot more than what they had made it appear to be.

If recruiting and getting your referrals to buy products are the main ways to make money, it is going to be a daunting task.

With the expensive Business Packages, you are already digging a hole for yourself to climb out of, even before getting started. How are you going to convince others that they need to buy gold from you, which is more expensive than elsewhere?

How do you persuade people that this is a great opportunity before you start seeing positive results yourself?

You may be spending lots of time and energy trying to recruit someone into your team, only to have him or her give up faster than you can say Jack Robinson.

The general population simply does not have the high income skills necessary to mass-recruit from a large audience base that is keenly interested in joining the business.

At the end of the day, the biggest winners are the MLM company owners – Harald Seiz himself, together with those few who have made it to the top echelons. The rest of the affiliates are in fact feeding and financially supporting the entire company.

They have actually been made the customers. When they discover this fact, off they go in disgust, and that is the reason for the extremely high drop off rates in any MLM company.




To round up this article, let me recap and summarize the pros and cons, before I finally make my conclusion.


Pros of Karatbars International


1. Physical products

For a fact, gold is a precious commodity. The idea of buying gold to preserve the value of one’s capital may appeal to some people enough to want to take this up as a business opportunity.


Cons of Karatbars International


1. Priced over the top

With gold having quite a homogeneous pricing across the board at any one time, selling it at any amount substantially higher would mean putting oneself out of business.

As a Karatbars affiliate, it would be near impossible to find retail customers for your business.


2. High upfront investment

The Business Packages make it a pay-to-play program. The more you want to maximize your earning potential, the more you have to pay for the higher-tier packages.

Unless you already have some marketing strategy that has proven to work for you, this will simply be a case of digging a deep hole that you have to get yourself out of. It is never a good place to start any business, especially when there are so many other online options these days that are practically zero cost.


3. Focus on recruitment

The Karatbars International business is heavily focused on recruitment. It will not work for the lay person without the skills set to attract a huge volume of online traffic. Talking to just anybody you know is a futile effort, because they are not ready customers.

If you look closely, the most successful network marketers are those who have a handle on some online asset. They could be using a blog to attract interested people who are willing to join them. Or they may be spending on advertisements on social media to provide free workshops on how to make money from home.


4. Most distributors do not make money

Without a means to attract a large group of audience, the vast majority of MLM participants will fail. In fact, a report from the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) website quotes the figure as 99%.


5. Family and friends start to shun you

This happens when you try to shove expensive products into people’s faces when they feel that they do not even need this stuff in their lives.


Is Karatbars International Scam or legit? 


Cryptocurrencies aside, the aspect of the Karatbars International’s business that sells physical gold products is legitimate, in my opinion.

It is much like many other MLM companies with real products: Plexus, Vorwerk, SuperLife World, Atomy, Bioreigns, and Lilla Rose, to name just a few.



An Alternative


I will not recommend Karatbars International to anyone, whether product-wise or for its opportunity.

Instead, allow me to humbly show you the business model that I’m using to work full time from home.

I am an affiliate marketer, in the truest sense of the word.

In real affiliate marketing, you do not have to pay a single cent to any company to promote its products. Neither do you have to recruit a single person.

Commissions are based on the amount of sales you bring to the company, which is fair and square, and completely transparent. This also means I do not have to exploit anyone by luring them into some opportunity, when in fact it is for my own monetary gains.

There is no limit to the number of companies that I can promote at any one time, since there is no sign up cost involved. This means multiple streams of income and opportunities for me, once I pick up the high income skills that I have been talking about in this article – leveraging on the internet for massive volumes of targeted traffic that are all ready buyers.

If this sounds good to you, you have to check out the details in another post:


And for reading all the way to the end of the post, I believe you have it in you to make this work. Here is your FREE PDF Guide: 4 Simple Steps to Making Money Online. Fill in your details to claim it:


If you have any concerns or questions regarding this Karatbars International review, do comment below, and we will start a conversation from there.


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