Travorium Review: Paid 2 Save continues with new name
Travorium operates in the travel MLM niche. The company is based out of California in the US.
Heading up Travorium is founder and CEO David Hart.
Hart first appeared on BehindMLM in 2013, as co-founder and President of Paid 2 Save.
Paid 2 Save started off as a “discount card program”. In a nutshell, retail Paid 2 Save customers and affiliates were able to purchase a monthly subscription that provided access to discounts.
BehindMLM revisited Paid 2 Save in 2016. Hart was still in charge and discount travel had been added to Paid 2 Save’s offering.
A look at Travorium’s official FaceBook page reveals Paid 2 Save was renamed in 2020.
In 2021 the FTC issued Travorium with a deceptive and/or unfair conduct notice.
Read on for a full review of Travorium’s MLM opportunity.
Travorium’s Products
Travorium sells a membership subscriptions that provide access to discounted travel services:
- Silver – $69.95 and then $52.50 a month, provides access to discounted hotels, resorts, rental cars and “cruises & activities”
- Titanium – $149.95 and then $75 a month, same as Silver plus access to “world tours” and discounted “getaways”
- Platinum – $269.95 plus $135 a month, same as Titanium plus “buy down the rates to the lowest possible price”3
Travorium’s Titanium and Platinum memberships come with monthly Travel Points (150 and 270 points a month respectively).
Travorium’s website states Travel Points “can be used in our World Tours and Getaways.”
Hidden from consumers is Travorium’s “FX Trader” forex education platform.
No pricing is provided for FX Trader.
Travorium’s Compensation Plan
Travorium’s compensation plan pays on membership subscription sales to retail customers and recruited affiliates.
Travorium Affiliate Ranks
There are sixteen affiliate ranks within Travorium’s compensation plan.
Along with their respective qualification criteria, they are as follows:
- Silver Director – generate 100 GV a month (min 35 LTV)
- Titanium Director – generate 150 GV a month (min 50 LTV)
- Platinum Director – generate 240 GV a month (min 80 LTV)
- 1 Star Director – generate 1200 GV a month (min 600 LTV)
- 2 Star Director – generate 4000 GV a month (min 2000 LTV)
- 3 Star Director – generate 10,000 GV a month (min 5000 LTV)
- 4 Star Director – generate 20,000 GV a month (min 10,000 LTV)
- Ambassador – generate 30,000 GV a month (min 15,000 LTV)
- 1 Star Ambassador – generate 60,000 GV a month (min 30,000 LTV)
- 2 Star Ambassador – generate 120,000 GV a month (min 60,000 LTV)
- 3 Star Ambassador – generate 200,000 GV a month (min 100,000 LTV)
- 4 Star Ambassador – generate 400,000 GV a month (min 200,000 LTV)
- 5 Star Ambassador – generate 600,000 GV a month (min 300,000 LTV)
- Presidential Ambassador – generate 1,200,000 GV a month (min 400,000 LTV)
- Chairman – generate 2,400,000 GV a month (min 800,000 LTV)
- Executive Chairman – generate 3,600,000 GV a month (min 1,200,000 LTV)
GV stands for “Group Volume”. GV is sales volume generated by the sale of Travorium membership subscriptions to retail customers and recruited affiliates.
- sale of a Silver membership and ongoing monthly fee payments generate 35 GV
- sale of a Titanium membership and ongoing monthly fee payments generate 50 GV
- sale of a Platinum membership and ongoing monthly fee payments generate 80 GV
- sale of an FX Trader membership and ongoing monthly fee payments generate 70 GV
LTV stands for “Lesser Team Volume”. LTV is calculated initially using a binary compensation structure.
A binary compensation structure places an affiliate at the top of a binary team, split into two sides (left and right):
The first level of the binary team houses two positions. The second level of the binary team is generated by splitting these first two positions into another two positions each (4 positions).
Subsequent levels of the binary team are generated as required, with each new level housing twice as many positions as the previous level.
Positions in the binary team are filled via direct and indirect recruitment of affiliates. Note there is no limit to how deep a binary team can grow.
The “lesser team” in a binary compensation structure is the side with the least generated volume each month.
Note that from Presidential Ambassador a third binary leg is opened up. LTV for Presidential Ambassador and higher refers to the binary leg with the least generated volume each month.
Membership subscription sale commissions
Travorium pays a commission on membership subscriptions sold to retail customers and recruited affiliates:
- sell a Titanium membership and receive $25
- sell a Platinum membership and receive $50
Note there doesn’t appear to be a sale commission paid on Silver memberships.
Residual Commissions
Travorium pays a daily residual commission based on rank:
- Silver Directors receive $1.75 a day
- Titanium Directors receive $2.30 a day
- Platinum Directors receive $4.45 a day
- 1 Star Directors receive $10 a day
- 2 Star Directors receive $25 a day
- 3 Star Directors receive $70 a day
- 4 Star Directors receive $100 a day
- Ambassadors receive $140 a day
- 1 Star Ambassadors receive $225 a day
- 2 Star Ambassadors receive $300 a day
- 3 Star Ambassadors receive $400 a day
- 4 Star Ambassadors receive $600 a day
- 5 Star Ambassadors receive $800 a day
- Presidential Ambassadors receive $1600 a day
- Chairmans receive $2400 a day
- Executive Chairmans receive $3200 a day
Coded Leadership Bonuses
Travorium’s compensation documentation cites Coded Leadership Bonuses.
Specific information isn’t provided. Here’s what is in Travorium’s compensation documentation (verbatim):
- bonuses paid Director – Ambassador ranks
- Basic, Titanium and Platinum
- Bonus pay upline on the differential
Based on this it appears to be a bonus tied to the Silver to Platinum membership fee payments.
Higher ranked Travorium affiliates also seem to be paid the difference between what they’re paid at their rank and lower bonus amounts paid to lower-ranked affiliates in their downline.
Star Bonuses
Travorium pays a Star Bonus to 1 Star and 2 Star Directors:
- 1 Star Directors receive $100 a month
- 2 Star Directors receive “up to $750 a month”
Beyond rank qualifying, any additional Star Bonus qualification criteria, isn’t disclosed.
Car Bonus
3 Star Director and above Travorium affiliates receive a $600 a month Car Bonus.
Optionally, the Car Bonus can be paid as $300 in cash.
Ambassador Annual Vacation
Ambassador and higher ranked Travorium affiliates receive a “paid trip for 2” annually.
Joining Travorium
Travorium affiliate membership is $99.95 annually.
Travorium Conclusion
Traviorium’s compliance issues carry over from Paid 2 Save. That is to say, if the majority of Travorium memberships are held by affiliates, it operates as a pyramid scheme.
This would reduce Travorium to a “recruit x people who recruit x people who recruit x people” business model.
As with Paid 2 Save, there’s nothing in Travorium’s compensation plan preventing this. Requiring a minimum 50% to 55% of membership volume be retail would be a quick fix.
Why this hasn’t been implemented since BehindMLM first reviewed Paid 2 Save eleven years ago is telling.
Another potential indicator of pyramid fraud is how many of Travorium’s members recoup at least their paid fees in travel bookings each year. If the majority of membership holders are losing money overall, this could indicate a non-viable retail product.
It would also confirm the majority of affiliates just have a membership to qualify for commissions, paid on recruited Travorium affiliates who also have memberships.
The good news is ascertaining whether your potential Travorium upline is running their business as a pyramid scheme is easy.
Each Travorium rank requires a monthly GV quota. All you have to do is ask your potential Travorium upline how much of their monthly GV is retail GV (memberships held by retail customers who never signed up as Travorium affiliates).
If the answer is anything less than 50%, that Travorium affiliate is running their business as a pyramid scheme.
Given Travorium’s history, which involves at least one deceptive conduct regulatory warning, I suspect this is the case company-wide.
Secondary Travorium compliance issues include hiding full compensation details and the FX Trader membership.
Travorium provides compensation details on their website. It’s mostly complete but is missing specific details about some of their bonuses. These seems to be laziness (someone not finishing what they started), otherwise it’s an odd choice.
I have no idea why Travorium completely hides its FX Trader offering from the public. This seems to be a membership squarely aimed at affiliate promoters and I’m not sure why.
As far as I can tell Travorium doesn’t offer any automated trading tools through FX Trader. If they did, this would explain why its hidden. It would also mean Travorium is engaged in securities and commodities fraud.
If you’re wondering how I came across FX Trader when its hidden, I noted forex promotion in trying to ascertain why Paid 2 Save rebranded to Travorium.
FX Trader details are still on Travorium’s website but you have to access the pages directly. If you visit Travorium’s homepage there’s no mention of the FX Trader membership.
From what I can gather Paid 2 Save changing its name to Travorium coincided with the launch of FX Trader. Seems kind of odd to hide the reason you rebranded from the public.
I also can’t help but wonder, four years on, what the accumulated trading statistics are for FX Trader subscribers. Travorium doesn’t provide this information.
Given there’s no automated trading component to FX Trader, again why it’s hidden away I have no idea on. It comes across as dodgy and, even though I couldn’t find anything, gives the impression Travorium has something to hide.
Approach with caution.
if you go to their website they still have paid 2 on their policies page.