vCard Global Review: $99 a year digital business cards
vCard Global was founded in 2015 but only recently announced their MLM opportunity.
The company is based out of Florida in the US and headed up by President, Steven Hoffman.
According to his LinkedIn profile, Hoffman has worked in the finance industry since 2009 (“credit restoration, debt reduction and financial consulting”).
A bio on the World’s Fair Capital private investment firm website claims Hoffman
formed a (sic) MLM company in 2000 which produced $1.9 million in sales in the first 90 days.
A YouTube account bearing Hoffman’s name and profile picture was promoting Preservation of Wealth back in 2014:
Under the guise of selling gold and silver, Preservation of Wealth primarily paid affiliates to recruit new affiliates. The company appears to have collapsed in late 2014.
Read on for a full review of the vCard Global MLM opportunity.
The vCard Global Product Line
vCard Global market what they claim is “the world’s smartest business card”.
vCard Global’s free vCard contains a logo, phone and email contact details, a headshot, address and map feature.
vCard Pro costs $99 a year and adds
- a video
- social media buttons
- “important links”
- the ability to add a bio and/or attach a resume
- post photos
- promote a product or service
- create coupons
- promote events on a calendar
- gather data from viewers of the vCard
- generate a QR Code for marketing
- view traffic stats for your vCard
vCards are hosted on the “123look.com” and “vcard.bio” domains and are accessible on any device that has internet connectivity.
A vCard app is also available:
The vCard Global APP is a contact manager for sharing your vCard and storing your vCard contacts in one place.
The vCard Global Compensation Plan
The vCard Global compensation plan pays affiliates when sales of vCard Pro are made.
vCard Global Affiliate Ranks
There are five affiliate ranks within the vCard Global compensation plan.
Along with their respective qualification criteria, they are as follows:
- vCard Affiliate – purchase a vCard Pro subscription ($99 a year) and pay a $25 affiliate fee
- Marketing Affiliate – personally recruit at least 2 affiliates and have a total downline of at least 6 affiliates
- Executive Affiliate – personally recruit at least 3 affiliates and have a total downline of at least 30 affiliates
- Regional Affiliate – personally recruit at least 4 affiliates and have a total downline of at least 150 affiliates
- National Affiliate – personally recruit at least 6 affiliates and have a total downline of at least 300 affiliates
Retail Commissions
Retail commissions are paid out on sales of vCard Pro to non-affiliates based on a vCard Global affiliate’s rank:
- vCard Affiliate – no commission
- Marketing Affiliate – $15
- Executive Affiliate – $30
- Regional Affiliate – $40
- National Affiliate – $50
Recruitment Commissions
If a vCard Global affiliate signs up five affiliates within thirty days of joining, they receive a $100 commission.
vCard Global affiliates are also paid the retail commission rate when they recruit an affiliate who purchases a vCard Pro subscription.
Residual Commissions
Residual commissions in vCard Global are paid out via a unilevel compensation structure.
A unilevel compensation structure places an affiliate at the top of a unilevel team, with every personally recruited affiliate placed directly under them (level 1):
If any level 1 affiliates recruit new affiliates, they are placed on level 2 of the original affiliate’s unilevel team.
If any level 2 affiliates recruit new affiliates, they are placed on level 3 and so on and so forth down a theoretical infinite number of levels.
vCard Global affiliates are paid on vCard Pro subscriptions sold within their unilevel team through a coded bonus.
Each vCard Pro subscription generates a $50 commission, which is split between Marketing Affiliate and higher ranked vCard Global affiliates.
- vCard Affiliate – no commissions
- Marketing Affiliate – $15 commission
- Executive Affiliate – up to $30 commission
- Regional Affiliate – up to $40 commission
- National Affiliate – up to $50 commission
When a vCard Global Pro subscription is sold in a unilevel team, the system pays the immediate upline affiliate according to their rank.
National Affiliates receive the maximum $50 commission payable.
If the immediate upline is a lower-ranked affiliate however, they are paid their commission rate and the system searches further up for higher ranked affiliates.
Eg. An affiliate recruited by a Marketing Affiliate in your unilevel team sells a vCard Pro subscription.
The Marketing Affiliate receives their $15 commission, leaving $35 out of the total $5 commission not paid out.
The system searched further up the upline for an Executive, Regional or National affiliate to pay the remaining $35 out to.
If an Executive affiliate is found, they receive $15 and the system searches higher for a Regional or National affiliate to pay the remaining $20 out to.
If a Regional affiliate is found, they receive $25 and the system searches higher for a National affiliate to pay the remaining $10 out to.
If a National affiliate is found, they receive the remaining $35 and the system stops searching.
In a nutshell, the system will continue to search for higher ranked affiliates until the full $50 on every vCard Pro subscription sale is paid out.
Matching Bonus
vCard Global affiliates earn a matching bonus on commissions earned by affiliates they’ve personally recruited.
How much of a matching bonus is paid out is determined by a vCard Global affiliate’s rank:
- vCard Affiliate – 20% match
- Marketing Affiliate and higher – 10% match
By qualifying as a Star affiliate, National and higher ranked affiliates can increase their check match bonus as follows:
- 1 Star (personally recruit and maintain at least one National Affiliate ranked affiliate) – 11% match
- 2 Star (personally recruit and maintain at least two National Affiliate ranked affiliates) – 12% match
- 3 Star (personally recruit and maintain at least three National Affiliate ranked affiliates) – 13% match
- 4 Star (personally recruit and maintain at least four National Affiliate ranked affiliates) – 14% match
- 5 Star (personally recruit and maintain at least five National Affiliate ranked affiliates) – 15% match
- 6 Star (personally recruit and maintain at least six National Affiliate ranked affiliates) – 16% match
- 7 Star (personally recruit and maintain at least seven National Affiliate ranked affiliates) – 17% match
- 8 Star (personally recruit and maintain at least eight National Affiliate ranked affiliates) – 18% match
- 9 Star (personally recruit and maintain at least nine National Affiliate ranked affiliates) – 19% match
- 10 Star (personally recruit and maintain at least ten National Affiliate ranked affiliates) – 20% match
Joining vCard Global
Vcard Global affiliate membership is $25 a year.
In order to earn MLM commissions a vCard Global affiliate must also purchase vCard Pro ($99 a year).
Conclusion
The legitimacy of vCard Global will be determined by the retail viability of their vCard Pro subscriptions.
The free offering is neither here nor there, as it doesn’t generate any revenue for the company. Rather it’s a sales tool to upsell the vCard Pro subscription service.
That in itself isn’t a problem but if vCard Global affiliates are the only ones paying for vCard Pro, then the company is effectively operating as a pyramid scheme.
Suggesting this is or will be the case when they launch is the fact that vCard PRO is mandatory for all vCard Global affiliates.
Upgrade your vCard FREE to vCard PRO ($99 annually) and purchase the vCard Affiliate Package for $25.00 (annually) to become a vCard AFFILIATE.
This is clearly “pay to play”, with vCard Global affiliates required to purchase a product to earn commissions.
This lends itself to a focus on recruitment of vCard Global affiliates, all of whom have to purchase vCard Pro and generate a commission for the affiliate who recruited them.
Receiving $100 upon recruitment of five affiliates within thirty days of joining the company only further emphasizes recruitment over retail.
vCard Global’s affiliate ranks do the same, requiring only affiliate recruitment to qualify and advance.
At no point in the vCard Global opportunity is the retail sale of vCard Pro subscriptions a focus.
vCard Global also may be charging affiliates for leads, which is a regulatory compliance issue.
GET ROTATOR – programming of our software to rotate a limited number (500) vCard AFFILIATES that will be placed on our homepage.
Every time our home page is refreshed (not a replicated website) a different AFFILIATE shows up. The “ROTATOR” can build your Affiliate Network without you doing anything. Cost $100 per year.
Pay an additional $100 and earn commissions “without you doing anything” certainly sounds like something the SEC might be interested in.
As to the concept itself, a Google search for “digital business card” currently turns up over 24 million results.
Is vCard Global’s $99 a year offering competitive, or does it exist solely to pay recruitment commissions out on?
John Botting is pimping this, stay clear of him and his failed scams…. If he is involved then it’s a definite ponzi/pyramid.
You are so right about John Botting! He pimps scam after scam.
Good afternoon
I am a member of vCard. I initially had a free card, I upgraded as I wished to have more vcards and add more features add videos etc.
As I though it was such a dam good idea I became a affiliate and 2 people have bought the pro/retail version of the card of me.
It seems to me we can have a free card or a better one for $99. I chose the better one, then you can sell it to others if they would like one
I think its a dam good product and works well.
I have read your site many ties with some really good reviews, especially about these terrible rev share companies that have raped people of their money .
However I think you might have it wrong here this is a good company with a nice usable product, sensible on off price
whatever the owner has or hasn’t done before is surely the past are we all whiter that white?
and as for John Botting who I have known for years and is one of the straightest guys I have met in this industry ………..
Exactly what has he been ‘pimping’ question to Mike or Scammerssuck ??
Look forward to hearing from you all 🙂
Regads Nick
At least try to come up with your own marketing spiel. That’s practically word for word what’s in the vCard Global video presentation.
What exactly is wrong about the review?
And do us a favor and share how many retail vCard Pro subscriptions you’ve sold vs. affiliate recruitment.
Regarding Steven being involved with Preservation of wealth ……………. as a distributor !
I worked for BHS once and also a subsidiary of BP oil
both of which have gone bust !
what does that make me ??
A dumbass trying to compare promoting a pyramid scheme to working for a legitimate company?
I initially had a free card, I upgraded as I wished to have more vcards and add more features add videos etc. As I though it was such a dam good idea I became a affiliate and 2 people have bought the pro/retail version of the card of me.
BUT, that is what has happened??? what do you want me to say
I have given away dozens of free ones … sold 2 retail only and several have joined as pro and the upgraded to affiliate .
especially regarding John. it’s easy to call somebody a nasty name but not mentioning any proof that just playground name calling, is it now
Maybe you could share Johns crimes with us all.
You can’t comment on retail sales as yet as this is a new business still in pre-launch.
There is certainly a lot more opportunity for this product to be attractive outside of the affiliate scheme due to the quality of the product, attractiveness to bricks and mortar businesses and the low price break. There are other cards out there which offer less functionality for more money.
The $100 additional payment is optional and for the company rotator only. This doesn’t form part of the comp plan or business, its a rotator so why is it mentioned as a potential interest to the SEC? That strikes me as desperation to find a negative.
Lastly as for the cowards above who are denigrating my name grow some balls and tell me to my face and stop hiding behind an online name. You are pathetic.
@John
So 0% retail sales then?
If affiliates can purchase vCard Pro there’s no excuse for retail customers not being able to, other than a complete focus on affiliate recruitment.
This would make vCard Global a pyramid scheme.
To whom is the $100 paid to? Of course it’s “part of the business”.
@Nick
Free cards are irrelevant and affiliates are not retail customers.
So I’ll ask again, how many retail vCard Pro subscriptions have you sold versus affiliates recruited?
It’s a simple question and a simple answer (raw numbers) will suffice.
NO I have told you I have dozens of FREE card holders
& two Pro / retails buyers. for goodness sake man read it properly.
Free accounts are irrelevant.
So we have two retail vCard Pro subscriptions sold. How many affiliates have you personally recruited?
How about you “read it properly” champ. That way you won’t quote what I said to someone else and get pissy about it.
I answered you question here
I have given away dozens of free ones …
sold 2 retail only
several have joined as pro and the upgraded to affiliate .
Stop dodging the question.
You have two retail customers… how many affiliates have you personally recruited?
14
So two retail customers and fourteen recruited affiliates (14.2% retail and 85.8% recruitment).
Thankyou for confirming vCard Global is likely operating as a pyramid scheme.
Oz aint never been wrong… AFAIK so there ya go, anyways the pimps will always be in denial if they are earning.
If this was FB we would all be blocked, cos its easier to block than answer questions…. thank god for blogs like this.
Obviously missed the comment from Nick about having a couple of retail sales Oz.
vCards will be quite popular amongst business professionals. Over the years I’ve spent a lot of money on physical business cards (over $100 a year) and a digital version in this day and age would be far more effective for getting your details to more people faster.
With it being digital and allowing you to add far more information, then the value obviously increases. I’ve seen a couple of real estate agents using these and showcase a portfolio of property. That will be a great asset to their personal marketing.
Token retail sales don’t negate the overwhelming majority of commissions paid on recruitment.
For now it appears sales are struggling without the attached business opportunity, which is a problem.
I remember my old Ericsson phone from the early 2000s having contact card functionality. This concept, in one form or another, has been around for some time.
What percentage of retail sales to affiliate sales would you consider makes it a Ponzi scheme Oz?
Is there a specific percentage of retail sales required to make it legal or pass your non Ponzi test?
Anything close to a 50:50 split in revenue generation. There’s a bit of leeway in either direction.
85.8% recruitment or thereabouts is way into pyramid territory. I also don’t know why you mentioned Ponzi scheme, maybe you know something we don’t?
Selling diet products was around long before MLM companies made businesses out of it. Just because digital contacts have been around a while means jack.
Sales are struggling?
Because it’s not launched yet I would suggest that common sense is required. Building up a team of affiliates is required in any MLM in order to gain retail sales.
Do you think Ericsson sold phones straight from their factory before opening up shops?
If retail customers are being signed up, affiliates recruited and commissions paid out then vCard Global has launched.
Sure, but if at the same time commissions are paid on said recruitment and there are no retail sales qualifiers, history has shown nothing will change.
Recruitment will stay the core focus until it dies down, at which point the company collapses.
(Ozedit: Offtopic derail attempts removed)
Why would it need to be around 50/50 to avoid being a pyramid?
If you have any knowledge of what constitutes the percentage split of sales that perhaps a court would deem it to be a pyramid, then I would love to be enlightened.
Ok then Oz.
If I were to tell you I had signed up 2 personal affiliates and they have recruited so that I have a team of 10, but I had sold 27 pro subscriptions, what would your opinion be on this?
And also if I provided you proof of these numbers, would that change your review?
Because in MLM if the core of the business is recruitment you’ve got yourself a pyramid scheme.
Nope, because the vCard Global compensation plan is still geared toward affiliate recruitment with no retail sale qualifiers.
With 2 recruited affiliates and 27 retail sales you’d likely be an anomaly, which could be verified via comparison of retail sales data within your downline of ten.
(Ozedit: Offtopic bullshit removed. Do not make up stuff and attempt to pass it off as fact here.)
the US courts have not yet affixed a particular percentage of retail required for an MLM to be legit, but we do have some pointers.
the court studies how the MLM program functions in reality. if recruitment is the focus and is encouraged over retail, the court may make a pyramid finding.
vemma had approx 22% retail, but had to change its business model before the court allowed it to remain in business.
so you know now that 22% retail will not save your ass in court, and the FTC expects nothing short of 50%.
Oz I am not disagreeing with you on many of these programmes. They have been around for several years and have mainly sales within the network and are stupidly over-priced. I also understand you are here to get a story and get visitors to this blog so you can make more $$$.
But, to slag off a company whilst its only just started and is in limited countries/markets on its retail sales is very premature.
Come back in 12 months time and if the retail side is less than the affiliate side you have a story.
The company doesn’t launch until next month. Of course the affiliate sales of the product are going to be more at the moment.
As the markets open up and the affiliates grow I predict that the retail side will take off and be far greater than the affiliate side and for several reasons. The products are competitively priced and are cheaper with more functionality than some of the more established products already out there.
Secondly as the new affiliates learn more about the product and market place they will start promoting the retail side because it makes sense to.
For my part that is what I am going to be doing and supporting my team in doing to. True retail sales are important I agree with you, but give it time mate. Be fair!
The free app is presently not very user friendly and not completely functional.
I don’t see how anyone can actually say they’ve made a retail customer!
You cannot earn anything from free Vcard members, so how can any affiliates believe or state that they have acquired a ‘customer’? The only emphasis is by recruiters recruiting other paid members who do the same!
Copied from Vcard back office:
That old canard, the advertising is clear and obvious, I doubt anyone is in any doubt on it. And because it’s transparent that means that there is no stake in the “opportunities” under review, if they get a positive or negative review, if they succeed or fail, makes no difference to the ad revenue.
Frankly I’d be more suspicious if there were glowing reviews on clear duff schemes, since it would suggest that their was a financial incentive for giving a good review.
The review is based on the information available, if it doesn’t reflect the opportunity properly, then I don’t see how the blame could lie with anyone but those promoting it.
In this case that it’s clearly aimed at recruitment rather than sales – as an simple affiliate I would get no profit/share from sales.
The only way to make any money is to recruit other people. For me that would be an immediate fail, if the product is a retail product of value, why aren’t I going to get paid for promoting it?
No point in me trying to sell it, if I can’t get the numbers below me, and If I’m in a small town, why would I want to get other people – probably people I know involved trying to sell to the same set of people as I am? (And this is generally the reality of these things, people try to recruit people they know)
That I also have to pay for the privilege of generating revenue for someone else is also pretty standard fair and usually another red flag.
Add in a product which in my view is expensive, and in this case very easy for someone else to copy at a much lower price should there be a real demand for it.
Maybe this one will break the mold and not be the same as the many other schemes, I somewhat doubt it.
Suggest you actually bother to research the whole thing before committing like you’re some sort of expert.
There is the PRO version which is greatly enhanced and the retail side of the business. This is what businesses and people who just want the product will buy. And if its sold by an affiliate commissionable too.
In addition to this if someone also would like to be able to refer customers to the product and get paid for doing so they pay an additional $25 which then always them to market the product as a retail product and to refer other affiliates too.
Can free or pro members earn? Or only affiliates?
so whats the difference between a free Vcard and a free website?
I think we are in the day and age where it can have the same functionality of a paid Vcard for far less.
Which is why I never got fooled into getting a free Vcard in the first place.
Anyone know the answer?
I meant can pro members earn?
I guess anyone can easily create a one page website business card for free.
The thing is that with Vcard, say a free or pro member share their card and someone decides to also get the Vcard but purchases… then a commission goes up to the sponsored paid affiliate.
Affiliates of Vcard are basically getting free and pro members to advertise for them anytime the free and pro share the card, since commissions will roll up to the paid affiliate.
Is this correct Mr. Botting?
So as someone perhaps interested in a electronic business card, why would I pay out $99 if I can do it for free?
Someone else maybe getting commission doesn’t seem a great selling point.
It’s all about the referral commissions… this is the only reason people will get involved here…
The pimps only see what they can earn by selling the product regardless of its actual value.
To be fair many things are considered when a business invests and price is always towards the bottom in terms of what is truly important.
And just because you can make a web site for cheap does not mean a business owner wants to save 99 bucks but spend hours weeks or months learning how to build and host a simple web page.
@john, why would any free or pro send out their Vcard knowing that ultimately they will actually be promoting for who ever they signed up from?
Also the free and pro, by sharing their cards, might unknowingly and potentially be promoting a pyramid scheme thinking they are only promoting their own business.
@John
Facts != slagging off a company. And the fact of the matter is vCard Global’s current compensation plan focuses on recruitment at the expense of retail.
Assuming the compensation plan doesn’t change, why would retail take a priority with affiliates? They’re paid more to recruit affiliates, so why would that behaviour change in 12 months time?
Given vCard Global’s compensation plan focuses on encouraging recruitment, how does it “make sense” to retail vCard Pro?
It entirely doesn’t, which is what I’ve pointed out in the review.
first of all i hope vcard affiliates will not run around claiming that the recipients of Free vcards are ‘customers’ of any kind.
secondly, vcard does not have any retail price? the product costs the same for affiliates and retail customers at $99 per annum.
on top of this^^ all affiliates have to purchase the vcard compulsorily.
this means that vcard will make all affiliates join as ‘retail’ customers, and when they are ready to recruit they will be asked to pay the affiliate fee of $25 and become affiliates.
generally speaking, in MLM the number of affiliates/ distributors who actively recruit is about 1/3rd of the total number.
farcically separating non recruiting affiliates/ recruiting affiliates with an additional ‘affiliate fee’, is just psuedocompliance to create ‘fake’ retail customers.
MLM is a ‘distribution system’ where affiliates/ distributors receive the product at a cheaper price and sell it at retail for a profit [and recruit a team for MLM commissions].
there is no retail price in vcard so there is no retail. everyone joins as a non recruiting affiliate with an annual autoship of $$99. on top of this, recruiting affiliates have to pay $25 for the ‘right to recruit’ and this is an additional ‘pay to play’ factor [along with having to compulsorily buy the product].
vemma tried calling its non recruiting affiliates ‘customers’, but the court and FTC would have none of it. before resuming business vemma had to introduce a retail margin to demonstrate real retail.
vcard had better introduce a good retail margin if at all it wants to show that its product is being sold for it’s ‘value’ and not merely for the MLM opportunity.
How exciting!!!, Vcard update;
This week we will finally post the shopping cart link for ordering our Marketing Cards, 4×9 Rack Cards, 3×5 Postcards and our 6′ Display Banner. We will be adding Facebook ADs to post on your FB pages, so all your friends can get their own vCard FREE!
Try hours. Most major web hosts now have builders and templates with drag and drop GUI. And looks MUCH more legitimate to Google search rankings.
VCard Global is basically about.me (free service) w/ a couple extra features for $100 a year. Whether those extra features is worth $100 a year is the question.
post cards for a vcard site?
hilarious!
Might as well hand out business cards then
@Terrence, exactly my thoughts!
Perhaps “Vcard Dave”, the official Vcard spokesperson could explain how anyone is considered to be a customer?
I did not have time to read this long chain yet but did immediately note that great opportunities like this grow best when there is a simple DUPLICATABLE system. No need to reinvent the wheel.
Being able to demonstrate all the terrific features here is the best way to share WHY this card is a game changer, in the right direction.
How will you hand out business cards in countries around the world?
Why do you need to hand out business cards in countries you don’t operate in?
We have the internet for that, and the internet runs on websites – not digital cards.
Well blow me down I’ve just popped on here to look at the comments regarding this and other businesses you have rubbished.
and Goodness me ……..again V Card global is still running strong.what a shock ……… its amazing.
vCard Global website Alexa ranking = 2.4 mill. That’s practically dead.
Facebook page last updated July 2020. YouTube channel last updated 2 years ago. #RIP