I have a limited membership with 30 free swaps, but I use printable postage so this will earn me more. Correct? If I don't use my 30 "free" swaps before my membership expires do I also lose the free swaps I earned? For example: I have 30 free swaps. I mail 15 books this year so I'll have a total of 45 free swaps. 30 bought, 15 earned. If I only order 20 books this year will my 15 earned swaps still be there after my membership expires or does the system use my earned swaps first?

The Limited Membership

Request 30 Books per year Without Swap Fees - No swap fee for your first 30 swaps per year! ($14.70 value) (note: you'll earn a Free swap fee each time you use PBS Printed Postage to send a book)

Courtesy Postage Fees - Enjoy the convenience of our Printed Postage without the 55-cent Postage Printing fee, once every quarter ( = once every 3 months; up to $2.20 annual savings).

I just want to make sure I understand correctly. In the scenario if I spend 20 free swaps 10 will expire and I'll still have 15 next year?

That's a good question Stefanie!  My assumption would be the same as yours--the swaps you purchase with your limited membership would expire at the end of the year, but the swaps that you "paid for" by using PBS Postage would carry over into the next year.  That's what makes sense anyway.  Hopefully someone with more knowledge than I have can confirm this behavior for you!

That would be my understanding. However the Help Docs don't go into scenarios.

The only way to know for sure is to use the 'contact us' link for feedback.  If you choose to do that, please share what you learn.  Thanks.

I used contact us and they said any free swaps earned with PBS postage do not expire. 

Dear Stefanie,

Thanks for writing in to ask. Your earned free swaps will not expire. If you think that the balance is off at any time and you can't tell by looking at the Registry (it will show only the last 6 months of activity), just let us know and we'll check for you.

We hope this information is helpful. Have a great day!

Hi everyone, new here.

Can someone help me to understand exactly what free swaps mean? I paid $12 for a membership and received 30 free swaps, but when i try to request a book a disclaimer says I do not have any book credits.

So...what is the difference between a book credit and a book swap? I feel like I wasted $12.....

Hi! Welcome. I'm pretty new myself, so if I answer wrong, I hope someone will correct me. 

Book credits are points you earn by sending books out. You get your first two just for posting ten books, then after than you get one for each book you send out. It takes one book credit to get each book, two to get an audio book.

Swap fees are new. A swap fee is charged every time your request one or more books from another member. If you request one book, the fee is charge (or waived for your first 30). If you request multiple books at the same time from the same member, only one swap fee is charged (or waived).

So, to get book credits and be able to request books, you need to post books and eventually send them out.

Hope this helps!

It appears though that they are subtracting from swap fees earned first. 

Marie to me it looks like that is just a place marker I have it in mine too, though it didn't actually take any of my earned ones away.  They are talking about for the limited membership ours would be for the standard membership.  Its different.

Here's the thread for the standard membership people who are interested in this convo. If anyone has sent in feedback asking if standard members bank free swap fees this is what we are talking about here: http://www.paperbackswap.com/Free-Swap-Registry/topic/301165/?ls=0#p6638629

See at the end, there is a red -1

Did it actually take one away though?  Mine shows that negative one too but I went back and calculated how many free swaps I should have earned the end amount is still right.

Here are other request that have come out of my credit registry that have not shown up on my free swap registry:

Marie if we were losing the ones we earned first then it would not be an unlimited swap membership, also if we were I'd have 2 free swaps instead of 5  as those three transactions would have came out too.  I'm not sure why they put that first negative one on the registry but it didn't actually take any of mine away as I had not earned any yet, and it didn't take any away after I earned some.

I submitted feedback to ask about it and here is what I got back.  So standard members are being allowed to bank free swap credits, I guess on the off chance they choose at another point not to be a standard member pbs doesn't want to have to deal with the fall out of all those lost swap fees.

Dear Elizabeth,

Yes, the Free Swaps you earn with Printable Postage do accumulate and you don't lose them. Currently, while you have Standard Membership you don't need to use them. We may come up with other uses for Free Swaps in the future.

We hope this information is helpful. Have a great day!

The PaperBackSwap Team
www.PaperBackSwap.com 

Marie is that the only thing on your free swap registry?  If so I'd say its there as a place holder, or an error.  IDK they didn't address this in my pm. If it said -1  -1 then I would worry but since it says -1  0, unless you had one under that where you had earned a free swap already and it then took it away and you now have 0.  If so you should send in feedback.  However if its like mine in the picture above then you should be fine.  Why its there I have no idea but it didn't actually take any of my free swaps.

Here is another question is anyone else's swap registry weird.  When are you supposed to earn the free swap, when you print the postage, when it gets mailed, or when it gets received?  I though it was going to be when we printed the label, though it could be when you mark it mailed as you get the instant credit then too?  However if you look on the top picture the ones that say the 20th  were all printed before the 15th but were received after that date.  So maybe they went back and gave me those since they had been received after the new rules went into effect on the 15th? Anyone else noticing the data didn't match up to there credit registry and transaction archive.

Elizabeth - My "free swaps" were credited when I marked them mailed this week.  My "rebates" were credited today for all of the books I mailed this month.  Interesting and unexpected.

Wow!  I know it's not popular to compliment PBS, but.........they went back to the 1st of January and gave free swap credits for everything mailed since then!  I consider that exceeedingly generous! I was not a golden key member prior to the change and my purchase of a Standard membership. My new mailings were credited when they were marked mailed.

The only book I requested was posted in error and couldn't be mailed so I couldn't do any other checking on it, but Elizabeth you're probably right that it is a placeholder or an error.

I now have 44 swap credits which pays for my membership for 2 years!  Thank you PBS!

Yep I think its pretty awesome that they are letting us bank them, and they went back that far.  Also baring any new features that might entice me to stay a standard member I'll probably go to limited next year.  There is no way I'll use all the swap credits I'll earn this year next year + the 30 free swap credit with the limited membership.  Who knows they could come up with some cool new feature I'll want to use my swap credit on and I'll still get the standard next year, but at least there are more options now. 

Deborah, welcome to PBS!  Your explanation above is excellent.  I'm impressed with how quickly you gained a thorough understanding of this site!  I know I didn't acclimate as fast when I joined years ago.  I hope you enjoy being a member.

I've been commenting on this topic over in the Standard Members forum, since that's where I first ran across the topic. (Elizabeth put a link to that conversation above, so I'm not going to repeat everything I've already said over there. Those interested can click the link.) 

My question was, and still is, are "Standard Members" the only ones receiving supposedly "retroactive" free swap fees for their printable postage transactions, (some members have stated they received them back to January 1) or has this "privilege" also been extended to "Limited" and "A La Carte" members as well? And what about all of the members who wouldn't even know about this, and just spent away all their credits before the "change" to avoid swap fees or simply bailed? 

I feel like the site owners have been reading too much dystopia with this whole ridiculous caste system thing they have going on... -__- Geez.

Another newsletter with site updates might be nice, PBS... 

Maybe I'm missing something but I don't understand why standard members even have "free swap balance". We have unlimited few swaps 

I agree, Nancy. It's like giving a bag of potato chips to someone standing in line at an all-you-can-eat buffet. Supposedly they're saying that they "may" come up with some other uses for the free swap fees.

Meanwhile, if they're not offering this same "perk" to the other members of the site (be they standard, limited, or a la carte) then it is dead wrong.

Wouldn't the accumulation of free swaps by people with memberships make it less likely for that person to repurchase a Standard Membership?

I mean, if you have piles of free transactions, why bother?

(ETA - adding swaps to the credit system really is stupidly complicated)

I think everyone can earn free swaps if you use the sites printable postage.  I was thinking the same thing about members who earn a bunch of free swaps might not renew their standard membership.  

None of this makes any sense.

Unless, of course, PBS is unconcerned about any possible long term repercussions for reasons we're not privy to.