Hi! 

If this question has been answered already, please forgive my redundancy! 

I have been doing this for awhile and noticed a tab that said "Free Swaps." What exactly is that? If I try to click on it nothing happens, but it says I have a balance of 6 "Free Swaps." What does that mean? Can do a swap without using credits? (Also the tab "Free Swap Registry" has no activity when I click on it).

Sincerely appreciate a response and your patience ! Thank you in advance.

Hi Caitlin, I answered this for someone in another forum lately so I am copying it here:

Swap fees are the 0.49 transaction fee for every order (one swap per order, not per book if it's a multiple book order). This is paid to PBS; the credit for each book goes to the member. The book credit is the PBS 'currency' used between members to order and receive books. You will use one swap and one credit every time you order a book from someone. You earn a free swap and a credit for every book you send with printed postage (outside of the 4 or 12 fee-free printable postages limited or standard member, respectively, get). Standard members have unlimited swaps annually. A la carte members have to pay the fee for every transaction unless they have them from sending out books with printable postage.

As an example, a limited member gets 30 swaps and can accummulate aditional swaps for using printable postage if it's not one of the four free times during the year. So if you order more than 30 books in a year you would need to either pay the 0.49 fee per order or if you've used printable postage you likely would have additional swaps in your account.  Members can check their 'free swap registry' on the 'my account' tab to determine how many they have.

This is the explanation from the help docs:

What is a 'Free Swap'?

A "Free Swap" can be used along with Book Credit(s) to make a book request. It replaces the 49-cent Swap Fee.

All members who are not enrolled in Standard Membership must pay a 49-cent swap fee (along with Book credits) when submitting a book request. If the member has a Free Swap to use, s/he can use that instead of the 49-cent Swap Fee.

Enrollment in Standard Annual Membership grants unlimited fee-free swapping for the year - meaning, Standard Members use only Book Credits to request books, and do not ever pay Swap Fees for Book Requests.

Limited Annual Membership comes with 30 "Free Swaps" per year- meaning, Limited Members can make 30 requests for books per year using only Book Credits (and no swap fees).

"Free Swaps" are added to your account when

• You enroll in Limited Annual Membership (that adds 30 Free Swaps/year)

• You enroll in Standard Annual Membership (that makes your Free Swaps unlimited for the year)

• You mail a shipment with Printable Postage. Please note that the "courtesy printing" (monthly for Standard Membership, quarterly for Limited Membership) does NOT grant a Free Swap, since there is no Postage Printing Fee associated with that mailing.

  • Note: Free Swaps are earned per shipment (unlike Book Credits, that are earned per book). So, one mailing containing multiple books will earn credit for each book, and one Free Swap.

  • This is also how Free Swapa are used: if you request one shipment containing multiple books, you pay the credits for all the books, plus one Free Swap for the one shipment.

Ah ok. So since I have a standard membership it doesnt actually matter, correct?

Thank you so much for explaining it to me! 

That's correct. But, if you do use printable postage over the 12 times per year, you will still accumulate free swaps. And if you 'downgrade' membership levels, the swaps would be there if you need them.

Thanks so much for explaining it, really appreciate it. Too bad I can't give them to someone else, because I'm pretty happy with my Standard Membership. 

By the way, I checked out your wishlist and noticed we have a few Authors in common. It's great to see a fellow N.K. Jemisin fan, she is such an excellent writer! Also the Great Library series by Rachel Caine is Soooo good. I'm waiting on the last book now, hoping it shows up at my local used book store!