Want to sell Gold and earn commissions, but what is Karatbars? You are probably here to find the answer. If yes, you’ve come to the right place.
In my Karatbars review, I’ll walk you through the below topics to help you make up your mind.
- What Is Karatbars?
- How to Make Money with Karatbars?
- The Compensation Plan
- Pros & Cons
- Can You Make Money Selling Karatbars?
- Is Karatbars A Pyramid Scheme?
- Is Karatbars A Scam?
Before we dive into Karatbars, I like to tell you something first.
I am not selling you Karatbars gold bars to earn my commissions, so you won’t see me pitching and pushing you to click a “BUY NOW” button. This review is my approach to examine whether it delivers or keeps things under-promise. If yes, I’ll take a shot; if no, I’ll steer away. Without further ado, let’s get started!
Disclaimer: As the owner of Smileaffiliatesuccess.com, I have tracked down special deals for products, tools, and services mentioned herein. When you click my affiliate links on this page to make a purchase, I may get a small commission, and you will definitely get a great bargain. This is a win-win advantage for both of us.
What Is Karatbars?
-Summary of Karatbars-
Product Name: Karatbars
Founders: Harald Seiz in 2011
Product Type: A Gold Investment MLM(Multi-Level Marketing)
Price: €150-€3,017 Business Packages
Recommend: No
KaratBars is a gold investment MLM company with an affiliate program that everyone could join to sell its gold products to make money. Harald Seiz founded KaratBars in Stuttgart, Germany in 2011, and it provides gold bars, gift cards, and other accessories. To date, they have an annual turnover of 100 million euros and over 820,000 Affiliates in 140 countries.
After digging deep, many warnings from the authorities push me away from it. I don’t want you to take my words for Karatbars just now. So, I will show you more details right below, and you will get enough information to make your final decision.
Inside Karatbars
There are two things we are going to talk about today, one is the products, the other is the business plan. Let’s start with the products.
Product Lines
Here are some products that Karatbars sells:
- Mini Gold Bar Cards(Classic Card, Gift Cards, Country Cards, Collector Cards, or Personal Branding Cards)
- CashGold: banknote-like paper with gold bar embedded

Normally, each card comes with one-gram gold(24-carat gold embedded in card), they also offer 2.5 grams or 5 grams. You can buy these products online and they will ship to you. According to the website, all gold products are made in Turkey.
How To Make Money With Karatbars?
There are two ways to make money with any MLM company, and Karatbars is no exception.
- Selling products to make commissions
- Recruiting people to become your downlines to hit group sales target for extra bonuses and incentives
Getting Started
It’s free to start with Karatbars, but if you want to qualify for commissions, you can purchase business packages with prices as below:

- Bronze €150
- Silver €699
- Gold €1,493
- VIP €3,017
You also need to pay for the shipping no matter where you are in the world, this is on top of the package costs.
The Compensation Plan
Same as other MLM companies, the compensation plan is the most complicated one to understand. I’ve tried my best to make things easier for you. There are seven ways to make money with Karatbars:
- Direct Commission: Earn up to 10% for each new package sale in your first Unilevel Lines
- Double Income: Earn double commissions (€30) from 3D Metal Card product line
- Dual Team Bonus: €40-€80 depending on your package status
- Matching Bonus: 5% earned from the cycle of your downlines
- Unilevel Bonus: 0.5%-5.5% depending on your ranks
- Generation Bonus: 5.75-6% when you hit Gold Director Elite with at least one Gold Director Elite in one leg
- Auto Save: Getting paid in cash and gold. Once you have pending commissions more than €200+, you’ll get 1 gram+ of Gold.
Feel dizzy now? You can read more details on this page, or just remember two things, sell as many products as possible or recruit people to do the same. Once you turn yourself into a recruiting machine and a full-time sales manager, you’ll start receiving commissions, bonuses, and incentives.
How Much Do You Need to Sell to Stay Active?
There are no monthly sales quotas or amounts you need to purchase to stay active, which is good to know!
Ugly Truth About Karatbars
TOP#1 Expensive Products
Karatbars’ gold products are more expensive compared to its competitors in the market. They also charge a shipping fee on top of your orders, which makes them incredibly expensive.
However, it’s all the same for every MLM company. They have to mark up 30-40% of the prices so that they can pay distributors for all the promotions. By doing this, Karatbars save money on marketing and advertising, and distributors are making money.
I’ve reviewed many MLM companies, and they all have this issue. Name a few here to prove my points:
TOP#2 Securities Fraud Warnings
Before joining Karatbars, you should know some warnings from the local governments in Canada, Germany, South Africa, and New Zealand.
- In 2014, Canadian regulator Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF) issued a warning against Karatbars, prohibiting three Karatbars members from directly or indirectly trading in securities under any form of investment. Later in 2016, The court ordered the operation and promotion Karatbars International prohibited in Canada, as per the Financial Market Authority Act and Securities Act.
- In 2019, regulators in Germany and South Africa have issued fraud warnings pertaining to involvement in Karatbars International.
- In 2021, New Zealand FMA issued warning against Karatbars since it’s not registered companies or financial service providers in New Zealand.
TOP#3 A Pyramid Scheme Warnings
Besides the fraud warnings, The Bank of Namibia(BON) has issued a pyramid scheme warning against Karatbars International in 2019. It shared the below concerns:
- Members income is earned based on the successful recruitment of new participants to purchase new small gold embedded cards.
- The real attraction of new participants to Karatbars is not the purchase of the gold card, but the desire to earn money through the introduction of new members to the business practice.
- The business practice is not sustainable without the continuous recruitment of new participants who are eligible to pay a joining fee.
What I Liked About Karatbars
TOP#1 No Monthly Quota
This is the best thing about Karatbars’ business plan, no monthly quota. Meaning you don’t need to stockpile any physical products in your storeroom or the attic.
Once you purchase any of the business packages, you can stay with this MLM company for as long as you want.
Can You Make Money Selling Karatbars?
Yes, I am sure you can make money with Karatbars, especially those extroverts who like to meet different people and talk about the same products over and over again. If you are also obsessed with gold, then Karatbars is the place to go.
Based on this article, 99% of MLM distributors lose money in an MLM structure, and just 1% actually turn a profit. With all the warnings from the authorities around the globe, I don’t recommend you quit your 9-5 jobs and make Karatbars your primary income, which is far from enough to pay your bills.
Is Karatbars A Pyramid Scheme?
Let’s read Wikipedia’s definition of a pyramid scheme. “A pyramid scheme is a business model that recruits members via a promise of payments or services for enrolling others into the scheme, rather than supplying investments or sale of products.”
Based on this definition, we won’t call Karatbars a pyramid scheme since it offers gold products and a business plan. However, some people call it a pyramid scheme because most of the compensation plan mainly focuses on recruitment instead of products sales. I totally understand.
Is Karatbars A Scam?
Technically, it’s not a scam either. A scam or a pyramid scheme cannot survive the first year once people complain and report to the authority. Karatbars runs more than one decade this year, and it offers real products for distributors to make money with.
When it comes to making money online, there are plenty of options on the internet, such as freelancing, dropshipping, GPT sites, drop services, or affiliate marketing. Wanna know my top-pick? Read on to find out more!
My Alternative Way to Make Money Online
My alternative way to make money online is through affiliate marketing instead of promoting Karatbars products in person. Try to imagine you sell Karatbars products to your friends, family, or anyone you know. Don’t you feel embarrassed or blushed? They might avoid you ever since.
Doing affiliate marketing will save you from that:
- It’s free to start your affiliate marketing business.
- You don’t need to buy physical products and sell them face to face.
- There is no monthly minimum sales quota in affiliate marketing.
- You don’t recruit people to become your downlines to build a team.
- You are not restricted to promote one product. You can promote anything you like!
- Work on your own schedules & you are your OWN BOSS!
You only need to create a website with quality content. So every time people land on your site to read your products reviews or other articles, they will find insight and value. If they like it, they may purchase the products or services via your links. Here come your earning potentials.

The platform I am using currently is Wealthy Affiliate. You will find all the proven-to-work training courses, every Friday night LIVE training courses, one keyword research tool called Jaaxy, 24/7 site support, and the most friendly community.

For more details or top secrets about Wealthy Affiliate, you could check my full WA review or click the below link to start your WA journey.
>>>Try Wealthy Affiliate Before Bed<<<
Wealthy Affiliate Income Proof
Here are some of the most active members from Wealthy Affiliate. Each of them did succeed in generating a sustainable income to replace their 9-5 jobs. You are more than welcome to check their stories HERE.
- I Made Over $1 Million With Affiliate Marketing.
- Can someone make a full-time income promoting WA? You bet they can!
- What Does $1000 Per Day Look Like?$
- 40,000 In One Weekend
- A Very Humbling $12,803.26 Month – August Progress Report
- It’s Getting Better: $500+ in 2 Days
- Newbies Pay Attention! $5,195.20 Affiliate Check for June: Thanks, WA!
- Joined the 10K Per Month Club. January Earnings $13,481.39
- New Record: $1,300+ Per DAY! Affiliate Marketing Works & Rocks!
- Made $7,395 in a WEEK: First Black Friday Results!
I hope you enjoy this review, and you are more than welcome to share ideas or leave your comments below. I will reply as soon as I can, thanks.
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When I read your post, Matt. I couldn’t help myself, but just said OMG, another MLM company with incredibly high product prices. It is almost unbelievable that they are able to operate from 2011 until now.
In addition to their pricing, have the shipping costs yet? That is just insane. If you see also theirs yearly revenue, you can guess who is earning the most. The owners obviously. Your recommendation is really something that people without a budget should seek out. Thanks for this review, Matt.
Hi Julius,
Yes, the most expensive package goes up to €3,017, which is unbelievable. The nature of any MLM is always the ones sitting on the top ranks earn the most, so the rest, 99% of people, fail to make money. I don’t really suggest people join MLMs since the success rate is just too low.
On the other hand, my recommendation, Wealthy Affiliate is indeed a good choice for people interested in affiliate marketing. It’s so much affordable, easy-to-follow, and no prior experiences are needed. You can check my full WA review here. 🙂
Matt
“The business practice is not sustainable without the continuous recruitment of new participants who are eligible to pay a joining fee.”
That kinda says it all for me. Sounds like it is not the right program for me and I am so proud of myself for finding this review before I invested
Hi Brianna,
Thanks for commenting on my Karatbars review. I hope it helps you well. 🙂
Karatbars has many legal issues in some countries, and it’s such a push for people interested in investing in gold. If I want to join MLMs, they must be legitimate companies that are transparent, honest, and trustworthy. In this case, Karatbars isn’t the best option here.
Matt