Use These Barter Skills to Haggle The Price
When you are planning to travel to countries where there are places to barter, you want to have some barter skills under your belt so you can pay the best price and have fun doing it. Most people who are new to bartering will either avoid it and just pay the price they tell you, or they just don’t participate nor buy anything. You don’t want to miss out on this really cool cultural difference when you are exploring the world. To help you tackle how to haggle, I’m going to give you my best barter skills I have learned over the years so you feel more prepared than the average traveler.
A lot of people do find bartering intimidating and scary or they think it’s a bit rude and think they should just give them what they’re asking. First, it’s not rude. It is a part of that culture and it’s everyday life when buying items. When you are in a place where you can haggle, which is mostly markets, you want to pay a bartered price. Just remember, you’re not going to be paying the locals prices, you are still going to be paying tourist prices but you’re going to be able to get that inflated tourist price down for sure.
Barter Skills #1
Carry Small Bills/Currency
Before I even head to the market I make sure that I am carrying small bills in the local currency. This helps your barter skills because if you’re going up by small amounts, you’ll be able to have the exact or very close to the amount agreed to. Unless they use USD for their currency, always use local currency when bartering. Break up your cash on you
Now that you have your currency in small bills you want to break up the money you have into smaller amounts and put little bits in different areas on you. Put a little bit in your pocket, a little in your wallet, and a little bit in your bag. Spread it out. This way you can show them your wallet and you only have “x” amount of money left. When you barter you can obviously pay more by going into another of your money stashes. Having your money spread out just helps with that little tactic. I hope these tricks give you more confidence in your bartering adventures. When you are ready to plan your trip, you want to have my FREE TRAVEL CHECKLIST in hand to ensure nothing goes wrong on your trip. Inside I go over the TOP 10 things you should do before you go on your trip. Grab your FREE TRAVEL CHECKLIST HERE.
One of my favourite barter tactics is to tell them that you only have “x” amount left to wrap up the bartering and they can either take it or leave it. If they accept, the last thing you want to do here is pull out a large bill to pay for the item, when you told them you only have “x” amount.
Before you start bartering like this, know which bills you have on you so you’re able to barter within what you have. You can give them more money and they’ll give you change, but if you’re giving them really large bills compared to what you’re bartering, word can get around the market that you have more money than what you say. So it could foil future purchases that day too.
Barter Skills #2
When you do start to barter you don’t want to try and bring the price down so hard. The goal is to come out with a fair price for both of you. This is how they make their living, even if it is a cultural thing to haggle. Understand what the exchange rates are so you are not that person who is arguing over 20 cents or maybe a dollar. It is easy to get caught up in continuing to haggle, but knowing the amount in your currency and how much the item is worth to you is very helpful in knowing when to stop.