Time Banking

Flexibility in payment.

The people turning time into a currency  in the BBC

Published, 4 days ago, By Elna Schutz, Business reporter

After spending 10 years as a Buddhist nun in Myanmar, Coral Sunone realised that she needed some fashion help when she returned to the outside world.

But with money tight, getting assistance from a professional stylist was simply out of the question. Or was it?

Coral, who is based in Malaysia, heard of a website called TimeRepublik, which describes itself as "a timebank for the internet era".

Time banking is in essence a more sophisticated form of bartering. You don't pay someone in money for a job that they do for you. Instead you give that person time credits that they can then use to get a service without financial payment from someone else.

Via the TimeRepublik website, Coral was able to connect with Cherish Cullison, a New York-based professional wardrobe stylist and costume designer.

Over Zoom, Cherish was able to help Coral find the modern clothing that best suited her.

"She styled me very well," says Coral. "No money can pay for such a transaction, it is priceless, it is based on trust."

The two have stayed in touch after they first met on TimeRepublik a few years ago. This has included Coral returning the favour of assistance, and giving Cherish some meditation lessons.

Cherish says it is good that "the expectation of money is out of the way".

"Instead you really get to the core of things and you discover something, I think, that's greater and sort of priceless."