Review: BullionVault

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KenJackson

Fly on the Wall
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Greetings.

I'm thinking about BullionVault. Here are my considerations. Am I missing anything?

They charge a minimum of $4/month for storage, so it makes sense to store at least the break-even amount, which at 0.01% is $40,000. But there's a 0.5% transfer fee too. So the minimum most-efficient amount to transfer (including a year's worth of storage fee) would be:

($40,000 + $48) / (1 - 0.005) = $40,249.25

The $4/month storage fee really offended me until I realized that's a total of 3% over 25 years while inflation has been knocking down the dollar by at least that much each year.

That's the low end. But there's the question about IRS Form 8938, which I might have to file if the balance goes even momentarily above $50,000. However, the help comment points out that the IRS guidance doesn't define what "directly held" means, so maybe I don't need to file it. And it's not clear what information FATCA would require them to file about me directly to the evil-doers at the IRS.

Therefore, setting an upper limit of $49,999 would be convenient to reduce the probability of becoming a red flag. But, of course, if the value of gold suddenly takes off or even "sky rockets" as some are predicting, I won't complain about the fees or any extra hassles.

Does anyone have experience with BullionVault?
Are my assumptions valid?
Are there any unexpected fees?

I'm assuming I can use ACH to transfer funds for free instead of wiring them for $30. Is this a valid assumption?
 
Hi Ken

I reckon you have the wrong set of worries driving your thinking.

Your real concern should be regarding what might happen in the event of a fiat currency wobble or worse.
I think you are right to look for value but in the event that pm's really shine through, its really about the integrity of the organisation storing your property.

If BV are storing ( and insuring ) your property and they seem to have a good set of audit systems in place, then the other consideratoins are possibly not so important.

While I feel the pain of seeing my pm holdings down by 20% and UK property prices up by something similar since I went all in, I would still rather be in gold and silver right now as it feels like the wheels are coming off the fiat game show quite rapidly.
 
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