Review: Goldmoney.com

[swissaustrian]

Does anybody amoung you have experiences with James Turk's http://www.goldmoney.com/ :wave:

 

[rblong2us]

Yes

Been using his vault in Zurich for a while.
Havent sold any metal yet, so cannot comment on the back half of the operation and found the variable transaction charges a bit confusing at first.

On balance I prefer the Bullionvault website and the monthly storage charges being fiat based. I have bought and sold using my BV account and it all works very smoothly.

Think its a good way to move money from one country to another as you can choose which country you base your account in and where you stack your metal.

 

[swissaustrian]

I've also been researching BV but I understand that you can't take delivery which is a no-go for me. Am I wrong?

 

[rblong2us]

They dont really want you to take delivery but you can do it with BV.

You have to give notice and they have to organise a bar so you can only withdraw bar (s) not an odd number of grammes. There is a charge and then you have to pay for assay if you want to reintroduce the bars to the licensed gold vaulters and handlers association.

For me using BV and GM is about balance of risk. I prefer to have a reasonably sure way of selling and not to have to try and move a stack around in a hurry.

But i may be unusual in not worrying if it all really goes tits up, the internet fails and my pm's get stolen .....

Cos if it gets that bad i dont think gold will be that important.

 

[swissaustrian]

I see the delivery option as an insurance that they really own the physical. The "threat" of delivery should work as a disciplinary force.

 

[rblong2us]

Thank you S.A.
Thats a good way of looking at it that i hadnt considered

 

[escobar]

I use bv also. I never used gm so I can comment in them but I felt from my research the technology at bv was better. James Turk may be a more famous gold person but I have no idea wha his experience is in running a business and a site. I personally met Paul tustain and his background was in technology which gave me more confidence. I gues everything has some risk. U can take delivery but they charge a fee depending on the amount you are dealing with. With bv the pricing is very clear it's like buying a stock on a online broker, w gm I really didn't know how it worked, plus I think there is some 60k limit which they can promise u a certain price, may have changed now don't know. I know screwtape blog said he noticed some some strange fx stuff on gm, he did a post on it.

Honestly the more research I do I think even GLD will be fine. I am still happy w bv but all the forms to file foreign holdings is annoying and somewhat nerve racking. Outside of complete armageddon I think GLD is legit. Bron S from Perth mint did an interview w FSN about gold arbitrage etc. a lot of these conspiracy theories don't make much sense.

 

[pmbug]

Previous/related thread:

http://www.pmbug.com/forum/f2/bullion-vault-239/

 

[swissaustrian]

I've put some thought into the GM storage fees which are calculated in metals units (gramms). Here's how I would deal with that:
Assuming you're a buy and hold investor, you know at the beginning of the year that you'll hold X oz of gold/silver. You also know that you'll hold at least the same amount at the end of year when the fees are due. You know how much the fee is in % terms. So here's what you do: You purchase the expected fee in gold/silver gramms at the beginning of the year and put it aside as a reserve for the end of the year payment. As your expectation is that pm prices will appreciate over the year, your storage fee is paid at the current fiat value (USD, EUR, CHF whatever) of your pm holdings (as opposed to the end of the year fiat value). You essentially fix the storage fee and make it independent of pm price performance. If prices rise, you save (fiat) money. The purchase of the payment reserves costs you a premium (called "buy rate") over spot of 2.49% for gold (assuming you're using USDs). This means that your actual storage fee is not 0.18% per annum as they claim but rather 0.184482% (0.18 x 1,0249). Not a huge difference, though.

 

[Gold+Silver=Wealth]

Goldmoney

Guys,

I've been purchasing my precious metals through GoldMoney since February 2009 and find them very reliable. I have sold some metals too :rotflmbo: reluctantly, and sale & transfer of funds is as smooth as when purchasing.

Opening a holding with them is simple. They have multiple storage facilities around the globe that you can choose from. Currently: Canada, London, Zurich, Hong Kong & the Philippines. 100% metal ownership & all vaults are insured!

Their security is top notch too. Order confirmation codes sent to e mail or mobile phone & the ability to lock your bank accounts so that in the unlikely event someone did gain access to your holding, they would be unable to add bank account details of their own. Very smart feature

Also, any queries I've had were answered very promtly.

Highly recommended!!

http://www.goldmoney.com

 

[Unbeatable]

I use both. Recently withdrew a bit from BV, took about 4-5 days to appear in my bank account.
Haven't withdrawn from GM yet, i got an email this week stating they're lowering their gold storage fees with all via mat by 1/3 and silver at Via mat in Switzerland by 1/2.
They're also introducing new bar registration and delivery options this month, so you can have registered ownership of 100g gold bars and can request delivery anytime.

Still I worry that BV and GM and the handful of vault suppliers they use may be easy targets.

 

[mike]

Peter Schiff also has a bank (Euro Pacific Capital?) that offers gold deposit accounts which you can spend using a credit card. American citizens are not allowed however.

 

[dontdeBasemebro]

Peter Schiff also has a bank (Euro Pacific Capital?) that offers gold deposit accounts which you can spend using a credit card. American citizens are not allowed however.

Well that stinks...Schiff is one of the few people I would have a bit of trust not to go fractional.