Kingold Jewelry

When you want to invest in precious metals, there are a lot of things to take into consideration. You want to make sure that you're buying from a reputable dealer, paying a competitive price, and getting safe shipping and storage.

Bullionvault is one of many platforms that allows for online trading of gold and silver. Overall, it has excellent consumer reviews from both customers and third party watchdogs. But are there any concerns you should be aware of? Most importantly, is Bullionvault a company that's worth investing with?

What Is Bullionvault?

Bullionvault has been an online precious metals dealer since 2005. Since starting out, they've become one of the most popular platforms for buying gold and silver. The company holds about two billion pounds in physical silver and gold, which is distributed among 85,000 global customers.

You can store, trade, buy, and sell platinum, silver, and gold. In 2008, the company became part of the London Bullion Market Association.

How It Works

The company is in possession of billions of pounds worth of precious metals. When you buy a share, your portion is stored offsite with the rest of Bullionvault's metals. You are then free to sell and trade your metals as you see fit, so you can make the best return on your investment based on market forces.

Since there are tens of thousands of users all over the globe, this is one of the biggest online investment services for precious metals. The vaults are located in New York, London, and Zurich.

When you sell your assets, you should receive your monetary deposit within a business day. In addition, you can remove physical bars from the vault if you want to store them somewhere else.

You can create an account for free. The website is laid out in an easily-navigated format, so you can see your investment options. When you do decide to invest, you will need to validate your identity and connect a bank account. All in all, you can start trading within two hours of creating your account.

Products and Services Offered

The company allows global customers to invest in physical gold, silver, and platinum. Once you make your free account, you can start trading within hours. You can do the following:

It's a straightforward global marketplace that lets you own precious metals without any of the hassle of storage and shipping. The prices also tend to be relatively close to market value, though they may be just slightly higher.

You will need to make a minimum purchase of at least 1 gram of metal. Every bar has a minimum purity of 99.5 percent for gold, 99.9 percent for silver, and 99.95 percent for platinum. In addition, every ingot comes with a history that tells you who refined it and who has owned it over the years.

Another option is the Automatic Gold Investment Plan. If you want to invest in precious metals regularly over time, you can set your account to make automatic purchases. As long as you have money in the account, you will accrue regular deposits of precious metals over time.

This is super convenient for people who want to invest but don't want the hassle of active trading. It's a favorable strategy for people who plan to invest a percentage of their income into precious metals, no matter what the market does.

Gold IRAs?

Is this a gold IRA custodian?

No. Bullionvault is a UK-based global company that allows for general buying and selling of precious metals. Not all of their offerings are compliant with IRS regulations for gold IRA investments. In addition, they will not help you with the paperwork to set up a gold IRA account.

However, their website does detail a way to fund your purchases by using funds in your IRA. If you want to open a gold IRA, it's better to work with a custodian that specializes in this type of tax need.

Storage

You own your assets and can remove them from the vault at any time. But it's simplest and most convenient to simply use Bullionvault's built-in storage. The company's storage fees are significantly lower than a lot of the competition.

When you're ready to sell, the company will buy your precious metals back at the daily price. You can also sell to other users on the online platform.

Investing in precious metals is a way of protecting your assets against inflation, government meddling, and economic crashes. You want to make sure that they're stored safely. Since all of the metals are locked away and insured, you don't need to worry.

Is the Website Easy to Navigate?

The website is set up to be super easy to navigate. You can make an account without verifying your identity or linking a bank account (though you will need to do these things to trade). Upon logging in, you'll see your account overview.

If you want to buy new precious metals, there will be a box at the right of your screen. All you do is enter the vault you want to use, the type of bullion you're purchasing, and the currency you're using to pay. The form will tell you the price of your order. Then all you have to do is hit a button.

The Live Order Board gives you more information in real time. It lets you see what price the product is going for on the website marketplace, which is populated by real users.

You have access to information about the history of precious metals. You can see charts of the value of these metals over time, looking at time periods spanning days, weeks, or years. In addition, the company offers several investment guides to help you understand the benefits and drawbacks of different precious metals.

The smartphone app shows you all of your precious metals balances and funds. You can set your notifications to give you price alerts, as well as buy and sell from the phone.

Fees

There are no fees to set up an account. Within two hours of getting started, you can purchase physical bullion of any quantity.

The prices vary depending on whether you're looking at Zurich, New York, or London. You can expect to pay a little more than market value when you invest, but not much more. Keep in mind that if you want to invest in silver, you must work with the New York vault.

There are no fees to fund or close your account. You can also view live price charts for free, so you can see how different metals fluctuate in value over time.

There are some fees for storage:

If you want to store a maximum of 40,000 euros worth of gold, you will only have to pay about 48 dollars in storage fees. That's significantly cheaper than a lot of the competition. The company is able to keep the prices so low because they have their own vaults.

You will also encounter some fees for purchasing and selling. The maximum fee to purchase any precious metal is 0.5 percent of the purchase value. If you purchase more than 75,000 dollars in precious metals at once, you will only pay a 0.05 percent fee. You must make a minimum purchase of one gram.

There aren't any costs for a bank wire transfer to the company. However, if you need to move funds from your account back to your bank, you will need to pay 10 dollars.

If you want to release your precious metals, but you can't go to the vault to pick them up in person, you will need to pay for armored transport. In the United States, transport from the New York facility costs 400 dollars. Transport from London or Zurich costs 650 dollars.

Customer Support

There are several options when you're looking for customer support. The company has global telephone, chat, and email options available at all times. In addition, they've published an FAQ that covers the most frequently asked-about topics.

If you have any issues with the company, there are channels to fill both formal and informal complaints. In addition, you can send feedback emails to let them know your thoughts about... basically anything.

Are There Red Flags?

The consumer reviews of a company often tell you a lot. Bullionvault has mixed reviews from several different areas. Some websites show overwhelmingly positive customer feedback, while others report that customers have had more serious issues.

The company is based in the UK, which means they are not reviewed by the Better Business Bureau.

On Reseller Ratings, there are a few unfavorable reviews. One stated that the company purposefully slowed down bank wire transfers, so they took up to five days. Another said that the company mishandled a large deposit, resulting in a lot of headache and hassle.

Is Bullionvault a Scam?

Bullionvault is not a scam. They are a legitimate company that offers the products they claim to. When you make a purchase, your assets are securely stored until you sell or remove them. There's very little hassle to the process.

Customer Complaints

The company has separate email addresses where people can lodge both formal and informal complaints.

Some people have experienced frustration with the company's handling of wire transfers. They found that their funds transferred much more slowly than bank transfers usually do. But that isn't proof of malice.

A few people have also said that they had bad experiences with the customer service representatives. They felt condescended to and misled about their purchases.

In addition, one employee on Glassdoor stated that the website's processes are complex. This makes it difficult to quickly service clients. That seems to track with the complaints about slow wire transfers.

With that said, the majority of the reviews online are overwhelmingly positive. On Trustpilot, they have a 4.6 rating with almost 2,000 reviews. That's a pretty good sample size to indicate that the majority of customers do enjoy their experience.

Is Bullionvault Safe?

When you make any investment, there's some level of risk involved. You are never guaranteed to make money with your investment. Precious metals tend to be more stable than some investment options, but it's still possible to lose some of your initial investment.

Buying and storing gold online is a tough thing to do. Since you can't see the assets, you need to be absolutely sure that the company is offering what they say they are.

In this case, storing through Bullionvault is safe. The company has its own vaults, which house billions of pounds in precious metals. Every asset is fully insured, so you can get your money back if there is some kind of damage. And the vaults are some of the safest in the world.

You fully own the precious metals you purchase. If you decide that you want to store the assets in a different area, you can remove your holdings from the vault without issue.

You also get your choice of location. There are vaults located internationally in the UK, United States, Germany, and Singapore. So you can pick the location that's closest to you, or the one that makes you feel most at ease.

The website itself is extremely secure. All document transfers are handled using encrypted software. For traders, you can download a marketplace app to buy and sell assets from your phone.

The site has been up more than 99.9 percent of the time over the last three years.

Another security measure is your linked bank account. You can only transfer tender into one bank account. If someone were to compromise your account credentials, they would not be able to do anything except sell your metals. Since the cash only goes into your bank account, they'd have no way of cashing out.

Although we do think that Bullionvault is a solid company, we believe that there are better companies out there to make your investment with.

===> Click here to see our top 5 recommended companies

Or, continue with Bullionvault...