Goldmoney

Lifehacker Review: Goldmoney Deleted My Gold!

Update:

Goldmoney is often called a scam, is it? 

I had a Goldmoney holding for over a year. I was happy with it up until recently. I have a popular website and Youtube channel about health, mindset, and lifehacking where I mentioned Goldmoney a few times but I was not really aggressive about recommending the company because I had my lingering doubts about Goldmoney...

Read More: Goldmoney Deleted My Gold!

Recently I made what feels like a VERY adult decision to become a first-time proud owner of/investor in gold!

Yes, I'm now the proud of owner of a minuscule amount of shiny gold stuff sitting in a Loomis vault in London. Usually given an extra hundred dollars of disposable income, I'll go for a fine dinner and a decadent night out on the town. Or do a bit of shopping to pick up some fly threads from the mall but recently a bit of financial good sense possessed me and instead I purchased a small gold holding from GoldMoney, which was as easy as ordering something off Amazon.

Buying gold for the first time...

I'm embarrassed to admit that I've known about the significant upsides of precious metal investing for about a decade and I'm finally now getting around to acquiring some myself. I've followed libertarian podcasters like Peter Schiff for years but like so many millennials I just always had something better to spend my money on than investing in gold.

Investing in gold has for the longest time been kind of a hurdle to get into...

• Getting started required an investment of at least a couple hundred dollars. Admittedly it's been rare that I had just had a couple of hundred dollars sitting around burning a hole in my pocket.
• I wasn't sure if I should purchase gold bullion itself or one of the varieties of gold coins.
• If I ever wanted to liquidate my gold, how difficult would that be?
• Is it better to let a company manage your gold? How do I know that they're not just going to steal my gold? Or should I insist upon keeping the gold in my possession? Great. Now I need to buy a safe box!
• A lot of the companies selling gold or precious metals seemed at best a bit unprofessional and at worst downright scammy.

But then GoldMoney appeared on my radar and they stood out for a few reasons

• BitGold -- This is a digital gold currency that is NOT (as its first syllable might imply) a cryptocurrency but digital gold currency that works like cryptocurrency or Paypal. It's a gold-backed digital currency that can be transferred from one person to another with a few clicks.
• Liquidity -- GoldMoney liquifies your gold so you can spend it on dinner or really whatever you want using the GoldMoney Mastercard. No longer is capital imprisoned in the inert atoms of a precious metal. Now it can be flung across oceans or continents in an instant with the click of a mouse or the swipe of a plastic card.
• Credibility --  It would be a great understatement to say that GoldMoney is meticulously regulated and has thoroughly audited gold reserves.
• The company has real people behind it. Roy Sebag and Josh Crumb are very frank, knowledgeable, and accessible guys. With a lot of financial services firms, you don't know who is behind the company. I put my real name and face on pretty much everything I do and I like to do business with people who have similar reputational skin in the game.
• No minimums -- I got started with a hundred dollar investment BUT you could start with a lot less if you wanted. I just purchased $8 in gold.
• Convenience -- To repeat myself, Goldmoney makes it as easy to invest in gold as it is to order stuff off Amazon. You can fund a holding with your credit card, debit card, Paypal account, or cryptocurrency (Bitcoin or Ethereum) and purchase gold or silver.

Setting up a GoldMoney Holding

Buying digital gold is a little different than ordering something from an e-commerce store in that you have to set up a holding account.

1. You sign up for the holding account here. It's a similar sign-up process to numerous web or financial services accounts that you've probably signed up for.
2. You can verify your account using your webcam and passport or government-issued ID but you don't need to. You can purchase without verifying your account.
3. To invest in gold or other precious metals you need to fund your holding account using a credit card, Paypal, or bank transfer.

I placed my order over the weekend and it was processed the following Monday. I received a notification email that my new gold was safe and sound in the vault in London.

The Fees

Spending $100 to buy 2.4 grams of gold I had to pay these fees...

• Purchasing with Paypal there was a Convenience Fee of 2%
• GoldMoney charges a Buy Fee of .5%
• Loomis in London charges .01% as a monthly storage fee (0.1% yearly)

I would obviously love for there to be no fees but less than 3% is not bad. Compared to the fees Paypal or different cryptocurrency wallets and exchanges charge to do commerce 3% is pretty damn reasonable!

Originally Published on MarketplaceGOLD.com