Hi probably been covered before but i am interested in buying gold.

Can someone tell me the best way.

I have looked at www.bullionvault.com but with all the hidden costs involved (min monthly charge £4.50 and money transfers back to bank costing £30) I am hesitant to buy this way.

Can someone advise a novice investor on the best way to buy gold please and explain.

Spreadbet it's value on IGIndex.com or equivalent. Gains are tax free. The only transaction charge will be the spread.

I think the "best way" depends on your circumstances, appetite for risk, and desire to hold physical gold. Its been discussed at length in other threads in the section.. take a look around.

1. Buy GBS through your stockbroker, or if no account yet open one with one of the discount brokers like comdirect, deal4free etc. Will cost you £10-£15 for the trade, no stamp duty as far as I know, as they are bonds, and the spread. Place limit order and make sure you are not taken for a ride over the spread.

2. Buy physical gold bars or coins. Surf the Internet and find a UK dealer. Premium will be about 10%, but can be as low as 4% on kg bars. (if you have that much dosh). GBS probably better value, but "hardliners" will tell you only physical matters, as the whole financial system will soon collapse

The price of gold would go to the sky should a major financial crisis occur. But in such a crisis gold certificates, unallocated gold accounts, futures, options and any other form of paper gold are most likely to be defaulted upon and become worthless.

So only buy paper gold if you intend to trade and speculate.

But if you want to protect yourself you must buy physical or you would be kidding yourself. Physical is either coins, bars or allocated gold accounts.

Hello, do you have any pointers as to allocated gold accounts - where can I get one? How much does it cost to operate the account etc? Thanks

www.goldmoney.com is an allocated account
Baird&co in London provide allocated accounts (www.goldline.co.uk)

Good luck

cgnao,

picked this up on advfn, have you any info on the source ?

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nirvs - 1 Aug'05 - 07:48 - 9278 of 9284

Chinese to buy Gold as they rid themselves of USD? so says Nigel Goldsmith. Chinese are very shrewd, and this does make sense...will buy Gold above $455
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TIA

I don't know the source of your comment, but it's been clear for a while where the Chinese are going. And it could accelerate soon. It is not a secret (http://www.gold.org/value/stats/statistics/gold_reserve/index.html ) that their official gold reserves have gone up more than 50% from 395 tons in March 2000 to 600 tons in June 2005. In the same period the UK reserves halved, from 615 to 311 tons. (See also my post on central bank gold sales http://www.housepricecrash.co.uk/forum/ind...showtopic=12868 )

The Chinese have also recently adopted a policy of encouraging their citizens to invest in gold:

http://www.interfax.cn/showfeature.asp?aid...G-ICBC-SHANGHAI
http://www.mineweb.net/sections/gold_silver/464406.htm

It's so clear and most still don't see it coming. Amazing.

I see GoldMoney take a fee for storage and each transaction but are there any further charges from banks, ie, when buying and selling? Thanks.

No bank charges if you buy/sell in GBP from a UK bank by giro. They bank with Barclays in Jersey and that means they have a UK sort code and account number.

http://www.goldmoney.com/en/savings.html

Cheers. Thanks for that. If you've got a bit of spare cash it looks a pretty good deal.