Goldmoney Vs Bullionvault Vs Gbs.l

[aclwalker]

I understand that Goldmoney's customer records are in Jersey and Gold stored in London, whereas Bullionvault is run from London with a choice of storage in New York, London or Zurich.

Then I heard about GBS.L.

Are there any other contenders for safe, secure, non-physical gold buying?

What are the pros and cons of each of these?

It seems that GBS.L is subject to CGT (although it's not at all clear in the prospectus whether it's CGT or income tax. It says as much!). Are Goldmoney and Bullionvault holdings subject to CGT?

I think there's been plenty of discussion of the pros and cons of physical vs non-physical, in general, but supposing you've decided on non-physical, for the time-being at least, what the are pros and cons, caveats and things to look out for to help you come to a choice of vendor?

Cheers.

[BuyingBear]

I understand that Goldmoney's customer records are in Jersey and Gold stored in London, whereas Bullionvault is run from London with a choice of storage in New York, London or Zurich.

Then I heard about GBS.L.

The currency exposure rattles me, a weak dollar is good when buying in but what happens if the dollar tanks and you want to sell out? This is not so good when you're meant to be buying gold to hedge against a dollar crisis, though this fiat business is much of a muchness there's every chance sterling will continue to climb against the dollar. Imagine having to sell out GBS.L into dollars then convert to sterling at $2.50, ouch.

Anyone with me on this one?

[Buylowsellhigh]

The currency exposure rattles me, a weak dollar is good when buying in but what happens if the dollar tanks and you want to sell out? This is not so good when you're meant to be buying gold to hedge against a dollar crisis, though this fiat business is much of a muchness there's every chance sterling will continue to climb against the dollar. Imagine having to sell out GBS.L into dollars then convert to sterling at $2.50, ouch.

Anyone with me on this one?

I am, and so are many others. I closed out all my long Gold positions on Thursday 11th of May, also Silver, and 50% of my Copper ...and shorted August Gold Futures. I'm not in the business of 'calling' tops, but I do feel there is a change happening in the market. When I'm in doubt ...I get out. If it goes against me I can always buy again.

Do your own research. No guarantees.

http://bellaciao.org/en/article.php3?id_article=10012

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[KTeetwo]

The currency exposure rattles me, a weak dollar is good when buying in but what happens if the dollar tanks and you want to sell out? This is not so good when you're meant to be buying gold to hedge against a dollar crisis, though this fiat business is much of a muchness there's every chance sterling will continue to climb against the dollar. Imagine having to sell out GBS.L into dollars then convert to sterling at $2.50, ouch.

Anyone with me on this one?

BB

I think you can buy and sell in either American/Canadian Dollars, Euros or GBP at GM, it's your choice.

Regards

KT

[BuyingBear]

BB

I think you can buy and sell in either American/Canadian Dollars, Euros or GBP at GM, it's your choice.

GBS.L is listed in USD.

[aclwalker]

The largest digital gold, silver, palladium and platinum storage in the world: e-gold. Highly liquid, highest charges, reputedly poor security (breaches caused by slack users).

Arguably, the one with the best anti- computer theft and anti-governmemt seizure set up: pecunix. Maybe not so liquid, lower charges, best possible security practice using PGP, and gold stored in Switzerland and tracked in NZ - both a little outside of the normal US/UK "interference" orbit.

Very interesting. Thanks.

Would you have concerns over holding GBS because it is priced in dollars? I would have thought that this would not have mattered much since you can always convert those dollars immediately to something else. Besides, surely if the dollar really tanks then your holding expressed in dollars would go up accordingly since it's still gold that you're actually holding and not dollars themselves?

Or am I missing something here?

The currency exposure rattles me, a weak dollar is good when buying in but what happens if the dollar tanks and you want to sell out? This is not so good when you're meant to be buying gold to hedge against a dollar crisis, though this fiat business is much of a muchness there's every chance sterling will continue to climb against the dollar. Imagine having to sell out GBS.L into dollars then convert to sterling at $2.50, ouch.

Anyone with me on this one?

I see your point and it's something that concerns me too, but surely you are still actually holding a set amount of gold, so if the dollar really tanks relative to other currencies then your holding is worth the same but simply expressed in more dollars?

[BuyingBear]

I see your point and it's something that concerns me too, but surely you are still actually holding a set amount of gold, so if the dollar really tanks relative to other currencies then your holding is worth the same but simply expressed in more dollars?

That's true, but you have also bought in at pre-inflationary dollar levels!

[debtfree]

The largest digital gold, silver, palladium and platinum storage in the world: e-gold. Highly liquid, highest charges, reputedly poor security (breaches caused by slack users).

Arguably, the one with the best anti- computer theft and anti-governmemt seizure set up: pecunix. Maybe not so liquid, lower charges, best possible security practice using PGP, and gold stored in Switzerland and tracked in NZ - both a little outside of the normal US/UK "interference" orbit.

how does e-gold and pecunix work. does the price fluctuate in your account with the price of gold ?

[DangerMouse]

I'm looking at making my first gold purchase and possibly my biggest concern is whether any money I make will be taxed. I'm trying to protect my savings from inflation,but this is not worthwhile unless it is tax-free.

My favourite option at the moment is to have gold physically stored in Switzerland. Is there a tax implication if gold is held abroad rather than in the UK, or when I try to sell it back to pounds sterling at a later date?

Does anyone know if tax laws have been changed in the UK for gold, especially recently or in times of previous high inflation. I wouldn't put it past our present Chancellor to make a windfall tax on gold if inflation really kicked off.

Thanks!

[DangerMouse]

I'm about to invest my first chunk of cash into gold. After a few sleepless nights of should I / shouldn't I, I seem to have been fortunate enough to see the price of gold dip. I'd like to buy now to take advantage of this dip, as I still think it's the right way to hedge part of my savings against inflation.

My dilemma now is Goldmoney or Bullionvault, after discounting owning and storing coins. Both have something called bailment, which is I understand a law that ensures the gold is repatriated to me if the firm goes out of business.

One key difference is that Bullionvault only allows gold to be sold into the bank account that bought the gold in the first place (seems like a good security measure to me) whereas Goldmoney allows you to use the gold to as payment to other accounts (although this sounds convenient it concerns me that may be a security flaw if your account becomes compromised).

On that basis I will probably go for Bullionvault as I'm looking to store my (small) wealth not use it as cash.

Are there any fundamental differences between the two that anyone knows of?

Thanks - I realise I'm asking more questions than contributing at the moment. This site has been a really huge help in educating me in the ways of world finance.

P.S. I think I realise now that gold is exempt from VAT but you will need to pay CGT on any fiat "profit" over your CGT allowance. I hope I'm not the only one to see the irony

Edited May 22, 2006 by DangerMouse

[BuyingBear]

Careful, we haven't broken the downward leg just yet. I'm sure we'll dip into the $5xx range again.

[DangerMouse]

Thanks for the concern.

In truth I was ready to buy at $700+ but my research into the pros and cons luckily delayed me just long enough for this slide to start. Phew! But still looking on from the sidelines.

[debtfree]

You own a fixed weight of gold in an allocated account, so in fiat value terms it will fluctuate, but the amount in gold is fixed. You can either spend it directly as gold grammes (here's a search engine for companies that accept gold payments called garzoo) or you can sell your gold grammes to third party exchange agents for a small commission to get local fiat cash to buy things. I think you can also get ATM cards to be able to draw local fiat cash against your gold acount.

It is very small at the moment, but growing exponentially. Digital encryption experts think the whole world might be heading this way as it is anonymous, secure, low cost and untaxable. It will probably need a few large reputable multinationals to "jump ship", for it to take off big time - likely if there is a real crisis. Government fiat printers might need gold backing to compete for customers in the end, if their likely "force, terrorise and bludgeon" approach fails to keep people using unbacked local fiat.

Here is a book of interesting essays on the way things are shapng up.

thanks very much me2 for the information. book looks a good read.

one more question. are these accounts classed as off-shore and untouchable by our financial institutions ?

[non-FTBer]

So who has the lowest charges? Storage, any account charges, buying/selling fees.