Buying Gold Bullion?
You Have a Few Options

Congratulations! You've decided to begin buying gold. Listed below are the ways we know of to buy physical gold.

A precious metals dealer will sell and deliver to you any amount of gold bullion in coin, round or bar form.

Some dealers may sell it to you and store it for you in a secure location, for a monthly storage fee. Or have it shipped to a bullion storage facility.

Or use GoldMoney, which will sell you grams or ounces of gold. These physical grams and ounces are allocated to you and stored in a Via MAT vault in Zurich, Hong Kong or London. You pay a small monthly storage fee.

Precious Metals Dealers

There are dealers throughout the US, with many more in Europe, Canada, Australia and elsewhere. You can find them with a search at your favorite search engine for the term "precious metals dealer" followed by your country.

You'll have a long list of dealers from which to choose. They deal in gold bullion coins, although some also sell collectable graded coins. They deal in gold rounds (although there aren't as many as there are silver rounds) and gold bars, from 1 gram (very inexpensive, but a high premium) to 100 ounces (very expensive, but with a low premium).

Don't go simply for the lowest price per ounce of gold. Some dealers have minimums (although one ounce of gold will usually surpass the minimum), while others may charge much more in shipping and handling fees.

Many dealers don't accept credit cards, for security reasons, although they usually require them to process your order. If you don't pay, they bill your card. Those that do accept cards charge a much greater shipping and handling fee to cover the fees they have to pay to the card companies.

Most want payment within 5 business days, so you'll need to factor wire transfer fees or certified check fees and priority mail costs into your per ounce cost.

Storage Considerations

While it's much easier to store a certain value of gold than it is to store the same value of silver (you'll have, at current prices, about 50 times more silver), that also makes it much easier for someone to steal all your gold.

So you have to consider storage issues. Do you pay to store it in a secure location (not a bank safe deposit box)? Or do you keep it at home or another location?

If you pay to have your gold stored at a bullion storage vault, do you want to pay extra for allocated storage? Or are you willing to have your gold lumped in with everyone else's?

Also, check that your storage fee includes insurance against theft from the vault where your gold (and any other bullion you have there) is located. If they don't insure your bullion, find another storage provider, fast!

Finally, ask if they have any external audits (audits performed by third parties) performed, and how often. If no audits are performed, or they're all done in-house, run to another provider.

Allocated vs. Unallocated

If your gold is allocated, it means that the serial number of your gold bar(s) or the exact location in the vault of your bullion coins is provided to you. Should you decide that you want your gold, you receive exactly what has been recorded as allocated to you.

For this extra peace of mind, you pay a higher storage fee.

Unallocated storage means that no particular gold item (bar, wafer, round or coin) is yours. You're simply entitled to an amount of gold that equals what the records show is your holding in the vault. If you have a 100 ounce gold bar stored there, you'll receive a 100 ounce gold bar, but it may not be the one you purchased.

Fees for unallocated storage are usually lower than those for allocated storage.

GoldMoney

GoldMoney.com is a gold purchase, storage and currency system that allows you to buy gold (plus silver and platinum), own it in allocated storage, convert it back to different currencies, and use it as a form of payment to other GoldMoney holders.

GoldMoney was started by James Turk, one of the most respected precious metals experts in the world. It offers allocated, insured, audited storage for your gold (in grams and ounces), silver (in ounces) and platinum (in grams and ounces).

Which Method Is Right for You?

If you prefer to have your gold where you can protect it yourself, then buying gold from a precious metals dealer is your best option.

If you prefer to have someone else store it for you, look for a dealer that also provides storage, or have it shipped to a bullion storage facility.

Or use GoldMoney.com and have the option of putting your gold bullion to work for you as a form of payment and perhaps even as a currency arbitrage tool.