GoldMoney: An economical and convenient way to own gold

I thought I'd take a break from posting about e-gold's legal problems and focus on reviewing another way you can economically and conveniently own gold. What I am going to review is a company called GoldMoney. It was founded by James Turk who is a prominent proponent and supporter of gold.

"GoldMoney is easy to use and inexpensive, plus you have the convenience of transacting online. Your precious metal is secure because it is:

• safely stored for you in a specialised bullion vault, and
• insured through a policy underwritten at Lloyd's of London.

You have 24/7 online access to your precious metal, which you can sell at any time. Also, your gold can be used as online currency and transferred instantly to anyone with a GoldMoney account.

GoldMoney was founded by gold industry leaders who understand gold's usefulness as a financial asset and value its worldwide role as money. Investors and shareholders of GoldMoney include two publicly traded gold mining companies, DRDGOLD (South Africa) and IAMGOLD (Canada).

GoldMoney's main office is located in Jersey, one of the British Channel Islands situated in the English Channel near the north-western tip of France. Our website and database servers, also located in Jersey, are housed in a secure, state-of-the-art data centre.

Office Address
Net Transactions Limited
ASL House
12-14 David Place
St Helier, Jersey
JE2 4TD
British Channel Islands (about)

Tel: +44-1534-760-133
Fax: +44-1534-760-125"

As you can see GoldMoney is 100% offshore based so your gold is protected from potential government seizures.

Opening up an account was fairly easy for me, BUT you are required to provide IDENTIFICATIOON. Yes, you've heard right, this is not e-gold where you could open up an account with 100% false information and go on about your merry business doing whatever activity you please - be it legal or otherwise - so please bear this in mind. I think overall this is a positive point.

A bit of info about GoldMoney and how it works:

"GoldMoney is like online banking, but your account is denominated in goldgrams and mils, not dollars and cents. Each GoldMoney goldgram® you own is safely stored for you in allocated storage in a specialised bullion vault near London, England, and is insured through a policy underwritten at Lloyd's of London. When you buy goldgrams, you own pure gold in a secure vault."

"Just like shares of stock represent your fractional ownership of a company, your goldgrams represent your ownership of a portion of the gold held for GoldMoney customers in the secure vault.

GoldMoney's website and database servers keep track of your ownership of goldgrams and mils (1000 mils equal one goldgram, expressed as 1gg) and provide secure, 24/7 online access to your account."

"GoldMoney allows you to send gold to anyone with an account at GoldMoney. Unlike most online payment systems that only work in some countries, anyone anywhere in the world with Internet access can open an account and begin using GoldMoney to make and receive instantaneous, non-repudiable payments, anytime day or night."

Ok, now for the all important fees:

Account fee - 100 mils (about US$2.15) per month
The account fee is charged only if there are goldgrams in your Holding. You pay only 100 mils per month, regardless how many goldgrams you own. The account fee may vary for large accounts.

Payment fee -
Min: 10 mils (about US$0.21)
Max: 100 mils (about US$2.15)
A payment fee is charged when you transfer goldgrams to another Holding. It is 1% of the payment amount, with a minimum fee of 10 mils and a maximum fee of 100 mils. For example, a payment valued at $20 costs 20 cents, whereas a payment valued at $20,000 costs only $2.15.

Service fee - 10 mils to 10gg
Charged only if you request a special service. The exact fee depends upon the time required by GoldMoney staff to complete your request.

Silver Storage fee - 0.986% per annum, which is 0.0825% per month, with a minimum fee of 0.2oz per month. Charged only when you own silver, it is deducted monthly from your Holding.

Current Fees for Bank Wire Transfers

CAD - Canadian Dollars
No wire fee until 1 January 2007, after which C$55 per wire transfer.

EUR - Euros
€45 per wire transfer.

GBP - British Pounds
No charge for 3-day BACS transfers within the UK.
£20 per one-day CHAPS transfer to accounts within the UK, £30 for international wire transfers.

USD - US Dollars
No charge for electronic check transfers within the USA.
US$12 for wire transfers to accounts within the USA, US$50 for international wire transfers.

Look at the above! You can purchase gold and the money will be take directly from your bank account! Very convenient. They used to offer the same service to Canadian clients, but sadly for whatever reason they've stopped that service :( That is too bad as I wanted to use GoldMoney to keep 25% of my assets in gold.

Check out GoldMoney's website at:

http://goldmoney.com