Economic uncertainty and raising inflation often motivate investors to better diversify. Luckily, the modern investor has more options available for diversification than ever before.
Traditionally, investors flock to bonds and physical assets such as gold and silver at some point in the diversification process.
Fortunately, platforms like OneGold have risen in rank to address the precious metals customer concerns. In essence, OneGold is like "the Robinhood or Coinbase of precious metals trading."
Here is our review of OneGold, an easy to use app for investing in precious metals from your phone.
OneGold is a trading platform and storage solution for precious metals. It offers gold, silver, and platinum in the secure vault of your choice.
OneGold was founded in 2018 by precious metals industry leaders APMEX and Sprott.
APMEX successfully grossed more than $10B in sales as a precious metals e-retailer before the launch. Additionally, Sprott was an asset manager with over $7.5B under management in previous metals and other real assets.
The first step is to create a OneGold account. It's totally free and only takes a few minutes.
After that, you simply navigate the easy to use app in order to buy/sell vaulted metals from right within the app. You can also use the app to track metals prices as well as keep up on industry related news.
Investors currently have access to gold, silver, and platinum investment options through OneGold.
These precious metals offerings are also made available in different countries across the world. OneGold is continuing to expand its customer offering but currently is available in the United States, Switzerland, UK, and Canada.
OneGold’s precious metal offerings in the United States are gold, silver, and platinum.
The three vaulting partners for U.S. gold, silver, and platinum are APMEX, Loomis International, and approved COMEX vaults.
Additionally, all U.S. precious metal investments are backed by Lloyd’s of London. As the leading insurance broker for precious metals, Lloyd’s insures the investor’s assets against theft and loss.
OneGold’s precious metal offerings in Canada are gold and silver. These metals are vaulted and stored within Canada.
The single vaulting partner for Canadian gold and silver is the prestigious Royal Canadian Mint. Royal Canadian Mint has over 100 years of experience with precious metals storage services.
All Canadian precious metal investments are insured through Royal Canadian Mint.
OneGold’s precious metal offerings in the UK are gold and silver.
Due to the rich history of precious metals in the United Kingdom, many investors often prefer to store their metals in the UK.
Like the United States assets, UK gold and silver is insured by Lloyd’s of London.
OneGold’s precious metal offerings in Switzerland are also gold and silver.
Investments are stored in a facility in Switzerland managed by Loomis International.
As with the US and UK investments, all Switzerland precious metal investments are also backed by Lloyd’s of London.
All OneGold’s secure vault partners perform a monthly inventory audit.
This process is done to provide OneGold investors with peace of mind that all of their investments are actually backed by physically vaulted precious metals.
Each month investors receive reports from OneGold’s vaulting partners detailing the metals owned by the investor. Examples of inventory reports from each country can be found on the Inventory Audit page of OneGold.
As an added measure of security, OneGold uses a third-party partner to physically count and verify all United States, UK, and Switzerland products. For the Canadian products, the Royal Canadian Mint has a detailed audit process performed by the Government of Canada’s Office of the Auditor-General.
OneGold also confirms daily that customer account balances match the physical metal assets in vaulted storage.
What does the process look like for selling or redeeming your metals on OneGold?
The first option is to digitally sell your assets on OneGold for cash. This process is very similar to selling a traditional stock on any popular investing platform.
The investor determines the amount of the physical asset they would like to sell (as either a dollar amount or ounces). Then once the transaction is completed, the funds will move into the investors cash balance. At that point, they can reinvest, leave it in there or withdraw to a linked bank account.
The second option is physical redemption, where investors can physically take possession of their precious metal investments.
Typically, the products you invest in on OneGold are stored and vaulted in very large bars of the precious metal. Because of this, investors typically don’t have the option of receiving payout in those large assets (nor do they want those in their homes).
OneGold has created the ability for investors to redeem their vaulted assets for over 20,000 other physical assets that get shipped directly to the investors home. These assets include gold and silver coins as well as numerous other options.
There are two types of fees associated with a OneGold purchasing transaction. Those two fees are a premium fee and a storage fee.
Although OneGold advertises that there are no transaction fees, there are premiums that must be paid when purchasing precious metals. These fees are listed below, though they are subject to change at any time.
The second type of fee that the investor will be responsible to cover is the storage fee. This is an annual fee that allows you to keep your assets secure and safe.
Storage fees are billed quarterly based on your average daily holdings. The storage fees are listed below but are subject to change at any time.
Below are just a few of the payment options you as the investor have on the platform.
A few final beneficial features include the ability to auto-invest, set up alerts, create an IRA and have access to 24/7 trading.