Preamble: I do not work for any company affiliated with the companies and identities in this blog. There are clearly marked affiliate and non affiliate links where applicable.
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Introduction:
Since my knowledge and understanding of the how the fiat currencies, and our banks actually work, I have been on a quest finding ways out of the matrix. Part of that journey is coming to the conclusion that we should all be investing in precious metals, silver and gold. But there are some challenges with that especially when you want to embrace technology.
BitGold
Towards the end of the year last year, I heard about a company called BitGold. I actually read about it, or saw a video with someone discussing it. I was fascinated. A company who you can buy gold from on a website, you can pay someone in gold directly, you can collect your gold physically, and you can withdraw / spend that gold via a pre-paid mastercard... so simple, and easy. Even had an Android app. Which, I must add kept crashing the first 3 months I had the thing! Constant. As soon as it opened, it closed. Sometimes I would be able to select a function, but it kept on crashing. (The app worked eventually after I reset my device. Never had an issue since)
I never bought any gold, and sulked. The website worked fine, but I was annoyed the app didn't. Then, on my birthday, I got an email saying that I got gold on BitGold.com. Huh? BitGold gave me gold for just having an account on my birthday. Cool.
Stamp of approval:
I follow Peter Schiff, and if you don't yet, you should. Especially if you care about your finances and understanding the economy real-time, and historically. Peters father, Irwin Schiff, passed away last year on a prison hospital bed, handcuffed to the bed, blind, ill, and a open and shut case for compassionate leave (which was denied), 87 years old. His crime? Defending the constitution. Literally. The late Irwin Schiff fought against the American tax laws, and lost, but won in speaking the truth. As a side-note, I may be incorrect about this but at one stage, there were only two books banned in America, one was by Irwin Schiff.
Peter Schiff, on his YouTube channel, announced that his company, Euro Pacific Capital , and GoldMoney (formerly known as BitGold. The name BitGold had too much a connotation of bitcoin, which it was not at all) are teaming up. There is a great video with both parties discussing this partnership in more detail here:
First Deposit:
So now I had to deposit. Peter Schiff, author, economist, legend, son of an even greater legend Irwin Schiff, has confirmed what I had hoped, GoldMoney is legit, and I can start using it.
My first purchase of Gold (evidently, in my entire life), was ironically with Bitcoin. Yup. You can buy gold with bitcoin. There are a few snags. When you buy gold on GoldMoney.com, you select which Brinks Vault you want to buy from, and where your gold is stored. When you buy using bitcoin, you can only purchase gold from Dubai. Also, if you have gold in Dubai, you cannot sell the gold, and transfer that value to you mastercard. I have not looked up why, but thos are the rules.
I made another purchase of gold from another location, (other locations are New York, London, China, Switzerland, etc... all Brinks Vaults), using my bank card, and the only flaw is the 24-48 hour delay, but hey, I can save and spend gold at will.
Daily
I ordered and have received my free mastercard card, and have swiped the card after withdrawing gold which gets converted to USD and put onto the mastercard ready to be spent on fuel, groceries, whatever. Works 100%.
Economic thoughts
Having been using this system for a while now, I have seen interesting things. Saving your money in gold, for me, is vital because you instantly end inflation. The second you transfer wealth into gold, that wealth is preserved in the best possible way that you can preserve wealth. There is no question about that. If you don't understand what that means or how it works, check out this video below:
Transferring wealth in to USD also has an interesting dynamic for me too. I live in South Africa, so when I swipe the USD based mastercard, it converts it to Rands. I have been keeping an eye on the prices to understand how this impacts me directly, and there are some aspects I need to wrap my head around first before I blog about it.
Thoughts on GoldMoney
It is great. I am using it personally now daily, and have been recommending it to friends and family. They have a rewards program too, which is based on how active you are in referring. You get Golden Heart Stars. the more stars you get, the higher your affiliate reward is.
The features I have not tried is selling the gold for my local currency and being deposited into my fiat bank account. I am not really bothered about that for now. Also, I have not tried to physically collect my gold. I hope I never feel the need to.
Another safety factor is that they are totally transparent. On their site they have a "Real-Time Audit"
They also have a forum, and having been a site admin in the past on numerous sites with forum, I know the value of this. It is a huge thing to have a community freely discussing a system on your website. It is for true transparency. So with regards to asking questions, getting support, getting help, you are covered.
Conclusion:
The above meme is how I felt. The feeling of having gold, safelty, and being able to spend it, its like being taken back in time before the days of the FED (sure, they probably have some control over the gold, I am not ignorant to that possibility), with the modern technologies. So no carrying bags of gold and no carrying worthless bank notes either. It's is beautiful.
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I would love to see your replies and experiences with other services you may have had.
Sources:
Peter Schiff
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Now this is a company I can fully get behind ;)
@spartanza - Thanks a lot and congrats with a very good article. I think it is a lot of effort. Quick question - How I can be sure that they do have this amount of gold in their vaults? I know that they are audited etc etc - but can I like come and physically check it? Otherwise, it still looks a bit like paper gold...
Honestly I put in an order to redeem some gold on May 4th, today is may 12th and I still haven't received any tracking information yet, I contacted customer service and the reason is because they did not even ship it yet. I don't like that they charge you money both to deposit and to redeem your gold, and I also think the price they charge for shipping might be quite high, although given that it probably includes insurance it might not be. Either way I think Gold Money might be better off for a person who wants to purchase thousands of dollars worth of gold rather than hundreds. Otherwise I'd recommend just buying of JM Bullion.
Ive been a little hesitant to sign up for an account as my financial situation as of late hasnt allowed me any extra money to purchase gold, but upon learning that you can sign up without purchasing any gold right away ive decided im going to pull the trigger and sign up. I love the whole idea of Goldmoney and i really hope this catches on, it truely is a great way to take back control of your wealth and start using a gold backed currency again without having to wait for the crony slave masters to allow us to go back to a gold standard.