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Buying gold bullion

11 replies

925XX · 26/07/2022 15:47

Hi I would like to buy gold bullion. I am not rich but feel this would be a good investment. Can anyone offer any advice on where to buy please?

OP posts:
ABugsLyfe · 26/07/2022 15:57

following

925XX · 26/07/2022 16:11

Does anyone have any experience with Liverpool Bullion?

OP posts:
Namerchangerextraordinaire · 26/07/2022 16:51

Gold is not an 'investment' that might make you loads of money unless you are phenomenally lucky.
It's a wealth preservation product, so over the long term your money is likely to retain the same buying power as it has now.

Do you mean physical or digi bullion?

Coins or bars?

Coins have a higher premium than bars to buy, but you do not have to pay capital gains tax on them.

Bars have a lower premium but are liable to CGT as they are not legal tender.

I'd start with the Royal Mint.
You can buy directly from them.

Don't buy gold off ebay etc.. unless you are experienced & have researched the seller.

They have a very basic course about bullion which I think you need to sign up with them to do that gives you the absolute basics & assumes you know nothing at all.
My son did it & found it really useful.
He also liked the certificates.
Signing up costs nothing.

With digi, you can buy in tiny amounts starting around £25 but you don't get to physically have the gold (you are buying allocated fractions of large bars) in your possession so you buy/sell online.

You pay a small fee for them to store it each quarter, you can sell when you want once the transaction is processed & the sell button becomes available.
It takes between a few hours & a couple of days for the funds to be put into your Royal Mint account, then if you want it out in cash you need to transfer it from your Mint account to your bank which can take a couple of days.

For physical bullion, you can pay for it to be stored in a vault, or have it at home & make your own arrangements.
It will push up your home insurance payments if you have much & if you don't tell them can invalidate your insurance.
Don't buy the rip off 1g gold bars as the premium on them is through the roof.
You'd need 31 of them to be the equivalent of 1oz so it would cost about £2000 to get the same amount as you get for a 1oz coin which is nearly £500 less.
Plus you'd pay CGT on them when selling the bars but not on the coins.

The bigger amount you buy as a coin/bar, the lower the premium per g/troy oz.

If you are looking at just getting e.g. one 1/10 oz Britannia (cost less than £200) then you might as well have it at home.
If you are looking to buy multiple 1oz Britannias (about £1500 each) you need secure storage & insurance.
If you ever ever tell anyone you store gold at home you might as well beg to be burgled.
That includes your kids, your sister, your mum.
Wear white cotton gloves if you want to touch it - finger print oils aren't good for precious metals.

If you buy e.g. £25 of digi gold, it will immediately show you made a tiny loss because you have to pay their transaction fee.
Over time, if the price rises (which it tends to over the long term not the short term) you'll see it tends to mean that your money will buy the equivalent of what it would have bought when you got the gold.
It's best if you are looking for something you won't be touching for 5 years minimum & better 10 years plus.

It's used more for wealth preservation rather than profit & most people keep no more than 10% of their holdings in bullion.

You won't make fast money or big 'profits', but over the long term it should (or has so far) keep it's spending power.
Over the short time the price can be all over the place.

Don't buy the fancy rare coins or ones that say Proof with massive premiums to start with.
You need to know a lot more to consider them.

Just stick with the cheaper bullion grade Sovereigns, Britannias etc.. for UK, or Maples, Krugerrands, Philharmonics, Eagles, Buffalos & Kangaroos (not sold by Royal Mint, they are other countries coins) to start with as they are the most common coins.
Easiest to buy & to sell.

Chards are a reputable bullion dealer in Blackpool if you don't like the Royal Mint.
There are others, but I don't recall their names off the top of my head.

They sell Royal Mint & non Royal Mint bullion.

Don't buy anything until you've done a bit of research - maybe do the Royal Mint course.
You can always buy gold tomorrow, but you can't undo a mistake you made yesterday.

925XX · 26/07/2022 16:56

Namerchangerextraordinaire · 26/07/2022 16:51

Gold is not an 'investment' that might make you loads of money unless you are phenomenally lucky.
It's a wealth preservation product, so over the long term your money is likely to retain the same buying power as it has now.

Do you mean physical or digi bullion?

Coins or bars?

Coins have a higher premium than bars to buy, but you do not have to pay capital gains tax on them.

Bars have a lower premium but are liable to CGT as they are not legal tender.

I'd start with the Royal Mint.
You can buy directly from them.

Don't buy gold off ebay etc.. unless you are experienced & have researched the seller.

They have a very basic course about bullion which I think you need to sign up with them to do that gives you the absolute basics & assumes you know nothing at all.
My son did it & found it really useful.
He also liked the certificates.
Signing up costs nothing.

With digi, you can buy in tiny amounts starting around £25 but you don't get to physically have the gold (you are buying allocated fractions of large bars) in your possession so you buy/sell online.

You pay a small fee for them to store it each quarter, you can sell when you want once the transaction is processed & the sell button becomes available.
It takes between a few hours & a couple of days for the funds to be put into your Royal Mint account, then if you want it out in cash you need to transfer it from your Mint account to your bank which can take a couple of days.

For physical bullion, you can pay for it to be stored in a vault, or have it at home & make your own arrangements.
It will push up your home insurance payments if you have much & if you don't tell them can invalidate your insurance.
Don't buy the rip off 1g gold bars as the premium on them is through the roof.
You'd need 31 of them to be the equivalent of 1oz so it would cost about £2000 to get the same amount as you get for a 1oz coin which is nearly £500 less.
Plus you'd pay CGT on them when selling the bars but not on the coins.

The bigger amount you buy as a coin/bar, the lower the premium per g/troy oz.

If you are looking at just getting e.g. one 1/10 oz Britannia (cost less than £200) then you might as well have it at home.
If you are looking to buy multiple 1oz Britannias (about £1500 each) you need secure storage & insurance.
If you ever ever tell anyone you store gold at home you might as well beg to be burgled.
That includes your kids, your sister, your mum.
Wear white cotton gloves if you want to touch it - finger print oils aren't good for precious metals.

If you buy e.g. £25 of digi gold, it will immediately show you made a tiny loss because you have to pay their transaction fee.
Over time, if the price rises (which it tends to over the long term not the short term) you'll see it tends to mean that your money will buy the equivalent of what it would have bought when you got the gold.
It's best if you are looking for something you won't be touching for 5 years minimum & better 10 years plus.

It's used more for wealth preservation rather than profit & most people keep no more than 10% of their holdings in bullion.

You won't make fast money or big 'profits', but over the long term it should (or has so far) keep it's spending power.
Over the short time the price can be all over the place.

Don't buy the fancy rare coins or ones that say Proof with massive premiums to start with.
You need to know a lot more to consider them.

Just stick with the cheaper bullion grade Sovereigns, Britannias etc.. for UK, or Maples, Krugerrands, Philharmonics, Eagles, Buffalos & Kangaroos (not sold by Royal Mint, they are other countries coins) to start with as they are the most common coins.
Easiest to buy & to sell.

Chards are a reputable bullion dealer in Blackpool if you don't like the Royal Mint.
There are others, but I don't recall their names off the top of my head.

They sell Royal Mint & non Royal Mint bullion.

Don't buy anything until you've done a bit of research - maybe do the Royal Mint course.
You can always buy gold tomorrow, but you can't undo a mistake you made yesterday.

Wow thank you so much for a very comprehensive reply.

OP posts:
925XX · 26/07/2022 18:51

After research I have found that their is a CGT threshold of £12,500 profit before tax would have to be paid.

OP posts:
925XX · 26/07/2022 18:51

CGT threshold per year

OP posts:
LadyLolaRuben · 26/07/2022 18:57

925XX · 26/07/2022 16:56

Wow thank you so much for a very comprehensive reply.

Gosh that was very insightful. Thank you

LadyLolaRuben · 26/07/2022 18:58

Sorry my comment above was meant for namerchanger. This site is quoting the wrong posts today!

newtb · 26/07/2022 19:05

You can pay CGT on gold coins if they're not legal tender ie sovereigns before 1837.

Namerchangerextraordinaire · 26/07/2022 19:53

True @newtb I was thinking someone dabbling in stacking is more likely to stick with new minted coins as they are usually the cheapest & easiest to buy/sell.

For CGT, don't forget that allowance is not just on bullion, that's on everything you sell that year (although if you have losses you can use those too)
It's easier to go over it than you might think.

2MinuteRice · 26/07/2022 20:36

@namechangerextrordinaire

That was one of the best, most comprehensive answers I've ever seen to a question.

That was really kind of you to give it that much time and thought.

I'm too poor to buy any of it but clicked out of interest, I'm really glad I did!

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