GoldRepublic Review
Last update: 21.09.2023
What GoldRepublic offers to gold investors
GoldRepublic is an online platform for investing in physical gold, silver and platinum. Private investors can buy and sell gold through GoldRepublic – either in the form of lump-sum investments or in the form of investments on a regular basis, i.e., savings plans. Investors acquire outright ownership of physical gold, silver or platinum bullion, which is professionally stored by independent vault operators on the investor’s behalf. The precious metals holdings are regularly audited and inspected and the respective reports are published.
About GoldRepublic
| Headquarters | Amsterdam, The Netherlands |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2010 |
| Employees | ca. 20 |
| Number of clients | ca. 30,000 |
| Assets | ca. 300 million euros in precious metals |
GoldRepublic was founded in 2010 and has since then offered vaulted gold for private investors over the Internet. Customers can buy and sell gold through GoldRepubilc’s Internet platform. GoldRepublic also offers customer support over the phone. In addition to physical gold, GoldRepublic also offers physical silver and platinum to its clients.
Investors acquire outright ownership of their gold and can choose between three different vaults in Amsterdam (the Netherlands), Zurich (Switzerland) and Frankfurt/Main (Germany).
Besides lump sum investments, GoldRepublic also offers precious metals savings plans and gift accounts.
When buying gold with GoldRepublic, investors buy grams of standard bullion bars as defined by the London Bullion Market Association. The LBMA is the professional association for the London gold market and sets the rules for standard bullion bars or what are known as good delivery bars.
Standard bullion bars are traded at very low premiums above the market value of their gold content and enable investors to purchase, sell and store gold at low costs.
Product details
| Precious metals |
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| Minimum investment | 1 gram of gold |
| Delivery of gold | Optional, separate fees apply (see below) |
| Vault locations |
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| Currencies | Clients of GoldRepublic can trade in Euros |
| Additional features | Gold savings plans; gift accounts |
Security considerations regarding GoldRepublic
According to GoldRepublic, the following security measures apply:
The gold of GoldRepublic’s customers is stored by the independent vaulting operators LOOMIS (formerly Via Mat) and G4S, which are both members of the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA).
GoldRepublic publishes the holdings of each of its investors in an anonymised form. The investors’ total holdings are listed under online nicknames. The vault operator sends a daily bar list of the total of GoldRepublic’s gold holdings which is then published on GoldRepublic’s website.
The annual statements of GoldRepublic are audited by a major auditing firm, and the gold bars in the vaults are inspected by an LBMA-accredited, independent inspection company.
Withdrawal of gold is possible for clients of GoldRepublic, but additional fees apply (see costs of GoldRepublic below). For safety reasons, there are withdrawal restrictions on the transfer of funds. Normally, GoldRepublic only allows money to be returned to the bank from which the client’s GoldRepublic account was originally funded. There are exceptions, but these require additional security measures to ensure that money can only be transferred to the correct client and nobody else.
All buy and sell transactions of gold through the GoldRepublic platform are instantaneously settled, i.e. clients can only buy gold when their accounts are funded. There is no settlement risk. GoldRepublic does not own the gold of the client and cannot loan the client’s bullion to others.
Every client has outright ownership of their amount of gold. The gold becomes the client’s legal property. A potential default of GoldRepublic or of the vaulting operator would not change this. The client would still own their gold.
More details on our review methodology and the covered safety and security criteria can be found on our Safety criteria page.
Trustable Gold’s Safety Criteria
| Outright Ownership of 100% Gold | Insured, independent storage | Transparent, external audit | Price transparency | Liquidity | Regulation |
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| Clients of GoldRepublic own their gold, it is their legal property | The gold is insured, the independent storage company is a member of LBMA | Annual audit by independent auditor; results are published; daily reconciliation of client gold holdings with formal bar list from vault operator; publication of audited company accounts | Yes, see below | Clients can place buy and sell orders 24×7 | GoldRepublic is independent of banks and holds a license from the AFM (Dutch Authority for the Financial Markets) |
Costs of GoldRepublic
Premium/mark-up for buying and selling gold
- Typically around 1.0% for buying gold
- Typically around 1.0% for selling gold
Transaction fee for buying and selling gold
- 1.0% for buying gold
- 1.0% for selling gold
Costs for storage and insurance
- 0.5% per year (excluding VAT). The fees are calculated on a daily basis and charged on a quarterly basis.
Withdrawal fee for delivery of gold
The following charges apply for physical deliveries: 1%
Production costs for gold bars to be delivered
- 100 gram: US$ 35.00
- 250 gram: US$ 41.50
- 500 gram: US$ 50.00
- 1,000 gram: US$ 77.00
- 400 fine troy ounces (ca. 12,500 gram): US$ 140.00
Transportation costs
Transportation costs will be quoted when the customer requests a physical delivery.
How to become a customer of GoldRepublic
In order to buy gold with GoldRepublic, investors have to perform the following steps:
1. Open an account online with GoldRepublic
Open an account at GoldRepublic via their website. Go to the website of GoldRepublic and press CREATE ACCOUNT.
2. Validate your GoldRepublic account
Once you have created an account and want to begin buying gold or silver, you first have to validate your account. You can validate your account by completing the validation form in your account. After the validation, you will be assigned your own account manager who will personally welcome you over the phone. Your account manager is your permanent contact person at GoldRepublic to whom you can turn if you have any questions about how the system works.
3. Deposit funds into your cash depot
In order to pay for your buying transactions in precious metals you must pay money into your cash depot at the Stichting Beheer Derdengelden GoldRepublic (SBDG).
4. Start buying gold
You can use the order form to place market and limit orders (buy and sell). Placing orders is possible based on amount or on weight. Before you submit your order you will be given a overview of the cost structure of your order.