Contributor, Benzinga
April 19, 2023
Schiff Gold
Overall Rating:
securely through Schiff Gold's website

For centuries, gold has been highly prized for its beauty and monetary value. Thanks to its limited supply and scarcity, investors find it appealing as it can be less affected by inflation and other economic pressures that often plague traditional assets like stocks, bonds and dividends. However, while buying gold and silver can be an excellent way to diversify your portfolio or protect your investment from economic uncertainties, it comes with challenges. 

The most significant challenge is how to buy gold or precious metal. The gold market is rife with fraud. Mark Twain once opined that a gold mine is a hole in the ground owned by liars. Without adequate research, it’s easy to get landed with a painted lead (instead of the real stuff) by one of the numerous dubious dealers in the market. 

Schiff Gold is a reliable and reputable full-service precious metals dealer offering services to beginners and experienced gold and silver investors. The company provides gold IRAs for retirement investors, including storage services through its partner depositories. Additionally, the company offers safe at-home storage services and provides resource-rich educational content to help investors stay informed. SchiffGold offers free guides that can help you avoid dubious dealers or scammers. SchiffGold’s precious metals meet investment-grade purity standards, and its fee structures are affordable.

 

Best For
  • Precious metal investors
  • Individual retirement account (IRA) investors
  • Investors looking to diversify their portfolios
  • Investors looking for a hedge against inflation
  • Investors unhappy with the excessive commission and huge markups charged by their current dealers
  • Investors looking for a reliable and reputable gold and silver bullion company
  • Investors hoping to avoid scammers using hard-sell techniques like bait-and-switch
Pros
  • Relatively low premium on metals — you can buy gold or silver without breaking budgets
  • Relatively low or competitive commission
  • High-quality metal — investment-grade purity standards
  • Buyback commitment
  • Reliable and safe storage options, including vault storage and at-home storage
  • Crypto payment options via BitPay
Cons
  • Little to no online reviews by customers across platforms
  • Can’t order or buy online
  • Rigorous IRA rollover processes
  • Fee structure unavailable on the website

Schiff Gold Ratings at a Glance

SchiffGold Product Offering
SchiffGold Customer Service
SchiffGold Security
SchiffGold Minimum Investment and Pricing
SchiffGold User Experience
Overall Rating

SchiffGold Product Offering

From buying and selling gold and silver to providing resource-rich educational guides aimed at educating investors about precious metals investment while protecting them from scam dealers, SchiffGold offers every service you could imagine for a precious metal dealer of such a reputation. A review of some of the primary services follows.  

Precious Metal Purchase

SchiffGold is a great place to go if you're buying precious metals like gold and silver for the first time. The company offers investment-grade gold and silver bullion and bars at a highly affordable price. SchiffGold also offers barter metals, which are basically silver and gold products weighing below an ounce and so suitable for in-person transactions. The implication is that regardless of your economic situation, the company offers you an avenue to buy or invest in precious metals. 

Unlike most of its competitors, SchiffGold doesn't offer numismatic coins or other collectibles since these coins make for poor investment because of their high markups and commissions and the difficulties involved in liquidating them. Instead, SchiffGold wants its investors to focus on investment-grade bullion coins and bars that meet required standards and are easy to liquidate. Furthermore, the company provides investors with helpful information and guidance to help them make the right choice. These qualities make for a hassle-free buying experience.

Gold and Silver Buy-Back or Repurchase

Whether you're buying as a store of value or for portfolio diversification, you'll want to sell your precious metals at some point. Finding a trustworthy buyer that'll offer you the best pricing for your gold or silver becomes essential at such a point. That's where SchiffGold comes into play. Unlike many competitors, SchiffGold offers a comprehensive buyback commitment to all its clients.

Once you're ready to sell, the company will assign you one of its specialists to evaluate the market value of your investment and advise you on when and how to proceed with selling. The best part is that you don't have to be a client for SchiffGold to buy your gold and silver. Regardless of where you initially bought it, the company will buy it from you when you're ready to sell.

Precious Metals IRAs and Rollovers

With SchiffGold, you can kick-start your retirement savings via its gold or precious metals IRA. A gold IRA is a self-directed IRA (SDIRA). Regular retirement savings plans (like Traditional and Roth IRAs and 401(k)s do not permit investment in physical gold (or its derivatives) or other alternative assets. In contrast, an SDIRA allows such investment, enabling investors to enjoy the tax benefits of an IRA and the wealth-preserving aspects of gold, which is often considered as the ultimate safe-haven asset. 

However, precious metals must meet the standard specified by the IRS. SchiffGold offers investment-grade gold and silver that are IRA-eligible, having met the IRS requirements on purity (99.5% minimum) and origin. If you have a current 401(k), IRA or another qualified plan, SchiffGold can help you seamlessly roll it over into a gold IRA. SchiffGold can help work you through the entire process. 

Third-Party Vault Storage

If you buy precious metals as part of your IRA, you cannot store them at home as that's against IRS guidelines and may lead to penalties or tax consequences. Regardless of how you keep the precious metals, your home may not be the safest place, and they might potentially get stolen. 

SchiffGold partners with IRS-approved professional depositories or vault companies to help you secure your precious metals in line with IRS guidelines. Regardless of your location worldwide, SchiffGold’s domestic and international partner depositories will ensure your gold and silver are safe.

Safe Storage Recommendations

While third-party depositories offer robust storage, if you're not buying for an IRA, you may prefer to store your precious metals at your property or any other preferred location. That's perfectly okay, as it can be handy during an emergency. However, you need an equally robust home safe to guarantee safety. 

SchiffGold specialists can offer recommendations or help you choose a home safe that'll protect your gold or silver against fire, theft and various natural disasters. Such safes are equipped with state-of-the-art security features, including fingerprint entry, PIN, alarm and multiple deadbolts while remaining affordable. 

Education, Market Research and Analytic Tools

Although precious metals have been around for centuries, there's always something new, especially regarding market price. SchiffGold provides resource-rich educational and research materials to keep you updated on happenings in the world of precious metals. These include commentaries, FAQs, blogs and posts. There's also a free guide on avoiding scams. Analytical tools like real-time price charts, spot prices and gold ratios are also available. 

Estate Sales 

Besides buying and selling silver, gold or other precious metal coins, bars, and jewelry,  SchiffGold also buys large estates. Suppose you want to sell your estate; SchiffGold's specialist estate professionals will constructively evaluate items in your estate and give you a quote. This service eases the often daunting task of liquidating an estate for people in its service area, including New York City, Northern Delaware and New Jersey. The evaluation services can be facilitated via phone, email or on-site. 

Based on its multitude of services delivered with the highest level of commitment and transparency, Benzinga rates SchiffGold 5/5. 

SchiffGold Customer Service

SchiffGold offers a plethora of customer service options. You can contact the company representatives via direct calls, emails or an online contact form. SchiffGold also offers live chat options if you'd prefer that. Besides these avenues, you can stay connected with the company via social media channels, including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and Peter Schiff's blog. All these methods make for reliable service delivery.

When Benzinga tried out the live chat, all the available agents seemed busy. Therefore, it might be a good idea to use multiple channels to fast-track responses since it's hard to tell which of the customer's service options guarantees the fastest response. Nevertheless, you can expect a response in less than a 24-hour in your preferred channels. 

SchiffGold has no reviews on Trustpilot, Consumer Affairs, BBB, YellowPages and various renowned independent review platforms, which is surprising for a large and well-established precious metal dealer of its caliber that has been in operation for over 10 years. Benzinga rates SchiffGold 4 out of 5 on customer services.

SchiffGold Security

SchiffGold ensures the highest professionalism in handling users' information or data. During a call, the company may collect information that, among others, encompasses personal details, IP address, purchase or sales details and ID verification details for order processing. Although the company may use this information to improve products and customer services, promotional offers, feedback requests, and others, the company guarantees secure and strict privacy protections in line with the Data Protection Act 1998

To guard against unauthorized data access or disclosure, adequate physical, electronic and managerial procedures are put in place to safeguard data collected online. Sensitive information doesn't get distributed, leased or sold to a third party except explicitly authorized by you or required by law. Benzinga rates SchiffGold 4.5 on user privacy or security.

SchiffGold Minimum Investment and Pricing

SchiffGold offers one of the lowest and most competitive premiums in the industry. Unlike most of its peers, it also charges low commissions. The reason is that the company can access steep discounts and pass the savings to its customers, thanks to its large size. You'll need to contact a specialist via available communication channels to confirm pricing. Once you explain your needs, you'll receive an email containing the total cost and the requisite charges.

SchiffGold allows various means of payment for its products and services. You can pay via wire transfer, checks or cryptocurrency via BitPay. Unfortunately, you cannot buy or order online via its website. The implication is that you must reach out to a SchiffGold employee to make a purchase or sale. Benzinga rates SchiffGold 4.5 out of 5.

SchiffGold User Experience

SchiffGold offers investors a multitude of beneficial services that many will find rewarding. The process of buying and selling gold or silver is very much streamlined. Once you've decided what you want to buy, you contact one of the company's specialists to finalize the selection of the best investment options. On finalization, you're sent an email containing a summary of your total investment cost, applicable fees, payment instructions, package insurance and shipping information. SchiffGold requires you to pay the total price before initiating shipment. Often it takes between 1 to 2 days to process an order and 2 to 4 days for shipping. 

SchiffGold partners with UPS, FedEx and USPS  to enhance smooth transportation and storage so you can get your precious metals at the stipulated time. Selling precious metals is even faster. Once you contact the company, you're provided with clear-cut instructions, including information about drop-off, which can be in-person or through shipment. You're paid via wire transfer or check once the company receives your package. Reviews on the company site show investor enjoy the company's streamlined and customer-focused approach. Benzinga rates SchiffGold 4.5 on user experience.

SchiffGold vs. Competitors

SchiffGold has a few competitors, like Augusta Precious Metals and Advantage Gold. All three provide investors with an avenue to buy precious metals like gold and silver. They also offer gold IRA and rollover services, providing resource-rich educational content, market research and analytical tools to help investors. SchiffGold provides a more comprehensive buyback commitment than Augusta and Advantage Gold. 

However, it lacks customer reviews across independent platforms. Augusta Precious Metals and Advantage Gold have over 1,000 five-star reviews each across independent platforms, including TrustLink, BBB, BCA, Consumer Affairs, Trustpilot and many others. Customer reviews are reliable corporate proof of efficiency, professionalism and excellent service delivery or lack thereof. 

Furthermore, while Augusta Precious Metals and Advantage Gold don't provide comprehensive fee structures on their websites, you can at least get an idea about the fees and minimum investment, unlike SchiffGold. SchiffGold offers platinum and palladium coins, unlike Augusta, and seems to have more detailed web resources, unlike Advantage Gold.

Overall Rating

SchiffGold offers overall best-in-class services for precious metals investors of all types. As far as pricing goes, you'll get bang for your buck as the company provides one of the industry's lowest and most competitive pricing. The website is highly intuitive, informative and navigable, with adequate educational research and analytical tools to help investors get started. The company eases the complexity of precious metals investment and is probably one of the best gold bullion companies. The essential word here is "probably" because without significant customer reviews, it's hard to validate the company's overall service efficiency. Benzinga rates SchiffGold 4.5 overall.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q

Is SchiffGold reputable?

A

Yes, SchiffGold is a highly reputable and reliable company. However, the unavailability of customer reviews despite over 10 years in business raises doubt about its reputation.

 

Q

Who owns SchiffGold?

A

SchiffGold is owned by Peter Schiff, a renowned author, radio personality, financial commentator and investment broker.

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