Best Places to Buy Silver Online

As the world's geopolitical and economic problems seem to worsen, many expert traders are looking to precious metals, especially gold and silver. Silver isn't as well known as a hedge against general financial collapse, but its price is still correlated with gold's. Many investors use it as a safe haven asset, even though it can be more volatile than gold. Both metals have performed incredibly well following the fallout of the Silicon Valley Bank collapse and the last interest rate hike.

Silver's price can be significantly affected by supply and demand because about half of the global supply of silver is used in manufacturing compared to 11 percent of the supply of gold. This feature can mean greater returns while adding risk. 

Experts from all over the financial world, including those at Wells Fargo, are bullish on silver in the long term. They cite increasing global instability and a growing demand for silver from manufacturing as a few of the many possible drivers of silver's price. 

Decided you want to jump in and buy silver or dive deep to create (or roll over) a precious metals IRA? Here are some of the best places to buy silver online. 

The Best Places to Buy Silver Online

Here are some of the best places to buy gold online that offer both direct delivery and support for IRAs.

Overall Best for Silver IRA + Home Delivery: Advantage Gold

Best for Precious Metals IRA + Educational Resources: Birch Gold Group

Best Reputation: Augusta Precious Metals

Best for Selection of Coins + Low Minimums and Fees: Red Rock Secured

The Benefits of Buying Precious Metals Online

The internet is most people's favorite choice when looking to invest in precious metals for good reason. Investors see a number of advantages of buying precious metals online, including support for IRAs, convenience and diversification.

The first benefit of buying precious metals online is that you don't have to go anywhere. You can do everything you need from the comfort of your home. With brick-and-mortar precious metals dealers, which are few and far between, you may have to drive all over your region to find the best place to buy silver. With online stores, you can compare prices across multiple platforms in minutes. 

A second benefit of using internet precious metals platforms is support for IRAs. Because of the IRS's rules on precious metals IRAs, you are not allowed to be in direct possession of the metals in your IRA. Many of the best places to buy silver and other precious metals have streamlined the process tremendously so that you can roll over (or set up) and start using your precious metals IRA in minutes.

What to Look for in the Best Places to Buy Silver

When you're looking for the best places to buy silver, you’ll want to take a look at a few major factors. Make sure that the precious metals dealer actually offers what you are looking for. Some dealers have much wider selections than others, though almost all of them will offer silver in some form.

Choose a platform with IRA services if you want to set up a precious metals IRA. Not all silver dealers do this, but all of the ones below support both IRA and direct delivery purchases. 

Make sure that the platform has a strong reputation if not an impeccable one. You can jump straight into customer reviews or read through deep-dive articles like this one. Generally, the longer the platform has been satisfying customers and getting great reviews, the better.

Finally, ease of use is a major factor that can make or break a silver dealer. Some still have old, confusing user interfaces and lack good customer service, whereas the best precious metals dealers have great UIs and even better customer service. One knowledgeable customer service agent can make the difference between a seamless experience and a miserable one.

Best Places to Buy Silver Online

Here are some of the best places to buy silver online and full breakdowns of the top choices.

Advantage Gold

Advantage Gold has gained a stellar reputation as one of the leading online precious metals dealers in only about eight years. With its extensive selection of coins, you can invest in a wide variety of silver, gold, platinum and palladium coins. 

Advantage Gold lets you purchase silver and its other offerings to be delivered to you directly, but it's mostly known for its precious metals IRA services. It specializes in IRA rollovers and is well-known as one of the best in the industry. 

It only takes a few minutes to roll over your IRA with Advantage Gold, and its knowledgeable customer service staff is ready to help you through it if you need it. 

Advantage Gold has a few cons, but they won’t affect many investors. For example, it doesn't have a large selection of old or rare coins, and it has a relatively large minimum investment of $25,000. However, this shouldn't be a problem for many investors looking to roll over IRA accounts or looking to buy precious metals in bulk.  

Birch Gold Group

Birch Gold Group is a top choice for investors looking to buy silver, gold, platinum or palladium in an IRA. Its educational resources are more than helpful in navigating the world of precious metals and alternative investments. Take a look at its free info kit on gold.

Birch Gold Group is best known for its precious metals IRA services, but you can also buy coins or bullion to be directly delivered to your door. You can set up a Birch Gold IRA in minutes — allowing you to take advantage of tax benefits while still investing in gold, silver, platinum or palladium coins or bullion.

Augusta Precious Metals

Augusta Precious Metals perhaps has the greatest reputation with its users of any gold and silver IRA dealer. It is one of the best choices for retirees and anyone who wants to have exceptional customer service help them roll over their IRA or just invest in precious metals.

Augusta Precious Metals stands out by providing retirement savers with education on precious metals IRAs, fees and the economy. The platform's impressive educational resources and customer service make it one of the easiest gold dealers to use. Augusta may not be the platform for you if you are only looking to make small purchases, however. It has a minimum investment requirement of $50,000.

Red Rock Secured

Red Rock Secured is a favorite precious metals dealer for beginner and experienced users. Its fees and minimums are low, with an impressive selection of precious metals available for purchase. Not only does Red Rock Secured offer gold and silver but also platinum and palladium. With U.S. government regulations making it challenging to set up a precious metals IRA, its hassle-free rollover services make it easy — without cost on your part.

Red Rock Secured has talented customer service staff that can answer queries related to buying online or setting up an account. Red Rock Secured also has low fees and one of the lowest minimum investment requirements in the industry. Its Investment requirement is just $1,500 which makes them much more accessible than other top dealers who require $10,000 or even $50,000.

Is Now a Good Time to Buy Silver?

Now could be the perfect time to buy silver, but it’s hard to know for sure. Instead, it's much easier to keep an eye on the major factors that will make or break your prospective silver investment. Events like the levels of supply and demand of silver, an impending recession, inflation, fluctuations in the value of the U.S. dollar and interest rate hikes can have an effect. If a recession occurs or the supply and demand of silver changes dramatically, silver could be a safe haven from the rest of the market.