Vaulted Review

Vaulted Ratings at a Glance

Gold is a popular way for investors to hedge their portfolio against down markets since gold prices typically rise whenever stock markets fall. Whether you’re buying gold during a bull market when it’s cheap or selling during a bear market when its price goes up, managing your transaction and storage costs while you do so is key to maximizing your investment returns. 

With Vaulted, the new gold buying mobile app, both buying and selling are easier, safer and more affordable than ever. Learn more about how the app works in our Vaulted review. 

History of Vaulted

Vaulted was born out of a partnership between International Collectors Associates LLC (ICA) and McAlvany Financial Group as a tool for investors to add gold and other precious metals to their portfolio. 

As one of the largest and longest operating gold brokers in the United States, ICA has helped investors hedge against down markets using precious metals since 1972. McAlvany Financial Group has provided portfolio balancing advice and market insights to its clients for decades. 

Vaulted combines the expertise of both into a single app where investors can buy and sell gold online as easily as any other asset, all while benefiting from the wisdom of precious metal experts. 

Vaulted Gold Services essentially provides you with a brokerage account specifically for buying and selling gold. Through the app, you can buy real, Canadian-minted gold bars and store them in the Canadian Mint’s vault or request delivery. 

Vaulted Gold Services bring you the opportunity to:

• Buy 99.99% pure gold bars manufactured and guaranteed by the Royal Canadian Mint
• Secure storage in the insurance-backed Canadian vault
• Request on-demand shipping of your gold bars to your home or private vault
• Sign up for the optional VaultPlan to automatically purchase a set amount of gold up to twice per month

One drawback of the app is that physical delivery is only available for quantities larger than an ounce. You can still buy smaller quantities through the app, but you can only request delivery in full ounces. If you plan on taking advantage of the storage offered by Vaulted, this won’t be a big deal.

However, some investors already have their own private vault or a safe deposit box at a bank where they store gold and other precious metals. In that case, you’d only be able to send gold purchased through Vaulted to your own vault or deposit box when you buy an ounce or more. In the meantime, you’d be paying for both your current storage and the annual maintenance fee charged by Vaulted.

Another drawback is that the app is limited to gold bars. If you want to invest in gold through a gold-indexed ETF or through gold-backed digital currencies like Universal Gold, you need to do that through another broker. 

Opening the account is free, but there are modest transaction fees and a low annual maintenance fee. This goes toward the cost of storing gold at the Royal Canadian Vault and maintaining the app. 

The Vaulted fee schedule is as follows:

• Transaction fee: 1.8% deducted from the total value of any buy or sell order.
• Maintenance fee: 0.4% per year deducted from the cash balance in your account semi-annually, with half the fee taken in January and the other half in July.
• Shipping fee: You pay the fees charged by the carrier and the Royal Canadian Mint, but there are no extra shipping fees charged by Vaulted. This is only charged if you request physical delivery of your gold.

When you buy, sell, or request delivery on Vaulted, the total cost of fees is readily available so that nothing comes as a surprise. 

For example, when buying gold, you’ll see the original spot price (the raw value of the gold by weight) and the 1.8% transaction fee before you finalize the transaction. This way, you see exactly what fees you’re paying and the actual value of your purchase after fees are deducted.

When requesting delivery, Vaulted will show you the shipping fees charged by the Royal Canadian Mint and the shipping carrier so you see exactly what charges you pay.

Benefits of Vaulted

Vaulted is a comprehensive and streamlined service. You can buy, sell, store, ship and monitor your gold portfolio all through a single easy-to-use app. 

In addition to making gold buying “less complicated than ordering a pizza,” investors also enjoy these other benefits:

• Low fees: Other online dealers tend to charge fees of around 5% of the gold’s value. Then, you pay additional fees to store the gold in private vaults or bank deposit boxes where both storage fees and level of security can vary. Vaulted offers significantly lower transaction and maintenance fees by streamlining the process and keeping its overhead costs low.
• Security: All gold is stored in the Royal Canadian Mint’s maximum-security vault, fully insured against, loss damage or threat. All records of transactions are stored separately to prevent tampering with your account.
• Transparency: All fees are clearly identified up-front before, so you know exactly what you’re paying, when and for what purpose. Once purchased, your bars cannot be sold, leased or pledged to anybody else. Even in the event of bankruptcy, investor gold would be returned to its owners, not liquidated with the company’s assets.
• Fully-insured gold: All your gold is insured against loss, theft, or damage as long as it’s stored in the Mint’s vaults.
• User-friendly platform: You can monitor your portfolio, buy or sell gold, and contact customer service or Vaulted advisors all from the mobile app.
• Automated gold investing: Use VaultPlan to set up automatic buying or selling each month.
• All-in-one service: Everything from the first purchase to storage to selling is handled by Vaulted, so you don’t have to worry about picking a secure vault or tracking down your gold. If you want your gold physically delivered, you can do that through the app too.
• Liquidity: You can sell gold just as easily as you can buy it. When you need to convert that gold back to cash, you can do it right away.  

Whether you have technical questions about the app itself or financial questions about buying gold or tax reporting requirements, Vaulted customer service is available and ready to help by phone or email.

• Customer service phone number: (844)288-8024
• Customer service email: info@vaulted.com

Customer service is available during standard business hours Monday through Friday. The support staff you connect with are experts in portfolio balancing, gold markets and precious metal investing.

Vaulted offers you an easy, low-cost way to manage the gold in your portfolio. The app handles the transactions, storage and shipping, all while providing responsive customer service and keeping fees to a minimum. 

Vaulted is best if you plan to manage your gold portfolio entirely through the app to take full advantage of the all-in-one service it provides. 

Frequently Asked Questions