Gold Storage: Which Option Is Right For You?

Advantages Of Storing Your Gold At Home

While we would recommend secure vault storage for most physical gold customers, there are a number of advantages you can obtain from home storage.

• Ease of access: When you store your gold at home, you will always have immediate access to it whenever you need. Whether that be in emergencies when you might need to liquidate, or if you like to show off your collection.
• Ability to have private wealth: If you want your gold store to be completely out of the financial system, then storing it at home with no records is a way for you to achieve that.
• It could cost less than having it stored professionally. Costs of insurance and purchasing the safe need to be factored in.

Disadvantages Of Storing Your Gold At Home

While storing your gold at home definitely scores highly for convenience factor, there are a number of drawbacks.

• Requires specialist insurance: You likely invested in gold due to its value over the long term, and you’ll want to make sure that you have insurance which covers that value in case something happens to your home or your gold. Regular home content insurance will likely not cover such value, and so this is a separate consideration, and cost, you will need to think about.
• Space: As your investment grows, especially if you are buying gold bars, so will the amount of space you will be required to have.
• Being responsible for security: The threat of theft and damage is real, and that includes from friends and family members. Gold that’s stored in your home will always be accessible to people visiting your house, and there will always be security concerns due to that.While it’s tempting to tell the world of your wonderful new gold coins, be selective in who you tell.
• It’s not quite as convenient to sell as it needs to be transported back to a dealer.

Advantages Of Storing Your Gold In A Safety Deposit Box

• Security: The biggest benefit to utilising a safety deposit box over say, home storage, are the security benefits theyprovide. You can usually be sure that your gold will be safe and secure from theft and damage.
• Insurance: Usually banks in the UK will offer insurance on the gold stored with them. This is a significant advantage over home storage where you might have to source this yourself, and pay higher premiums.
• Privacy: Safety deposit boxes are usually very private and discreet, so you’ll be the only person who knows what’s in your box. You can also identify people (such as your spouse) to have access too, but nobody without your consent will be informed about your box and its contents. If the box is big enough, you can also use it to store other valuable items or documents.

Disadvantages Of Storing Your Gold In A Safety Deposit Box

• Access: You will be limited to the opening hours of your bank or 3rd party facility and these hours often don’t include weekends and evenings. If you think you may need to access your gold frequently, or urgently, then this is a consideration you need to take on board. The nearest private safety deposit companies may be some drive away from your home.
• Availability: The growing desire for privacy (and gold ownership) over the past decade has led to a significant rise in demand for bank deposit boxes. As a result, it’s virtually impossible to obtain a box if you don’t already have one at your bank.
• Vulnerability: It may seem far-fetched that a bank will collapse, but if the events of 2008 showed us anything, it was that banks can fail. If you hold assets at the bank, and that bank closes or fails, then there may be issues in your ability to reclaim your gold. Security at private safe deposit facilities will not be as stringent as at a professional precious metals vault.
• Cost: Whilst a bank safety deposit box is relatively cheap, it does come at a cost. You should evaluate the value of your gold against the storage costs associated over the term of your holding, to find the best value storage option for you. Private facilities can be relatively expensive.
• Limited size: Due to their very nature, safety deposit boxes are tiny. They’re designed for serving many customers with a very modest space. This may prove sufficient for small gold holdings but wouldn’t be appropriate for larger gold ownership or any silver, which takes up considerably more space for its value.

Benefit 1: Security

The main benefit of this type of storage is the security that it offers. Any good dealer will use top-of-the-line facilities that are specifically designed to keep high-value items secure. If you are looking for storage options that you can trust and that will minimise risk, this should be at the top of your list.

You may want to look for dealers that use Loomis vaults, which have a long and storied history that dates back to the gold rush. Their multi-layered security system is world-renowned when it comes to the best ways to protect your gold, silver, and any other precious metal you can name.

Such specialist facilities store gold and silver for many banks and institutions, which is great validation of their service. If it’s good enough for the massive organisations, then it’s good enough for us!

Benefit 2: Optimal Conditions For Gold Storage

One of the most significant risks of storing bullion at home or in a bank is that you may not always be able to provide the optimal conditions for it. There are a range of factors that you need to consider.

When you store your gold in a vault, you do not have to worry about the materials that you are using to keep it in or what kind of gloves to use when you handle it. You also do not have to worry about dampness or other factors that may affect the pricing of your bullion when you are selling it.

How Should I Clean My Gold

Generally speaking, the answer to “should I clean my gold?” is “no”. Improper cleaning can have a terrible impact on your gold coins, and that will seriously affect their value. There are still a lot of collectors out there who think that they need to clean their gold on a regular basis. This is absolutely not the case. It will be far better for the value of your gold coins if they have lost a little of their shine but are otherwise in perfect condition.

Of course, cleaning your gold coins and gold bars is one of those topics that sometimes comes down to personal preference, so if you really must clean it, there are some simple rules that you need to follow. The first is that you should never use any kind of cleaning fluid, including hydrochloric acid. These are often corrosive, and they will damage your gold, even if it is a cleaning fluid that has been designed for use on metals.

If you must wash your gold, all you need is warm water with a bit of soap. Then, dry it gently using a soft cloth. You need to ensure that you are not scratching the surface at all because this may have a much bigger impact than you realise. It is all too easy to start removing layers from your gold, which means that it will be lighter the next time someone comes to weigh it.

How Should I Handle My Gold

Now that we’ve covered cleaning your gold, it’s time to talk about how to handle it. There are some collectors and investors out there who prefer to leave their physical gold alone somewhere safe. However, special gold coins and gold coins that are collectable are something that a lot of collectors like to take out and admire every so often. If you are going to do this, it is vital that you handle it with care.

The first thing to note is that you should not use plastic or latex gloves, the kind that you may see being used in hospitals. It may seem like using something sterile is the best idea, but there are chemicals present in these gloves that can damage the gold. Plastic tweezers are also a bad idea in case you scratch the gold while handling it. Soft gloves made of soft materials are the best option, but if you want to handle your gold coins with your bare hands, make sure that you wash them beforehand and that they are dry.

Do not talk over your gold coins, and you should try not to breathe over them too. Saliva can be corrosive and will tarnish the metals. Make sure that you place them on a soft surface and hold them by the edges. Be very careful that you do not accidentally drop them on the floor. Ideally, you should avoid handling your gold if you can, as there is a lot of risk involved.