Defaulting banks - where will it stop?

[Damien Lloyd]

www.bullionvault.com[/url] I can assure you I was extremely unsure about this site at first. But did a little research and gave it a go, I'd also recommend it to anyone. Of course as a british based company I have no idea what would happen if the British government tried to steal the gold the way the federal reserve did. I've been told that keeping it in a zurich vault would protect it but I have no idea if it's true. I'm waiting for a price correction before jumping back in. Have a look at the site and tell me what you think.

Frankly, I'd be cautious. Demand for physical metal outstrips mining/lifting annually by several multiples and has done so for many years (over a decade I think). Almost every ounce of metal goes to India and Middle Eastern Souks for the jewelry trade -- apart from that quantity that is required for the medical trade and defence etc.

My concern here is that they may own some physical metal but are possibly (probably even?) leveraging it many times over. That's why you don't take physical delivery under their system -- there's many more owners than metal. What you might consider doing is trying to buy some coins like Krugerrands or Brittiania's (free of VAT). The latter come in various sizes ike the ounce coin, half ounce, quarter and tenth. They all sell at a premium, but you can take physical delivery and stash them under your bed...

I understand the reluctance, believe me I do. It took me about 4 weeks of reading everything I could about this company before I decided to trust them and bought a little gold (just a few grammes at first, they even gave me a free gramme). The reason you don't take physical delivery is because you may purchase 1 or 2 grammes, but those grammes may be part of a 9 ounce London Good Deliver Bar. Once you own a bar you can arrange for it to be delivered to you, but then the bar is obviously no longer "Good" and may be harder to sell, I think you can also arrange for delivery of smaller amounts. They have the gold in 3 vaults London Zurich and New York run by a company called Via Mat. Every gramme of gold is accounted for at the end of every day with a report from Via Mat that you can access that shows you who owns what inside each of the vaults. They claim they have a finite amount of physical gold, and if none is for sale, then you won't be able to buy it unless you up your price until someone sells.
These guys think like me, and I'm guessing (but feel a little presumptious) like many of you. Here are there strategic objectives:


BullionVault's objective is to create the world's most cost-effective, secure and accessible market in professional grade gold bullion.

We want to do this because :-

• We believe there is a deficit of financial responsibility in many modern governments and financial institutions.
  
• We believe that modern currencies and other paper based value systems will inhibit savers from retaining their domestic and worldwide purchasing power.
  
• We believe that using gold to provide protection from this problem is a strategy which has become inaccessible to individuals.
  
• We believe that we are uniquely well qualified to re-build that accessibility and to manage the service in a way which maximises security, accessibility and value for our customers.
  

http://www.bullionvault.com/help/index.d...nance.html

I do have a really pretty 1997 half ounce Britannia, but I only got to look and and remind myself thats where (I hoped) my money was. I trust this company, I was extremely dubious at first but they "feel" right.

I should point out that if you look at thier site you will notice that you can make money from refering people to the site. Please understand I am not, to do so I would have had to have given you the web address www.bullionvault.com and then added my username which I have not done.
The benefit of this site over having posession of the gold is the speed at which you can sell it, you set a sell price and sit back hoping the price meets yours like selling shares but a little easier. If the price shot up to £800 per ounce, then fell to £600 per ounce the next day. I'm guessing most people who owned physical gold would not be able to sell in time (because of being at work etc).

Off the topic of gold however (and because I really need to rant about this) I received a letter from my bank today which says that because I went over my agreed overdraft limit (by £6) on December 24th, and didn't put any money into my account until December 29th (Monday after Xmas) they are charging me £123.06.... B******ds. I spent 2 hours arguing with them on the phone but they won't budge. So I told them I was enacting my right to subject access under the Data Protection Act 1998, and wanted copies of all of my statements for the last 6 years. I'm getting in line, taking them to court and joining everybody else who is fighting against their punative charges that only exist to bleed money from the people who have the least amount of it.