Is Goldco a Scam? Consumer Guardian Reviews the Pros and Cons of Goldco
Sep 19, 2022
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It’s not easy determining the legitimacy of a company, especially if that company’s service involves handling your money or assets. If you buy a cup from the store and the cup is faulty, maybe with a crack in the bottom that lets liquid leak out, the worst you have to deal with is a leaky cup. When your finances are involved, you stand to lose your safety net or entire bank account. This is especially true with the precious metals market, where you already have a lot on your plate for determining where to invest and what exactly to invest in anyway. Between fake customer reviews, planted articles, and just plain lies in the advertisement, it can be a nightmare trying to figure out who is and isn’t trying to scam you.
That’s where we come in. Making it in the gold market means having a cool head and the wisdom of those in the know to help guide you. If you’ve followed our work for a while, you know that we specialize in reviewing precious metal agencies with a critical eye. We’ve had Goldco on our radar for a while now, and you’ve all demanded that we give them the old look-over. It’s finally time for the often requested Goldco Gold IRA Review! It’s our job to analyze their operation, their benefits, their red flags, and the likelihood that they’re trying to swindle you. It’s time to look over their history, the good, and the bad to determine whether this company is worth your time and money.
About the Company
The first step, naturally, is to look over the company’s history. Goldco is based in California, which bodes well from the word go. We’ll explore why that’s a good thing in our next section, but for now, we’re already looking up. They were established in 2006, making them one of the earliest players in the modern market. They were among the first to adopt IRA rollovers as a core business model, putting them ahead of the curve – now, IRAs and other retirement options are standard options in precious metal investment. Early reviews of the company were mixed to positive, and our investigative team couldn’t find any reviews that seemed like they were planted by the company itself. Unlike other precious metals companies, this one appears to have consistent ownership under Trevor Gerszt and Brenda Whitman from its inception to now.
Thanks to a series of key celebrity endorsements, particularly on conservative news networks, the company has seen a large amount of growth in the past decade. They’ve become one of the heavy hitters in the industry, which is probably why so many of you have asked us to review them! They offer the standard quartet of gold, silver, platinum, and palladium, though their gold and silver selections are where their most robust and varied options are. As is industry standard these days, they offer domestic storage for the goods you buy. Notably, these storage units are not on-site at their headquarters in California but are scattered across the United States.
The Pros
Let’s get the money shot out of the way: there’s a lot of good to be said about this company. We mentioned that they’re run out of California, and that’s the first green flag we see. Long-time readers will know that we’ve never given a stamp of approval to precious metal companies that primarily operate from outside the United States, and that’s for entirely practical reasons. As you can see here, international companies tend to play faster and looser with United States laws, which is a nightmare at tax time in the best of situations. Most dangerously, international-based companies have a far easier time scamming people into buying assets that don’t actually exist. What are you going to do, check in on a vault in South America? We call those assets Foolish Gold, and they might as well just be scratched on paper for all the good it does you.
Being based in the United States guarantees that your assets are not only verifiably real but compliant with IRS requirements. Add to that the stellar A+ the company has with the Better Business Bureau and the coveted AAA rating from the Business Consumer Alliance, and you’ve got a good look all around. We don’t care about celebrity endorsements; those can be bought by any company big enough. The ratings from oversight agencies, on the other hand, can’t be ignored.
The Cons
Refreshingly, we don’t have much negative to say about Goldco. We know, we’re shocked too! Everything looks to be on the level, and we can confidently say that this company isn’t a scam outfit. It looks like the real deal, and we’re honestly a little disappointed we couldn’t find any juicy dirt on them as we could with other agencies we’ve reviewed. The reviews are great, the ratings are great, and the array of services they offer is great. That said, no company is perfect, and there are still a few flies in the soup that you should know about if you are thinking of investing with them.
For starters, they have a significantly higher than average minimum investment requirement, higher than we’re comfortable with. At a whopping $25,000, this is almost certainly the biggest barrier to entry you might face with this company. Unfortunately, with a higher pedigree and reputation comes the clout to establish that kind of bar, so if you invest with them, you are going to be investing a lot. Secondly, they have a smaller selection of gold coins than average. They only offer the American Eagle, American Bald Eagle, American Buffalo, and Canadian Maple Leaf coins. While these are the iconic quartet for coinage, it’s a little disappointing that they don’t have the more robust variety found in other companies. Overall, though, these are minor blemishes on a fantastic company that gets our enthusiastic seal of approval.