Tips for storing precious metals
If you decide to invest your money in physical gold, silver or other precious metals, you have to think about the storage of your physical assets - unlike investors who invest in shares, funds or other financial products.
Basically, there are various options for gold storage, all of which have certain advantages and disadvantages. Besides the aspect of safekeeping, points such as accessibility, anonymity and insurance also play a major role in gold storage.
What are the options for gold storage?
The first decision is always whether to keep the gold in your own home or to choose a third-party safe deposit box after all.
Basically, there are the following variants:
- Hide the gold at home
- Use a safe for gold storage at home
- Store the physical gold in a bank safe deposit box
- Store gold with a bank-independent safe provider
Store gold at home
The main advantage of storing gold within your own four walls is that you have access to your gold reserves at all times and thus full control over them. In addition, storage at home is also the most cost-effective option for gold storage, as there are no ongoing costs for a safe deposit box or safe. The disadvantage is that you have to worry about the security yourself.
Store gold at home in the safe
If one decides to store gold coins, gold bars and other valuables at home, one must consider whether to lock them in a secure safe or instead prefer to find a good hiding place in the house.
The safer way to store gold at home is to put gold bars and coins together with other valuables in a safe. Of course, you have to make sure that the home safe is of solid design (observe VdS/EN classes!). Up to a weight of about 600 kilograms, the safe should be firmly anchored in the floor or wall so that burglars cannot simply carry the safe away.
A simple safe from the hardware store offers hardly any security and can be cracked by a semi-professional in a few minutes - there are plenty of videos on YouTube!
The disadvantages of a (good) safe are primarily the not inconsiderable purchase costs (2000-4000 euros) and the fact that a prominent safe naturally gives potential burglars a hint that valuables are stored in it. In any case, we recommend well-known brand safes that are also recommended by insurance companies, such as those from Wertheim, Putz or - somewhat cheaper but just as secure - PRIMAT from Slovenia.
You can find more about safes here
Hide gold at home
An alternative way to store gold at home are good, safe hiding places. Here, too, you have direct access to your gold and can access it at any time. Because there is no need to buy an expensive safe, this is certainly the cheapest way to store gold. But it is also the riskiest.
Think really carefully about where you want to hide your gold at home. Supposedly good hiding places, such as false bottoms in drawers or in the toilet cistern, are well known to shrewd burglars. Even children, family members and cleaners should not accidentally stumble upon your gold reserves.
Good hiding places are usually hidden cavities, double walls or actually burying the precious metals in your own backyard. In any case, also remember to protect your precious metals from moisture and heat.
A good compromise between hiding and safes can be small socket or pipe safes, hidden in walls or floors.
In any case, divide your valuables among several hiding places and think carefully about whom you include. However, you should also bear in mind that you may lose the memory of your hiding places due to a stroke, dementia or simply "normal forgetfulness". This could be remedied by a notarized "treasure map".
Deposit gold in safe deposit boxes
Those who do not want to worry about the safekeeping of physical precious metal investments can store their own gold and silver reserves in bank safe deposit boxes or with private safe deposit box rental companies.
Storage abroad is also conceivable in order to protect gold bars and gold coins from state access. The big disadvantage is that your own gold is then not immediately available.
Store gold in safe deposit box
The classic variant of gold storage is certainly the storage in a safe deposit box at the bank of trust. Precious metals are deposited in banks in a safe deposit box, which is usually more expensive than a normal passbook safe deposit box. By the way, it is neither intended nor insured to store precious metals in a safe deposit box.
In addition to the annual rent, there may be opening fees and additional insurance benefits.
Those who deposit their physical precious metals in a bank safe deposit box need not worry about the security of their assets. They are safely stored behind the thick walls of a bank vault. There is no need to fear break-ins here.
The disadvantages of a safe deposit box lie primarily in its accessibility. You can only access your property during the bank's opening hours. In addition, identification is mandatory for domestic banks.
Store gold in private safe deposit boxes
An alternative to bank safe deposit boxes is therefore private, bank-independent safe deposit box providers. For a significantly higher fee, these companies offer access to your own safe deposit box with your own key, code or card around the clock, seven days a week.
For a surcharge, you can also get a completely anonymous safe from some providers, but this will probably soon no longer exist due to the new money laundering laws, just like our good old anonymous passbook.
In Vienna, for example, there is the "Tresor" in Palais Coburg, the "Safe" in Auerspergstraße or the company "Spartasafe" in the 3rd district.
The question of whether to entrust one's gold to a small private company is one that everyone must ask themselves - although the question is of course also justified with large banks.
By the way, in case of non-payment of the agreed locker fees for a correspondingly long period of time, banks are entitled to have the lockers opened under the supervision of a notary, and to use parts of the contents to settle the costs.
Such rights could also be secured by private locker rental companies in the contract conditions and should therefore be considered.
The mere deposit of precious metals with lawyers or notaries is also possible, although a close relationship and a high degree of trust should be given.
Insurances
Usually, your gold is covered by household insurance or homeowner's insurance. But beware - some insurance policies exclude investment gold by defining it as "unprocessed gold." However, many household insurance policies require that valuables be stored in a suitable safe or will not pay the full amount if precious metals were simply stored in the sock drawer.
In the case of bank safe deposit boxes, it is essential to clarify how high the general sum insured per safe deposit box is. If the gold deposit in the safe deposit box is worth more than the basic insurance sum, additional insurance should be taken out.
Whether you store your gold and silver at home or in a safe deposit box, you should always keep an eye on the value of your precious metals.Because the price of gold is flexible, it can happen that your coins and bars are suddenly worth more than the insurance covers. In this case, you should urgently adjust the sum insured to the equivalent value of your gold.
In any case, it is advisable to keep documentation, invoices and photos of the gold holdings separately so that there are no problems with the insurance company in the event of an emergency. A photo sent to your own email address at Google, Yahoo or other providers or deposited at a cloud storage service such as Dropbox can be accessed later via any Internet-enabled computer and serves as a backup. (By the way, this is also recommended with various important documents or IDs before traveling abroad).
Conclusion
In general, it must be said that each form of storage has advantages and disadvantages, and there is a separate "loss model" for each variant, as the following examples show:
- When burying in the garden: gold is forgotten over the years, the property is sold, or the heirs do not know about it
- When burying in the forest: gold is found by probes or by chance
- Hidden at home: the hiding place is not good enough and is found
- In the safe at home: burglars find the code or the key - the insurance cover does not take effect.
- Safe at home closed - the horror - home invasion opening by blackmail.
- Safe deposit box storage: Cyprus 2013 - what more can be said?
- Government Gold Ban: In Europe from 1914-23 & 1930-45, in the USA from 1933-1974.
- Storage in a safe deposit box: Without a record, valuables can be untraceable for heirs - the contents of the safe deposit boxes then fall to the bank.
We usually advise small investors to keep their precious metals at home in a safe vault and to insure them well. This way you always have direct access to your gold. If the value of your gold exceeds an amount of about 30,000 euros, you should divide your investment among several places and store part of your gold coins and bars in safe deposit boxes.
Also, always pay attention to gold price trends to know the value of your physical gold and adjust your insurance coverage if necessary.
