Vaulted Review: Fractional Gold at the Royal Canadian Mint, Priced Fairly?
Vaulted lets you own allocated gold from a phone, held at the Royal Canadian Mint. It is legitimate and easy, but a 1.8% spread each way plus 0.4% a year adds up. Here is the sum.
6.2/10
A legitimate, well-documented way to own small amounts of allocated gold from a phone, backed by Royal Canadian Mint storage and an annual third-party audit. It is not cheap: 1.8% to buy, 1.8% to sell and 0.4% a year. Good for beginners and monthly savers, poor for anyone with large sums.
Best for
Beginners saving small monthly amounts who want allocated gold without handling coins
Gold sits in kilo bars at the Royal Canadian Mint, allocated to your holding
Bureau Veritas audits the metal and reconciles it with the custodians
VaultPlan buys automatically every month or every two weeks
The fees are stated plainly in the FAQ with no hidden schedule
Sell and cash out from the app without a dealer conversation
What does not
Round trip costs 3.6% before the 0.4% annual fee, which is high
Trades run only during NYSE market hours
ACH-funded accounts face a 60-day hold before cash or delivery
Physical delivery goes through an advisor and to US addresses only
Specs
Buy cost (gold)
0.8% premium plus 1% spread, 1.8% over spot
Sell proceeds (gold)
1.8% under spot
Annual maintenance (gold)
0.4% (40 basis points)
Silver costs
3% each way, 0.6% a year
Gold storage
Royal Canadian Mint, Ottawa, in 99.99% kilo bars
Silver storage
HSBC vaults in London, 1,000 oz bars
Auditor
Bureau Veritas, annually
Trading hours
NYSE hours only
Withdrawal
Cash in a few business days, ACH funds held 60 days
Operator
Trademark of McAlvany Financial Group, founded 1972
Start with the fee, because it decides everything else. Buy $1,000 of gold on Vaulted and you pay $18 before the metal has moved. Sell it and the app hands back $18 less than spot. Hold it and $4 a year leaves the account. Whether that is a fair trade depends on what the alternative is.
Is it real
Yes, and the paperwork is better than most apps manage. The FAQ says each holding is allocated to serial-numbered kilo bars of 99.99% gold at the Royal Canadian Mint in Ottawa, insured through Lloyd's of London, and cannot be sold, leased or pledged by the custodian. Silver sits at HSBC in London as 1,000-ounce good delivery bars.
vaulted.com
The Vaulted FAQ, where storage, fees and delivery terms are spelled out.
Vaulted is a trademark of McAlvany Financial Group, a US gold dealer that dates its founding to 1972. That matters. You are dealing with an established firm, not a start-up that might disappear with the app.
The audit page, and what it does not say
Bureau Veritas performs the storage audit. Per Vaulted, that covers whether your metal is physically segregated in the account, whether records reconcile with the custodians, a visual check of bar serial numbers, brands and purity, and weighing of random bars to the nearest thousandth of an ounce.
vaulted.com
The audits page names the third-party auditor and links to the gold and silver reports.
We would like to see dates. The FAQ says the audit is annual, but the audit page text we read gives no date for the latest report, so open the gold and silver reports yourself before you fund the account.
The price, worked out
For gold, buying costs 0.8% premium plus a 1% spread, 1.8% over spot in total. Selling mirrors it: 1.8% under spot. The yearly maintenance charge is 0.4%. Silver is heavier: 3% each way and 0.6% a year.
Over five years, a gold holder who buys once and sells once pays about 3.6% in trading costs plus 2% in upkeep, near 5.6%. Our arithmetic against the BullionVault fee table: at $5,000 the two are level. Under that, BullionVault's $4 monthly minimum makes Vaulted cheaper. Above $10,000 BullionVault wins by a wide margin.
The buying experience
Buying is designed for people who have never owned metal. You sign up, fund, and choose an amount.
vaulted.com
The Why Vaulted page promises that buying gold takes minutes and shows a tutorial video.
Trading runs during NYSE hours only, so a Sunday-night spike is a Monday problem. Cash-out takes a few business days. Money sent by ACH is held for 60 days before it can be withdrawn or delivered, while wire-funded accounts are available at once. A trader who might need cash quickly should wire.
VaultPlan for regular savers
VaultPlan buys gold on a schedule, monthly or every two weeks, and you can change it whenever you like. For someone adding $100 a month it removes the temptation to time a price. It also turns the 1.8% into a steady drag, so the plan suits people who value the habit more than the last basis point.
vaulted.com
VaultPlan automates recurring purchases, according to Vaulted's own page.
A worked example with real numbers
Say you save $200 a month into VaultPlan for three years, which is $7,200 in total. Each deposit loses 1.8% on the way in, so about $130 goes in entry cost over the three years. Upkeep at 0.4% on a balance that grows from nothing to $7,200 adds only about $22 in total. If the gold price were flat and you sold everything at the end, the 1.8% exit would take another $130 or so. Total drag: around $280, or 3.9% of what you put in. Hold longer and the yearly 0.4% keeps compounding the cost.
That is the fair way to judge the app: not as an investment, but as a service you rent for convenience. Whether $280 for a hands-off habit is worth it is a personal call, and gold's price can move far more than that in a single quarter, in either direction, and a small saver should also expect several dull months. This is a description of costs, not a forecast.
Where it falls short
Delivery is the weak link. Physical gold is available through an advisor and only to US addresses. If your reason for owning gold is to hold it, buy coins. Prices for gold can fall for years and this article is not personal advice.
Choose Vaulted for small, regular, hands-off purchases. Choose a cheaper vault, or coins, once your balance passes a few thousand dollars.
6.6
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