If you follow the investing media, you will be very familiar with the constant stream of coverage about cryptocurrencies and the highly polarized, ever-changing opinions of almost everyone about them.

But there is a far more ancient and established asset class that receives almost no coverage except from a limited niche of very specific publications. We are talking about precious metals. Technically, you are almost certainly already an investor in precious metals but you probably don't think of it in those terms. The majority of precious metals are held as jewelry by individuals. But there are millions of people who invest in precious metals proper, i.e. they consider them part of their total net worth and an investable asset and not a family heirloom.

We wrote an article about all the ways you can invest in precious metals already. You can read it here — we think it's a fascinating subject. If you want to understand why some people invest in precious metals, this excellent article from Seeking Alpha does a really good job and, for good measure, it covers Bitcoin as well.

But if you want to know how to easily and safely trade Precious Metals with Unifimoney — read on!

Currently, Unifimoney supports fractional investing in Gold, Silver and Platinum from as little as $5. We will be adding whole bar and coin soon.

Buying fractional metals with Unifimoney is on an allocated basis — this is important as not all sites that offer fractional trading are and it can be difficult to tell or not. Here is a great article explaining the difference.

When you buy allocated gold, you are the owner of the physical asset. With Unifimoney, that means your gold or other metal will be stored in the US operated by independent third-party security firms specializing in precious metals, including Brinks, Loomis, and IDS. They are under 24x7 surveillance, armed guard, strictly at class 3 vault locations, and fully insured. The assets are reconciled daily, independently audited, and fully insured for their replacement value at all times.

Here is how to trade precious metals in 5 steps.

Step 1 - Open the Unifimoney app and navigate to Invest and then Metals
Step 2 - Select Buy - you can buy up to the total cash holdings in your Unifimoney account
Step 3 - Select Gold, Silver or Platinum
Step 4 - Enter amount or quantity (the minimum value is $5)
Step 5 - Press order

It's that simple.

What's the cost?
We charge 0.50% of the value when you buy or sell the asset above our costs. The minimum transaction is $5. If you make larger orders above $10K then the cost is reduced to 0.25%.

What next?

If you choose to keep your metals in storage you can. Insured storage fees are calculated based on the value of your assets, similar to an exchange traded fund or mutual fund. The rate is 70 basis points (0.70%) annually for gold or platinum and 80 basis points (0.80%) for silver.

Fees are calculated and accrue on a daily basis based on the sale value of the metals at the end of the trading day, and are charged monthly (or when you decide to take delivery of your metals, on a pro rata basis). The minimum storage fee is $1 per month. The costs are deducted from your Unifimoney High-Yield Checking account.

If you choose to take delivery you can. Cost varies depending on the location, but our general estimate is that insured shipping starts at about $25 minimum per package and costs between 0.75% to 2% of value depending on weight, location, gold v. silver (gold is lighter but much much higher value to insure, etc.), and other market factors on shipping costs at the time. We ship via adult signature required, fully insured, using common carriers like UPS and Fedex, or via armored truck for extremely large deliveries (over $75K/day typically).

For delivery options, there are a number of alternative coins, bars and rounds that are available and more will be added over time. Currently (subject to change due to availability), the following is available for delivery:
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Platinum: 1 Oz Platinum bar
Silver: 1 Oz American Silver Eagle, 1 Oz Canadian Silver Maple Leaf, 1 Oz Round and 100 Oz Bar
Gold: 1 Oz American Gold Eagle, 1 Oz Canadian Gold Maple Leaf, 1 Kilo Bar, 1 Oz Bar

Everything is measured in troy ounces, never imperial. And fine weight only. So, a 1 oz coin is 1 troy ounce of fine silver.

Source country for the underlying bars varies, but is predominantly US, all LBMA good delivery bars.

Hallmark. Typical providers: Heraeus, Metallor, MKS Pamp, Credit Suisse, etc.

If you have kept your holdings in storage, you can sell them at any time through the Unifimoney app. The funds will be automatically returned to your Unifimoney High-Yield account.

We think this is a very modern way to buy a very old asset class. Precious Metals has not enjoyed the rapid digitalization of stock trading or even alternative assets like Crypto and collectables. We are trying to cross that gap and give any investor a secure, trusted and reliable environment in which to invest.

If you have comments or questions please don't hesitate to contact us at info@unifimoney.com.