The service makes it possible for customers to use the stored gold to pay for anything they wish to buy using prepaid MasterCard. Payments are converted into local funds when they are made.
Gold has always been a favourite investment for many people. A Canadian company now has a new way for people to invest in bullion bars and use the yellow metal to make purchases.
Toronto based BitGold is a company offering payments services and international savings which allow people and businesses to send payments and hold savings with physical gold.
The service makes it possible for customers to use the stored gold to pay for anything they wish to buy using prepaid MasterCard. Payments are converted into local funds when they are made.
The BitGold accounts are free to make and can be created in minutes, new customers are given a secure vault account to buy and hold gold, the ability to receive and make payments and a debit card that can be used to spend this gold at traditional shops.
Since the prepaid MasterCard provided with this can be used anywhere where MasterCard is accepted, it means your gold can be used to purchase just about anything from a bottle of soda to a car.
The BitGold platform has been referred to as “a new operating system for gold’ and the digital payments platform actually connects real gold stored in real vaults with online payments.
The business was based on the premise that gold behaves like a currency. It remains true that the gold bullion is the world’s oldest asset class and this century’s best performing currency. It has also maintained its purchasing power better than any other savings option throughout history.
For example, markets this year have been facing various issues, but gold has outperformed every major asset class as an investment. The trust that people have on gold bullion is working out well for BitGold.
While the name is very similar to the Bitcoin, which is a form of digital currency, created and held electronically, it is not a Bitcoin company.
The concept of using BitGold is actually similar to using a savings account. And to have savings in the account gold can be purchased using a wire transfer or credit card with a one percent fee to the company.
The company does not require a minimum account balance not does it charge fees for payments made, the card is prepaid with the gold funds and hence there is no interest on purchases.
Interestingly, the company also offers an option for users to redeem their investments as physical gold in the form of bars, cubes or coins with insignia like the Canadian maple leaf.
There have been some critics as well, industry experts have expressed that investors may not be happy to put their money in gold when they could not see it and would prefer to hold physical gold in the safety of their homes and bank vaults.
BitGold’s popularity is expanding and the company claims it has a new user every minute. Maybe it is time to rethink those gold earrings you wanted to buy as present and consider saving up some gold.