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BullionVault Tariff (effective until 24th November 2012)

You pay only two charges in the normal course of using BullionVault:

  1. Dealing commission each time you buy or sell.

    This is a maximum of 0.8% per trade, and falls to a minimum of 0.02% depending on the amount of gold or silver you buy or sell in the year.

  2. Storage & insurance fee every month.

    0.12% per year on gold, billed monthly and subject to monthly minimum of $4. 0.48% per year on silver, billed monthly and subject to monthly minimum of $8.

All other possible charges are detailed below. There are no hidden fees.

  1. Commission rates

  2. Custody charges
  3. Withdrawal fee
  4. Other Charges

  5. Optional services for larger accounts

  6. Exceptional Charges

Commission rates

The commission is a maximum of 0.8%, and falls depending on how much you buy or sell over the year.

Commission rates for both purchases and sales run independently on gold and silver, and are applied according to the total value of each traded through the year - starting on the day your create your account. They are as follows:-

  Buying gold Buying silver
Total gold bought in the year so far Commission rate Total silver bought in the year so far Commission rate
Up to $30,000 0.80% $30,000 0.80%
The next $30,000 0.40% $30,000 0.40%
The next $540,000 0.10% $540,000 0.10%
then   0.02%   0.02%
Please Note: All commission tiers are calculated annually. Your commission rates will reset to 0.8% on the anniversary of your account registration each year.
  Selling gold Selling silver
Total gold sold in the year so far Commission rate Total silver sold in the year so far Commission rate
Up to $30,000 0.80% $30,000 0.80%
The next $30,000 0.40% $30,000 0.40%
The next $540,000 0.10% $540,000 0.10%
then   0.02%   0.02%
Please Note: All commission tiers are calculated annually. Your commission rates will reset to 0.8% on the anniversary of your account registration each year.

No minimum commission

There is no minimum commission charge. If you choose to buy your gold or silver a single gram at a time you can. At the 0.02% rate you'd be paying a 1 cent commission on trades up to $50.

Custody charges

The gold custody charge is 0.12% per annum with a minimum monthly fee of $4. The silver custody charge is 0.48% per annum with a monthly minimum of $8. Both are billed monthly and are triggered during any month in which you hold the metal.

Dollar value of your gold Annual gold custody charge Effective annual gold % rate Dollar value of your silver Annual silver custody charge Effective annual silver % rate
$5,000 $48 0.96% $5,000 $96 1.92%
$10,000 $48 0.48% $10,000 $96 0.96%
$20,000 $48 0.24% $20,000 $96 0.48%
$30,000 $48 0.16% $30,000 $144 0.48%
$40,000 $48 0.12% $40,000 $192 0.48%
$50,000 $60 0.12% $50,000 $240 0.48%
$75,000 $90 0.12% $75,000 $360 0.48%
$100,000 $120 0.12% $100,000 $480 0.48%
$250,000 $300 0.12% $250,000 $1,200 0.48%
$500,000 $600 0.12% $500,000 $2,400 0.48%
$1,000,000 $1,200 0.12% $1,000,000 $4,800 0.48%

Withdrawal fee

BullionVault provides an efficient service for dealing and owning gold and silver bullion, free from counterparty and credit-default risk. It is not intended as a low-cost or convenient service for taking physical possession of either gold or silver bullion.

If you choose to withdraw your gold from BullionVault, your wish will be accommodated only in the form of whole numbers of appropriate bars of varying sizes and of generally accepted gold bullion coins to be selected at BullionVault's discretion.

The withdrawal fee for good delivery gold bars (400 troy oz) will be not more than 2.5% of value. The withdrawal fee for other gold will be not more than 7.5% of value.

Your wish to withdraw silver bullion will be accommodated only in the form of whole good delivery silver bars (1,000 troy oz) and at a fee of not more than 10%. The withdrawal fee for one tonne or more of silver bullion, delivered in whole good delivery bars, will be not more 2.5%.

Please note that on withdrawing bullion from the vault you may become liable to taxes which you would otherwise not need to pay, such as VAT sales tax on silver bullion, currently charged at 20% in the United Kingdom.

Other Charges

Burglar Alarm Charging

If you choose to use the cell/mobile SMS Burglar Alarm, BullionVault debits a fee to cover the costs each time it sounds.

The charge per SMS is 20 cents or approximate foreign currency equivalent.

Login and Order Alerts are optional, and can be activated on your Account Settings page when logged in. Withdrawal Alerts are automatically activated by you entering your cell/mobile number.

Funds wire

When you withdraw your money the cost of wiring funds direct to your bank is deducted from the amount withdrawn.

The charge is $30 or approximate foreign currency equivalent.

Password reset

Should you forget your password, issuing a new one is akin to cutting you a new key to the vault. It represents a security risk, and requires significant time to establish that the new 'key' is being issued to the rightful owner. BullionVault reserves the right charge your account $20 for a password reset.

Finalization charges in the event of death

In the event of your death, BullionVault will charge an administration fee to handle the finalization of your account. This fee will not exceed the higher of $500 or 1% of the value of the account without both explanation from us and prior approval of the administrator.

Optional services for larger accounts

Main market trades

If you are dealing in whole bar sizes of gold (multiples of 12.5kg) or one metric tonne of silver and above (1,000kg, around 32,000 troy oz) you have the right to trade gold directly on the local professional bullion markets, as described in our Terms and Conditions.

If you exercise this right you will pay BullionVault's normal commission rates, an extra $100 arrangement fee, and all market charges including any shipment costs. Typically in gold, this proves cheaper for deals of two or more bars (25kg or more).

Please contact us if you wish to discuss the pros and cons of trading this way.

Reserving specific bars

If you have enough gold in any vault, you have the right to reserve a specific bar in your name.

There is a charge of 0.1% to reserve a bar in your name. There is no charge to release it. In addition, the vaulting charge for reserved gold increases from 0.12% to 0.18% per year. The vaulting charge for reserved silver rises from 0.48% to 0.72% per year.

Transferring gold to an alternate vault

Where international law permits it, you have a right of transfer of gold within BullionVault from one vault location to another, but only in the form of entire and appropriate bars.

Gold transfers of this kind are performed through accredited bullion couriers. Vault and courier charges are variable, are payable by you, and can be quoted at the time. You may also need to pay additional charges to cover either the selling of your gold and its replacement with a locally acceptable form, or its refining and manufacture into a locally acceptable form, if your gold does not meet the alternate location's standard form.

In addition to the direct gold-shipping costs borne by you, BullionVault makes a 0.5% arrangement fee for this service subject to a minimum of $500.

Exceptional Charges

If you fail to validate your account

BullionVault is both required by law and motivated by security to ensure that all funded accounts are properly validated. We ask you to validate your account within two weeks of your first deposit, and if you do not we will give you frequent reminders and ample time in which to complete this process. However, if you fail to validate after 8 weeks and repeated reminders, we will begin charging you a late validation penalty fee of $30 per month until your account is validated.

We do not want to charge you this fee - we want you to validate your account. As soon as you validate, we will re-credit your account with your most recent late validation penalty, if any.

Changing your linked bank account

BullionVault reserves the right to charge you an administration cost of $50 for changing your linked bank account.

Return of unlinked deposits

If you make deposits from any source other than your single linked bank account, BullionVault may not be able to accept those funds into your existing account. If this is the case, we will give you the choice of either opening an additional BullionVault account or having the funds returned to source. Since the latter is a fairly lengthy process involving our bank's research team, when you ask us to return your funds to source we will charge you an administration fee of $30.

Withdrawal of repudiatable funds

If you deposit money using a method on which your bank has a right of repudiation, and you want to withdraw those funds before that right has expired, we will need to contact them to ensure the funds are completely cleared before we can process your withdrawal. When this is necessary, we will charge you an administration cost of not more than $30.

Currently this charge only applies to US check & online deposits that you wish to withdraw within 60 days.

Machinery utilisation billing

BullionVault reserves the right to charge for inappropriate use of its servers by automated web trading devices which operate without appropriate regard for the BullionVault resources their devices require. Ordinarily these charges will not be applied without fair warning.

Time and Materials billing

BullionVault reserves the right to charge for exceptional work which falls outside of the normal scope of our business as defined in our Terms and Conditions. (For example, in divorce cases where we can no longer return funds to the linked bank account, nor to a new account held in the same joint names, we would charge you for the time we spend in finalizing the account to the satisfaction of all parties.)

BullionVault will never begin such work without prior agreement.

The standard hourly rate for time billing is $50 per hour (or currency equivalent).