Advantage Gold IRA

Investing as part of your retirement plan can be a great way to help ensure that your savings keep up with inflation as you get older. And diversifying your retirement portfolio, which entails owning various types of investments, is key to maintaining a strong investment strategy. Because assets behave differently, if one of your investments drops in value, another asset’s value could hold steady or even rise.

Gold individual retirement accounts (IRAs), which can give investors exposure to precious metals, are one way to diversify your overall portfolio. A gold IRA is similar to a traditional IRA in that it offers many of the same tax advantages, but they require you to work with a speciality custodian. There are many gold IRA companies offering a variety of products. ​​But, as with any investment, there are risks and it’s very important to diversify your investment portfolio.

Advantage Gold sells gold, silver, platinum and palladium, and has impressive customer reviews. Keep reading our Advantage Gold IRA review to learn about its pros and cons, including offerings, customer satisfaction and more.

Best for customer popularity

Advantage Gold is one of the best gold IRA companies due to its popularity and high customer satisfaction ratings.

Advantage Gold has high ratings including nearly 1,500 reviews on TrustPilot alone, with 98% of them being five-star ratings. The company also provides a lot of educational resources on its site on gold and how to incorporate the asset into your investment strategy. The site says you can jump on a call with a representative today to get started.

Pros

• A+ rating with the BBB

• Has a buyback program

• Positive customer reviews

Cons

• Pricing not clear on its website

Pros explained

A+ rating with the BBB

Advantage Gold has an overall rating of A+ on the Better Business Bureau (BBB) website, which indicates that it consistently meets the BBB’s professional and customer service standards. Advantage Gold has been accredited by the BBB since 2014.

Advantage Gold also has more than 70 customer reviews on its BBB profile, with an overall 4.83-star rating. It has only had one complaint closed in the last three years, according to the BBB, with no complaints closed in the last year.

Has a buyback program

If you choose to buy precious metals from Advantage Gold, it offers a buyback program that increases the liquidity of your investment by giving you the opportunity to sell back your gold investment if needed. You can request a buyback at any time, and Advantage Gold says it will pay you the fair market value. Advantage Gold will pay at least the spot price for your metals, but it can sometimes pay more, depending on current wholesale prices, according to the company’s site.

Positive customer reviews

Advantage Gold has nearly 1,500 reviews on TrustPilot and 98% of them are five-star ratings.

Cons explained

Pricing not clear on its website

Unfortunately, Advantage Gold account costs are not available on the company website. While it provides a lot of basic information, such as how to buy gold in an IRA, there are very few pages dedicated to information about its specific IRA accounts, fees or processes. You will need to contact Advantage Gold customer service to get more details.

Advantage Gold IRA offerings

Advantage Gold’s primary offering is the gold IRA. Learn more about Advantage Gold’s offerings below.

Gold IRA

Advantage Gold’s popular offering is its gold IRA account option. Even though it’s called a “gold IRA,” you can choose to include a variety of precious metals in your IRA. The Advantage Gold IRA is a self-directed IRA, which means it can hold various alternative investments that aren’t allowed in regular IRAs. In addition to metal bars, Advantage Gold has a number of different coins you can invest in. We’ll discuss these different types of investment options below.

Gold coins

Advantage Gold offers the option to hold IRA-approved gold coins in your account.

The Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997 expanded investment eligibility for IRAs. Gold coins, for the most part, must be at least 99.5% pure gold.

Advantage Gold highlights the following gold coins on its website that is says are popular for IRA inclusion:

• Moose Gold Bullion Coins

• Great-Horned Owl Gold Bullion Coins

• Woodland Caribou Bullion Coins

• Canadian Wild Horse Bullion Coins

• Wolverine Gold Bullion Coins

• Bighorn Sheep Gold Bullion Coins

• American Gold Eagle Bullion Coins

• American Gold Eagle Proof Coins

• Canadian $10 Gold Polar Bear and Cub

• American Buffalo Coins

• American Buffalo Proof Coins

• Austrian Gold Philharmonic Coins

• Canadian Gold Maple Leaf Coins

Silver coins

Silver and other metals must also meet certain standards to be approved for IRAs. For example, silver must be at least 99.9% pure. Advantage Gold highlights the following IRA-approved silver coins on its website:

• Moose Silver Bullion Coins

• Great-Horned Owl Silver Bullion Coins

• Woodland Caribou Silver Bullion Coins

• Canadian Wild Horse Bullion Coins

• Wolverine Silver Bullion Coins

• Bighorn Sheep Silver Bullion Coins

• Canadian Silver Maple Leaf Coins

• 2015 Canadian Silver $8 Polar Bear and Cub 1.5 Ounces

• American Silver Eagle Proof Coins

• Austrian Silver Philharmonic Coins

• Mexican Libertad Coins

• American Silver Eagle Bullion Coins

Platinum coins

Platinum must be at least 99.95% pure for IRAs. Advantage Gold highlights the following platinum coins on its website:

• Leopard Seal Platinum Coins

• Humpback Whale Platinum Coins

• Emperor Penguin Platinum Coins

• American Platinum Eagle Coins

• American Platinum Eagle Proof Coins

• Canadian Platinum Maple Leaf Coins

Palladium coins

Finally, palladium must be at least 99.95% pure for IRAs. Advantage Gold only highlights Canadian Palladium Maple Leaf Coins on its site.

Gold IRA financial stability

While there isn’t a lot of information about Advantage Gold’s financial stability as a company, it is a member of the National Coin and Bullion Association, which calls itself a watchdog of the industry. Advantage Gold partners with Brink’s Global Services USA and Delaware Depository to store its clients’ precious metals. In order to be in a self-directed gold IRA, your metals investments must be stored in an IRS-approved third-party depository.

As far as the financial stability of gold IRA accounts in general, it is well-known that gold and other precious metals are often considered stable investments since they can help hedge against market volatility — one of the biggest risks people face in retirement — and inflation. But gold prices are not guaranteed to increase over time, and don’t offer dividends, so financial advisors tend to recommend a small portion of your investment portfolio, like 5% or less.

Advantage Gold IRA accessibility

Availability

Advantage Gold IRAs are available to most investors across the U.S. You’ll have to contact a company representative for more information on minimum investment amounts and fees.

Contact information

You can contact Advantage Gold by phone or on its website by filling out the contact form to receive an email reply. The Advantage Gold customer service number is (800) 341-8584.

User experience

According to customer reviews on trusted platforms like the BBB, Advantage Gold seems to offer a simple user experience. Advantage Gold may not provide a sophisticated online experience, but it’s a good company for those who prefer interacting with people. Customer reviews suggest that getting started with your gold investments is easy, especially because customer service representatives are knowledgeable and experienced.

Advantage Gold IRA customer satisfaction

Advantage Gold reviews show plenty of happy customers. The company has close to five stars on major customer review websites such as the BBB. Many customers valued the fact that Advantage Gold strives to provide them with as much information as possible about how to successfully invest in gold.

Advantage Gold IRA FAQ

What are the gold IRA tax rules?

Traditional gold IRAs are funded with pre-tax dollars. Withdrawals are taxed as ordinary income, but if you make a withdrawal before you are 59 1/2 years old, you will also have to pay a 10% penalty.

How does Advantage Gold’s buyback program work?

Advantage Gold says on its website it will buy back your gold at any time upon request and will pay at least the spot price, depending on wholesale prices. You can contact customer service to request the necessary form, and you can send it back signed and dated to lock in your buyback price. The funds can typically be wired to you within 24 hours, according to the site.

How do I open an IRA with Advantage Gold?

Opening a gold IRA is relatively simple. You must complete a self-directed IRA form either online or using a paper application. Then, you can choose to fund your account using a direct transfer, rollover from another retirement account or through contributions. Finally, you will choose what type of investments you want to make.

How we evaluated Advantage Gold IRA

We evaluated Advantage Gold IRA based on the following factors:

• Account offerings, including what kinds of metals customers can invest in

• Information (or lack thereof) on pricing

• Customer experience and satisfaction according to trusted third-party review sites such as the BBB

• Availability across the U.S.

Summary of Money’s Advantage Gold IRA Review

Gold IRAs can allow investors to get exposure to precious metals, but it’s very important to diversify your investment portfolio.

Advantage Gold sells the precious metal investments gold, silver, platinum and palladium. The company is well rated by recognized institutions and receives very high customer review scores.

Advantage Gold might be a good option if you want to work closely with a company that can teach you about investing in precious metals, and want to work with a company with a buyback program.

© Copyright 2023 Money Group, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
This article originally appeared on Money.com and may contain affiliate links for which Money receives compensation. Opinions expressed in this article are the author’s alone, not those of a third-party entity, and have not been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed. Offers may be subject to change without notice. For more information, read Money’s full disclaimer.