I often take a moment to thank a new follower on Twitter and in doing so, I’ll get the opportunity to check out a new business, blog, or even a quick idea within a person’s profile. Approximately two weeks ago, I received a new follower, @GolverCard which led me to their site. To put it simply, the company is going to provide you with a debit card that is backed by gold and silver (hence GolVer Card). According to the “How it Works Section of the Site”
GolVerCard is a payment system linked to real gold & silver stored in your account. While all credit and debit cards are linked to a bank account funded by currency, this is the first prepaid and debit card in the world to be linked to real allocated gold and silver.
Cardholders can exchange gold and silver bullion into liquid assets instantly, and withdraw local currency at ATM’s, or use their GolVerCard to purchase goods and services wherever and whenever.
Basically, they are playing off the intense fear that people have regarding Fiat Currency. There are so many problems with this business it is unbelievable, and when I started asking questions via Twitter I was suddenly blocked.
Problems With the Golver Card
First of all gold and silver are commodities and thus subject to wild pricing changes. Below are the 2-year charts for Gold and Silver:
While both those charts show a downward trend, that is not my first contention (although a reasonable one at that), the point is that look at the short-term blips – your debit card/cash account should not be subject to those short-term swings! Imagine you deposit $1,000 and 30 days later you have the purchasing power of $900. It could happen and that is way too scary for what is to be considered a checking account.
The second problem has to do with the logistics of the company, to which there are no answers on the website. Let’s first assume the company owns the actual metals. Do you really want to put your trust in a Singapore company that actually has the metal in its vaults? If that doesn’t sound like a future episode of American Greed, I am not exactly sure what does! In the likely event that the company is just investing in the Commodities’ ETF/ETN do you really want to trust a Singapore company that their investment arm is really buying more shares of the ETF/ETN?
Fine, maybe I am being cynical and they actually do have the metal or ETF shares and every time I make a $50 deposit they’ll buy more to match. What the hell happens when I make a purchase? Are there fees associated with it? Am I getting hit with trading fees when I deposit money? I can’t imagine when I deposit money into my account and they now have to back it with a commodity, that will be free. In the lineage of problems, next up you have the problem of selling ETFs and/or Metal. For US Residents a gain is going to trigger capital gains taxes. Imagine that! You buy a gallon of milk and get 1099 with it as well? That’s even assuming they are equipped to handle that type of reporting.
I am not going to go as far as saying that GolVer Card is a scam yet since they aren’t taking deposits, so what could they be scamming? Notwithstanding, it is likely to be a terrible personal finance decision to get involved with them either as an investor (if they are looking for seeding) or as a depositor.
Holy mackerel! That’s one of the most astonishing things I’ve heard in a very long time.
How many people do you suppose fall for this?
whoa – that is full on craziness. i used to audit precious metal vaults and believe me – there is nothing easy or fast about moving metal in and out of the vaults. to think that would be done for every $10 deposit is pure madness.
At the least, people are beginning to think how to enable owners of bullion use it to pay for goods and services directly – like bitcoin. I am therefore encouraged by Goldver although I would prefer BullionVault to establish such a card.
There is another card on the market using just gold for the value in the account. Since I only buy silver, this is of no use to me. Yet, once again, people are now thinking along these lines so that I expect that sooner or later, there will be a reliable company running such cards.
How brain washed is everyone, the intrinsic value of metal does not change; ever. Only the value of a good that is excessively available goes down; and one of rarity increase; and of course need factors in. So if you need a boat; and there are hundreds for sale; the value is low; if there are two for sale; the value is high and in this example the medium of exchange is irrelevant. It is only due to the unregulated speculation of future markets that the “value” changes at all; it is always the value of the fiat currency that is the changing entity; not the metal; as it is the fiat currency that has no value but what the buyer and seller attribute to it. Therefore, everyone, should see the wild fluctuation of the alleged “value” of metals as a failure of regulators to control the “value” of their currency and not the other way around as it is presented to you to manipulate your perception. Grow some perspective that is not fed to you.
When the carbon tax was added; it was not reflected in your savings account number as a lower number you now allegedly possess; but your buying power when down; and that is what is reflected when the metal seemingly increases in value.