Precious metals continue to be something that is highly valuable and sought-after by people around the world. They allow you to add to your investment portfolio in a way that allows you to not only diversify but protect against market volatility.
This is why it is important to choose a precious metals company that fits your long-term goals. There are countless precious metals companies out there, so picking one to work with can be difficult and confusing, causing you to want to quit before you’ve even begun.
That’s why we’ve decided to review Metals.com today. Metals.com is one of many companies that will pop up with a web search on precious metals, but are they a legitimate company and one you should trust your hard-earned dollars with? Keep reading to find out.
Who is Metals.com?
Metals.com began in 2008, dealing only in physical bullion. They have also done business as Chase Metals, Barrick Capital, and Tower Equity.
They would help customers to make purchases of gold and/or silver bars that could then be shipped directly to their home. They were also able to help their customers to set up new precious metals IRAs or rollover their existing retirement account into a precious metals IRA.
The types of items that they carried were extensive and included:
- American Eagle Gold Coins
- Canadian Maple Leaf Gold Coins
- Perth Mint Gold Bars
- PAMP Suisse Gold Bars
- Valcambi Gold Bars
- Metalor Gold Bars
- American Eagle Silver Coins
- Australian Kangaroo Silver Coins
- Silver Jefferson War Nickels
- Valcambi Suisse Silver Bars
- Walking Liberty Silver Bars
- Buffalo Silver Rounds
In their first 10 years, they were considered trustworthy and a great precious metals company to work with. They had high reviews and recommendations from some pretty impressive industry professionals and were considered a top choice.
Things changed in 2020. Claims started rolling in that Metals.com was defrauding its customers and the company was placed under a receivership where its assets were frozen.
Metals.com is no longer active and when you look them up, you’re going to be redirected to an unsecured site that lets you know more about the receivership and the legal action being taken against the company. They also let you know that if the company tries to contact you, they are in direct violation of the law.
They are being investigated for defrauding over 1,600 customers for over $185 million for selling them precious metals at a 300% markup. They are not Better Business Bureau accredited, and they have an “F” rating from the Business Consumer Alliance. They are not rated by sites like Trustpilot or Trustlink due to being closed down.
Was Metals.com a Scam?
When you delve deeper into what Metals.com did, you can see that they seemed to focus on defrauding the elderly. They would convince these folks to invest a large portion of their savings into precious metals or precious metals IRAs while not being honest about how the investment process works or the taxes that would be assessed.
They played up that keeping money in the bank wasn’t safe and that it was best to invest in metals and relentlessly badgered these people into buying precious metals. Then they took large chunks of that investment for themselves, stating that the price of precious metals fluctuates, which is true, but they claimed this happened when precious metals were at an all-time high.
These practices have caused many customers to lose large chunks of their retirement, which is obviously a huge red flag about the company and its ideals.
So, yes, we would absolutely say that Metals.com is a complete and terrible scam.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- There are literally zero pros to spending any time on Metals.com
Cons
- The website is inactive
- Metals.com is being sued by 30 states and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission
- Receivership has been established
- Many, many reviews of customers being scammed
- Metals.com grossly inflated pricing
- Metals.com preyed on the elderly and their sensibilities
Final Thoughts
Investing in precious metals is a great way to diversify your retirement account, there is absolutely no doubt about that. But, investing with a company that is a scam is not going to help you in the long run, in fact, if you invested with Metals.com, you’re probably losing money, which is not the point of keeping a retirement account.
Metals.com has too many red flags surrounding it and even if you wanted to get in touch with them to do business, you couldn’t, as they are currently in receivership and don’t have any active website or company representatives you can contact.
There are many, many responsible, legitimate, trustworthy precious metals companies out there, but Metals.com is definitely not one of them and they are a company you should stay far, far away from.
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