Monex

This is a write up of Monex, a gold and silver bullion dealer in the US. Before you buy gold from Monex Gold, it is a good idea to do some research about the Monex Deposit Company and find out more about them.

In addition, it is always a very wise move to do your own due diligence before you consider buying gold or silver from any gold or silver dealer, regardless of whom they are.

Who are Monex?
Monex started out as a small coin shop in Long Beach California during the 1960s when owning gold was prohibited by federal law. Over the years the business has expanded and is now a billion dollar company in turnover with over 120 employees. However, the Monex company, or more correctly, the Monex Group, is still a family business with the founder, and still existing chairman, Louis Carabini, with his son Michael Carabini, the CEO running the business. Michael Carabini's daughter is also starting out, as her father and his father before him did, behind the counter.

Monex Quality of Service
Each day monex.com opens its doors at 5.30am and continues right through the day to 4.30pm Pacific Time. This means they are open 11 hours a day. Most of their business is done by phone and the monex.com phone number is iterated many times across their website, www.monex.com, "… so customers from the East Coast to the West Coast, as well as Hawaii and Alaska, can transact business at convenient hours." This also enables monex to trade gold markets around the world such as Zurich, London, New York, Chicago, and Hong Kong for example.

Monex have installed an automated telephone system in order to process the phone calls they receive regarding monex precious metals, the monex gold price and monex silver price.

However, once a client has an account with Monex they are allocated their own account representative and, with his desk number, are able to bypass the switchboard system and connect directly.

Of course, the monex gold price and the monex silver price, for that matter, change on a regular basis as the spot gold price changes so it is important to lock in a buy or sell price with monex when doing a trade.

Monex will execute a trade while the client is on the phone and all trade confirmations are written up and issued, by mail, to the client by the following day.

Monex Product Range
Monex provides an up to date current gold price for all its gold coins and gold bars. There is a monex gold price and a monex silver price. This will vary with the change in the gold price daily.

Monex.com also offer an extensive range of gold and silver bullion including gold coins and gold bars as well as silver.

The bars, or ingots as monex calls them, are pure cast bullion ingots. Even the gold coins are defined as ingots by monex if they do not have a currency value.

The list of products is as follows:

Gold Bullion
Gold Vienna Philharmonics
Gold American Buffalos
Gold American Eagles
Gold Canadian Maple Leafs
Gold South African Krugerrands

Silver Bullion
90% Silver U.S. Coin Bag
40% Silver U.S. Coin Bag
Silver American Eagles
Silver Canadian Maple Leafs

Platinum Bullion
Platinum American Eagles
Platinum Canadian Maple Leafs
Palladium Bullion
Palladium Canadian Maple Leafs

You cannot buy gold or silver "online" with monex. It has to be done by phone.

How to Buy from Monex
To buy gold from monex.com you will have to open an account with them. After calling them and giving them your details and establishing your identity, monex will open an account and allocate you an account representative.

Once you have an account you simply call your account representative on the phone number you have been given and conduct a trade with them. The account representatives are generally helpful and patient and explain everything in great detail.

You have a number of choices when you buy gold or buy silver from monex.

You can take delivery of the gold or silver bullion. This is usually done by registered and insured US Mail. Or you can have your precious metal stored, on your behalf, in the bank or depository of your choice. You can also have monex.com store your gold bullion or silver bullion but you retain ownership and title of the precious metals of course.

Monex even run a special facility called an Atlas Account program where one can use investment leverage to finance your gold or silver with a percentage down. More on that in the section on the Monex Atlas Account next.

When you call to make a trade by phone, your account representative will confirm the purchase, price and transaction charges over the phone. A tape record is made and kept of the transaction details, including your acknowledgment of same, as it is the normal practice with any type of trading these days by phone, and a written confirmation of purchase is then mailed to you by the next business day.

Monex do insist that payment for the transaction is initiated on the day of purchase. That is the day you do the transaction by phone. Bank wire and overnight delivery of personal or bank checks are the payment methods required.

As soon as your payment is received and a holding period passed, the gold and or silver bullion you purchased is then shipped to you according to the requirements laid out in the initial transaction.

You can also sell your gold or silver back to monex with a phone call. In this case as soon as monex receives delivery of the precious metal they then forward a check to you for the agreed amount.

Monex Financing & Atlas Account
Monex.com also provide financing and loans. Monex runs and administers what they call The Monex Atlas Account. Through Monex Precious Metals (MDC) you are able to buy gold or other precious metals for immediate personal delivery or arrange for convenient and safe storage at an independent bank or depository.

The Monex Atlas Account is a precious metal financing and storage facility available to monex customers.

According to the www.monex.com website, "When your purchase is financed, or made as an all-cash purchase for storage, all of the goods you ordered will be delivered on your behalf to an independent bank or depository. Simultaneously with delivery, secure legal title is transferred to you. The books and records of the bank or depository will identify you as the owner until your metal is sold, or until you take personal delivery. The metal held for you is not an asset of any of the Monex companies, or of the bank or depository; as such, the security of your metal does not depend on their individual or collective financial condition."

Through the MCC, the monex deposit company or monex group offer finance and load options for up to 80 percent of the value of your precious metals

Monex also offer the Monex Atlas Account booklet, under their special offers, to explain how the system works for purchasing gold, silver, platinum and palladium. The booklet explains the different options available to buy gold, silver, platinum and palladium, in bullion and coin form. It explains also how you can buy precious metals on credit with a 20% down payment.

Monex "Gold Coins of the World"
Monex started out as a small coin dealer for coin collectors and still offers a "Gold Coins of the World" collection for people who would like to get started in coin collecting.

Each "Gold Coins of the World" set includes:

Gold Canadian Maple Leaf 1-oz. pure gold, .9999 fine
Gold American Eagle 1-oz. of pure gold, .9167 fine
Gold Vienna Philharmonic 1-oz. pure gold, .9999 fine

The Monex "Gold Coins of the World" collection is offered with a blue crushed velvet, jewelry-quality gift box and the price will vary according to the gold price of the day.

Monex Security
I could not locate any privacy statement or terms and conditions on the monex.com website. I also could not locate a site page or any search facility other than the menu on the left of the page.

For those clients who elect to have monex storage their precious metal, I could not locate any information as to where the clients gold or silver is stored or what security arrangements were in place to protect it. This information might only be provided to clients on an individual basis however, when they elect to have their assets stored by monex.

Although on the www.monex.com site it does state, "The books and records of the bank or depository will identify you as the owner until your metal is sold, or until you take personal delivery. The metal held for you is not an asset of any of the Monex companies, or of the bank or depository; as such, the security of your metal does not depend on their individual or collective financial condition."

Special Offers from Monex
Special Offers are also available on the www.monex.com website also. These are mostly DVDs and CDs giving basic information and write ups by various experts in the field, on the subject of gold bullion and investing. All basically promote the concept and idea of investing in gold and silver and, naturally, contain some useful tips and valuable insights from those experts.

To get any of the free DVDs or CDs one has to call monex by phone and speak to a representative. There is no ordering online. This is evidently designed to attract new clients. The selection of DVDs cover the following subjects:

DVD Featuring the Experts' Views on Gold
Gold Market DVD Program
DVD Featuring the Experts' Views on Silver
CD Seminar on Gold
Special Report on Silver
Introduction to Owning Precious Metals
A Great, Low-Cost Way to Get Started in Gold!

Comments on Monex
If you have bought gold or any other precious metal from monex.com please feel free to leave your feedback on the quality of service and products including any monex.com complaints or special attention service and given by monex.com.