Best Swiss bank for buying gold bullion

Which are the cheapest Swiss banks for buying gold?

Hi there,

The price of gold charged at Swiss banks generally follows international market indexes, so the basic price of gold does not differ between banks in a significant way. However, refineries, mints, banks and other particpants in the supply chain charge markups on the basic gold price to compensate for minting and handling costs.

This markup is the main cost you should pay attention to when purchasing gold bullion, and it varies in a big way from one Swiss bank to another. Buying gold from banks with low markups can easily save you hundreds or even thousands of francs per kilo compared to buying from bank with the highest markups.

As a general rule, cantonal banks often charge lower markups than other retail banks. However, some of these offer more expensive bullion (fair trade gold, for example) alongside standard bullion. If you are buying gold as an investment then you will normally want to buy the cheaper standard bullion.

If you plan to store the gold in a safe deposit box at the same bank, you will have to account for safe deposit box fees as well. Here too, differences in fees charged are significant. Read the moneyland.ch guides to bank safe deposit boxes and non-bank safe deposit boxes to get an idea of these. If you plan to keep your gold at home or in an existing safe deposit box, this won't be an issue.

Many Swiss banks offer collective gold storage or gold-based accounts and here too the price differences are large. Because fees for collective storage apply on an annual basis, it is important to review these carefully before opening this type of account.

It is worth noting that in Switzerland, gold bullion is not subject to value added tax (VAT).

Best regards from Moneyguru

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