Glint Gone Into Administration

[Serendipity]

Glint, a UK gold savings/payments company, recently went into administration on September 18. I’m grateful to @Bumble for drawing my attention to this fact. Unfortunately, Glint’s safeguarded funds are not protected by the UK Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). I was well aware of Glint’s problems long before it went into administration which is why I registered with another gold savings company. However, I haven’t deposited any money with them yet because of my serious doubts about the success of these schemes. I can fully understand the attraction of gold savings companies for coin collectors who distrust fiat money but it’s best to be cautious with these startup schemes compared to investing in gold ETFs and coins.

https://www.fca.org.uk/news/news-stories/information-customers-glint-pay-services-ltd

[BackyardBullion]

This is one of the reasons that physical gold/silver will always be superior. 

Good luck to anyone involved and I hope people don't end up losing lots of money!

[Derv]

My sentiments exactly BB. 

[QStack]

And so it begins.

[Ansel]

Thank you so much for the heads up on this. I had a couple hundred pounds on my card. Tried to withdraw to my bank account which gave me an error message. Tried using it for payment via mastercard on Amazon which thankfully did go through leaving me with a total now of £1.84 still in my account. Phew. Thank you x £198!

Lesson relearnt: if you don't hold it you don't own it.

[Stu]

If you don't hold it, then where the hell is it? 

[AgD]

Reading this is very worrying, I hope @mr-dead managed to get out in time as if I remember correctly he nearly started off with 2k in the account but nice one @Ansel for getting yours through Amazon.

That's where I agree with @BackyardBullion physical is always better in my opinion. I will never go into schemes like this.

[dicker]

I read a few months ago that they had managed to obtain another GBP5M in funding. They have burned through that quickly....

[BackyardBullion]

Your money is totally secure.....

Until it's not......

[Martlet]

3 minutes ago, BackyardBullion said:

Your money is totally secure.....

Until it's not......

Well quite, its only secure while company is solvent and trading.  Which is no different to a bank really.  In retrospect its odd people in the PM community are sold gold backed virtual currency, the idea of being able to "spend gold" has overruled rational thought about the process. 

[RichmondStacker]

Where did the money go?  Hopefully not many people lose out.  I use my government backed promise tokens as i’m stuck in society but physical gold and silver will always be my main savings. 

On a light tangent, does anyone ask their other half if they need any money when they are nipping out and hand them a silver coin? 

[mr-dead]

thanks for the heads up, I did have several thousand in there not so long ago, current balance until I read this was £9.25.

Just went online shopping and spent the remaining balance without issue.

 

To reiterate the old saying, if you dont hold it you dont own it!

[Xander]

1 hour ago, Martlet said:

Well quite, its only secure while company is solvent and trading.  Which is no different to a bank really

You can't compare these cowboy outfits to a bank that is protected by FSCS,  which covers customers  for up to £85,000 per account plus many other financial protections. 

Where there is a scheme, there's a schemer.

 

 

[sixgun]

Roy Seabag the founder of Goldmoney did a piece on Glint  - https://www.scribd.com/document/365513333/Glint-Pay-Thoughts-and-Warning-By-Roy-Sebag

It isn't very complimentary - one might expect this from a rival but Glint had issues from a long time ago. Should have waited for Kinesis. 😉

[HighlandTiger]

Is anyone really surprised? Still can't believe people fall for this crypto / pm backed-pretend currency nonsense. It'll never be a successful concept until it is a stable currency AND every bank and retailer accepts it as a method of payment.

And that's NEVER going to happen! 

[Abyss]

Gold backed Glint card appeals to the Living in an instant world culture that we live in. Every wants convenience and it is surprising when I talk to people that I trust about Gold they always seem assume the best way get exposure is some sort of ETF and the thought of owning it physically somewhat out of the realm of possibilities. Before I purchased any physical Gold I done some research on the worst case scenario how much money I stand to lose if I bought a standard bullion 1 oz Gold Britannia coin and immediately had to liquidate to release funds which is still applicable today

Buy 1 oz Gold Britannia today's price £1246.95 plus postage. Built reasonably good seller feedback on the Silver forum you could sell the same coin quickly for spot £1215.27 plus buyer pays postage. Lose about 3% physical Gold (buy as close spot as possible) and had to sell immediately. For all the advantages that owning physical Gold offers with limited downside risks and I already have a safety deposit box (in a none banking establishment) to keep other valuables it just made so much sense for me to buy physical Gold in my possession with no third party risk. Some advantages owning physical Gold in my possession that have come about that I never initially envisioned. A month ago decided my old TV (10 year old 40inch Samsung has standard HD only) had it's day after my 3 year son thrown some toys and over time it had developed some lines across the screen). I bought 65 inch Panasonic 2019 model (now wall mounted and out of reach for my son) and even though I love it to bits buying such an expensive TV at the time and even now in the back of my mind I am thinking it has cost me 1.75 oz Gold at current spot price.

Owning physical Gold makes an intangible asset (digits in a bank account) into tangible physical asset that you treasure, trust and want to accumulate and the desire will help you save.

[silenceissilver]

2 hours ago, Abyss said:

I bought 65 inch Panasonic 2019 model (now wall mounted and out of reach for my son) and even though I love it to bits buying such an expensive TV at the time and even now in the back of my mind I am thinking it has cost me 1.75 oz Gold at current spot price.

Since I started stacking silver and gold I also keep thinking "this would have been an ounce of silver, a half sovereign, a full sovereign etc. Thus, I spend less, sometimes to an extent that makes it hard to get through the month but it's worth it.

[sixgun]

Glint exits administration

Glint, a London-based fintech startup that enables users to store, spend and save their wealth in gold, has come out of administration after securing £5.7 million from investors.

https://www.finextra.com/newsarticle/34828/

[Bumble]

Apparently the story was that earlier this year a private wealth management company in Singapore made a take-over offer to the Glint management. This was declined, so the company bought up the £5 million debt that Glint had used to capitalize itself when starting up. They went through the terms and conditions of the debt agreement and found some provisions where Glint was in breach and forced Glint into administration. Glint was always solvent, and the customer funds were secure. Glint has now raised fresh capital to replace this debt, and it is now out of adminstration. So all the fuss was down to a bit of corporate strong-arm tactics.

[Melon]

1 hour ago, Bumble said:

Apparently the story was that earlier this year a private wealth management company in Singapore made a take-over offer to the Glint management. This was declined, so the company bought up the £5 million debt that Glint had used to capitalize itself when starting up. They went through the terms and conditions of the debt agreement and found some provisions where Glint was in breach and forced Glint into administration. Glint was always solvent, and the customer funds were secure. Glint has now raised fresh capital to replace this debt, and it is now out of adminstration. So all the fuss was down to a bit of corporate strong-arm tactics.

Wow. What a scum move by the Singapore outfit. 

[tallyhojim]

9 hours ago, Bumble said:

Apparently the story was that earlier this year a private wealth management company in Singapore made a take-over offer to the Glint management. This was declined, so the company bought up the £5 million debt that Glint had used to capitalize itself when starting up. They went through the terms and conditions of the debt agreement and found some provisions where Glint was in breach and forced Glint into administration. Glint was always solvent, and the customer funds were secure. Glint has now raised fresh capital to replace this debt, and it is now out of adminstration. So all the fuss was down to a bit of corporate strong-arm tactics.

That itself doesn't sound good either.

[DarkChameleon]

I found the best place to store my gold was in the form of jewelry and then have it consigned to various jewelry stores around me, they insure it, they sell it, I get the profit minus 10%-20% and buy more jewelry....and I don't have to carry a gun or worry myself silly.

[sixgun]

12 minutes ago, DarkChameleon said:

I found the best place to store my gold was in the form of jewelry and then have it consigned to various jewelry stores around me, they insure it, they sell it, I get the profit minus 10%-20% and buy more jewelry....and I don't have to carry a gun or worry myself silly.

Much of the world stores their gold as jewellery - multi-generational wealth passed down as jewellery. The problem in the UK and as far as i know the USA, is the large premium and tax. Gold jewellery in some parts of the world is sold by weight - you don't pay double and more the spot price for the jewellery. However if you can access the retail price of the pieces that is great. Do you have to buy the jewellery from them? If you could get your pieces in say Thailand and then deposit them with your jewellers - there could be a bonus. 
If i were in Florida i would have a concealed carry whatever.

[DarkChameleon]

1 hour ago, sixgun said:

Much of the world stores their gold as jewellery - multi-generational wealth passed down as jewellery. The problem in the UK and as far as i know the USA, is the large premium and tax. Gold jewellery in some parts of the world is sold by weight - you don't pay double and more the spot price for the jewellery. However if you can access the retail price of the pieces that is great. Do you have to buy the jewellery from them? If you could get your pieces in say Thailand and then deposit them with your jewellers - there could be a bonus. 
If i were in Florida i would have a concealed carry whatever.

I buy from a few sources, I've posted some on here, taxes are bad if you buy from florida but my allowance makes up for that too, buying pieces I can sell on for between 60 to 100% but you got to know your audience, still if I fail I can get 95% melt so then I get money back cos I buy at 80% in most cases or better...also if I get screwed over then I can either get ebay to sort it out, my credit card to and if it turns out to be stolen the jewelers shop finds out because they are selling so they have to fill in the police forms as I'm not selling, I'm consigning....lol...seems my childhood growing up and working for my dad's junk yard helped me...lol.

[motorbikez]

13 hours ago, Melon said:

Wow. What a scum move by the Singapore outfit. 

Might have been a scum move, but shows the vulnerability  of the company to predators, I hope they have learned their lesson.