Is www.royalmintbullion.com/ down for you?

[greektony]

I think this must be a sign from the Gold / Silver gods.... second time I have decided to bite the bullet and buy a 1/4oz gold britannia from https://www.royalmintbullion.com/ and have been unable to do so.

Firstly it took nearly 2 weeks for the Royal Mint website to verify my account, despite repeated chasing. And then once my account was activated, my bank declined the transfer of money into my royal mint account. At this point i was somewhat pee'd off so ended up buying from BullionbyPost. Earlier in the week i noticed they had some 2019 Britannias for about a tenner cheaper than anywhere else. Stupidly i procastinated and decided to wait until the weekend and order whilst having a whisky. Now I am seeing a runtime error when i try to open their site. Is anyone else getting this?

At least I have a 1/4 bottle of whisky to myself for comfort!

[Guest]

I had the same issues with the Royal Mint so i just gave up. Took ages to activate my account, when it was finally activated i tried to log in and it prompted me to make an account again...

I contacted them and i was told that there should be no issue and my account was active with them, after several more attempts i left it at that as i found silver cheaper elsewhere.

If they lowered the prices a bit and made the process a bit more simple they would pull in alot more money i reckon.

[AndrewSL76]

Just checked and it is down for me too.

Could be just some standard updating - perhaps readying for some new products - perhaps the bullion sovereign etc. for 2020.

Andrew.

[FunkyChicken]

Had the same experience with them that it took forever to verify my account, and that was before I learned the UK charges VAT on all silver, which made the coin I was mostly interested in back then too expensive for me. But yes, I'm getting a runtime error too. 

Does anyone over here perhaps know why the Royal Mint Bullion has such a seemingly unnecessary extensive account verification, up to the point that you even have to send a copy of your ID? Something to do with British law, which would mean you'd have to undergo the same exercise with other British bullion dealers as well? Or does the Royal Mint Bullion just like to make things more difficult than it should be?

[greektony]

oh well.... if it isn't sorted by tomorrow then off elsewhere I shall go. It's almost like they don't want my money. Although who would when you have all that gold! lol

[5huggy]

Yep FUBAR. 

 

Server Error in '/' Application.

---

Runtime Error

Description: An exception occurred while processing your request. Additionally, another exception occurred while executing the custom error page for the first exception. The request has been terminated.

[trp]

Sites claiming a runtime error. Maybe updating. 

[dom555]

Never had a problem with the site.  I signed up  around May this year and do not recall any delay in account verification. 
Purchasing from the site was also never an issue, I've used several different bank accounts.
This is just my experience.
I think its a shame that others are having issues, never a good look for any company to have the sort of issues mentioned above. 😕

[daca]

all good now

[silenceissilver]

14 hours ago, FunkyChicken said:

Had the same experience with them that it took forever to verify my account, and that was before I learned the UK charges VAT on all silver, which made the coin I was mostly interested in back then too expensive for me. But yes, I'm getting a runtime error too. 

Does anyone over here perhaps know why the Royal Mint Bullion has such a seemingly unnecessary extensive account verification, up to the point that you even have to send a copy of your ID? Something to do with British law, which would mean you'd have to undergo the same exercise with other British bullion dealers as well? Or does the Royal Mint Bullion just like to make things more difficult than it should be?

When I read "account verification" I have enough already. It's like you are asking them to do you a favour or applying for a job, whereas you are a paying customer. My experience is that many UK dealers have a similar attitude although probably mostly not to the same extent as the Royal Mint from what I read abou them here.

I once walked into Hatton Metal Gardens to buy only two Sovereigns and they asked me if I'm a member, I need ID and whatnot. I walked out straight away and went to Bairds around the corner  where in the end they asked me for an photo ID and my address too, first with proof for it which I didn't have on me, so they were fine with me writing it down. Similar with Atkinsons. At my first purchase over £ 1000 (just over it to be sure) they held it back and asked me for proof of address and said they couldn't verify it. Which means they are checking against all kinds of data bases. I told them you have proof of my address from my first order (under £50), you send me the goods or my money back, you are not getting anything else from me, so they did send it after that (the PMs).

There was an EU rule you can buy gold anonymously in cash up to 15.000 Euro which was then lowered to 10.000 Euro and now at least Germany is lowering it to 2.000 Euros from 2020 on. All for countering money laundering, of course. Of course! Actually BS! There should be no limit on it whatsoever.

Peter Böhringer, who was the driving force to get Germany's money back from the US, ca 10 years ago (a part is back now), is in the Bundestag for the AfD now and I think it was him (possibly a colleague of him who is also firm with gold matters, would need to look it up now) and they showed figures that only a tiny fraction of money laundering is done with gold, again I would need to look it up but I think it was 2% or so, maybe less. Also a  small percentage in cash, most is done via moving money around, electronically between different bank accounts. The AfD also submitted a law to protect cash btw of course not accepted by the rest of the Bundestag (Before the AfD there was an increasing number of libertarian and patriotic activities, blogs, papers, initatives, etc that eventually together, formed a party, after the Euro rescue measurements from 2011 on. Now you can see all the clearer there was only a united block party before, from the far left Left Party and Green Party to Merkel's far left cuckservatives - still the case in the UK parliament)

Thus, this whole attitude is a farce, it's not about money laundering and thus it most be about something else.

The bullion dealers themselves pander to the government that is the driving force, too much.

 

[FunkyChicken]

37 minutes ago, silenceissilver said:

 

No idea how I can get rid of this quote thing above, so it'll have to remain in then. 🤷‍♂️ But anyway... 

@silenceissilver I'm sure money laundering will at least play a significant role in governments taking measurements like these, but other than that I'm getting a severe 'Big Brother is watching you' feeling from this.

Maybe far fetched, but I wouldn't even be surprised European governments would love to introduce that social credit system they're having in China, only the European governments are still looking to find a way to tackle those pesky privacy laws whereas the Chinese government simply doesn't give a fnck about the privacy of its citizens. 

[silenceissilver]

1 minute ago, FunkyChicken said:

No idea how I can get rid of this quote thing above, so it'll have to remain in then. 🤷‍♂️ But anyway... 

@silenceissilver I'm sure money laundering will at least play a significant role in governments taking measurements like these, but other than that I'm getting a severe 'Big Brother is watching you' feeling from this.

Maybe far fetched, but I wouldn't even be surprised European governments would love to introduce that social credit system they're having in China, only the European governments are still looking to find a way to tackle those pesky privacy laws whereas the Chinese government simply doesn't give a fnck about the privacy of its citizens. 

It will play a part in their communications to the people but not much apart from that.

...

That's not far fetched at all. I don't think they have sleepless nights over privacy laws but rather about how much resistance a full scale social credit system might create. There is a more developed sense for liberty in the West which is an obstacle for the Western governments but of course they do have the same intentions as the Chinese government.

[Uksilverstackers]

Silenceissilver is correct its probably not a huge amount

“they showed figures that only a tiny fraction of money laundering is done with gold, again I would need to look it up but I think it was 2% or so, maybe less.Also a  small percentage in cash, most is done via moving money around, electronically between different bank accounts”

—————————
However, as an aside,  did anyone watch the documentary about money laundering and gold, here are linkys....

BBC News

Iplayer Panorama

Unbelievable, that we cant pay a £1 coin directly into someones account and here they are taking suitcases full of cash every single day.

The money launderers are the banks facilitating it!!

[greektony]

website now appears to be up....

Although am I being paranoid to feel somewhat relieved that I haven''t ordered from them? The whole verification process as another poster mentioned seems completely unnecessary. I don't have to prove who I am with any other dealer I have ordered from. And also, i (maybe incorrectly) believe that any orders through the Royal Mint are logged by the government somewhere. At least from GS.be and the like it feels like it is maybe not so likely? Also these websites allow me to order to my work address. Something the RM will not. So at least I am not completely making it obvious where my stash is to the government of the day if they decide to 'steal' it back.

Maybe I've need to take off the tin foil hat now

[harrygill111]

You can buy etf gold with less hassle!

Royal Mint is going to be in trouble if investors start turning away - looks like contactless is hitting them too 

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/rise-of-contactless-sends-royal-mint-into-the-red-z306hpccn#

[ilovesilverireallydo]

3 hours ago, silenceissilver said:

The bullion dealers themselves pander to the government that is the driving force, too much.

They don’t want to, they HAVE to. They get constant hassle from hmrc and other govt bodies. 

One dealer closed up shop because they drag him to VAT hearings each year due to the volume of Silver he was refinging, yet they never found any irregularities. They hassle bullion dealers to no end. 

I deal with a lot of them and they say each year unpublished “recommendations” seem to get worse. A lot of the ones I know are considering giving up the bullion trading side and moving into numismatics and jewellery. 

[trp]

1 hour ago, harrygill111 said:

You can buy etf gold with less hassle!

Royal Mint is going to be in trouble if investors start turning away - looks like contactless is hitting them too 

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/rise-of-contactless-sends-royal-mint-into-the-red-z306hpccn#

I read this article too. Cashless society is a bad idea for so many reasons. 

[silenceissilver]

1 hour ago, ilovesilverireallydo said:

They don’t want to, they HAVE to. They get constant hassle from hmrc and other govt bodies. 

One dealer closed up shop because they drag him to VAT hearings each year due to the volume of Silver he was refinging, yet they never found any irregularities. They hassle bullion dealers to no end. 

I deal with a lot of them and they say each year unpublished “recommendations” seem to get worse. A lot of the ones I know are considering giving up the bullion trading side and moving into numismatics and jewellery. 

You mean the reason they ask for proof of address and a photo ID for two Sovereigns is because they are being hassled? They should collectively make the public aware of this, then. Obviously a single one will struggle to do that.

[silenceissilver]

2 hours ago, harrygill111 said:

You can buy etf gold with less hassle!

Royal Mint is going to be in trouble if investors start turning away - looks like contactless is hitting them too 

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/rise-of-contactless-sends-royal-mint-into-the-red-z306hpccn#

Contactless and generally card payments in shops is for people with no brain.

[ilovesilverireallydo]

1 hour ago, silenceissilver said:

You mean the reason they ask for proof of address and a photo ID for two Sovereigns is because they are being hassled? They should collectively make the public aware of this, then. Obviously a single one will struggle to do that.

Correct 

[FunkyChicken]

1 hour ago, silenceissilver said:

Contactless and generally card payments in shops is for people with no brain.

Now that's a bold statement. Care to elaborate?

[silenceissilver]

4 hours ago, FunkyChicken said:

Now that's a bold statement. Care to elaborate?

I want to answer with a picture I still need to find, I will post it when I will have found it.