By goldstockmania.com

I had originally received a request from a GoldStockMania.com reader who goes by the user name, “SW”, to do a review on Anglo Far East Bullion and weigh in on if I thought they are a legitimate option for buying and storing allocated gold and silver bullion. I complied to the request and posted a review on Anglo Far East (AFE) on February 28th, 2010. Since then I have taken the liberty to open up an account and personally talk with the folks over at AFE. I have more information I would like to bring you up to speed on in my Anglo Far East Review, Part 2.

It took a while to get this second review together because I wanted to take some time to open an account and get some more experience with Anglo Far East before posting a follow-up review. I am glad I got the opportunity to do this because, it has given me the opportunity to get more familiar with the folks over at AFE and their services. The thing I like the most about AFE is that they believe what I believe about the physical gold market. What I mean by this is that, they are not providing custodial storage services just to make money or just because gold so popular these days. They are providing their services because they believe the in the fundamentals of gold and want to provide a safe and secure service to like-minded clients.

Before reading Part 2 of my review on Anglo Far East Bullion, you may want read my original Anglo Far East Review as I don’t want to repeat the same information I posted there.

Why use AFE or A Bullion Custodial Company?

Also, if you are wondering why anyone would want to buy and store their gold and silver with a bullion custodial company, then see my list of reasons why I use custodial services to hold my precious metals by clicking here.

If you are like me, then you realize there are risk if you personally hold all of your precious metals or let a professional company do this for you. I have come to reason, that it is better not to have all of your eggs in one basket, be it at home or with a professional storage company. I believe that if you pick the best bullion custodial companies to store some of your metals with, it is a much safer strategy than storing it all at home. You will have to decide on the percentages that make sense for you.

For example, you could split up your precious metals holdings into 3 different places; at home, AFE, and GoldMoney.com. If your crazy broke government decides gold confiscation is a good idea again and comes to your house and cleans you out, you still would have 60% stored over seas. So you would lose 30% versus all of it. This scenario also works out well if a thief breaks into your house and cleans you out too. I don’t want to worry every time I leave the house that the majority of my savings could be gone by time I return home. I rather have the piece of mine knowing my wealth is safely stored in multiple locations.

Another primary concern of mine is mobility, or lack of it. If I want to get out of the States quickly, I don’t see how I can do it with a bunch of physical metal in my possession. I can see them holding me up at the airport and not letting me through. If my metals are stored safely over seas, I can pick up and go quickly while still having access to my precious metals.

This really is no difference than trusting your current bank or banks to hold your money in an account. Someone may say, well the banks are insured. Guess what, so is AFE and GoldMoney.com. Also, I would not count on the FDIC too much, as they are out funds and are now tapping the US Treasury cover cost of failing banks. And of course the US Treasury, is borrowing money to pay for that and just about everything else from foreign investors and their magical printing press.

Now let’s get down to the business of this review.

Unadvertised Accounts:

It is free to open an account with AFE. In Part I of my review I discussed how AFE is primarily interested in servicing higher end clients which typically make large bullion purchases. While this is still true, what is not widely known is AFE’s unadvertised account programs. You can start a monthly Silver Savings and/or Gold Savings account for as little as $50/month for the silver savings account and $500/month for the gold savings account.

I opened up a monthly savings account to start a savings program for my 3 boys. AFE debits your debit/credit card once a month for the amount you specify. Just set it and forget it.

All Accounts Are Allocated:

One of the best things about Anglo Far East, is that they are in no way associated with the Banking Industry. None of AFE’s vaulting partners or other strategic providers are controlled or majority-owned by banks. This is by design, not by accident. AFE is completely insulated from banking industry risk. Why is this important?  As a client of AFE, you don’t have to worry that your precious metals are exposed to any encumbrances due to bullion bank lease agreements or from pooled accounts. Better yet, you can rest assured that your metals are owned only by you, as it should be.

AFE does not deal with “paper gold.” With Anglo Far East, you get 100% allocated gold and silver bars. AFE will not only provide you with the individual bar numbers of the bullion bars you own, but you can also rest safely in the knowledge that each bar is sight-verified by a top Swiss auditor and annually checked off against AFE accounts to ensure that your metal is locked away safely. If at any time you wish to take delivery of your metal, AFE will arrange to have bars shipped to you anywhere in the world.

End To End Good Delivery Status:

By now you may of heard about the fake tungsten filled gold bars that were discovered at a very large german gold refiner. Professionals can catch this type of fraud quite easily as the german refiner did. Fake gold has probably been around for almost as long as gold has been of value to man. If you are concerned about fake tungsten bars ending up in your hands, then pay attention to what follows. I don’t know about you, but I do want to own real gold! However, I don’t want to worry about buying fake gold as I don’t have the background or experience to probably catch every fake. Fortunately, there are people who do have the background, experience, and get paid to make sure my gold is real! Say hello to the professional LBMA circuit.

Anglo Far East has access to the LBMA system of refineries, vaults, and security providers. This allows AFE clients to maintain London “Good Delivery” status on your precious metals which ensures the authenticity of them as well. Anglo Far East purchases gold and silver directly from an LBMA refinery! This means that your metals are guaranteed to be real, since the gold & silver are directly poured, securely transferred to their LBMA vaults, and third party audited throughout the whole process. Real gold is poured gold, right. Your precious metals never leave the trusted LBMA circuit. Very few bullion custodial companies can make this claim.

Other AFE Benefits:

Time Tested: AFE is the oldest private bullion custodial company around. They have stood the test of time, while others have come and gone. “Anglo Far-East Bullion has been providing select international clientel the highest degree of privacy, security, and access to buy, hold, and sell allocated gold and silver bars.”

Privacy: I know many of my readers are very much privacy oriented as we all have a right to our privacy. I can’t of a better area to be concerned about your privacy, than where your you store your precious metals. AFE accounts are managed as numbered accounts in the Swiss private banking tradition. At no time does identifying information such as name and address appear on any account statement or your account documents.

Guaranteed market access and liquidity: “AFE buys and sells directly with LBMA-certified metal refineries only. In bypassing the commodities market exchanges such as the Comex and bullion banks, AFE provides clients a means of access to the global physical precious metals markets that may not be available to others should systemic issues in the bullion markets arise.”

Iron-clad governance: “By contract with AFE’s vaulting provider, no access may be made to the vaults without the attendance of an agent of the vault as well as an agent of the third-party signatory trustee, in this case top Swiss auditor Grant Thornton. All metal going into and — more importantly — coming out of the vaults requires the approval of a third-party signatory trustee as well as a detailed, sight-verified report of each bar and serial number by the auditor.”

What I Don’t Like About AFE:

I have talked a bit about what I like about Anglo Fare East. Now let’s look at what I don’t like about them.

This is not particular to just AFE, but to all bullion storage companies. You have to get use to the idea that your gold is safely stored miles and miles away from where you live. This is a great advantage and disadvantage. It is very similar to using a bank to hold your cash, but somewhat different.

I don’t want to sound nick picky, but AFE’s account panel seems a bit dated. It is functional and everything works, but it just seems a bit out of date an disjointed. This does not stop me from doing anything I need to do, but I would like to see the customer account panel updated to provide a better or more polished experience for customers.

Summary:

After talking with and personally dealing with Anglo Far East (aff) I have come away really impressed with their over all company, operation, and involvement with the gold and silver bullion industry. I feel that they are running a very private, safe, and secure operation. You always own 100% of what you purchase as it should be. AFE accounts are allocated, so your metals are real, accounted for, and belongs to no one but you.

You can get more information or open a free account at Anglo Far East by clicking here (aff).

If you have any questions or would like to share your experiences with Anglo Far East for the benefit of other readers, please leave a comment below.

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 24th, 2010 at 1:14 pm and is filed under Archived. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.