A full write-up for every platform in the comparison table: what it charges, how the metal is held, how you get out again, and the buyer it is genuinely built for. Scores are the same weighted model used on the compare page.
Zurich, London, New York, Toronto, Singapore
A peer-to-peer order board sitting on top of professional-market vaults in Zurich, London, New York, Toronto and Singapore. You place bids and offers against other private investors, so the effective spread is far closer to the wholesale market than to a retail dealer counter.
Llantrisant, Wales — The Vault®
Fractional precious metal held in the Royal Mint's own vault in South Wales, bought from £25 upwards, with the option to convert a digital balance into deliverable coins and bars. Counterparty quality is exceptional — this is a UK government-owned mint storing metal in its own facility.
Toronto, Zurich, London, Hong Kong, Singapore
One of the oldest online precious-metals holdings, letting clients in more than 150 countries buy allocated metal and choose the vault jurisdiction — Canada, Switzerland, the UK, Hong Kong or Singapore — inside a single account.
Singapore, New Zealand, United States
A Singapore bullion dealer with its own shop, showroom and vault at 45 New Bridge Road, plus jurisdictions in New Zealand and the United States. You buy identifiable products — bars, coins, or its own BSP gram programme — and choose delivery, pick-up, or vault storage.
Perth, Western Australia
The Perth Mint is owned by the Government of Western Australia and its depository programme is the only bullion holding in this table carrying a state government guarantee. Unallocated holdings attract no ongoing storage fee; allocated holdings, where specific bars are set aside in your name, do.
Oklahoma City, USA
The largest online bullion retailer in the United States, with a catalogue running from generic one-ounce bars to graded numismatics, plus optional vaulted storage through its Citadel service. This is a shop, not an exchange: you are buying a specific product at a specific premium.
Every profile is built from published tariffs rather than marketing copy. We take the dealer’s own fee schedule, convert it into a cost per gram at three purchase sizes, then add the ongoing custody charge so that a 0.5% headline premium with 0.5% annual storage is never confused with a 2% premium and no recurring fee. The verification date on each card tells you when we last checked those documents.
Scores are weighted, not averaged. Effective premium carries the most weight because it is the cost you cannot avoid; custody cost comes second because it compounds; custody security and settlement friction follow, because they only matter at the moment you need to sell or take delivery. A platform can rank highly on price and still be the wrong choice if you intend to hold allocated bars in your own jurisdiction.
Nothing here is a recommendation to buy. Ranking positions move when tariffs change, and they will: storage fees, spread policies and minimum order sizes are all revised periodically by the platforms themselves.
Profiles explain the why. The comparison table puts every premium, fee and custody model on one screen so you can see the trade-off at a glance.