Reserved bars

What are the consequences of having a reserved bar?

I have a bar reserved in my name - can I collect it from the vault?

What is a "reserved bar"?

Ordinarily the gold you own through BullionVault is not part of a specific bar, and most bars in BullionVault are part-owned by a number of people. But if you hold enough gold in any vault to make up one or more whole standard bullion bars then you can select bars up to your gold balance, and choose to have them registered against your name. Then they become "reserved bars" and are your exclusive property.

Is a reserved bar allocated gold?

Allocation is the process of taking a gold-denominated balance sheet liability - usually of a bank - and converting it into real physical gold owned outright by the buyer. BullionVault gold is allocated when the gold is collected and shipped to our vaults at Via Mat. All BullionVault gold has been allocated, and your BullionVault gold is allocated whether or not you have a reserved bar. Reserved bars offer the additional protection of a public declaration that a specific bar belongs to a specific person.

What are the consequences of having a reserved bar?

There are several consequences of having a reserved bar.

The Daily Audit will publicly show that the particular bar belongs exclusively to you. It will appear against you nickname below the master bar list for each vault.
The bar will be taken out of dealing circulation. It will no longer be available for trading, by you or anyone, and will be listed in your account against your reserved balance. You will be able to release it at any time when you want to deal.
There are some extra costs to maintaining reserved bars. These are explained below.

What are the charges?

This is a charge of 0.1% to reserve the bar in your name. There is no charge to release it.

In addition, the vaulting charge for reserved gold increases to 0.18% per year, in comparison to our standard charges.

These charges are much lower than allocated whole bar ownership at most banks, where annual charges are usually about 1.5%. The comparison with gold ETFs is also favourable. There the cost of annual storage is usually 0.4%, and you are a beneficiary of a trust which owns a pool of gold bars, rather than a direct owner. You cannot register a bar of gold in your name through an ETF.

How do I reserve a bar?

Step 1.	Make sure you are logged in. Press ACCOUNT and then click the RESERVED BARS sub-menu option.
Step 2.	At the top of the page, in gold, you'll see a list of bars reserved in your name. Below that list, in grey, you'll see the details of largest bar you can reserve, if any. Click RESERVE to choose this bar, or Next above to choose a different bar. Since all BullionVault bars are standardised there's little to choose between them. If you're not sure which bar to choose you should probably select the first one, as it will be the largest.
Step 3.	You'll be shown the full details of the bar, its current valuation, and an estimate of the reservation cost. If you want to proceed, click CONFIRM .
Step 4.	You will be returned to the reserved bars page, and newly-reserved bar will appear in the list at the top. If you still have sufficient gold you can return to step 2 and reserve another bar.

How do I release a bar?

You need to release a bar before you can sell the gold, by following the steps below.

Step 1.	Make sure you are logged in. Press ACCOUNT and then click the RESERVED BARS sub-menu option.
Step 2.	At the top of the page, in gold, you'll see a list of bars reserved in your name. Choose the bar you want to release, and click RELEASE .
Step 3.	You'll be shown the full details of the bar. If you want to proceed, click CONFIRM .
Step 4.	You will be returned to the reserved bars page. You gold is now released, and can be sold whenever you wish.

I have a bar reserved in my name - can I collect it from the vault?

You can contact us to arrange delivery, but you should consider the issues involved in taking physical custody first.