Frequently Asked Questions
Questions about flexgold
General questions about precious metals
Questions about trading precious metals
Financial Knowledge
Origin of assets
Questions about flexgold
General questions
flexgold is the smart way to invest in physical precious metals, and it is now flexible and transparent as never before. Real property of stable value, reliably and securely stored in Switzerland, available at any time – for every wallet.
After you have downloaded and registered with the flexgold app, you can create a vault and fund your currency account. Then you can buy precious metals and always keep an eye on your precious metal inventory thanks to the app.
The following explanation is for non-English speaking readers.
The English term “sound” means an audible “sound,” and it can also mean “solid.” Therefore, the brand claim “make money sound again” can be translated in two ways:
“Make money sound again” or
“Make money solid again”
For flexgold, this ambiguity focuses on the meaning of “solid,” in the sense of “sound.” The term “sound money” is recognized in economics as a fixed definition of “healthy money.” “Sound money” is scarce, inflation-resistant, easily checked for authenticity, divisible, transportable, storable, and easily usable.
flexgold is backed by the SOLIT Group, which has been actively trading in precious metals since 2008 and is now one of the leading precious metals dealers in the German-speaking world. Since 2021 the SOLIT Group has been headquartered in Tägerwilen in the Swiss canton of Thurgau and has already received numerous prestigious awards for its services.
Yes. Once registered, customers can access the flexgold app anywhere in the world.
At the time of launch, the app supports German and English.
Once you have requested delivery, we’ll check whether your preferred denominations are currently available. If everything is in stock, we’ll confirm your order and get it ready for dispatch. As soon as your shipment is on its way, you’ll receive a tracking link so you can follow your delivery at any time.
flexgold is currently available in more than 50 countries worldwide, with coverage continuing to expand. You can register if you are a citizen of a supported country and legally resident there. An interactive world map and the full list of supported countries can be found here: https://flexgold.com/en/supported-countries/
Use
A flexgold account is free of charge. Costs may be incurred for trading, custody, shipping and pickup of precious metals. There may also be further costs for third-party services. Details can be found in the GTC.
At flexgold, precious metals can be traded in the four currencies: Swiss Francs (CHF), Euros (EUR), Pounds Sterling (GBP) and US Dollars (USD).
Four decimal places are taken into account for the weights of the precious metals, and two decimal places for the currencies. As a rule, all calculations are rounded up mathematically.
flexgold offers a straightforward way to begin investing in precious metals. Initial investments can be made from as little as 1 euro, Swiss franc, British pound or US dollar.
At flexgold, it is not possible to directly exchange currencies (Foreign Exchange, Forex, FX). For example, it is not possible to exchange Euros directly into US dollars. However, in the above case, precious metals can be bought in Euros and sold in US Dollars. Thus, you can exchange the four currencies indirectly.
As a provider classified by FINMA (the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority) and as a financial intermediary supervised by PolyReg, flexgold does not have a banking license, therefore, a flexgold user’s money may only remain in the currency account for a maximum of 60 days. To guarantee compliance with this time limit, we use a time safety buffer, so that the money is transferred back after 42 days.
You can use the flexgold app if you have not deposited money, and can, for example, view the current prices of precious metals and fiat currencies, or schedule recurring or future purchases. However, you cannot trade precious metals without funds. And you cannot make future or recurring purchases.
The precious metal purchases at flexgold are tied to the daily rates and are thus subject to constant fluctuations. Therefore, the trading of physical precious metals is always processed via prepayment.
The currency account is a prepaid account into which you deposit money to buy precious metals at flexgold.
With flexgold, you can invest an unlimited amount in precious metals.
At flexgold, you can easily buy and sell precious metals via the app. To do this, you must first deposit money into the currency account, where it may remain for a maximum of 42 days. The money can then be divided as desired among the four precious metals, gold, silver, platinum and palladium. You can order a purchase or sale at any time of the day at the real-time price.
The use of flexgold is largely free of charge. However, purchase and storage fees do apply, depending on the selected vault tier. Fees are also charged in the event of delivery or collection. You can find full details of all prices and charges here.
Yes. You can create separate Vaults for your children and invest in precious metals on their behalf.
Yes. You can set up a regular savings plan for precious metals. You choose the investment amount, payment frequency and how your investment is allocated across the different precious metals.
There is no maximum investment amount. However, if you plan to invest a larger sum (CHF 1 million or more), we recommend contacting our customer service team for personalized advice.
At flexgold, the four precious metals gold, silver, platinum and palladium are available for market entry.
You can freely distribute your investment capital among the four precious metals according to your own wishes.
Security
Your precious metals remain your property, even if flexgold AG becomes insolvent.
You own a co-ownership interest in specifically identified precious metal bars that are securely stored by flexgold AG on your behalf. Because these assets legally belong to you, they do not form part of flexgold AG’s insolvency estate and cannot be used to satisfy claims from the company’s creditors. Instead, your ownership rights remain fully protected, and your assets can be separated from the insolvency estate and returned to you.
Every precious metal bar held in custody is assigned a unique serial number and allocated to one or more customers.
Rather than holding a contractual claim against flexgold AG, you are the legal co-owner of one or more physically existing bars. Your ownership interest is clearly documented and can be viewed at any time in your customer account.
Under Swiss insolvency law, assets that belong to third parties can be segregated from the insolvency estate and reclaimed by their rightful owners (Art. 242 Swiss Debt Enforcement and Bankruptcy Act).
This is important because you are not merely a creditor of flexgold AG. As the legal co-owner of specifically identified precious metal bars, you retain ownership of your assets. As a result, you do not have to rely on a potential insolvency distribution alongside other creditors.
The flexgold app is protected by state-of-the-art security technologies, including end-to-end encryption, two-factor authentication and biometric login options.
Yes. You can take physical delivery of your precious metals whenever you wish. Delivery fees apply.
Yes. All precious metals are fully insured against theft, loss and damage while in storage.
All precious metals are securely stored in high-security vaults in Switzerland.
Delivery
Delivery costs consist of shipping charges, minting costs and any applicable subsequent taxation. Shipping charges depend on the destination country and the quantity delivered. Minting costs vary according to the selected bar size – larger denominations are usually more cost-effective. For white metals, statutory VAT becomes due when the metals leave the duty-free warehouse. It is calculated on the basis of the current spot price and the applicable VAT rate in the destination country. More detailed information about our pricing can be found in our price overview.
After your order has been accepted, delivery of your precious metals can take up to 4 weeks, depending on availability and market conditions. You can check the current status of your delivery at any time in the metal detail screen. Should there be any delivery delays or if your preferred denomination is not available, we will contact you directly to discuss the best possible solution together.
We’ll keep you informed about every update by message. As soon as your package has been shipped, you’ll also receive a tracking link.
Using the «Delivery» button in your vault, you can request delivery starting from as little as 1 g of gold, platinum or palladium, and from 20 g of silver. There, you also select your preferred denomination and the currency in which the associated fees will be charged. The fees are debited directly from your currency account—please ensure that sufficient funds are available. You can find instructions for this under Profile > Bank Accounts > Deposit Accounts.
With flexgold, you hold fractional ownership of large bars stored in a highly secure vault. For delivery, your ownership is converted into deliverable bar sizes. We will accommodate your preferred denomination wherever possible. Only bars with a minimum fineness of 999/1’000 are delivered, sourced exclusively from refiners listed on the London Bullion Market Association’s (LBMA) «Good Delivery List of Acceptable Refiners». Only bars with a minimum fineness of 999/1’000 are delivered, sourced exclusively from refiners listed on the London Bullion Market Association’s (LBMA) «Good Delivery List of Acceptable Refiners».
As part of a delivery, you sell your ownership interests in the large bars stored in the duty-free warehouse to us. The resulting proceeds are credited to you as a fiat balance and used to purchase the deliverable bars you have selected, as well as to settle the associated costs. Please ensure that you consider the tax legislation applicable in your country in relation to both the sale and the delivery.
Delivery is made exclusively to the residential address registered with us and only within one of our supported countries. You can find the full list in our country overview.
Yes, your precious metals are fully insured throughout the entire delivery process.
No. Delivery is made to you in person only. Handover to authorised representatives or third parties is not permitted.
For security reasons, collection from the duty-free warehouse in Switzerland is not possible. However, you may collect your precious metals in person from the SOLIT Group’s retail stores in Mainz or Wiesbaden. Please contact our support team to discuss all the details.
When you make a purchase, you acquire fractional ownership of large bars with very low minting costs. Smaller, deliverable bars involve significantly higher minting costs. These are charged to you retrospectively upon delivery.
As long as your precious metals remain in the duty-free warehouse, they are exempt from tax. However, once they leave the warehouse, the applicable statutory taxes become due. These are calculated based on the current spot price at the time of delivery and the applicable tax rate in the destination country.
General questions about precious metals
For thousands of years, precious metals such as gold or silver have offered security during all the turbulence in the financial markets and economic crises. Gold has always offered security, especially against inflation. This is vividly illustrated by the history of the price of bread: in ancient times, one ounce of gold could buy about 350 loaves of bread – and this is still just as true today. In terms of paper money, however, the price of bread has increased significantly since then.
Precious metal assets is another word for “precious metal investments.”
A precious metal investment is the purchase of precious metals in order to preserve or increase one’s wealth.
In Switzerland, investment-grade gold (bars and coins with a minimum purity of 995/1000) is exempt from VAT. Silver, platinum and palladium are subject to VAT.
The gold-to-silver ratio indicates how many ounces of silver are needed to buy one ounce of gold. Historically, this ratio has fluctuated between 15:1 and 100:1.
The price of precious metals is determined by supply and demand in global markets. Key factors include industrial demand, investor demand, production costs and broader economic uncertainty.
Gold is traditionally regarded as a store of value. Silver serves as both a store of value and an industrial metal. Platinum and palladium are used primarily in industrial applications, particularly in catalytic converters for vehicles.
Precious metals can help preserve wealth, protect against inflation and diversify an investment portfolio. They have served as a trusted store of value for thousands of years.
Questions about trading precious metals
In precious metals trading, the “spot price” is the price at which precious metals can be traded worldwide on the spot market at that very moment. As a rule, the spot price for precious metals is quoted in dollars per ounce.
Gold has a special position from a tax perspective. This precious yellow metal can be purchased VAT-free in Germany and Switzerland. When buying white metals like silver, platinum and palladium, on the other hand, you must pay the regular VAT rate. Since the purchase of white metals is not subject to VAT in all countries, you have the option to purchase them tax-free in Germany and Switzerland, via a duty-free warehouse.
The biggest risk when trading in precious metals is the price risk. For example, the prices of gold, silver, platinum and palladium fluctuate by the minute. The market is also highly dependent on political and economic developments which are difficult to predict.
Precious metals are traded online via digital platforms such as flexgold. There are two options for trading precious metals online: in an online precious metals trade, physical precious metals in the form of bars or coins are sold to investors and shipped to them. flexgold uses the other form of trading precious metals online. With flexgold, precious metals are bought and sold via the app, and these metals are physically deposited in a high-security warehouse. This means you don’t have to worry about securely storing and transporting the precious metals you’ve purchased. However, you can also order your precious metals and have them delivered to you. Or you can also arrange a date for them to be physically picked up.
A troy ounce is a unit of weight used for precious metals. One troy ounce is equal to approximately 31.1035 grams.
The London Gold Price is the benchmark price for gold. Similar benchmark prices are also determined for other precious metals.
There is no universally best time to invest. Many investors use pound-cost averaging by investing regularly, regardless of the current price.
Yes. With the flexgold app, you can trade precious metals 24/7, as international precious metals markets operate around the clock.
A spread is the difference between the buying price and the selling price of an asset. It represents the dealer’s margin.
Digital precious metals trading is the trading of gold, silver, platinum and palladium via digital resources, using an app such as flexgold.
Financial Knowledge
A financial intermediary is an entity that acts in the financial market as a broker between the supply and demand of financial products. According to Article 2 of the Money Laundering Act, this includes banks and asset managers, as well as dealers in precious metals such as flexgold.
Nominal returns are the stated returns before inflation is taken into account. Real returns are nominal returns adjusted for inflation and reflect the actual increase in purchasing power.
Diversification means spreading your investments across different asset classes to reduce risk. The basic principle is simple: don’t put all your eggs in one basket.
Tangible assets are physical assets with intrinsic value, such as precious metals, property and commodities. They can help protect against inflation, as their value tends to rise over time with inflation.
Deflation is the opposite of inflation – a general fall in prices. Although this may sound positive, it can lead to economic problems as consumers and businesses postpone spending and investment.
Inflation is the general rise in prices over time, which reduces the purchasing power of money. An inflation rate of 2% means that something costing 100 today will cost 102 next year.
The term “fiat currency” is derived from the Latin word “fiat,” which in English means “let there be” or “let it be done.”
A fiat currency is a national or supra-regional currency which is created out of nothing and thus has no intrinsic value, such as gold, for example. Since it can be multiplied at will and can therefore grow faster than the supply of goods, a fiat currency is always exposed to the danger of inflation and devaluation through a loss of purchasing power. All currencies used today are usually fiat currencies.
Fractional ownership means that several people (or owners) share the ownership of an item. In the case of flexgold, several people (or owners) own one gold bar. Only on delivery or collection is the fractional ownership, which may be distributed over different bars, transferred to one or more bars of different sizes.
Origin of assets
The following documents are suitable as proof:
- Wage or bonus statements
- Receipts for pension payments
- Proof of property sales
- Payment of insurance benefits
- Gift agreements
- Loan disbursement receipts
- Proof of capital income
- Proof of rental income
- Proof of inheritance (death certificate and certificate of inheritance or notarised will)
- For companies in particular:
- Balance sheet and income statement
- Other relevant evidence, i.e. supplier invoices etc.
The law requires us to clarify the background and purpose of each transaction and to document it in a comprehensible manner.
For this reason, deposits are checked against general risk and/or security criteria, and it may be necessary to verify the origin of the assets. If this happens, your deposit will be held until the review is complete, and you will receive a notification from flexgold requesting that you provide appropriate proof of origin.
So we recommend that you have the relevant documentation for the total amount of your investment with flexgold readily available, especially if you are planning to make larger investments.
The subject of money is a very personal and emotional one for most of us. So you might reasonably feel that we are invading your privacy by asking about the origin of your assets.
Because flexgold is a product of flexgold AG, with its headquarters in Switzerland, as a Swiss based financial intermediary, we are subject to the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority. This means we are required by law to clarify the background of every business relationship and transaction, and to document it in a comprehensible and understandable manner. https://www.polyreg.ch/
As part of our due diligence obligations under the Swiss Anti-Money Laundering Act (AMLA), we are also required to take all measures to prevent flexgold from being used for illegal purposes such as money laundering, financing terrorism, fraud or other illegal activities.
the limits are based on numerous customer-specific factors. if you’d like to invest a larger amount, you should ensure that you can provide the relevant supporting documents upon request. however, please note that depositing smaller amounts or executing multiple transactions does not exempt you from the obligation to provide proof.
flexgold is a product of flexgold AG, with its headquarters in Switzerland. As a Swiss based financial intermediary, we are affiliated with SRO Polyreg, which requires us to clarify the background of business relationships and transactions and to document them in a comprehensible and understandable manner. https://www.polyreg.ch/
A request regarding the origin of your assets may be triggered if this is necessary due to regulatory requirements. In such a case, you will receive a notification from flexgold Support asking you to provide us with the relevant supporting documents.
Absolutely. We treat the sensitive data, documents and information you provide with the utmost care to ensure reliable protection against access, loss or misuse. Everything you provide us with, will only be processed by employees who are bound to confidentiality. The confidentiality and protection of your documents is our top priority.
You can find further information in our privacy policy.
All financial intermediaries in Switzerland are required by law to fulfil their obligations to combat money laundering and terrorist financing in accordance with Art. 14 para. 1 of the Anti-Money Laundering Act (AMLA).
Compliance with these obligations is monitored by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) in the case of banks. Financial intermediaries such as precious metal dealers like flexgold, trustees and fintech companies are monitored by a self-regulatory organisation (SRO), which in turn is supervised by FINMA. flexgold AG is affiliated with the SRO Polyreg.
When any provider asks you to complete the KYC (Know Your Customer) procedure in order to verify your account and provide proof of the origin of your funds, this means that provider is complying with its regulatory requirements.
Asking customers about the origin of their assets and verifying this information has been a legal obligation and standard practice in the financial sector (e.g. banks, insurance companies, asset managers) for many years. Proof of origin has been mandatory for financial intermediaries under the Swiss Anti-Money Laundering Act (AMLA) in its current form since 1 January 2023. Even basic identification and documentation requirements already existed prior to this, in fact, since the AMLA came into force in 1998.
So yes, any reputable financial intermediary in Switzerland will request proof of the origin of your assets.
If you received a message from flexgold Support requesting proof of the origin of your assets, please upload the relevant documents directly to the flexgold app.
