Full review
Money Metals Exchange was founded in 2010 by Stefan Gleason, his brother Mike Gleason, and brother-in-law Clint Siegner. It remains a family-owned independent dealer, headquartered in Eagle, Idaho (a Boise suburb) and now employing approximately 100 people. The company conducted nearly $5 billion in lifetime transactions per its own About page. Stefan Gleason has a background in public policy and the company carries a distinctive sound-money advocacy posture — including involvement in state-level legislation to exempt gold and silver from sales tax and capital-gains tax in various US states. Whether that advocacy is a feature or a friction depends on the customer's own preferences; we mention it because it materially shapes the company's identity in a way that distinguishes Money Metals from the more strictly-commercial brands in our review set.
In 2024 Money Metals opened a 37,000-square-foot, $28 million state-of-the-art depository facility in Eagle — capable of holding upwards of $100 billion in gold and silver, expandable to 60,000 square feet. Most bullion dealers do not own vaulting infrastructure of this scale; the capital commitment is a meaningful signal of operational stability and long-term planning. The depository operates as a separate BBB-accredited entity (also A+) and offers third-party storage services beyond Money Metals' own retail sales.
On pricing, Money Metals takes a structurally different approach from peers. APMEX, BGASC, JM Bullion, and SD Bullion all bake a 4% cash-equivalent discount into their displayed prices and charge credit-card buyers the discount-removed price. Money Metals displays one price and adds a 3.9% surcharge if the customer pays by credit card. The dollar outcome is similar, but the presentation is more transparent about credit-card cost — what you see in the cart on a non-credit payment path is what you pay. Our snapshot data shows Money Metals' premiums competitive on standard bullion across most major categories. Accepted payment methods are broad — bank wire, ACH, personal check, money order, credit card, PayPal, Bitcoin, and other unspecified cryptocurrencies — though the crypto list is less enumerated than JM Bullion's published roster.
Shipping is where Money Metals' posture diverges most sharply from peers. Cleared-payment orders ship within three business days, which is in line with APMEX. Orders over $199 ship free; orders under $199 carry a $12.97 flat fee, which is the highest among dealers we review. The distinctive piece is insurance: Money Metals explicitly does not purchase third-party shipping insurance, citing security and privacy reasons (carrier-side insurance typically requires declaring shipment contents). The dealer instead self-covers shipments via internal accounting and recommends customers shipping in the return direction use USPS Registered Mail for full coverage. Marketing copy describes shipping over $199 as "insured" but the underlying mechanism is internal coverage rather than a Lloyd's-of-London-style external policy like BGASC carries. Recovery on a loss claim depends on Money Metals' own process rather than an external insurer. Buyers comfortable with the privacy tradeoff will find this acceptable; risk-averse buyers may prefer a dealer with explicit external insurance.
Returns are the policy's weakest area on documentation. The published terms describe a 2-business-day window to ship metals back AFTER a return is initiated, but the window to actually initiate the return is not explicitly stated in the snippet of the policy page we have. Restocking fees are described as "reasonable" and assessed "at our sole discretion" — different from every other dealer in our review set, all of which publish percentage-based or fixed restocking fees. Market loss applies on returns where spot has fallen between purchase and return. The discretionary language makes the policy materially less predictable than peers'. Customers should read the actual terms-of-use page on moneymetals.com directly before placing a large order if return flexibility matters to them; this dossier flags ambiguity rather than guessing at specifics.
Customer service is structurally strong. The 800-line (1-800-800-1865) is staffed Monday through Friday from 7 AM to 5:30 PM Mountain Time — about 52.5 hours per week, the widest weekday window in our review set. The Eagle, Idaho headquarters means a single operational location rather than the multi-state geographic distribution we see at SD Bullion. Workforce of approximately 100 employees provides surge capacity. The family-owned structure provides operational continuity but no weekend coverage. Email is available; live chat is referenced on the contact page. The depository operates a separate contact path (depository@moneymetals.com) for storage-customer inquiries.
Money Metals is the right dealer if you value independent (non-A-Mark) counterparty diversification, want the widest weekday phone hours available, are buying for long-term storage (the depository integration is a real advantage), or align with the sound-money advocacy posture. Money Metals is the right dealer if you also value the privacy posture on shipping disclosure. Money Metals is the wrong dealer if you want a clearly-documented return policy with specific window and fee numbers up-front, if you need bundled third-party shipment insurance, or if you place small orders under $199 where the $12.97 flat fee makes the order uneconomical. For comparison shopping, Money Metals is closest to SD Bullion in independent-dealer positioning but differs in operational scale, geographic location, and advocacy posture.