Augusta Precious Metals Reviews: Are They Legit in 2024?

Do Augusta Precious Metals reviews suggest that this company is a good choice if you're looking for a gold IRA broker? My answer isn't just yet. It's an emphatic yes!

Augusta Precious Metals is one of the best companies in the business. Some analysts tend to think they are the very best. Many of their clients certainly believe they are the very best.

There aren't many gold IRA brokers that work so hard at being trustworthy and transparent. You won't get high-pressure or pushy sales tactics from Augusta's customer service department.

They won't even hit you with surprise fees when you place an order to invest with them, because the price they quote is what they will charge.

Something else they focus really hard on is client education. You'll learn all you want about investing in precious metals while you have an account with them. You'll know why your metals are going up or down in value and how they're likely to move in the future.

Augusta actually has a different department for client education separate from customer service. They're only there to help you learn and never to sell. That's by design.

Streamlined operations, the chance to learn, and a team full of industry professionals who want your account to succeed all add up to a gold IRA broker I think you should consider if you're in the market for one.

Augusta Precious Metals: Company Overview

Augusta Precious Metals

9.8/10Our Score

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Augusta Precious Metals has some of the highest marks across the industry for customer service and integrity. 

• A+ Rating and Zero Complaints Registered with Better Business Bureau 
• No High-Pressure Sales Tactics
• Welcome Webinar from Harvard-Trained Economist
• Simple 3-Step Process to Get Started

"I diversified my retirement with precious metals from Augusta. You can count on them."-Joe Montana, Hall of Fame Quarterback

This is a very impressive gold IRA broker. You can use them to invest in precious metals to save for retirement and other investment purposes. This works out well for two different reasons.

First of all, any IRA account has serious tax benefits. You might get to skip taxes on any gains generated on investments in the account. You can also have no or reduced taxes on withdrawals and distributions you make later in life out of the account.

Secondly, precious metals are a great investment in their own right. Gold and silver tend to do really well in times of economic uncertainty and inflation. Precious metals are also known to keep your portfolio from totally bottoming out if there's a serious recession right before you retire.

A gold IRA is a great thing to use if you want to move previous retirement assets into more conservative assets or simply diversify your portfolio. Many other forms of IRA and employer-sponsored retirement plans can be rolled over into a precious metal IRA to broaden the stability of your portfolio. As you get older, your exposure to risk in stocks and bonds should decline to some degree.

Augusta Precious Metals was started in 2012. They state their mission as client education, and that's exactly what they do. They empower their clients to protect their retirement assets, and that's mainly done via how precious metals tend to hold their value over time.

This is not a company that wants your business. Does that sound crazy to say? What they want is your trust, because they know the business will follow.

They are simply one of the most transparent and trustworthy gold brokers in the sector. Many players in this business do what they have to get clients, but they might not pay as much attention to them once their precious metals are sitting in a depository. That's actually when Augusta Precious Metals really steps up because they have an entire client education department focused on teaching you.

You can learn what makes precious metals grow or decline in value. You'll learn what market factors and trends are going on at that time. You'll start seeing for yourself why your precious metals are doing what they're doing, and you'll get adept at predicting their future value and movement as you become an industry expert to some degree in your own right.

Augusta Precious Metals has a relationship with the Royal Canadian Mint that you can benefit from. Thanks to this partnership, they're able to offer their clients very pure coins for lower prices than their competitors. That spreads your investment funds even further if you decide to invest with them.

That investment can be the one setback, however. They require a minimum of $50,000. That's among the highest that I know of among all the industry options, and it can keep you out of precious metal IRA investing until you have enough saved up to join the party with everyone else.

What Makes Augusta Different Than Other IRA Companies?

If you want to know what distinguishes Augusta Precious Metals from other gold IRA brokers, then I would call your attention to three things. I'll start by mentioning that their customer service is better than most of their competitors. It's also nearly as good as the best of the best, but it's how they do things that are different.

First, they streamline their operations as much as they can. Anything they can do to save on overhead is savings they pass on to their clients. It also means that their customer service is a very efficient operation that saves you time.

Second, they work hard to earn your trust more than your business. They know that if you trust them, your business will follow. When they quote you a price, their markup is already built-in, and you won't get a surprise fee hitting you when it's time to pay up.

Third, their dedication to client education is so fierce that it's a totally different department from customer service. Even though their customer service team is known not to use pushy tactics or high-pressure sale pitches, you'll face none of that whatsoever when you deal with their educational resources. These happen through their website, social media accounts, blogs, and podcasts.

The thing that won over Joe Montana was when he was anonymously participating in a conference with their lead analyst, who was trained in business at Harvard. This is a meeting that every client eventually gets to have. They won over the NFL Hall of Famer without knowing who he even was.

IRA & 401k Investment Options

You can do two different things with Augusta Precious Metals. You can buy physical coins, bars, and bullion for your own personal possession. However, you can also create a gold IRA.

A gold IRA or precious metal IRA has all the tax advantages you would expect of any other IRA. Gains in the account are tax-free inside the tax shelter. There are also potential tax advantages if you wait until the right requirements and minimum age for your withdrawals or distributions.

You can even fund your gold IRA with a conventional IRA, Roth IRA, Simple IRA, or SEP IRA. You can also do a rollover from a 401(k) or 403(b) plan. These rollovers let you move other retirement funds into a new account without paying any taxes.

The precious metals you invest in will be stored in an IRS-approved depository until you do distributions. This isn't the case if you just buy precious metals as a transaction. You'll pay the taxes on the transaction at the time and be personally responsible for the ownership.

Here's a quick video review detailing a real customer's experience using Augusta Precious Metals to complete their Gold IRA rollover:

Getting started with Augusta Precious Metals can seem like a really big deal. It is, especially when you're talking about $50,000 or more of your retirement and investment portfolio. However, the process is actually pretty simple.

The first thing you'll do is create a self-directed IRA with them. The second step is funding it. The third step is choosing your particular precious metals and where they will get stored.

In terms of creating a self-directed IRA, you'll be dealing more with their customer service team than their educational department. They can actually do most of the work involved with all this paperwork. You will need to just provide them with a few pieces of information, approvals, and signatures, which won't take much of your time.

Funding it can be a big decision. You can use pre-tax dollars or post-tax funds. There are serious tax consequences either way.

Using pre-tax dollars means you're likely doing a rollover of a previous retirement account. This can be nearly any form of IRA, or it can be a 401(k) or 403(b). In these cases, you can preserve the tax-advantaged status of your wealth while investing it in precious metals that are likely to hold and even grow the value over time.

If you go with post-tax dollars, then you'll be paying cash out of your own bank account. You will get the tax benefits of being in an IRA and the withdrawal benefits later. However, you'll have already paid taxes on that income.

Picking your precious metals is where the educational resources might come into play. Gold will be a big factor, but you might also be able to invest in silver and other metals. The specific pieces you buy will have various costs and future outlooks.

Fees

The custodial application is $50 out of the gate. You'll be responsible for yearly custodial fees of $80 up to $100. These vary based on your particular depository and whether you pick segregated storage or non-segregated.

I think you'll find these fees to be within industry averages or above average. However, Augusta will cover liability insurance premiums and shipping costs for all your precious metals. That's a standing offer you can rely on for as long as you have an account with them.

BBB Rating, Customer Reviews & Complaints

Nearly every precious metal IRA broker will have some complaints filed against them at some point. In fact, that should happen in any industry. Can anyone honestly say they please every customer all of the time?

Augusta Precious Metals is a very interesting situation. I'm used to seeing precious metal brokers having some complaints about them here and there, but the good ones usually try and answer and resolve every complaint. Augusta doesn't even get that chance, because when I last looked, they didn't have a single complaint filed against them with the Better Business Bureau.

Zero complaints. I can't even tell you how well Augusta Precious Metals responds to or resolves their BBB complaints. That's because they don't have a single one.

They've been accredited with the BBB since 2015. It's been years. There are no complaints whatsoever.

The BBB themselves have reviewed Augusta Precious Metals. They rated them as A+. That's their highest rating.

BBB users have also provided Augusta Precious Metals reviews. More than 100 people have done so. Their reviews averaged 5/5.

Things look pretty similar at the Business Consumer Alliance. More than 100 BCA users average Augusta with a 5/5 rating. The BCA organization itself graded them as AAA.

You can find twice as many reviews on TrustLink, where 275 users averaged them at 5/5 again. It's only when I look at Google reviews that I find something less than perfect. More than 250 reviews average 4.9/5.0.

Augusta Precious Metals Alternatives

I speak very highly of Augusta Precious Metals. So do many other analysts and reviewers, as you'll see elsewhere in this content. Does that mean they're perfect? Not by a long shot.

They are really, really good. However, that doesn't mean that they're automatically the right choice for you. It's worth comparing them to three other options just so you can be thorough and have some idea of what your options are.

1. Goldco

Goldco

9.7/10Our Score

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• New customers might get 10% free metals in silver coins
  
• First-year fees might be waived
  
• Goldco reps don't get pushy with heavy sales tactics
  
• Staff are quite friendly and knowledgeable to new investors
  
• This broker wants investors to make good investment choices

• Minimum investment level stands at $20,000
  
• Website not totally transparent about fees

If you read reviews of Augusta Precious Metals other than my own, you'll see a lot of folks who say they're the top business in the industry. You'll also see the same thing said about Goldco. The two are certainly in competition for the king of the hill.

Goldco possibly outdoes Augusta Precious Metals in terms of customer service. However, that's because they seem to outdo the entire industry on that front.

RELATED: Goldco vs Augusta Precious Metals

That doesn't necessarily include client education, however, since Augusta distinguishes that. You'll learn a lot if you go with Goldco, but maybe not quite as much.

Goldco usually has lower investment minimums, however. Getting $25,000 together is still a high bar to get over. Yet, it's half of what Augusta wants.

2. Noble Gold

Noble Gold

9.4/10Our Score

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• Leadership has more than two decades of experience
• The leaders are focused on helping people grow their own wealth
• The company has a strong emphasis on education so you always know what's going on
• Multiple services are provided and not all of them are IRA accounts
• You can buy your own physical gold

• Noble Gold does have a few things that might make you think twice.
• They're a more recent entry into the industry
• Fees aren't always obvious

Noble Gold and Augusta Precious Metals both care about their clients and do all they can to help them invest for success. They both have educational resources to that effect. However, it's only Augusta that has educational opportunities with Harvard-trained analysts on their staff.

One thing Noble Gold has going for it is customer service. Reviews and ratings put them on par with Augusta Precious Metals. Augusta might be rated higher on average, but I can assure you that Noble Gold is still really good in this department.

Noble Gold's ace in the hole is the minimum investment level. It's usually just $5,000. That's exactly 10 times smaller than what Augusta Precious Metals requires, so Noble Gold opens up precious metal investing for considerably more investors that would like to get into the game.

3. American Hartford Gold

American Hartford Gold is another option to consider across the broader industry. Their customer service reviews are not as good as what you see with Augusta Precious Metals. Having said that, the reviews are still pretty high on average, so you're likely to be treated well if you work with them.

Celebrity endorsements are important to some people but not to others. Augusta has Joe Montana in their corner. However, American Hartford Gold has Bill O'Reilly, Rick Harrison from Pawn Stars, and other celebrities who have endorsed this particular company.

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE: Top Rated Gold IRA Companies

The minimum investment level is where American Hartford Gold really wins. They don't even bother having one. That makes them one of the few who does even better than Noble Gold.

Summary

Do you want to learn from a company that commits itself to client education more than anyone else in the business? If so, then Augusta Precious Metals is someone to look at.

Do you want to do business with a gold IRA broker that works hard to deliver great customer service and earn the trust of its clients? If so, then Augusta Precious Metals again has an argument in their favor.

Do you want to invest less than $50,000 into a gold IRA? If so, then you need to look at other brokers.

This particular gold IRA broker is a great combination of reasonable fees with transparent operations. They streamline everything they can to keep their overhead down but also so they can deliver effective customer service.

I find that a refreshing combination when so many other brokers might only have one thing they excel at.

What makes Augusta really shine is the educational opportunities, ranging from website content to one-on-one meetings with analysts trained at Harvard of all places.

Whether or not Joe Montana's experience or endorsement means anything to you, you'll see for yourself why he was won over.

This company will always make my shortlist of the best in the business. They need to be on yours, too.

Augusta Precious Metals

9.8/10Our Score

LEARN MORE

Augusta Precious Metals has some of the highest marks across the industry for customer service and integrity. 

• A+ Rating and Zero Complaints Registered with Better Business Bureau 
• No High-Pressure Sales Tactics
• Welcome Webinar from Harvard-Trained Economist
• Simple 3-Step Process to Get Started

"I diversified my retirement with precious metals from Augusta. You can count on them."-Joe Montana, Hall of Fame Quarterback