FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
General
Troygold is a fintech company that provides gold investment and credit services to physical gold owners and retail investors.
Troygold provides a digital platform for individuals to purchase any fraction of physical gold bullion or deposit gold onto the platform. Troygold’s monetisation tools in the its credit facility and Troygold Mastercard allows clients to access instant liquidity of their gold holdings without selling their assets.
We usually save our money in fiat currency-denominated bank accounts and use these accounts to transact in our daily finances. The problem is that fiat money loses value continuously by way of inflation. Also, once you deposit money with a bank, you simply become a creditor to the bank.
To ‘live in gold’ means to save wealth in physical gold held outside the banking system and then to still enjoy access to banking services on your stored gold value for use in daily finances.
Accounts
You can think of a Troygold account as your physical gold account:
A physical gold account where you can buy any denomination (as little as R10 and up) in physical gold in the form of Krugerrands;
Free gold insurance and vault storage of your gold with our third-party vaulting provider, SafeGold.
A gold-backed loan facility of 75% of the value of your gold holdings, which allows you to enjoy the value of your gold without selling your gold assets;
Instant liquidity of your gold value at over 40 million locations with a Troygold Mastercard;
The opportunity to deposit and withdraw physical 1oz Krugerrands from your Troygold account at will.
- Download the Troygold app by clicking the iOS or Play Store download button on the hom page of the Troygold website, or search for Troygold on the respective Apple App or Google Play stores on your mobile phone.
- Open the app and create your Troygold account in-app by following the easy registration and verification prompts.
Once you’ve downloaded the app and opted to create an account by registering with the in-app prompts, you are requested to submit the following for FICA verification:
- Personal details
- Selfie
- SA Identity document or card (for SA residents), or Permit (for temporary residents)
In order to increase the daily and monthly limits on your credit facility or Troygold Mastercard, you will be prompted to submit:
- Proof of address (utility bill, bank statement, lease agreement etc.)
To view a summary of the FICA thresholds and account limits, click here.
There are no monthly account fees associated with a Troygold account, which means storage and insurance of gold is free of charge.
There are transactional fees associated with the Troygold debit Mastercard, which can be viewed in the Cardholder Transaction Fees document here.
There are interest charges associated with the Troygold credit facility, which can be viewed in the Credit Facility Product Rules document here.
The Gold wallet acts like a bank savings account, but is backed by physical gold that is securely vaulted and fully insured on your behalf. The wallet allows you to effortlessly save in physical gold bullion in any fraction and is backed by 1 oz gold Krugerrands.
Troygold’s gold digitalisation technology allows customers to purchase any currency amount worth of gold.
The Credit Facility wallet is backed by a unique bank cheque account in your name and houses your currency facility funds. In South Africa, the bank accounts are issued by our issuing bank partner, Access Bank.
You can also link your Credit Facility wallet to an accompanying Troygold Mastercard for point-of-sale transactional capabilities.
The Troygold platform is a regional platform as a result of requisite licensing and regulatory environments. Troygold is currently available to residents of South Africa only, with international expansion planned for the near future.
- To close your account, firstly sell all your holdings and withdraw the Rands to an alternative bank account. Once the above transaction has been completed, please complete an account closure request in the Settings of the app to formally close your account.
Gold Wallet
The Gold wallet represents your physical gold holdings you own and which are stored in the secure vaulting facility. The wallet is denominated in ounces and is the result of your buying, selling or upload of gold on the Troygold platform.
Troygold’s gold digitalisation technology enables customers to buy and sell any currency denomination worth of gold for both full ownership or fractional co-ownership.
The Troygold technology enables fractional ownership of physical, vaulted gold through the digitisation of physically stored gold coins and bars.
Each coin or bar has a unique identity number, providing customers with allocated legal ownership of specific, 1 oz gold Krugerrands.
Even if you purchase less than a full 1 oz coin, you are allocated as a co-owner of that specific coin or bar. This co-ownership model is similar to the concept of undivided shares in a property’s title deed.
Administration of the Troygold ownership register is managed by Troygold’s proprietary technology. A client receives an ownership certificate, detailing the ownership percentage and specific coins in which ownership vests.
Whenever a customer buys or sells gold on the Troygold platform, a Gold Ownership Certificate is generated and sent via e-mail.
The Gold Ownership Certificate indicates the amount of gold owned, as well as in which specific gold Krugerrand coins ownership vests.
Credit Facility
The Credit Facility wallet is a unique bank cheque account that houses your credit facility that is linked to the value of your gold holdings. The bank account backing your facility is issued by Troygold’s issuing bank partner, Access Bank.
The Credit Facility can also be linked to an accompanying Troygold Mastercard for point-of-sale transactional capabilities.
Your Credit Facility is calculated at 75% of the value of your gold holdings. For example, if you own R100,000 in gold, you will have a credit facility of R75,000 available.
There is no cost to activate a credit facility.
Once you use funds from the credit facility, you will start paying interest fees.
Interest costs are linked to the repo rate. For a full breakdown of the credit facility costs, please visit the credit facility product rules link here.
You can use your Troygold Mastercard to spend your credit facility funds, or alternatively you can withdraw funds directly to your bank account:
- Open your Troygold app and Login.
- Tap in Transact, and then on Withdraw.
- Type in the amount of ZAR you wish to withdraw from the wallet and tap next.
- Your funds will be electronically transferred via EFT to the bank account stipulated in your User Profile (under Details in Settings > Banking).
Depending on your external banking institution, funds take on average 2-3 business days to reflect in your external account.
R10 per withdrawal.
CARD
The Troygold gold-backed Mastercard is a debit Mastercard issued to you when you activate your credit facility. The card is linked to a real, unique South African bank cheque account in your name that houses your credit facility funds.
Inside the Troygold app, the card is linked to your Credit Facility wallet – which is comprised of your credit facility funds available as well as any other deposits you may have made into the account.
The card allows you to access instant liquidity of your gold value by allowing you to instantly spend your credit facility funds.
The Mastercard is powered and issued by our sponsoring bank, Access Bank.
Access Bank SA is a retail bank in South Africa and is a subsidiary of the Pan African bank, Access Bank Plc. Access Bank operates across 10 African countries with over 40 million customers.
For more information, click here to view the Access Bank website.
Once you’ve activated your Troygold credit facility by following the prompts in-app to digitally sign the credit facility agreement, you will be asked to order your Mastercard by providing a delivery address.
Once ordered, your card will be sent out via courier to your delivery address – and should arrive within 2 to 3 business days.
- Open your Troygold app and Login.
- Tap on the Activate button in the app home page.
- Follow the on-screen prompts to activate your Mastercard.
Please refer to our cardholder card fees schedule here for details on transactional fees associated with the Troygold Mastercard.
Buy/Sell Gold
Troygold offers 1 oz Krugerrand bullion coins (refined by Rand Refinery) as the gold investment medium on the platform.
A 1oz Krugerrand is the premier gold bullion coin available to South Africans as the most cost-effective physical gold investment asset. The Krugerrand coin enjoys legal tender status within South Africa and is zero-rated for VAT. It is produced by the Rand Refinery and SA Mint.
When you save in gold with your Troygold account, you enjoy direct legal ownership of the exact amount of the physical gold that you have purchased in specific coins.
All our customers’ gold holdings are fully allocated, meaning these are specific coins are given a unique ID number before being securely stored and fully insured in a high-security precious metals vault.
Even if you purchase less than a full 1oz coin, you are allocated as a co-owner of a specific coin. This co-ownership model is similar to the concept of undivided shares in a property’s title deed.
Administration of the Troygold ownership register is managed by Troygold’s proprietary technology. You will receive an ownership certificate indicating your ownership percentage and in which coins your ownership vests.
- Download the Troygold app by clicking the iOS or Play Store download button on the home page of the Troygold website, or search for Troygold on the respective Apple App or Google Play stores on your mobile phone.
- Open the app and create your Troygold account in-app by following the easy registration and KYC prompts.
- Tap the Transact button on the home page screen within the app and purchase gold via EFT transfer.
- If you want to sell some of your gold holdings, tap the Transact button and then Sell under the Gold Account tab. Follow the prompts to sell gold.
There is no maximum or minimum on how much you can purchase.
You can buy your gold anytime, anywhere using the Troygold mobile app. Troygold provides continuous live pricing in-app.
You can buy and sell at the prevailing price displayed in the Troygold mobile app, which is linked to the global spot gold price.
The displayed prices are linked to live gold spot market prices, and update in-app when your app refreshes.
The spot price for a precious metal is the current market price for that precious metal traded in the wholesale market for immediate delivery. Spot prices are price quotations for trading large standard quantities of a precious metal in the wholesale market, not individual bullion bars or coins like the Krugerrand.
The spot price is usually quoted in US dollars per troy ounce and refers to a quotation for a standard, but large quantity. The spot price is also known as the international ‘paper price’.
Physical gold bars and coins are priced using the spot price as a benchmark, either trading above or below the spot price, depending on the supply and demand at the time of that particular bar or coin. Most of the time, because of fabrication costs, physical gold will trade at a premium to the paper gold price (spot).
Because precious metals are traded 24 hours a day around the world during the week, there will always be a live and changing spot price that feeds in from around the world wherever trading activity is live.
Troygold offers a live per ounce buy price and sell price (a buy-sell spread) displayed in the Troygold mobile app when tapping Buy or Sell – there are no additional transaction fees.
For fractional amounts bought and sold, the confirmation screen in-app will show a pro-rata price based on the transaction oz versus the 1oz price displayed as above.
Uploading Gold
A gold upload is the process of digitising your existing gold held outside the Troygold platform in order to access the Troygold liquidity tools.
More practically, a gold upload is when you deliver and deposit your gold coins (Krugerrands or other) into your Troygold account.
Gold held at home is idle capital, illiquid and unsafe. By uploading them into your Troygold account, you can access the gold’s value instantly by way of the Troygold credit facility and/or Mastercard.
You can upload most types of gold coins and collectible gold coins onto the Troygold app.
Gold coin types you can upload include: Bullion Krugerrands, Proof Krugerrands, Big 5 Series, Mandela Series, SA 25 years Democracy Series, Natura, Protea, Medallions and so forth.
To upload gold to your Troygold account, follow the below steps:
- Open your Troygold app and Login.
- Tap on Transact, and then on Upload (under Gold heading).
- Tap the dropdown on the Gold coin type and choose the type of gold coin to upload.
- Type in the number of such coins you’ll be uploading and tap Next.
- Select your desired city, location and date where you will be physically delivering the coins for upload, then tap Next.
- Review the upload details on the confirmation screen and tap Confirm if you’re happy to proceed.
- Proceed to deliver the coins for upload at the stipulated location on the date selected.
- Your coins will be accepted, authenticated & credited to your Troygold gold wallet.
There are no fees to upload gold.
For uploads of more than 20oz, Troygold will arrange an insured courier service to pick up your coins from your desired address, at no charge.
For uploads of less than 20oz, you can make use of a courier service yourself at an additional charge.
Storing gold
All South African clients’ gold Krugerrands are stored in Brink’s South Africa’s high-security vault in Johannesburg – at the OR Tambo Special Economic Zone.
Brink’s is the world’s leading precious metals vault – see website here.
The security of your gold holdings is our top priority:
Insurance:
All customer holdings are fully insured against loss or theft by Lloyds of London – the world’s leading specialist insurance provider and market.
Vaulting custodian:
Brink’s Global, Troygold’s vaulting provider, is the world’s premier provider of precious metals logistics and storage solutions.
As part of our commitment to safety, only the vaulting custodian has physical access to the vault holdings. Thus, no Troygold employee can enter the vault or access the holdings.
User holdings are audited monthly with the vaulting custodian. The inspections involve counting the ID’ed coins or bars held with the vaulting custodian, which relates to the specific coin or bar ID on the client’s Ownership Certificate.
Troygold simply acts as bailee for your holdings, as evidenced by your Gold Ownership Certificate issued to you per e-mail after a transaction.
This means that you are the legal owner of the gold you buy on the Troygold platform and we simply store and manage your holdings on your behalf. Legally, you enjoy full, direct ownership of your gold – it’s your property and does not form part of Troygold’s balance sheet assets.
Therefore, if anything were to happen to Troygold, you will retain full ownership of your gold holdings as it is your property.
An appointed liquidator will be tasked to redeem or liquidate the precious metals according to the Troygold ownership register, which provides the relevant user metal holdings and links the client to his specific coin or bar ID’s.
Herewith a letter from Troygold’s accountants confirming the above – click here to view.
Gold storage and Insurance costs are FREE.
Withdrawing Gold
You can redeem your holdings any time you wish. Simply tap Transact, then Redeem under the Gold tab in the Troygold mobile app and follow the on-screen instructions to confirm your gold withdrawal.
Our team will be in contact with you to verify your particulars and make the necessary arrangements for delivery or collection.
Troygold only deals in and vaults 1oz gold Krugerrands in South Africa. As such, gold withdrawals are in 1oz Krugerrand coins. Gold withdrawals can therefore only take place in these denominations.
- Open your Troygold app and Login.
- Tap Transact, and Redeem under the Gold account tab.
- Follow the on-screen prompts to submit a withdrawal request.
Once your request is submitted via the Troygold app, a member of our team will contact you to verify your particulars and make the necessary arrangements for delivery or collection.
Deliveries can take anything from 48 hours to a few days, depending on the location of your request.
1% + a courier specific fee depending on the location for delivery (South Africa only).
Withdrawing Funds
You can withdraw funds from your Troygold account at any time by making a withdrawal from your Credit Facility wallet within your app:
- Open your Troygold app and Login.
- Tap Transact and Withdraw under the Credit Facility tab.
- Insert the amount you wish to withdraw and follow the prompts to submit a cash withdrawal.
Technical
Troygold is available on both the Android and iOS platforms. You can either click on the specific store button in the page footer below, or search for the app in the respective store as follows:
For iOS:
- Open the App Store.
- Search Troygold.
- Tap get.
For Android:
- Open the Google Play Store.
- Search Troygold.
- Tap install.
Troygold is available on both Android and iOS platforms.
For iOS:
Any iOS device running on iOS 10.0 or later with a minimum 150MB of storage, is required.
For Android:
Any Android device running on Android 5.0 or later with a minimum 150MB of storage, is required.
Due to new secure upgrades in the app, the below needs to be in order for the app to function properly:
- Your lock screen or some other biometrics need to be enabled.
- All permissions need to be given to Troygold.
- The clock on your device’s time needs to be set to internet/automatic, and can never be off by more than 5 minutes.
Please contact our support team via the live chat Help function in the app menu, or email us on [email protected].
Please contact us via email at [email protected], or tap Help in the Troygold mobile app.
Legal
When you open a Troygold account and use the Troygold platform, you are agreeing to our Privacy Policy and User Agreement
When ordering a Troygold Mastercard, you’re agreeing to the Cardholder Agreement .
When activating your credit facility, you’re agreeing to the Loan Facility Agreement.
Please click here to view Troygold’s Privacy Policy.
In South Africa, Troygold is a registered Krugerrand dealer with the South African Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC) of the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) and a Registered Credit Provider with the National Credit Regulator.
In Singapore, Troygold is a Registered Dealer under the Precious Stones and Precious Metals (PSPM) Act with the Singapore Ministry of Law.
