How to Buy Gold with Wise [2024]

Q: How to buy gold with Wise?

To buy gold with Wise, transfer your funds over to Interactive Brokers and purchase gold in the Commodities section.

Summary: Although Wise does not facilitate direct investing in gold via its payments services, Wise account holders have the option to invest in gold through a reliable regulated exchange like Interactive Brokers (IBKR). To take advantage of this opportunity, one can deposit money from their Wise account to IBKR account and purchase gold securely.

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IBKR pays up to 4.58% interest on cash balances of $10k or more

Up to 4.58% interest on balance*

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Can you buy gold with Wise?

You can buy gold with Wise, but you need to connect your account to a licensed broker that offers investing in gold. This is because Wise does not provide direct access to commodities investing through its payment platform.

How to buy gold with Wise?

When buying or investing in gold (or any other precious metal, such as silver), your best course of action would be to do it with regulated multi-asset investing platform, such as Interactive Brokers.

Note

However, you cannot buy physical gold on Interactive Brokers. You can, instead, explore its gold contracts for difference (CFD) market or invest in gold-related stocks.

Purchasing gold with Wise with Interactive Brokers as your third-party broker is rather simple: you can send funds from your Wise account to Interactive Brokers, or you can use your Wise Card to transfer them without even needing to convert your balance.

How to buy gold with Wise: step-by-step

To make purchasing gold with Wise as efficient as possible, simply follow the following steps:

Step 1: Register and verify an account;
Step 2: Specify the amount of money you wish to transfer to your new Interactive Brokers account;
Step 3: Connect the Wise and Interactive Brokers accounts to actually deposit the fiat currency;
Step 4: Head over to the Interactive Brokers Commodities section, pick gold, and choose the exact amount you wish to buy.

Disclaimer: CFDs are complex financial instruments and carry a significant risk of losing money rapidly because of leverage. Note that 62.5% of retail investor accounts face losses when trading CFDs with IBKR. It’s important to assess your understanding of how CFDs work and whether you can bear the substantial risk of financial loss. This product is not available for US investors.

Best Platform for Worldwide Stock Trading & Investing

Highly trusted multi-asset broker with clients in over 200 countries
Trade on 150 markets globally from a single platform (stocks, ETFs, futures, currencies, crypto & more)
Low commissions starting at $0 with no platform fees or account minimums
Easily fund your account and trade assets in 26 currencies
IBKR pays up to 4.58% interest on cash balances of $10k or more

Up to 4.58% interest on balance*

Get Started

Ways to invest in gold

Investors have many different options when investing in gold, especially if they’re doing it online. Some of them include:

Physical gold;
Gold Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs);
Gold stocks;
Gold contracts for differences (CFDs).

Physical gold

Buying physical gold is one of the oldest and surest ways to invest in gold. Nowadays, investors have several options, but two stand out:

Bullion coins and bars: Coins and bars are pretty much the standard when investing in physical gold. They vary greatly in size, shape, and (most importantly) in purity.
Jewelry: Jewelry is another common way of investing in gold. It is, however, a double-edged sword: it’s got some advantages over bullions if you’re investing in smaller quantities since you can buy smaller pieces such as rings and earrings, but such items can often be overpriced if they, for example, have sentimental value or if they feature elaborate designs. In other words, pieces of jewelry can exceed the value of gold that went into their making, which is hardly ever the case with bullions.

Gold EFTs

EFTs are a good way to make sure your investments are convenient and cost-effective. If you opt for this option, you won’t have to worry about either storage or security issues, and you’ll dodge the headaches that come with derivative markets. Of course, you’ll also avoid banking fees that follow physical gold investments.

Gold stocks

Investing in gold stocks is usually a risky alternative, as it involves purchasing shares of companies that mine and deal with gold. That means the value of your investment will largely depend on fluctuating gold prices and the success of the enterprise you invested in.

Gold CFDs

Gold CFDs (contracts for difference) are another alternative way of investing in gold without actually owning it physically. In short, CFDs are financial derivatives whose value is tied to an underlying asset. You can trade them upon entering a contract with a broker while making short- and long-term predictions on how the value of the asset is going to change from the beginning to the end of the trading cycle. Naturally, such ventures can be rather risky, so be careful when investing in this manner.

Gold price today

About Wise

Wise is one of the more popular money transfer service providers. It was launched in 2011 under the name of TransferWise by Kristo Käärmann and Taavet Hinrikus, who would later go on to become Estonia’s first billionaires.

The duo’s initial goal was to enable each other to transfer funds between their bank accounts more safely and efficiently, as they were working abroad, earning Pounds and Euros and having to convert them at market rates during each transfer.

Today, Wise operates in 170 countries, providing users worldwide with services that allow them to:

Manage all their currencies across the globe;
Hold and convert over 50 currencies;
Get paid in 10 currencies by employees living abroad;
Send money abroad at good rates;
Get an international debit card.

Wise gold policy

As of now, there are not that many official Wise policies that would prevent users from using their funds to invest in commodities like gold and other precious metals.

If you rely on USD transfers, for example, you will have no trouble going through with our gold-buying instructions above. Some currencies, on the other hand, are subject to certain restrictions. For example, transferring Colombian Pesos from a business account is not possible if your business falls under the “precious stones, diamonds, and metals category.”

In short, be sure to check official Wise transfer guides for each currency you plan on using before proceeding further with your investment.

Is gold a good investment?

As with most other investments, the answer to this question is that it all depends on several factors, including your financial status, investment goals, etc. Sure, gold has historically been the go-to savings method for many, and it’s still considered the best hedge option in popular discourse, even among people with little experience dealing with valuable metals.

The best way to make sure your gold investment is sound is to approach it not as an end-all-be-all investing solution but rather as a way to diversify your portfolio by making use of its low correlation with stocks. Keep in mind, though, that the value of precious metals can still fluctuate, so it might be best to keep a low percentage of your assets in gold to avoid potential problems arising due to rapid economic changes.

Mistakes to avoid when investing in gold

Investments can be a risky endeavor, so you ought to make sure you’re conducting your transactions safely and smartly. Before investing, be sure to:

Avoid spending too much on it: Remember, gold is a diversificator — it’s meant to add some flavor to your portfolio, not take it over. If that happens, you might suffer long-term consequences if the value of the metal drops severely.
Remember additional costs: If you’re investing in physical gold, make sure you take storage, security, and banking fees into account. For some, these additional costs are not worth it, so investing digitally might be a better option, depending on your needs.
Do some research: It is easy to fall for a scam, especially online. When investing in gold, make sure you do your business with trusted platforms and brokers, such as IBKR.

Pros and cons of investing in gold

Pros

It’s a great way to diversify your portfolio;
Gold is a good hedge against inflation as it doesn’t depend on stocks and bonds;
It’s a tangible asset if you invest in physical gold;
Gold is a liquid asset and can thus be converted to cash easily.

Cons

It doesn’t generate passive income;
Comes with additional costs if you buy it physically, such as storage fees;
It can be volatile;
It might be subject to harsher regulatory laws, depending on your area of residence.

Disclaimer: The content on this site should not be considered investment advice. Investing is speculative. When investing, your capital is at risk.

FAQs about how to buy gold with Wise

How to buy gold?

You can buy gold physically, or you can buy gold stocks, EFTs, and CFDs, the last of which you can purchase by using exchange platforms that support commodities trading such as Interactive Brokers.