Apmex Review, Ratings & Facts

Apmex

Company Background

Apmex (American Precious Metals Exchange) is a reputable precious metal dealer headquartered in Oklahoma City, OK. It was founded in 1999 and quickly expanded across the nation.

The company offers gold, silver, and platinum products to its customers to be ordered from the Apmex website to deliver customer's homes.

Apmex offers following products to its customers:

  • Silver, platinum, and gold American Eagles,
  • Royal Canadian mint,
  • Maple Leafs
  • South African Krugerrands.

Apart from bullion products, Apmex also offers pre-1933 coins, international currencies, and commemoratives.

Key People: Scott Thomas Founder & Owner, Kenneth Lewis CEO. You can find the remaining members of the team on the leadership team page.

Company's Associations

Contact Details


Address: 620 Cathcart, Suite 900Montreal, QuebecPhone: 514 875-4820Website: http://www.kitco.com/

You can buy metals from Apmex online store Monday – Sunday 24/7. However, Apmex doesn’t buy back from the customer online. The customer needs to contact the company during business days for a buyback. ​

What do I like about the company?

✔️Wide selection of products

Apmex offers gold, silver, platinum, and palladium metals in the forms of bullion and coins.

There are also rare coins, jewelry items, and even copper products such as bars and bullets. Investors can buy IRA-approved metals using their retirement funds. A detailed list of which metals are allowed can be found on this page of Apmex.

✔️Precious Metals Portfolio Tool

Apmex has a Precious Metals Portfolio Tool that can be used to keep an eye on how much you have invested in gold and silver bullion, as well as what it is worth at any given time.

✔️Exclusive Partnerships

Apmex partners up with other respected mints around the world to offer a wide range of bullion products.

✔️Loyalty Program

Apmex rewards their returning customers with APMEX Club benefits. The benefits can include free shipping, a complimentary gift with purchase, and more. The reward program can be a plus for those looking to take advantage of being a long-term customer of the company.

What I don't like about the company?

❌Overcharging Over The Spot Price

Apmex as most other bullion dealers around the country overcharges their customers way above the spot price.

Also, you can expect their premium to hit the moon during a crash, without freezing the prices and sacrificing not even a bit from their profitability.

❌Their website crashes for no reason

I was reading a ConsumerAffairs buyer review. He made an order at the start of the Black Friday sale at 8:00 EST. He proceeded with the checkout and received a “scheduled maintenance” message with a few other errors.

When the problem was fixed, his cart was empty. This makes me think they might need to work more on their website, and maybe stop directing people to the checkout page sometime before the scheduled maintenance.

No Online Cancels / No Phone Support At All Times

There is no support outside of the business days. If you have made an order and you wanted to cancel it, you simply can't. Neither their website allow it, nor there is phone support for the purchases if you need to talk to a sales representative for your order.

Let's say you have placed an order and wanted to pay for it with an e-check. But for some reason, you are confused about the process and accidentally proceeded with a paper check.

You cannot cancel the order on their website since their website doesn't allow it. You can also not talk to a sales representative if it is not a business day for the company.

However, there are other companies in the market that offer phone support even outside of the business days.

No Video Support

What the heck is video support, right? Let's say you are having a difficult time interacting with their platform, and you can't figure that out by yourself. Obviously, you can submit a ticket or call support for help.

However, there are some companies in the market that do much more for their clients.

They create a personal video showing the customer how to deal with the existing problem. It is definitely something to look for as a customer especially in a competitive market like precious metal investing.

Apmex complaints concentrated around the below areas:

  • High premiums, administrative costs, and/or overcharged items.
  • Lost items during shipping and customers' concerns are not resolved after that.
  • Difficult to work & unresponsive customer service.
  • Lack of communication (through emails, or messages) from order till delivery makes it hard to track orders.
  • Unfair buyback prices.

If you go to the ConsumerAffairs site you will notice the above-listed concerns are verified reviews and coming from the actual buyers only.

How does Apmex Buyback Work?

Apmex buys back investors' assets and here how that works.

  1. Customer calls Apmex to tell the type and amount of metal he/she wants to sell.
  2. Apmex locks the price for the customer to protect his/her assets from the market moves.
  3. The customer packs the product according to the instructions provided by Apmex.
  4. Once the Apmex receives the delivery, the Apmex team verifies it.
  5. Apmex pays customer's money with a check, ACH, bank wire, or an exchange product Apmex sells.

Customers can also trade his/her product in exchange of another product sold on the Apmex website. Please note Apmex charges shipping fees to the customer since the buyback serves customer more than Apmex.  

Here is an instructional video showing how customers should ship their metals to the Apmex securely.

When you want to sell your metals to Apmex you need to take packaging seriously. You will need to securely package your items in a new packaging that is never used before. You can find packaging items in most retailers like Wal-Mart, Office Depot, Staples, etc.

What is the required minimum transaction of the Apmex Buyback Program?

Customers' buyback transaction is required to be $1,000 or more in order to sell metals to Apmex.


Does Apmex sell fake products?

Apmex is a reputable precious metal retailer in business for over 20 years and only sells authentic precious metal products sourced from trusted mints around the world.


How long does Apmex take to ship orders?

APMEX orders are generally shipped within 1-10 business days, depending on the shipping method (US Mail or UPS) and the delivery location.

Payment Options

card payment

Apmex offers quite a good number of payment options available for their customers.

Credit Card & PayPal Payments

You can use your credit card to purchase precious metals from Apmex. However, that can be in your favor only if you place bulk orders. Because it can help you to stack up credit card rewards to spend later on (pretty much free money).

That said, there is a %3 premium applied for credit card payments. Therefore plan ahead if it would worth buying precious metals using your credit card.

When you place an order the company must maintain their price for your order.(I think it's 10 days but check yourself as well).

Because gold investment companies are not paid at the same day you pay with your credit card. Banks pay the companies after sometime. But it shouldn't be your concern since they have already took that in their calculation.

If your order is delivered through USPS. it can take several weeks to ship your order. In order to receive your order, you need to sign papers to get from the delivery guy. I guess that makes sense since this is not a pizza box they could leave an go.

The sale price will change according to the form of payment you choose. The regular price is available for credit card or PayPal purchases.

Using one of these payment options, you won't get any discount. Therefore it may be a better idea to choose a different payment method.

Even if you get a cashback or credit card reward, it probably won't compare with the %4 discount you get by paying through check or wire transfer. After all, payments by credit card and by Paypal are still viable options.

Cryptocurrency Payments

Apmex accepts BTC payments utilizing Bitpay. Also, BTC is not the only cryptocurrency you can pay your order.

Bitcoin money

Customers can choose to pay either with Bitcoin (BTC) or Bitcoin Cash (BCH). You can decide which payment option would be more convenient for you to use.

Although cryptocurrency payment may seem a cheaper option than using a credit card, there is a catch.

In order to buy cryptocurrency with the cash, you will likely pay a certain percentage of commissions. That will disqualify cryptocurrency payment to be a cheaper alternative to credit card payment.

Therefore cryptocurrency payments are not my favorite. Also, in case of a difficulty there is no one that can help you to reverse the transaction. If you are making a bank payment, your bank is the intermediary that secures the transaction, and most probably ensures.

Anyways, if you choose to pay using your cryptocurrency, you'll have 15 minutes to send your coins to the wallet address provided by Bitpay. Otherwise the contract will be time-out and you will need to start all over again.

If this occurs you can call Apmex customer support service. Also note, in order to pay with Bitcoin you'd need to use a Bitpay compatible Bitcoin wallet.

Check or Wire Transfer

This is hands down the best payment option you can choose. It is very simple to write a check and send that to the company. Wire transfers are also equally convenient and affordable compared with the earlier options I have mentioned.

However, wire transfers frighten many individuals. If you've never done a wire transfer it may seem a difficult process but in reality, it's not at all.

Apmex will provide you all the steps you need to take if you decide to make a wire transfer to the company. All you'll have to do is printing that paper out and going to your local bank.

Ask the bank representative for help and they will make the transfer for you. Please note banks charge a typical $20-30 service fee for a wire transfer that goes out. However, it is still nothing considering you make an investment of thousands of dollars if not millions.

The advantage of a wire transfer is that it is immediate. Once it reaches the account of the recipient then it is as awesome as cash. You don't have to wait forever to clear your payment and your order would be processed immediately.

Apmex doesn't accept money order payments. However, some customers paid with money orders since it is very similar to a check that likely to create confusion for the customer.

If you paid to Apmex using a money order, call the company, and ask for cancellation since they'll not send your order anyways. You'll receive your funds hopefully in a few days losing a few dollars for the transaction.

Shipping

All domestic orders are shipped free if the amount is greater than $99. Free shipping is a nice option but for most bullion retailers it's also fairly standard. If the order is smaller than $99 then the delivery costs are $9.95.

Orders are delivered fast typically in one to two business days. However, the payment method you choose may affect your order processing times. Every shipment is insured and a signature would be required upon delivery. The courier is usually either USPS or UPS.

Unboxing Apmex Order

Here is a customer receives his order from Apmex and unboxes the items. This is pretty much similar you should be expecting as well.

Fees

Initial Setup Fees$50
Annual Admin Fees$75
Annual Storage Fees$100+ (Scaled Rate)
Minimum Purchase Amount$2,000
Preferred DepositoryDelaware Depository

Ratings

Before you start investing in a specific business, it will help to assess its success and stand on numerous reputable companies in the industry.

Below is the performance rating is given by reliable organizations after identifying consumer complaints and comments against Apmex.

Final Verdict

Although many people enjoyed the services like its variety of payment methods, strong authority ratings, and SSL encryption standards on their site, there are still a variety of considerations why it would be easier to search for an investment firm further.