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Wednesday 30 July 2014

Mind the GAP

There is a new product by Public Gold- Gold Accumulation Program (GAP) which more or less acts like a Gold Savings Account.

The idea is you put in cash in dominations of RM50s (starting minimum RM100) and an equivalent gram (up to 4 decimal points) of 999.9 gold will be allocated to you on a pool basis. Now there is an option of accumulating gold by 1 gram. This will be syariah compliant, inshaAllah, since the amount of physical gold involved is exact (not in any decimal points).

How to join GAP? You may check the daily GAP price from Public Gold website which is updated daily at midnight (unlike other gold bars/coins/dinars updated every 20mins). 

If you are OK with the price and have decided how many grams of gold you wanted, you can directly make the payment to Public Gold account (PUBLIC GOLD MARKETING SDN. BHD.- Maybank 5571 3923 8048 or Public Bank 3167 52 0833). Don't forget to put your name (or your PG code if you are an existing customer) as the reference and KEEP THE PAYMENT SLIP safely. 

Next you have to SMS or WhatsApp Public Gold at 017-4866 916 in a certain format as the booking order and to inform them you have already paid. Below is the example of the format I used in WhatsApp. Note the date and time of payment has to follow the exact date and time in the payment slips (shown by the arrows). Get your dealer (or me, if you haven't got one ;) to do this to save you the hassle. 
Please email the payment slip to payment@publicgold.com.my if you can't share with them via WhatsApp or MMS. You will then receive an email from Public Gold with your Sales Order or GAP statement.

You may withdraw the accumulated gold from any Public Gold branch at your convenience (just make sure to call the branch few days before so they know you are coming and they can keep the stocks for you). Show your IC and pay the premium (starting from RM 5 for a 1g. bar, RM 10 for a 10g. bar and so on). 

It can be as small as 1gram bar or up to 1000g bar according to how much you have in your GAP account. The bigger bar, the better, since the price spread (difference between Buy and Sell price) will be lower. Read more on that here
This is the 1g Public Gold bar with LBMA (London Bullion Market Assoc.) status. The spread is 8% provided the seal is intact and in good condition. Premium charge is RM 5 (made in Turkey)
Make sure you have a minimum balance of 1g in your GAP account to keep it active. Otherwise, you will be charged RM50 for re-activation fee.

The advantage of accumulating your gold with GAP is you can buy gold in smaller amount (unlike before, smallest 999.9 bar is 10g or smallest 916 dinar is 4.25g). Another plus point is, Public Gold will 'store' your accumulated gold at no charge. This will save you the hassle of renting your own safe deposit box and the worry of keeping the gold yourselves.

Another option to acquire gold on a low budget is to use Easy Payment Plan (EPP) whereby you can pay installments within 4 months with 0.5% admin fee on the first month. Let's say you book 1 dinar for RM600, your monthly budget will be around RM150 only. By the end of the 4th month, you can collect and keep the 1 dinar coin (916 gold) by yourself.

Any inquiries, you're welcomed to contact me at my details below.

Norazharina Mat Amin
PG040197
azharina.amin@gmail.com
Last updated: 16th Apr 2016