The world has undergone a lot of change in the last century. However, one thing that has not changed is the love Indians have for gold. Indians have a great craze for the yellow metal. No wonder India is the largest importer of gold in the whole world.
In July 2021 alone, India imported 74 tonnes of gold, which is a huge jump from the corresponding imports in July 2020, which was 32 tonnes. In value terms, the imports jumped up to $4.2 billion from $1.78 billion. And these figures are despite the fact that the country is under the fear of the third wave of Covid.
As the data suggests, the Indian craze for gold has been unchanged over so many years. The only thing that has changed is the way Indians invest in gold. Earlier, people used to invest in physical gold in the form of coins, biscuits, or bars. But due to several issues like purity, security, and convenience, today, people are looking to invest their money in digital gold instead.
Why Should You Invest in Digital Gold?
Though digital gold does not offer any passive income to investors, there are several reasons why you should prefer investing in digital gold compared to physical gold. Some of the reasons are listed below:
1. You can start with a small amount: Gold is a very precious metal. When buying even a small quantity of physical gold, you need to invest a significant amount. This makes physical gold out of reach of small investors. But with digital gold, one can invest with a small amount, as low as Rs. 100, and buy digital gold worth that amount.
2. You get assurance of price and purity: The price of physical gold varies in different states. Also, when buying physical gold from jewelers, there are always concerns about its purity. But when you buy digital gold, you get a uniform price and the assurance of 24K 99.9% pure gold.
3. Safe and Secure: When you buy physical gold, there is always a fear of the gold getting stolen or lost. To prevent these unfortunate situations, people keep the gold in bank lockers. There is an annual cost to maintain this locker. However, in the case of digital gold, the trading companies keep your gold safe in digital vaults. This ensures the complete safety of your assets and that too at no extra cost.
4. Easy to sell: Selling physical gold is easy, but you have to search for buyers. If you sell the gold to jewelers, they deduct some amount from the prevailing gold price. But in the case of digital gold, the company buys your gold after deducting nominal transaction fees. Hence, you get better returns for your investment.
5. Fair and transparent: Digital gold is traded on the commodities exchange. Hence one can easily view how their investment is performing. There are several mobile apps and websites that track the price movement and allow investors to buy or sell as per the market condition.
How to Invest in Digital Gold?
Now that you have understood why it makes tremendous sense to invest in digital gold, here is how you can do that.
1. To start investing in digital gold, the investor first needs to open a Demat account. The Demat account has to be linked to their PAN card, Aadhar Card, and bank account.
2. Once the Demat account is in place, it is critical to get the KYC done. This can be done through e-KYC or video KYC that makes the process smooth and quick. The usual requirements to verify your KYC are PAN and Aadhar Card details.
3. Now, you need to decide the amount of investment you want to make. You may either select the amount in INR that you want to invest or the quantity of gold in grams that you want to buy. While buying digital gold, you have the flexibility to buy gold worth the amount you want to invest or buy a certain amount of gold at the live market rate.
4. Once the Demat account is ready and you have decided your investment, visit a reliable online platform, digital gold traders, or recognized stock exchanges. Enter the amount of gold you want to buy, choose payment options, and complete your investment. The payment for the digital gold can be made through net banking, credit/debit card, or even by using the e-wallet.
5. The trading company buys an equivalent amount of physical gold in your name and stores it safely in digital vaults as soon as the payment is made.
6. The investor can view his gold and its performance on a real-time basis. There are mobile apps and websites where the investor can track price movements.
7. If the investor wants to sell his digital gold, he can sell it in the secondary market, i.e. the stock exchanges, or he may choose to hold it till maturity and then redeem the full amount.
8. Take physical delivery of the gold: If the investor wants so, instead of selling the gold, he may convert digital gold into physical gold. The investor can pay a nominal delivery charge and get doorstep delivery of the gold in the form of coins or bullion. As soon as the investor decides to withdraw the investment, the gold is removed from the vault.
Investing in Digital Gold with OroPocket
OroPocket is a 100% asset-backed banking service. With no hidden charges, OroPocket offers transparent dealings. A person can buy digital gold as low as Rs 1 and avail the all the customer-friendly services of OroPocket. The company charges only a flat fee of 0.25% on all transactions. There are no additional storage fees or insurance charges.
The Blockchain technology used by OroPocket lets the investors verify the integrity of their investments. The security vaults located in UK, Switzerland, Singapore, and India are 100% safe, secure, and insured. There are independent auditors who audit these assets on a daily basis to assure asset-backing on a 1:1 basis.
Investment is made through the following three stages.
- Registration: Being an investor, you will require to register with the distributor and complete your KYC work. The offered product is always 24Kgold. You get this confirmation from vendors or issuers. At this stage, vendors appoint distributors to give you an online platform to purchase the product.
- Accumulation: At this stage, you shall log into your account and choose the quantity to buy. Here you must check the rates before you execute the final order. The rates of digital Gold are dependent on the international price of Gold. This cost is a total of the transaction, insurance, and storage. Once the order is confirmed, you can pay online. You can accumulate purchased Gold in your vault.
- Redemption: At this stage, you can choose to sell the purchased holdings. You can check the price and execute your order. You can also opt for the physical delivery of Gold in the assigned coin weights. In this stage, you will require to pay the cost of despatch and minting.
Conclusion
When it comes to investing in Digital gold, Indians are very passionate about buying gold and investing in it. However, in recent times, due to various reasons, the trend is shifting from buying gold in a physical manner to buying gold in a digital manner.
Buying digital gold is very easy and when you deal with OroPocket, it’s safer, secure, convenient, and offers better returns when you decide to sell it. That’s why digital gold and OroPocket are becoming the choice of smart investors these days. Although there are many online platforms were available for investing in digital gold. But Oropocket provides you an exclusive platform for wealth creation, where you can invest in silver as well along with gold. In addition, you can also learn more about Oropocket over our YouTube channel.