Merit Gold Review (updated on Nov 2014)
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Website
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Phone
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BBB Rating
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BBB Complaints
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Trustlink Rating
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BCA Complaints
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Merit Gold.com | 800-515-5019 | D | 13 | 48 |
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Merit Gold
Overall 2 Stars Rating
Overall Rating 2/5
*** Be sure to read our thorough review of Regal Assets, which is our #1 recommendation on the best gold companies
History
This company was established under Seacoast Coin in year 1986 by Peter Epstein. Later on, Merit Financial was formed in 1993 as a retail subsidiary of Seacoast Coin. Since year 2009, Merit Gold grows bigger with offices in Encino, CA in year 2010 and Santa Monica, CA in year 2011.
They have been reported to work with about a quarter of a million American investors on precious metals for the past few decades. From their webpages, it seems that Merit goals is to provide their customer with the best value and best service available.
BBB Rating
Merit Gold was rated by BBB with a "D" rating where it was such a poor rating. When it comes to the most trusted sourced for consumer protection and information, BBB is always the authorities to refer to.
BCA Ratings
Business Consumer Alliance (BCA) is among one of the popular advocracy group whose mission is to protect consumers from bad-practising companies. They will strive to let consumer knows about the good and the bad about companies so that consumers are well informed. So far, there are about 48 complaints which have been filed on Merit Gold in BCA, where complaints are mainly due to unresolved issues and poor communication.
Every company will definitely make mistakes from time to time, but what really matter here is how the company handle the situation and solve the problems, as that is what shows a company real values. Although they are with complaints, BCA still rated Merit Gold with an AA rating.They may be having a total of 48 complaints, but compared to the 250,000 customers that Merit Gold has served, this is nothing much to worry about.
Trustlink Reviews
Merit Gold shows more positive from the reviews on Trustlink where customers who are making reports are mostly their regular customer, who have good experienced with items delivered to them before and on time. A good explaination of the process of investing, buying precious metals, packing and shipping process was some of the other prise that Merit Gold received.
As of this writing, Merit Gold holds a 5 star rating based on 676 reviews which is quite impressive for a gold ira company
Legal Issues
As on 13 February 2014, Merit Gold which was also known as Seacoast Coin Inc, was in a consumer protection lawsuit which was filed by the Santa Monica Attorney's office. Merit gold was alleges to have taken consumers for more than ten million dollars in an aggressive frauds scheme throughout the nation.
It is believed that they have been operating a large scale of bait and switch fraud scheme since September 2009. Their main target was mainly senior citizen customers where they will be attracting them with gold or silver bullion at a 1% over cost. They will then try to do switch selling and convinced the attracted customers into buying numismatics coins at a premium price.
You can read the entire legal complaint here: http://www.smgov.net/Main/News_Tab/National_Gold_Dealer_Merit_Financial_Targeted_In_Fraud_Prosecution.aspx
This case is now under the California's Unfair Competition Laws, whose mission is to protect consumers from false advertising, frauds, and unlawful business practices.
Conclusion
Merit Gold was seems to be in a government legal action which we think that it is not a good choice for investors. And with the "D" ratings from BBB, it is not very encouraging to work with them. We advised you to make your own judgement based on the reviews and carefully choose the best gold IRA company that you wish to work with. You can always refer back to our gold ira review and guide to help you make your best decision.
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Website
|
Phone
|
BBB Rating
|
BBB Complaints
|
Trustlink Rating
|
BCA Complaints
| |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Merit Gold.com | 800-515-5019 | D | 13 | 48 |
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Our Recommendation
Phone: 877-962-1133 (Call from 8am to 5pm PST with any questions)
www.RegalAssets.com
BBB: Rating of A+, 0 Complaints
TrustLink: based on 499
Reviews here: http://www.trustlink.org/Reviews/Regal-Assets-LLC-206068373
You can also read our reviews of other Gold IRA Companies Review.
Editor’s note: If any information contained herein is found to be inaccurate, please notify us here