Acre Gold Review
If you are reading this review, you have probably heard of Acre Gold. It markets itself as a simple and innovative way to buy gold. At a basic level, the company is a subscription service that allows you to buy a physical gold bar by making small monthly payments for as little as $30.
Customers automatically pay a set amount every month, and then once you reach the price of a gold bar of your choice, they will ship the gold bar to you, and then you can start working on your next gold bar.
By making small payments month after month, you can soon own your own Acre gold bars and start building up a solid gold stash. Many gold investors are interested in Acre Gold because the concept sounds pretty cool. I was also interested, which is why I started looking into Acre Gold, and thought about trying it myself.
Do I recommend Acre gold? Let’s find out:
Acre Gold – A Monthly Subscription Program to Purchase a Gold Bar
Based in Santa Monica, CA, Shuttle Finance, which operates as Acre Gold, was founded by a team of fintech pros who wanted to create an easier way for people to invest in precious metals. That’s where the monthly subscription idea was born.
If there is nothing else you notice about Acre Gold, you will see that they are serious about their branding. Not only does every gold bar you buy from Acre Gold have the logo and branding on it, the company also has an online store that features t-shirts, hoodies, and tumblers, which are also branded. They basically buy gold from the top mints in the world, and then design it into bars with their logo on it.
The Online Platform
Acre Gold has an online platform, (it reminds me of the OneGold app if you are familiar with that one) which was one of the first subscription services for gold. It currently does not offer other precious metals. With Acre Gold, you can pay anywhere from $30 to $250 per month. Once your gold stash reaches a certain amount, the company will automatically ship you the bar.
How the Subscription Works to Buy Physical Gold
Depending on how much you want to spend each month, you work towards a specific bar, as follows:
- $30 per month = 1 gram gold bar
- $50 per month = 2.5 gram gold bar
- $100 per month = 5 gram gold bar
- $250 per month = 10 gram gold bar
Once you have enough in your account and hit the price threshold, Acre Gold ships the gold to you.
This all sounds like a great concept, but I quickly found out that there are some issues. The first thing I found is that there is no phone number and no professional customer service person you can call to speak to. Instead, there is only an email address. The other big issue is the real cost subscribers pay.
Acre Gold Pricing and Fees
I’ve been in this industry for a long time, and every company I have ever worked with or researched has some type of fee associated with it. In my opinion, however, Acre Gold’s costs and fees are very high…criminally high, in fact.
I like the concept of the gold bar subscription, I appreciate that when the account hits a certain threshold that the company will discreetly ship the bar in tamper evident packaging, and It’s great that they apply any remaining balance to a new bar.
However, and though this is listed on Acre Gold’s website, there are a lot of extras that you pay for…and most people don’t realize that when they sign up and start buying gold. They usually don’t even realize it until they start seeing these fees.
The first fee is that you have to pay a one-time membership fee of $12. Okay — I get it. This is a cool concept, $12 isn’t a ton of money, and the company needs to make money.
Next, however, comes the cost of fulfillment and shipping when your account reaches a certain threshold. The fulfillment fee and shipping costs vary based on the weight of the bar.
Speaking of the bars, themselves, those are very overpriced, too. Remember when I talked about how Acre Gold brands everything? Including the gold bars themselves? Guess who pays for that? You do. It’s included in the price of the bars, which makes them more expensive than they should be.
It’s easy to see how much they are charging when you look at the “Buy it Now” section of the website.
On the day I was writing this part of the review, the gold spot price was $3,329.90 USD, which is about $107 per gram. Acre Gold is selling 1 gram gold bars for $174. Basically, the company is adding almost $70 to the price of their gold bars, and this doesn’t include the fulfillment fee or shipping costs.
I will tell you that anytime you buy gold you will pay a bit over the spot price, but $70??? No. That’s ridiculous.
But wait…I’m not done.
Acre Gold claims that you have full control of your account, and that you can easily cancel, if necessary. According to reviews, this is simply not true. It’s been reported that the company drags its feet with cancelling, they add charges and fees to cancel, and it’s hard to get into conversations with any customer service people to even address these issues.
Acre Gold Consumer Reviews
Am I the only one who isn’t a fan of Acre Gold? Let’s look at some consumer review sites:
Better Business Bureau – 1.97/5 Stars
Acre Gold is accredited by the Better Business Bureau, but when it comes to consumer reviews and complaints, there are MAJOR issues.
One reviewer, Steve, posted this:
“My subscription is for 5 grams of gold. At todays price of $110 that would be $550 dollars before shipping. I sent $746.67 so far and havent received anything yet. No feedback or updates on my shipping when I email them.”
I can see why this is confusing, especially for a person who doesn’t understand the difference between the spot price and the price you actually pay. However, so far he’s paid almost $150 per gram, and he still hasn’t put enough in?? Wow.
Acre Gold even replied to this review and said this: “As indicated in the payment breakdown we send you in every payment receipt, the payment processing fees do not count towards your gold bars.[…]You have not received a fulfillment email because you have not yet reached shipping status.”
On the Better Business Bureau website, there is a place where consumers can leave reviews, and there is also a section that shows serious complaints. Currently, there are 39 complaints filed against Acre Gold. Almost every single one addresses the extremely high prices that the company charges with several people paying hundreds of dollars over spot price for their gold.
Google – 3.1/5 Stars
Acre Gold fares a bit better on Google. It has 3.15 stars, but there are still a lot of complaints.
The most recent review says this: “Acre Gold has ghosted me after I’ve paid them nearly $1500 for a 10G Gold Bar, multiple emails sent with no response. Have no initiated a BBB complaint which will be followed up by a CFPB complaint for fraud based on failure to provide services and timely responses for updates on my Gold.”
According to today’s spot price of $107/gram, a 10 gram gold bar would be worth $1,070. Again, all companies add a premium, but so far this poor man is $400 over that, and still doesn’t have his gold. Just to compare, one of my favorite places to buy gold, JM Bullion, is selling 10 gram gold bars for $1,120 today, which is a $50 premium over spot price…and this guy has already paid $400+ over spot price to Acre Gold for his 10 gram gold bar.
Is Acre Gold Legit? – More Negative Reviews
We can say that Acre Gold is a legitimate company, but that doesn’t mean they are a good one, nor does it mean that you should put your hard earned money into their hands.
Acre Gold portrays itself as an innovative company that caters to investors who don’t have a lot of money to invest with. The whole concept it was built on was to make investing accessible to those who typically couldn’t afford to buy precious metals. What they’ve done, however, is over charge these people…the same people who may be struggling to even pay that $50 or $100 a month, and that, in my opinion, is despicable.
Thankfully, there are people out there warning others about working with Acre Gold, but at the same time, there are some positive reviews out there. Though I don’t recommend this company, it does seem like there are people out there who rave about it. Perhaps, though, they don’t realize how much cash they are losing out on…that doesn’t seem to be accessible in the customer portal.
Here are some more complaints:
Gold was Never Received
A customer left a review in October 2023 concerning his Acre Gold subscription. He was in the military and set up his subscription in 2021, so that while he was deployed overseas, he could invest and eventually give the gold to his family. He realized, however, after several months, that he had paid much more than the gold was worth.
He attempted to cancel his subscription but Acre Gold informed him that the email he used was not associated with any active subscription. The man knew that he had a subscription because he was being charged monthly payments.
The man also explained in his review that he had tried to reach out to Acre Gold several times, with no answer. Finally, he filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau.
Acre Gold responded and denied it all. They said that they never heard from him and that two gold bars had been shipped. The customer never received the gold, and Acre Gold stated in their response that they could have handled this if the customer had reached out in private instead of posting it on the BBB website.
Customer Who Spent $1,000 and Never Got Their Gold
Another customer left a complaint on the BBB website stating that he had paid around $1,000 to Acre Gold, but never received anything. The story starts in 2023 when the man signed up for a subscription. He didn’t read the fine print at first, but once he did, he felt like things were a little scam-y, and he decided he wanted to cancel. He made that request, but Acre Gold rep offered him a $75 credit to stay and give it a try, and the man agreed.
The problem? The money never was never added to his account. Over time, the man paid $900, but never got any bars even though he believed he was making progress.
Finally, he tried to reach out again. He claims that the company told him that they were so popular that they were experiencing a shortage of gold bars. So, he waited another month, and still…there were no bars. Again, he emailed the company to notify them, but again, there was no response. So, he felt he had to share the details with others, and completed the BBB complaint.
The very same day his complaint was published, Acre Gold replied on the BBB website. They claim that the customer received several responses to his email address. They said that the allegation that they were running out of gold was never said, and that the customer did not pay the $900+ he claimed to have paid. At that point, Acre Gold said that they had cancelled this customer’s account and refunded his money due to him being uncooperative.
Acre Gold – Defends Itself
The more I look at these complaints and reviews, I see a pattern — Acre Gold denies almost everything. On top of this, they paint all of the customers who complain as liars and irrational people.
Look — if this was just one or two complaints, I might agree with Acre Gold and say these reviewers are disgruntled and upset. However, on the BBB site, alone, there are almost 40 complaints. When you look at other sites, there are many more. How can so many people be liars and irrational?
Whatever the issues is here, Acre Gold defends itself every time and it refuses to take any type of responsibility in regard to these complaints. In fact, they often reply in a childish, irresponsible way. They always blame the customer, never their team or business model, and it keeps happening over and over again.
Acre Gold – Pros and Cons
As you can imagine, I don’t have a lot of pros about this company, but I’ll try to be nice:
Pro
- If you can’t buy a full bar, you can slowly buy one of these highly-overpriced bars with a monthly subscription
Cons
- More complaints than almost any company I’ve ever reviewed before
- Hostile customer service practices that always blame the customer
- Extremely overpriced products
My Final Thoughts on Acre Gold
Acre Gold is a business that was started by a team of people who had a great idea and it filled a hole in the industry that now allows those who don’t have a lot of wealth to invest in precious metals. The idea of Acre Gold makes a lot of sense. You can pay small amounts for precious metals, they add up over time, and once the cost of the gold bar is covered, the company ships it right to your door.
That makes this company sound wonderful. However, that’s not the truth.
There are so many complaints about Acre Gold that it’s possible to find them on almost every review site. Though the service they offer is a simple one, there is so much confusion about how it works, and the company doesn’t explain it well. Common complaints are delayed shipping, extremely high prices, and little to no response when attempting to contact the company.
Even if a customer receives their gold bar on time, they pay much more than the gold is worth. There are so many other companies out there that offer small amounts of gold, or you can put $30 or $50 into a savings account each month until you have enough to buy a gold bar from another company.
Acre Gold is not a scam, but it’s not a good company. Yes, it delivers it’s products, yes it processes refunds, and yes, it’s accredited by the BBB. However, that doesn’t mean that it’s a good company to invest with.
I do not recommend Acre Gold at all. There are so many other companies that are much better to work with, and much more affordable for the same products. For instance, I mentioned that JM Bullion had a $50 up charge on a 10g gold bar, which is normal. The same bar at Acre Gold already had a $400 up charge, and it still hadn’t shipped to the customer.
Do yourself a favor and skip Acre Gold. I have other reviews here on companies that are much better, safer, and more affordable.