Methodology: Where Our Facts Come From

Which companies appear

The comparison tables cover Goldco, Augusta Precious Metals, American Hartford Gold, Birch Gold Group and Noble Gold Investments. Only the first two have partner buttons; the other three are shown for comparison, with no links out. We leave out companies that are out of business, in bankruptcy or subject to recent regulator fraud findings.

Where the facts come from

The company record was last generated on October 29, 2026. For each company it holds fields such as IRA minimum, setup, admin and storage fees, custodian, depository, free kit, promotions, buyback terms, BBB and BCA ratings and complaint counts, Trustpilot score, regulator actions and lawsuits. Sources, in order of preference:

1. Primary records: regulator orders and press releases, court dockets, IRS pages.
2. The company’s own documents: fee pages, FAQs, terms, transaction agreements and guides.
3. Rating bodies: the Better Business Bureau, the Business Consumer Alliance and Trustpilot.

Because several companies use Equity Trust as custodian, we compare their fee pages with Equity Trust’s published precious-metals schedule. When a company’s page is older than the custodian’s schedule, we use the custodian’s figure and say so.

How facts are labelled

Status	Meaning	How we use it
Verified	Seen on the linked source on the check date	Stated as fact
Partial	Seen, but incomplete or unclear in scope	Stated with what’s missing
Conflicting	Sources disagree	Both figures shown
Company claim	Only the company says it	Attributed to the company
Secondary	Only a third-party site reports it	Not published as fact
Not published	Searched, not found	Shown as “not published”

Rules and warnings

IRA rules (rollovers, transfers, where IRA metal must be held) come from IRS pages. Sales-practice warnings come from the CFTC, the SEC’s investor.gov alerts written with NASAA and FINRA, and FTC enforcement releases. Each page lists the ones it relies on with the date we opened them.

How money affects what you see

Goldco and Augusta pay us; the other companies don’t. That is why only those two have buttons, and why Goldco’s button comes first on every page. On the facts, Goldco’s published flat fees, its lower minimum and its price match support putting it in front of readers who meet Goldco’s minimum but not Augusta’s; another editor could weigh Augusta’s named custodian and lower complaint count more heavily, and we say that where it matters.

Payment doesn’t change the facts we report. Goldco’s complaint count, its unpublished markup and custodian list, and its text-message settlement are on our pages, as is Augusta’s 2019 Minnesota consent order. Details are in the affiliate disclosure.

What we don’t do

• We don’t score companies or award stars.
• We don’t open accounts or make test purchases.
• We don’t forecast prices or give personal financial or tax advice.

Keeping it current

The record’s own rule is that any fact older than 90 days is re-verified before it is published again. We also recheck when a regulator action, lawsuit, fee change or rating change comes to light, and update every page that uses the fact.