Lear Capital Review – Better Gold Investing

Lear Capital

Reviewing Lear Capital Inc: A Leader in Precious Metals

If you want financial freedom and stability after retirement, you should try to invest as early as possible. There are many investment options out there; but if you search around a bit, certainly you will hear about precious metals and how nicely these metals are paying off for their investors.   These metals mainly include gold, silver, platinum and palladium. There are several investment companies that buy and sell precious metals. Among the oldest and most popular online-based companies is Lear Capital. It has so far attracted many investors from across the US and customers are known to have mixed reaction about doing business with Lear Capital. Let’s have a look at what we have uncovered about Lear Capital

Lear Capital Inception

Lear Capital was established in 1997 in Los Angeles, California. It describes itself as a precious metals leader that aims to get your business and keep it via unparalleled customer service.   Their main area of specialization is to help a customer build a diversified investment portfolio with premium coins, bullions, silver and gold.  Lear Capital associates itself with the Industry Council for Tangible Assets and Numismatic Guaranty Corporation. It complies with IRS regulations and IRA laws too. Lear capital is a Professional Coin Grading Service (PCGS) authorized dealer as well.

Lear Capital Review

Lear Capital Service Delivery

The company claims to help its customer open an IRA account to begin making their yearly contributions to IRA. In short, Lear Capital allows you to add what you already possess to your IRA account or to start a fresh investment portfolio. However, to qualify for this, one needs be below seventy years and be either employed or self-employed.

The company promises to offer a buyback program where an investor can sell his/her coins to the company at an appropriate time. However, Lear Capital website shows that they don’t offer bullion or gold bars as well as palladium and platinum. Instead, they only sell gold and silver numismatics which are known as ‘collector coins’ that typically bear a large markup. For gold, the company offers the American Eagles, American Buffalo, British Sovereigns, Swiss 20 Francs, Canadian Maple Leafs, Austrian Philharmonics, Austrian 4 Ducats and South African Kruggerands. The company also offers price advantage guarantee to assure clients that they are getting the right price for gold and silver.

Lear Capital Reviews Online

According to Lear Capital website, the company maintains a desirable A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau (BBB). It has been reviewed and rated on many other sites including Yelp, Trustlink, Ripoff Report and BCA among others. Several testimonials found on the above-mentioned websites are very negative.  Even you may find some past investors warning against dealing with Lear Capital. You might want to visit Ripoff Report site and see for yourself how disappointed some users feel about Lear Capital. In 2013, there were 12 complaints filed against Lear Capital; six complaints were made for sales and advertising issues, while 3 were made for the product or service. This shows that Lear Capital is may not be an A+ level Gold IRA Company as it claims.

Advantages of Using Lear Capital

Maintains an unrivaled customer care department
Offers an IRA account representative to give advice and guidance to the customer
Provides transparent guidelines and instructions on buying gold and silver
One can invest directly with Lear Capital on its official website (though as of June 2013, the company is restricting its online order at $5000)
Best rated for those who require gold and silver retirement portfolios

learcapital logo
Disadvantages of Using Lear Capital

There are few drawbacks associated with this precious metal leader. Two of them are listed below.

No use of credit cards – Many people like to use credit cards for online shopping. Unfortunately, Lear Capital allows only personal checks, bank wire, certified checks and money order. You must mail your money in two days to activate your account. If you fail to do so, your account remains on hold until you contact a customer care representative.
Hidden fees – The prices you see next to each metal is not the one you eventually pay. The price to pay is determined in the final stage of the order placement. There is an extra $25 fee for shipping, handling and insurance. For orders below $1000, Lear Capital charges $27. When the order goes above $1000, you will pay ten more dollars without extra favors or freebies. Cancelation fees amount to 4% of the order price.

Our Conclusion

Lear Capital is among the oldest Gold IRA corporations. Past investors have mixed reactions with some of them stating never to use it again.  So, if you are looking to be financially secure in retirement or to broaden your asset portfolio, you should conduct your due diligence and compare other IRA companies together with Lear Capital.

We recommend you take a look at Regal Assets as we have personally invested with them, however this is just our opinion. You can read our review on them over here.

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