A lot of people feel skeptical about buying digital gold over physical gold. While some people question the quality of digital gold, some on the other hand, feel that physical gold is cheaper than digital gold. Clearing the first question, we would like to mention here that all the digital gold providers guarantee the quality and purity of the gold which can be easily checked via various methods at home. Secondly, digital gold is not more expensive than physical gold. In this article, we have discussed why physical gold is costlier than physical gold and weighed the pros and cons of buying digital gold vs physical gold. 

What is Digital Gold?

Digital gold is an improved version of buying pure gold without the added hassle of going out to the physical stores, waiting in long queues, and still doubting the quality of gold. Customers buy digital gold online which is safely stored in secured physical vaults. With the advent of technology, digital gold has emerged as an effective way of buying gold for investment purposes. Most importantly, the investors can convert their digital gold into a physical form easily. 

Is Digital Gold Costlier than Physical Gold?

No, digital gold is not costlier than physical gold. In fact, it’s the other way around. Digital gold is less costly as compared to physical gold because of many reasons. One, there are no making charges in the case of digital gold. In contrast to this, customers have to pay a making charge ranging from 3% to 25% per gram of physical gold. 

Secondly, after buying physical gold, the customers have to buy additional storage lockers to safely store their gold and protect it from theft. The costs of bank lockers typically range from Rs. 500 to Rs. 12,000 depending upon the size of the locker and the city where the locker has been purchased. Moreover, the banks do not guarantee the complete security of your assets even after paying a fee for them. 

Buying Digital Gold vs Physical Gold

Buying digital gold is a much more efficient way of investing in gold and ensuring its safety. To carefully weigh the pros and cons of buying digital gold vs physical gold, here are different aspects related to each of them. 

How to Buy?

Buying digital gold is extremely easy. All you need to do is choose one of the many digital gold providers and sign up on their platform. Then you will need to fill in a few details like name, phone, email address, and the amount of gold you wish to buy. Next, you need to add a payment method based on the available options and approve the payment. That’s it. Your gold balance is reflected in your vault balance. 

Where to Buy?

There are several platforms offering digital gold. One such platform is OroPocket where you can invest in digital gold in five simple steps.

1. Download the OroPocket mobile application and sign up as a user.
2. Fill in your details such as name, address, phone number.
3. Add the amount of gold that you want to buy or the amount of money that you want to invest in gold.
4. Add your preferred payment method (UPI/Net Banking/Debit Card).
5. Make the payment by approving the transaction and you are done. 

Besides OroPocket, there are many platforms like PayTM Gold, Google Pay, Phone Pay, MMTC Pamp, Augmont Gold, SafeGold that are offering top-notch services in digital gold and other precious metals. 

Advantages

Digital Gold	Physical Gold
No additional storage costs	Additional storage costs
Hassle-free buying and delivery	Hassle of finding the right seller
No risks of holding it	Storage issues, massive risk of thefts
Investment begins from Rs. 1	Investment needs to be significant
100% quality guaranteed	Compromises in quality
Insurance options available	No insurance options available
Easy to sell with no deductions	Difficult to sell

Disadvantages

Digital Gold	Physical Gold
Delivery and making charges may be applicable on some platforms	Only high making charges
Not wearable like gold jewelry	Wearable
Limited investments on certain platforms	Easily available

Taxation

Both physical and digital gold have tax implications of 20% when held for more than three years. In this case, the holders have to pay a 4% cess charge in addition to the 20% initial tax. Sometimes, the holders may have to pay an additional surcharge as well. However, if holding for less than three years, the taxes are calculated based on the income slabs, that is, the capital gains are added to the annual income of the holder following which the applicable tax slab is determined. 

Safety

It goes without even mentioning that digital gold is safer than physical gold. There are no risks of thefts attached to digital gold in comparison to physical gold. While physical gold, even after being stored in bank lockers, is prone to get stolen by thieves, there is no such concern regarding digital gold as it is stored in well-secured physical vaults. OroPocket has its gold vaults situated in different countries like the United Kingdom, Australia, Switzerland, etc. 

Concluding Thoughts

Apart from the wearability aspect, digital gold is far better than physical gold, especially for investment purposes. We see no reason why investors should prefer buying physical gold over digital gold. Digital gold has proved to be one of the greatest investment options for investors looking for investing in gold solely for the purpose of investments.

Gold is a perfect hedge against market volatility and related downturns that may otherwise take a serious toll on the values of other investment options like stocks, cryptocurrencies, savings deposits, and so on. Therefore, one must always have at least 10% of their investments in gold to balance the possible negatives.