This week a “bullion related” news item crossed my desk which gave me pause.

A company called Gold Solutions Marketing Inc. (www.TheGoldBullionCard.com),  recently issued a press release announcing their new Gold Backed “credit card”, which will be available soon online. The card, which will be branded by either MasterCard or Visa, is supposed to function like a regular credit card, but will be backed by gold bullion coins you have to deposit into an account. If you don’t currently have any gold, the press release states that you will be able to purchase a quantity of gold. ” below market prices”, at the time of your account opening.

Jeff Silver, VP of Gold Solutions Marketing, Inc. was quoted to say, “Those who ‘believe in gold’ can see  the new (Credit Card reforms of Feb 2010) law reshaping attitudes and conventions about credit cards that will help make this breakthrough collateralized credit card concept a reality in the very near future.  They know that gold, which is a hard asset, can provide a higher level of liquidity and usefulness, while positively impacting the financial picture for millions of Americans” .

Now to be fair, I have to state up front that I am not a big fan of the credit card industry or the big mega banks in particular, and how Congress has allowed, and still allows them to engauge in what many consider to be predatory business practices is a whole different story. But something just didn’t make sense to me in this press release.

First, this is a collateralized credit card, where of the line of credit is backed by an asset you already own.  According to Jeff Silver, the ” credit card [will be] based on 75 percent of the value of gold coins on deposit……, which should give the issuing bank a much more secure feeling about extending credit.”  You Think ?

Now my mother drowned all of her stupid children, but it seems to me that if I have $20,000 in gold bullion coins, in my possession, why on earth would I ship them off to a depository in exchange for a “credit card” with a $15,000 credit limit? (more…)