Red Rock Secured Review – Precious Metals Investing & Gold IRAs

The stock market isn’t the only way to invest your money. Precious metals are another popular option. I’ve personally invested in gold and silver for several years, working with dozens of brokers and service providers in the process. 

I recently came across precious metals investment company Red Rock Secured, and I have to say I’m impressed. 

Whether you’re looking to make a traditional precious metals investment or are interested in adding these valuable metals to your retirement accounts, you should look into Red Rock Secured.

What Is Red Rock Secured?

Red Rock Secured is a precious metals investment company headquartered in El Segundo, California. The company offers traditional brokerage services through which you pay for physical gold and silver for home delivery, but its primary offerings are gold IRAs.

The primary feature that distinguishes the company from its competitors is the fee-free Gold IRA. This is a self-directed IRA for retirement savings. The difference is that you don’t pay for the bells and whistles like storage, custodians, or liquidation fees. We’ll talk about that more later on. 

How Red Rock Secured Stacks Up

Red Rock Secured is one of several precious metals IRA companies to choose from. One of its biggest competitors is Augusta Precious Metals. Check out the chart below to see how the two compare. 

What Sets Red Rock Secured Apart?

Founded in 2010, Red Rock Secured has been providing quality services to precious metals investors for nearly 13 years. There are a few factors that keep the company’s customers coming back for more. 

• Fee-Free Gold IRA for Life. If you fund your precious metals IRA with $200,000 or more, you’ll never pay custodian or storage fees. You can also avoid some fees with smaller investments.  
• Price Protection. If you spend $10,000 or more and the price of the precious metals you buy falls, Red Rock Secured will make up the difference with more metal. If the price climbs, you have the option to buy more at the original price. This feature has strict time frames based on how much you invest (more details on this shortly).  
• Customer Service. I contacted customer service, as I do every time I write a review, and I was pleasantly surprised at the level of attention they gave me. At one point, I found myself on a conference call with two representatives because they were so keen on answering my questions completely. They don’t just have great customer service; their staff is industry-leading.  

Advantages of Red Rock Secured

No company in a competitive industry lasts longer than a decade without providing its customers with distinct advantages. Some of the biggest advantages to working with Red Rock Secured include:

• Unique Benefits With a $10,000 or Larger Purchase. When you spend $10,000 or more, you can take advantage of the company’s price protection and storage fee discounts. 
• Low Premium. All precious metals brokers need to make money, which they do by charging a premium over spot prices. Most dealers charge premiums ranging between 8% and 12%. Red Rock charges a premium between 1% and 5% over its cost, which is competitive to say the least.
• Quality Customer Care. This is worth a second mention. The customer care team I spoke to was so friendly I would be willing to hang out with them on Saturday night, yet so knowledgeable that I hung up the phone knowing I received complete, thoughtful answers to all my questions. 
• Insured. Clients who choose the Delaware Depository or many Brinks storage facilities rest easy knowing their precious metals are insured by Lloyd’s of London. Even if something happened to the depository where your metals were stored, you can rest assured your retirement is safe. 

Disadvantages of Red Rock Secured

Red Rock Secured is a great company to work with, but I haven’t found a perfect company yet. There are a few disadvantages to consider before working with the company. 

• Limited Selection. The selection of metals at Red Rock Secured leaves something to be desired. Sure, you can find gold, silver, platinum, and palladium offerings, but you won’t find a catalog with hundreds or even thousands of coins you might be interested in. 
• Fees Aren’t Clearly Explained on the Website. I don’t know why the company doesn’t display its premiums and pricing perks on its website, because they’re competitive. The website is a bit lacking, however, with limited information. Chances are you’ll need to speak to a representative to get anything done. 
• No Paper Currency. Most of the precious metals brokers I review also have rare paper currency offerings. Red Reck Secured does not. If you’re looking for paper legal tender, you’ll need to look elsewhere.  

Key Features of Red Rock Secured

Red Rock Secured attracts customers with low premiums and keeps them coming back with unique features no other broker can compete with. Here are some of the most exciting features of the platform. 

Low Premium Over Spot Prices

Premiums are how brokers in this industry make their money. If they charge an 8% premium, that means when they pay $100 for a coin, you’ll have to pay $108, generating $8 in profit for the company. Most brokers charge premiums between 8% and 12% over spot price (the price of precious metals for immediate delivery in the open market). 

Red Rock Secured charges a 1% to 5% premium over its cost on all common bullions like American Eagles, Canadian Maple Leafs, and bars. Of course, collectable coins and bullion come at a higher premium that depends on the product.

There’s also a difference in how the premiums are stated. Most precious metals companies say they charge X amount over spot. Red Rock clearly states its markup in terms of a percentage over its cost. 

That’s important because precious metals firms don’t always pay spot prices. They often pay discounted rates when they buy from investors. That means the 1% to 5% of Red Rock Secured’s cost on common bullion may be even less than 1% to 5% over spot. 

Secure Storage

Red Rock Secured focuses its efforts primarily on retirement precious metals investments — specifically self-directed IRA accounts. Retirement precious metals must be stored in a secure, non-government, non-bank storage facility. 

Red Rock Secured offers you two depositories to choose from, and they happen to be two of the leaders in the industry — Delaware Depository and Brinks Global Depository. 

Your Choice of Metal

Unfortunately, the company doesn’t have the largest selection of rare coins or fancy precious metal bars, but if you’re not concerned with rarity, you have all the options you’ll need. The company offers access to gold, silver, platinum, and palladium, with most of their offerings qualifying as IRA-eligible precious metals. 

This is the primary factor that sets the company apart from its competition. Red Rock Secured offers perks that are unheard of in the precious metals market. 

First and foremost, you can tap into a fee-free precious metals IRA. Here’s how it works:

• Waive IRA Storage and Custodian Fees. Storage and custodian fees typically add up to between $200 and $250 per year. If you invest $10,000, the company pays these fees for the first year. Invest $50,000 or more and your fees are covered for three years. If you invest $100,000 or more, you won’t pay storage or custodian fees for life. 
• Price Protection. Financial markets are volatile. Price protection lets you buy more metals at the original price if prices go up, and it grants you more metal to offset losses if prices go down. If you spend $10,000 (IRA accounts) or $1,500 (cash accounts) or more, you have price protection for a week. That time frame climbs as your purchase amount climbs and caps out where protection lasts for a full year with a spend of $200,000 or more. 

It’s also worth mentioning that Red Rock Secured works with Equity Trust and makes it easy to roll over funds from an existing IRA account if you’d like to use them to take advantage of the perks above. 

Excellent Customer Service

Red Rock Secured’s customer service team is available Monday through Thursday from 8am to 5pm and Fridays from 8am to 4pm Pacific time. 

The support staff is highly knowledgeable and eager to answer your questions. 

Is Red Rock Secured Legit?

There’s no question that Red Rock Secured is a legitimate precious metals broker and gold IRA provider. If you don’t believe me, just look at all the customer reviews across the web. 

The company has an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau (BBB), a 4.8-star rating on Consumer Affairs, a 4.8-star rating on TrustPilot, and a AAA rating with the Business Consumer Alliance. No matter where you look for customer experiences, you’ll find countless positive reviews. 

The company website, RedRockSecured.com is secured with bank-level 256-bit encryption, meaning you can rest assured your data is safe when you work with them. 

Alternatives to Consider

Red Rock Secured isn’t the only gold IRA company online. If you want to shop around, consider the following providers. 

Final Word

If you’re looking to add precious metals to your retirement portfolio’s diversification strategy, you should strongly consider Red Rock Secured. The company’s price protection and fee-free IRAs are like nothing else on the market. Combine that with stellar customer service and industry-leading cost structure, and you have a winner. 

Nonetheless, you should never change your investment portfolio on a whim. Do your research and carefully consider how adding precious metals to your retirement plan will affect your portfolio before diving in.