Chard

This write up of Chard explains who Chard are and what they deal in and is well worth reading before you decide to buy gold from their website, www.chards.co.uk

Before you buy gold or any other precious metal with any gold dealer, it is always wise to do your own due diligence and find out as much about them as possible.

Who Are Chard
Chard (1964) Limited, established in 1964, is a British registered company in Blackpool, Lancashire, England. Their principle trading activities are: Coin Dealers, Bullion Dealers (Investment Gold), Jewellers, Diamond Ring Designer Manufacturers

Opening Hours are Monday to Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m and Chard will sell and ship worldwide.

In 1998 their first website, www.chards.co.uk, was launched and as the internet grew their web presence has grow to now to around 3000 pages, most of which are products, and many websites.

Some of the Chard websites include:

www.chards.co.uk
www.taxfreegold.co.uk
www.24carat.co.uk
www.jubileegold.co.uk
www.eurocoins.co.uk
www.taxfreegold.co.uk
www.goldsovereigns.co.uk.co.uk
www.18carat.co.uk
www.9carat.co.uk
www.plat.co.uk
www.pinkdiamonds.co.uk
www.orangediamonds.co.uk
www.bluediamonds.co.uk
www.blackdiamonds.co.uk
www.champagnediamonds.co.uk
www.yellowdiamonds.co.uk
www.browndiamonds.co.uk
www.green-diamonds.co.uk
www.red-diamonds.co.uk
www.purplediamonds.co.uk
www.coloured-diamonds.co.uk
www.fancydiamonds.co.uk

Tax Free Gold is already covered in another write up Tax Free Gold

Chard are one of the most comprehensive companies devoted to gold coins on the web. They have perhaps over 20 websites, 300 pages and thousands of gold coins, gold and silver bullion, diamonds and jewellery. They have heaps of information on their sites including testimonials, the sorts of questions they are asked and even complaints.

The Chard Directors are Lawrence and Jane Chard who can be found at their shop in Blackpool. England.

Chard Customer Service
The Chard Cash & Carry Showroom is open Monday to Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m and their phone service operates the same hours. They are closed on all public or bank holidays but will arrange appointments outside of the standard hours in certain circumstances.

They are quick to answer email and phone queries and hot on providing a good customer service.

Chard Guarantees
Chard state that they have been in business for over 37 years, and, "during this whole time we have endeavored to ensure that our customers are satisfied, and would return to us and recommend us. We do this by striving to give good value and sell quality goods accurately described. We also aim to give accurate honest advice, and at all times to be fair and reasonable. Because we sell goods across a number of product types, we give a number of guarantees."

Chard Delivery & Costs
Delivery is usually within 24 to 48 hours of receipt of the funds. This means after cheques (checks) have cleared of course.

UK buyer's risk: £2; UK fully Insured £6 (+£1 per £1,000)
USA buyer's risk: $10; USA fully insured $40 (+$1 per $1,000)
EU buyer's risk: €8; EU fully insured €16 (+€1 per €1,000) Canada & Caribbean: As per USA (or equivalent in US dollars)
Rest of World: Generally as for EU, we will advise if different.

Chard do not use recorded delivery as consider it affords no real advantages over normal post. Although it offers compensation up to £26, this excludes valuables such as coins and money.

UK fully insured delivery is by Royal Mail Special Delivery, which used to be called Registered.

VAT (Value Added tax) is added as applicable. i.e. Most coins have VAT but some, such as gold sovereigns, do not since 2000.

Chard Product Range
Chard’s product range covering thousands of coins is far to extensive and large to feature here. Suffice to say that the chances are, if you want it, Chard will have it.

A general list of their coins includes:

Gold coins
Numismatic gold coins
Collectors gold coins
Gold coins from many countries of the world
New gold coins
Old gold coins
Rare and vintage gold coins
Gold coins of almost all quality from proof, right through to brilliant uncirculated, excellent, good, ok and down to poor or ok quality.

The same goes for silver coins also gold and silver bullion, also gold bars, silver bars, as well as a large variety of diamonds, jewellery, gemstones, and other precious metals. Rings, broaches, you name it.

Chard have over 3000 pages, many with hundreds of items available. Chard state that only about 10 percent of their stock is listed on 2500 of their website pages at any time and if printed out would be equivalent of about 2 telephone books.

Chard are also appointed Perth Mint, Western Australia, authorized distributors as from 2004 and can sell Perth Mint gold, silver, and platinum products, gold coins, silver coins, bars and even allocated and unallocated pooled gold and silver.

Chard Payment Options
Chard will accept most form of cleared funds including:

Personal cheques (checks)
Company cheques
Bank drafts
Money order
Debit cards

All cheques should, be payable to "CHARD". They also accept cash at their showroom.

Chard do not accept PayPal or credit cards as they state the charges for those payment methods outweigh their margin of profit. and debit cards.

For high valued bullion transactions you will need to allow a week for UK cheques to clear and one month for US.

Bank transfers are also acceptable and one should consult with Chard first for arrangements.

There is a note that from Indonesia they only accept payment by bank transfer.

Chard Scrap Gold
Chard will by scrap gold, gold coins, other precious metal coins, in fact virtually any coin. If in doubt you can ask them and send the coin to be assessed for a price.

If you can have your scrap gold properly sorted into various grades of hallmarked gold, with tested unhallmarked scrap kept separate, and properly identified you might get a better price too.

Chard do not give free valuations. They mention this as apparently get inundated with requests for valuations on a great and diverse variety of coins. They will provide a probate or disposal valuation for a fee however.

Chard state they will pay 90% of intrinsic gold content for any hallmarked scrap gold from 100 grams upwards in total, and 95% or more for quantities of 1 kilo upwards. And they will pay up to 98% of intrinsic for melted and assayed bars, or for large volumes after melt and assay charges.
For smaller amounts, under 100 grams, or for unclean and unsorted material, like many other scrap gold dealers, they will make will make a deduction for sorting or testing where necessary, but will still pay upwards of 80% of intrinsic gold content.

The Last Word on Chard
Chard have been around for 44 odd years and rely upon a high turnover to make a profit. Their prices are very good compared to many in the gold coin business. They carry a large amount of stock and value their business highly. As the margins on gold and other precious metals are low, and Chard do offer a good price for their products, they are very strict when it comes to who they deal with. They do have a very exact Know Your Customer (KYC) policy and adhere to it strictly.

This tends to increase their trustworthiness as far as the customer or client is concerned.

If you have purchased any gold coins or gold bullion from www.chards.co.uk, please feel free to leave feedback on the quality of service and products including any www.chards.co.uk online complaints and special attention or service given by www.chards.co.uk online.