Glint

Glint Pay, founded in 2016 and headquartered in London, is a fintech platform built around physical gold ownership. Users buy allocated, physically held gold stored in Brink's vaults in Zurich, Switzerland, and can spend it anywhere Mastercard is accepted via the Glint card — the platform converts gold to local currency at the point of transaction. The model is genuinely novel: rather than treating gold as a locked-up store of value, Glint positions it as a spendable monetary asset.

The platform is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the UK and is available to users in the UK and the US (via a separate US product). It is not a savings account and carries no FDIC or FSCS protection — the value of your gold fluctuates with the spot price of gold. Fees are the main friction point: Glint charges a 0.5% transaction fee when buying or selling gold, plus an annual storage fee of approximately 0.48% of the value of gold held. There is no minimum investment to open an account, though practical minimums apply given fees. (Verify current fee schedule at glintpay.com)