Category: Glint’s Helpful Hints

Don’t panic – if you have mislaid your card or if you think it’s been stolen, you can take simple action to prevent a stranger from getting hold of your gold or currencies held on you Glint account.

The very first thing to do is to freeze your card, so no thief can use it. It’s easy to do this. Just get into the Glint App and click on the ‘Card’ tab, which brings up three options – ‘temporary freeze card’, ‘show PIN’ and ‘cancel lost or stolen cards’. Click on the ‘temporary freeze card’ – after all, you don’t want to cancel the card, because it may show up after all. Freezing the card prevents anyone from using it and accessing your gold. Unfreezing it is a simple process too.

Then, report the missing/stolen card to the local police, and also inform our Client Services Team in the geographical region of your location.

In the UK, Europe and Rest of World, that’s +44(0)203-915-8111 during Monday to Friday between 09:00 and 17:30 GMT or email: [email protected].

In the US, it’s: (877)258-0181, Monday to Friday 07:00 to 18:00 MST or email: [email protected].

If you urgently need funds to pay a hotel bill, airline flight and so on and you are travelling with a companion who also has a Glint account then you can use Glint It! via your Glint App to P2P transfer funds to their account.

In the US, Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay are now available with Glint, so you can spend real, allocated gold and USD instantly and securely. Follow the steps below to add your Glint card to your mobile device so you can tap to pay everywhere contactless payments are accepted!

Note: To use your preferred mobile payment service, you will first need to have received a physical card from Glint. If you don’t have one yet, you can order one in your Glint app today.

Setting up Apple Pay

How do I set up Apple Pay on my iPhone?

1. Open the Wallet app on your iPhone and tap the + sign
2. Add your Glint card by taking a photo or entering your card details
3. Enter the verification code sent to your phone number
4. All done!

How do I know if my device supports Apple Pay?

The following devices support Apple Pay
• iPhone 6 and above
• Apple Watch
For a full list of Apple Pay compatible devices go to:  http://support.apple.com/km207105

How do I make Glint my default card?

Open the Wallet app then hold and drag your Glint card to the front.

Setting up Google Pay

How do I set up Google Pay?

1. Open the Google Pay app on your device
2. Add your Glint card by taking a photo or entering your card details
3. Enter the verification code sent to your phone number
4. All done!

How do I know if my device supports Google Pay?

Most Android devices support Google Pay as long as they run Android KitKat 4.4 or above and have near-field communication (NFC) technology.

How do I make Glint my default card?

Open Google Pay, select your Glint card and select “Make default for contactless” in the “Details” section.

Setting up Samsung Pay

How do I set up Samsung Pay?

1. Open the Samsung Wallet app on your device
2. Add your Glint card by taking a photo or entering your card details
3. Enter the verification code sent to your phone number
4. All done!

How do I know if my device supports Samsung Pay?

If you have a Samsung Galaxy S6 device or above with Android Nougat 7.0 or above, your device should be compatible.

How do I make Glint my default card?

Open your Samsung Wallet app, and drag your Glint card to the first card in your wallet.

Other Helpful Hints

Can I still use Apple Pay, Google Pay or Samsung Pay if I freeze my Glint card?

No, when your Glint card is frozen, we prevent any payments from being made until you unfreeze it. When you unfreeze your card, you will need to make your Glint card the default card in your mobile payment service again.

How much can I spend using Apple Pay, Google Pay or Samsung Pay?

Normal Glint card limits apply on your mobile payment service transactions. However, some merchants apply a contactless limit. In-app transactions are also not limited.

People over the age of 70 control 75% of the wealth in the US, according to a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) fraud specialist. Over the next 10 years as much as $68 trillion in assets may be transferred from the US Baby Boomer generation to their Gen X and Millennial generation heirs. Passing on wealth to the younger generation is a priority for older people – almost half of UK adults questioned in a survey say it’s their top priority.

Criminals sniff rich pickings from the accumulated wealth of older people – the FBI’s ‘Elder Fraud Report’ for 2021 says there were 92,000 victims over the age of 60 who were defrauded of some $1.7 billion, a 74% year-on-year increase in losses. The FBI thinks that for every reported complaint, 44 others go unreported. 20% of the US population could be aged 65 and over by the end of this decade. In the first half of 2022 criminals in the UK got away with a total of £609.8 million through scams. Don’t join the ranks of the scammed!

Scammers will try all kinds of devious ways to separate you from your money. They might try to get personal information and/or money through threats, a particularly vicious form of abuse, as it can include a claim that the caller is filing a suit against the call recipient – which of course is false.

If you receive a calls or text or social media message from someone you don’t recognise, stay vigilant and don’t give away any personal identifiable information (PII), such as a social security number, or money. Even if the caller/messenger seems familiar, stay sceptical. No bank or genuine official will ever call you and try to get you to give them your PIN numbers or passcodes. If a caller does try to get such private information, report them (if in the US) to the Federal Trade Commission online or by calling 877–FTC–HELP (877–382–4357). After reporting the incident to the FTC, please contact the National Elder Fraud Hotline at 833-372-8311. If you are based in the UK, you can contact the Financial Conduct Authority’s scamsmart campaign, or contact the police by telephoning 101.

Some of the common scams involve a fraudster posing as a relative in financial distress, posing as a government official and threatening to arrest/prosecute victims, or a scammer posing as a charitable worker suggesting you have won a prize, to claim which you are asked to pay a fee or ‘taxes’. Be on your guard – no-one should contact you out of the blue. Never give away to strangers – especially if they seem kind – personal details about your bank or finances.

Above all, never give away your Glint passcode or PIN number. No-one at Glint will ever contact you and ask for such information.

Economists like to joke that a recession is when your neighbour loses their job but a depression is when you lose your job. We all know that a recession is bad, but why exactly?

A recession refers to a significant downturn in economic activity – we all get poorer – and is frequently defined as two successive quarters of decline in gross domestic product (GDP). GDP is the monetary measure of the value of all the goods and services (e.g. washing machines, accountancy work) produced and sold in a country.

The idea that two consecutive quarters of falling GDP indicate a recession derives from the US economist Julius Shishkin, who in 1974 (when he was head of the US Bureau of Labor Statistics) wrote in the New York Times a list of rules that would indicate a recession. Over the years most of Shishkin’s suggestions have dropped away, apart from the ‘two successive quarters’ rule.

This ‘rule’ has since been adopted universally but in fact it’s not a perfect guide. In 2001 there was a recession, with the loss in the US of 2.7 million jobs, more job losses than in any previous post-1945 recession. Yet until July 2002, data showed just one down quarter of GDP, leading policymakers to claim there had been no recession. Yet later that month, revisions showed GDP down for three straight quarters. Time-lags can skew data.

It’s probably safer to include other factors, such as output, employment, income and sales, in any judgement about a recession.

So a more accurate definition turns out to be more complicated; a recession is a self-reinforcing downturn in economic activity, when a drop in spending leads to cutbacks in production and jobs, triggering a loss of income that spreads across the country and from industry to industry, hurting sales and in turn feeding back into a further drop in production. A vicious cycle. A pronounced, pervasive and persistent downturn in the broad measures of those factors is a more reliable indicator of a recession.

Since 1948, there have been 11 recessions in the US – about one every six years. The UK is reckoned to have had eight recessions since 1956; that of 2008 saw five quarters of economic contraction. The UK is already in recession, according to the ‘two quarters’ rule; The Economist magazine has recently said a global recession is “inevitable” in 2023.

Forgetfulness isn’t something that just hits us as we get older. We can all have a memory slip from time to time.

If you forget your Glint PIN or want to change it and are a US client you can change the PIN easily by going to the ‘Cards’ tab and selecting the option ‘Request PIN’. This sends a text message with a new PIN to your registered Glint cell phone number.

If you are a UK/Row client and you have forgotten your PIN you can retrieve it by clicking on the ‘Card’ tab and then click on the ‘Show PIN’ tab.

Wherever you are based, if you enter the wrong PIN three times then your account will be blocked; to unblock it and reactivate your PIN you will need to contact our friendly client services team in your location.

If you find you have problems remembering your PIN, please don’t be tempted to write the number down and keep that written record with your card. If you find it absolutely necessary to write down your PIN number then keep that written record securely at home.

And if you have a choice, don’t choose a PIN that’s obvious. According to the US technology consultancy DataGenetics group, the three most popular combinations, 1234, 1111, and 0000, account for close to 20% percent of all four-digit PINs. Month/day combinations—those in which the first two digits are between 01 and 12 and the last two are between 01 and 31—are also popular. So choosing your birthday or your birth year makes your PIN significantly easier to guess.

If you want a watertight PIN – and you should – then a random selection of numbers is best.

Black Friday is here, but it’s not too late to snaffle some cool gifts for family and friends – this year the bargain prices will be around for weeks. Retailers, like all of us, have had a tough couple of years and are trying to make up lost ground.

Higher interest rates and high inflation – that’s been the story so far this year; it’s not favoured shopaholics. Consumer sentiment as judged by the University of Michigan’s monthly survey slipped a little in November, to 54.7, down from 59.9 the previous month. Consumers, like investors, seem uncertain which direction the US economy is headed; they are squirreling their money as much as possible, and understandably feel less able to spend carefree.

Yet there are some jaw-dropping deals out there, as retailers try to tempt that Dollar into their cash register. We have a sensible suggestion – why not use your Glint account not just to squirrel money away for that rainy day, but to buy your gifts in gold and not fiat currency, which has lost around 10% of its value so far this year, thanks to inflation? As your paper money has lost (and is losing) purchasing power it’s a great time to spend in gold with Glint! Like all assets, gold has declined in price since the start of the year but by 5%; other assets (including fiat money) have stumbled rather more. With Glint you can send Dollars, Sterling, Euros (and gold, too, currently only outside the US, but we’re working on that) to your loved ones and pals – instantly and at no cost at all, within your own country.

Your paper money is under attack from two directions – prices are going up, and the cash buys you less. The last previous year that people could venture unencumbered out to the stores was 2019; in the subsequent three years the cumulative price rise has been almost 17%. Today’s prices are 1.17 times higher than they were in 2019.

Whether you want to stay warm and shop on-line from home or office, or venture out and mingle, you’ll find our fees are extremely competitive. And if you want to check out how your gold is doing, remember to click the ‘markets’ page in your app; click the graph icon, next to the gold value per oz or g, at the top of the screen, to reveal the daily, weekly, monthly and 1-5 yearly gold charts.

Gold is security. Glint its key.

At Glint, we make every effort to demonstrate a balanced conversation between gold, crypto and fiat currencies when it comes to purchasing power and, while we strongly believe that gold is the fairest and most reliable currency on the planet, we need to point out that it isn’t 100% risk free. While we have seen a steady increase over time, the value of gold can fall, which means that its purchasing power can also decline.

Next Thursday 24 November is Thanksgiving. In North America, the day for traditionalists wouldn’t be the same if they had to go without their turkey lunch. As if we haven’t already been through enough, this year has seen almost 50 million birds in the US either die from avian flu or culled after coming into contact with the virus.

Like almost everything else, the price of a Thanksgiving dinner, as tracked by the US Farm Bureau, has gone up over the years. In 1986 – the first year the Bureau started calculating the cost – a Thanksgiving dinner for 10 cost $28.74. The Bureau’s menu includes turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, rolls with butter, peas, cranberries, a veggie tray, pumpkin pie with whipped cream, and coffee and milk, all in quantities sufficient to serve a family of 10 with plenty for leftovers.

In 1986, that dinner cost about two grams of gold in US Dollars. Last year the same dinner cost $53 – which could have been bought for less than one gram of gold, which on 16 November 2021 was priced at almost $60. In 2022 the dinner will cost about $64 on average (there is a regional difference of about $30, with the cheapest cost in the South, the most expensive in the West). The dinner has gone up in fiat currency terms by 21%! On 16 November 2022 the price of a gram of gold was almost $57, virtually unchanged from one year to another.

While inflation has consistently driven up the Dollar price of the dinner (and has simultaneously eroded the Dollar’s purchasing power), the gold price has shown remarkable stability.

Why not use some gold on your Glint account to feed the family and friends this Thanksgiving?

At Glint, we make every effort to demonstrate a balanced conversation between gold, crypto and fiat currencies when it comes to purchasing power and, while we strongly believe that gold is the fairest and most reliable currency on the planet, we need to point out that it isn’t 100% risk free. While we have seen a steady increase over time, the value of gold can fall, which means that its purchasing power can also decline.

Not long now until Thanksgiving and Black Friday – this year they’re in quick succession, on 24 and 25 November.

If you run out of gift ideas, or maybe want to rest your legs, don’t forget that you can send US Dollars to another Glint account holder, with Glint it!

It’s really easy – open your Glint app, find the Glint it! button in the top menu bar. Click on that button, search for a contact, and you can send Dollars and a message to the person of your choice – send it instantly and free of charge!

No more dissatisfactions; give them the choice of present, and do your spending from the comfort of your armchair.

This is a very simple process.

First of all log-in to your online banking account. Note that the option to add an external account may not be offered on your bank’s app.

Then select ‘Transfers’. Look for ACH transfer, electronic transfer, transfer between banks, etc.

Look to add or manage your external accounts.

Here you will add your Glint account as an external account. Your Glint account is a personal, domestic checking account. This account must be in your name.

Enter your account information and click ‘Next’.

Account name: Enter your name or “Glint Pay” (Disregard reference number)
Glint Account Number (This can be found by clicking ‘Top Up’ in the Glint app)
Routing Number: 041215663

Your bank will attempt to instantly verify your external Glint account. If your bank is unable to complete instant verification, your bank will send two test deposits.

Within 1-2 days, your bank will make two small deposits of less than $1.00 into your Glint account.

Once the deposits have been received into your Glint account, Glint Client Services will let you know via email. You will be able to see the deposits in your Glint app under USD transactions. To do this, click on your USD balance for a full transaction list.

You will need to verify those deposits with your bank. Go to your online banking and find your external accounts. Here you can input the test deposit amounts for verification.

Once verified, you can begin sending full transfers to your Glint account.

If you need further instruction on your specific bank’s ACH transfer set up, please contact your bank. Please check your inbox, as our team may reach out if they need anything from you to complete your initial transfer, like a bank statement.

Please check your inbox as our client support team may reach out to you if they need more documentation from you (for example, bank statement) to complete your initial transfer.

Glint democratises gold ownership through fractional ownership of gold bullion. This is also how it is possible to spend Glint gold as e-money.

Glint allows multiple clients, under a legal framework, to own part of an LBMA (London Bullion Market Association) gold bar. Therefore, parts of a bar of gold in the vault may be owned by several separate clients: publishing specific bar numbers would be misleading.

The Glint ledger is the true indication of client gold holdings by volume; this is published in the Glint App as your personal statement.

To verify its total client allocated gold holdings, Glint daily reconciles physical gold allocated between its partners. Each Partner (liquidity provider & Brinks vault) reports daily on the amount of gold purchased/sold and allocated (liquidity provider) and the gold allocated at the vault (Brinks). Glint then reconciles these values against the Glint ledger of record to make sure that Glint has the required holding of client gold allocated at Brinks. Any discrepancies are investigated and resolved in a timely manner. These are then checked monthly by our finance department and ultimately form part of our Corporate Annual Financial Audit.

Furthermore, Glint employs an independent auditor to audit Glint’s gold holdings (on a quarterly basis) in the Brinks vault in Zurich. This audit verifies Glint has the correct amount of gold to cover client liabilities; but it does not verify a specific bar (or part of bar) as belonging to a specific client.

Our system of verifying Glint’s total gold ownership is completely robust.