Are gold buyers regulated in the UK? The honest legal answer

Is there a dedicated regulator for gold buyers?

No. Anyone in the UK can start a gold-buying business tomorrow. There is no licence to apply for, no register to join, no qualification to hold and no inspection before trading begins. That sits oddly with how the industry sometimes presents itself, so it is worth being precise about which official bodies do and do not touch this trade. What GoldPaid publishes about its own process, in the absence of a regulator to point at, is on selling gold by post.

The Financial Conduct Authority does not regulate gold buyers. The FCA authorises firms carrying on regulated financial activities under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000, and buying or selling physical gold is not one of them. A gold buyer describing itself as “FCA regulated” for its gold buying is telling you something that cannot be true of that activity. Nor does council scrap metal licensing apply: the Scrap Metal Dealers Act 2013 defines scrap metal so as to exclude gold, silver, and any alloy of which 2% or more by weight is gold or silver. Precious metal buyers fall outside it by design.

What law actually protects you when you sell?

The main protection is unfair trading law. Since 6 April 2025 that has meant the unfair commercial practices provisions of the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, which replaced the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008. For gold selling, the law expressly covers a trader buying a consumer’s goods, not only selling to them. A postal gold buyer’s adverts, quotes, terms and behaviour all sit inside it.

The Act prohibits misleading actions and omissions, aggressive practices, and a list of banned practices that includes fake reviews and false urgency. The CMA’s guidance sets the detail out. Enforcement has real weight: the CMA can now fine a business directly, up to 10% of worldwide turnover for the most serious breaches, and Trading Standards can prosecute misleading and aggressive practices as criminal offences.

The limitation is that this is enforcement law, not supervision. Nobody checks a gold buyer before it starts trading, and action usually follows a pattern of complaints rather than preventing the first one. The law punishes bad practice after the fact; it does not certify good practice in advance. That is why the pre-posting checks later in this article matter more than any badge on a website.

Where does money-laundering law fit in?

Under the Money Laundering Regulations 2017, a business trading in goods must register with HMRC as a high value dealer before it makes or receives cash payments of £10,000 or more, whether in one payment or several linked ones. That threshold was expressed as 10,000 euros until 30 June 2026, when it was changed to £10,000; HMRC’s own guidance page still showed the euro figure at the time of writing. Either way, it catches gold buyers who pay out large sums in cash.

Most postal buyers, GoldPaid included, pay by bank transfer only and handle no cash at all, which puts them outside the high value dealer regime entirely. Two honest consequences follow. First, a bank-transfer-only buyer not appearing on HMRC’s register is not a red flag; there is nothing for it to register for. Second, “HMRC registered” in a gold buyer’s marketing is not a badge of general trustworthiness. It means the business handles large cash payments and has met a cash-handling obligation, nothing more.

What you will meet in practice is identity checking. Reputable buyers verify who they are paying and pay only into an account in the seller’s name, which protects honest sellers and makes stolen goods harder to launder. Being asked for photo ID is a sign of care, not a cause for suspicion.

Does hallmarking law regulate gold buyers?

Indirectly. The Hallmarking Act 1973 makes it an offence to describe or sell an unhallmarked article as gold, silver, platinum or palladium above small exemption weights (1 gram for gold, 7.78 grams for silver, 0.5 grams for platinum), and requires dealers to display the statutory dealer’s notice explaining hallmarks. It binds anyone selling precious metal, which includes a gold buyer when it sells stock or refined metal on.

When you sell scrap to a buyer, the Act does not govern that purchase; you are not describing goods for sale in the course of a business. But hallmarks still do quiet work for you. A UK hallmark is independent, legally backed evidence of fineness struck by one of the four assay offices (London, Birmingham, Sheffield and Edinburgh), which makes it harder for any buyer to price your 18ct as 9ct. Reading one takes a minute: see how to read a gold hallmark in 60 seconds.

What protection does a seller actually have?

Strip away the branding and a postal gold sale is a contract. Your real protections are these:

• Contract law. A written, itemised offer that you accept or decline is enforceable. A buyer who pays less than the accepted figure, or processes items before acceptance against its own terms, is in breach and can be pursued, for most amounts through the small claims track.
• Unfair trading law. Misleading quotes, false claims and pressure tactics can be reported through the Citizens Advice consumer service, which passes cases to Trading Standards.
• Advertising rules. Misleading price or “best payout” claims can be reported to the ASA.
• Postal cover. If a parcel is lost in transit, the claim runs against Royal Mail. Royal Mail cover may be available up to £2,500 depending on the postal method and cover level used, and the proof-of-postage receipt is what makes a claim possible.
• Data protection. A business holding your details should be on the ICO register, and you can complain to the ICO if your data is misused.

And the gaps, stated plainly: there is no ombudsman for gold buying, the Financial Ombudsman Service cannot take these cases, and there is no compensation scheme like the FSCS behind a gold buyer. If a buyer became insolvent while holding your items, you would be an unsecured creditor. If you are not comfortable relying on paperwork, the post and your own checks, a face-to-face sale at a local jeweller, or an auction house for pieces with collectable value, is a perfectly reasonable alternative, and for rare coins or signed pieces it is often the better one.

What should you check, given there is no regulator?

• 1. Companies House. Free at find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk. The registered name should match the site, the status should be active, and the accounts should be up to date.
• 2. ICO data-protection register. Free at ico.org.uk/ESDWebPages/Search. If the site advertises a registration number, search it: a buyer holding your personal data without a live entry has a compliance problem before it has your parcel.
• 3. Trading address. A registered office at an accountant’s address is fine. A residential address on a "professional buyer" is a flag. A PO box only, with nowhere else to send a legal letter, is a bigger one.
• 4. Terms and conditions. Ctrl-F for "return", "process", "melt", "silence", "deemed acceptance". The exact clauses worth searching are catalogued in red flags when choosing a postal gold buyer.
• 5. Testing method. XRF, acid, weight-only? The answer should be in writing on the site, not something you have to prise out of a phone call.
• 6. Payment method and window. Faster Payments within a stated window, or a cheque a week later? Both are legal; only one is a modern service.
• 7. Reviews for pattern. Trustpilot, Google, review aggregators. Read the low-star reviews before the five-star ones, and read the company’s replies to them: how a business handles complaints tells you more than how it handles compliments.
• 8. Live phone or WhatsApp answer. Ask a genuine question before you post. A buyer that will not answer a small question before your parcel arrives will not answer a big question after it does.

The full version of this checklist, including the terms-and-conditions phrases worth searching for, is in red flags when choosing a postal gold buyer. If something has already gone wrong, this guide sets out the escalation routes and time limits.

Where GoldPaid stands in all this

Applying the same tests to us: GOLDPAID LTD is a UK-registered company, checkable at Companies House. ICO registration ZC214216 (data controller: Rocco Clayfield, trading as GoldPaid). We are a postal-only buyer with no shop. We are not FCA regulated and do not claim to be; no gold buyer is. We pay by Faster Payments, and aim to do so within one working hour of acceptance, never in cash, so the high value dealer regime does not apply to us either.

What stands in place of a regulator is the paperwork: a written, itemised offer after XRF assay showing purity, weight and rate per item; items kept intact until you accept; and a free tracked return if you decline. All offers depend on inspection and the live precious-metal market. If you want to test how we answer questions before sending anything, phone or WhatsApp 07944 014111 and ask about the testing method; how we handle that call is itself part of your evidence.