Rough estimates where possible; your final offer follows inspection.
No obligation. Free tracked return if you decline. We aim to pay within one working hour of acceptance.
Selling gold for cash by post means being paid by bank transfer: GoldPaid never pays in banknotes. Post your items with a free prepaid Royal Mail label and read the written offer. If you accept, we aim to pay by Faster Payments within one working hour of acceptance, to a UK account in your name, and how quickly it shows after that is up to your bank.
Send a photo on WhatsApp for a rough estimate where possible, or arrange to post your items for assessment. We confirm our purchase offer after inspection, and you decide whether to accept. Final offers depend on inspection, item weight, purity, hallmarks, stones, non-gold components, condition and the live precious-metal market.
Free Special Delivery label, usually within 30 minutesPurity tested in-house by X-ray (XRF)
Checked against the sources listed on this page on .
Can I be paid in literal physical cash?No. GoldPaid pays by bank transfer only and handles no cash at any value, which keeps it outside the high value dealer rules. If you accept a written offer, we aim to send payment by Faster Payments within one working hour of acceptance, to a UK account in your name.
Please send us photos on WhatsApp, and we will help you.
Send photos of your items and any hallmarks. We give a rough estimate where possible; your final offer follows inspection. You do not need to arrange postage to ask us a question.
We arrange postage with you after our conversation.
Before you post
The questions people ask before they send anything, answered here rather than at the end of the page.
Can I ask first?
Yes. WhatsApp a photo to 07944 014111, 8am to 9pm, every day, and we reply with an idea of what it is worth. Nothing is posted until you decide.
Is it safe to post?
Your parcel travels by Royal Mail Special Delivery, tracked and signed for. Royal Mail cover may be available up to £2,500 depending on the postal method and cover level used. GoldPaid can confirm the appropriate postal option before you post.
How is it tested?
Your parcel is signed for on arrival and opened at our Bristol office, where each item is weighed and tested with an XRF analyser, an X-ray test that reads the metal without marking it. Your written offer lists each piece with its weight, purity and figure.
What if I say no?
We return everything by Royal Mail Special Delivery at our cost. Saying no costs you nothing.
When am I paid?
Only if you accept the written offer. We aim for the money to reach your bank within 24 hours of posting. We use Royal Mail Special Delivery Guaranteed, test your items promptly on receipt, and aim to pay by Faster Payments within one working hour of your acceptance. The 24-hour target is an aim, not a guarantee: it depends on posting before the local cut-off, the applicable working-day delivery service, prompt acceptance, completed identity checks and bank processing.
How long does an offer last?
Each written offer is dated and holds for a limited time, because metal prices move. If it lapses, we re-run it at that day’s rate.
Who am I dealing with?
GOLDPAID LTD, registered in England and Wales, run by founder Rocco Clayfield. Our office is at Unit 217, Bristol Business Centre, 179 Whiteladies Road, Clifton, Bristol BS8 2AG. We are postal only, so there is no counter to visit. Before we pay, we ask every seller for a photo of their passport or driving licence.
Final offers depend on inspection, item weight, purity, hallmarks, stones, non-gold components, condition and the live precious-metal market.
Short answer
When you sell gold to GoldPaid, payment is by Faster Payments bank transfer only, never in cash, and we aim to send it within one working hour of your acceptance. The rest of the process, from the free label to the XRF test and the written offer, is on selling gold by post.
Why payment is by bank transfer rather than physical cash
Paying only by bank transfer is GoldPaid’s own choice, and it keeps GoldPaid outside the high value dealer rules. Under the Money Laundering Regulations 2017, a high value dealer is a business that makes or receives cash payments totalling £10,000 or more for goods in a single transaction or linked transactions (regulation 14, as amended from 30 June 2026). A buyer that pays no cash is not one, so the identity and record-keeping practice described on payments and money-laundering rules is GoldPaid’s own.
The ban on paying cash for scrap metal does not reach gold. The Scrap Metal Dealers Act 2013 stops scrap metal dealers in England and Wales paying in cash (section 12), but the Act’s definition of scrap metal leaves out gold, silver and any alloy that is 2 per cent or more gold or silver by weight (section 21). A gold buyer that pays cash is not breaking that Act; GoldPaid simply does not offer it.
A bank transfer leaves a record on both statements, so there is a trail if either of us ever needs one. Nobody carries or counts notes, and you have no bag of cash to take to your bank.
How fast bank transfer actually arrives
When you accept a written offer, we aim to send payment by Faster Payments within one working hour of acceptance. How quickly it shows after that is up to the banks. The law requires the sending bank to get an electronic payment to the receiving bank by the end of the next business day, or within four business days if it holds the payment for fraud checks (Payment Services Regulations 2017, regulation 86).
The transfer goes to the UK bank account in your name that you give us when you accept: sort code, account number and the name on the account. Sole and joint accounts in your name are fine. Tell us if you want a particular payment reference.
What “for cash” means when you sell gold by post
“Cash” in a gold buyer’s advert can mean banknotes, a cheque or a bank transfer, so ask which before you post. Some buyers still pay in notes or by cheque. GoldPaid pays by bank transfer only, to a UK account in your name, and the route is the same from any postcode in the UK.
Bank transfer on acceptance, in plain terms
If you post on day 1, the parcel usually arrives on day 2, when it is weighed and XRF-tested and the written offer is sent. If you accept, we aim to pay within one working hour of your reply. The offer is dated and holds for a limited time; if it lapses before you decide, it is re-run against the current market. Final offers depend on inspection, item weight, purity, hallmarks, stones, non-gold components, condition and the live precious-metal market.
If you take a few days to decide, payment simply follows your reply. How it works sets out each step, and selling gold by post covers the label, the test and the written offer.
How it works
Ask first and send photos. Message us on WhatsApp with photos of your gold for a rough estimate. Ask anything; there is no charge and no obligation.
Request a prepaid Royal Mail label. We send a free Royal Mail Special Delivery label, tracked and signed for, usually within 30 minutes between 8am and 9pm. No printer? We send a QR code for the Post Office counter.
Post it when you are ready. Use any padded envelope. There is no deadline and no pressure.
Receive a no-obligation valuation. Every item is weighed and tested by XRF spectrometry at our Bristol office. You get a written, itemised offer, usually on the working day your parcel arrives, showing purity, weight and the figure.
Accept or decline. Accept and you are paid by bank transfer via Faster Payments. Decline and everything is returned free of charge by tracked, signed-for post.
Your parcel is signed for on arrival and opened at our Bristol office, where each item is weighed and XRF-tested before the written offer is prepared.
What decides your offer
Every parcel is opened at our Bristol office and each piece is handled on its own. Nothing is averaged across the parcel.
Weight. Each item is weighed on scales. Stones, steel springs, non-gold clasps and cores are not paid as gold. The written breakdown explains the payable metal weight for each item, rather than treating everything on the scales as precious metal.
Purity. Each item is tested with an XRF analyser, which reads the metals at the points tested without marking the item. A surface reading alone cannot establish the composition of a plated or filled piece. Hallmarks, construction and different components all need to be considered alongside the test.
The market on the day. Gold and silver are priced against the live precious-metal market at the time your parcel is assessed, not at the time you posted.
Condition and intact value. Broken is fine and does not reduce a metal offer. Where a piece is worth more intact (a named maker, a collectable coin, a locket with provenance) we tell you before testing, so you can choose.
Anything that is not gold or silver. Plated, rolled-gold and base-metal items are listed on the offer at nothing and returned to you free. We never quietly keep them.
Why we do not publish a per-gram price list. A single printed rate hides the things that change the figure: hollow versus solid, stones, mixed carats in one bag, a mark that does not match the metal. We would rather show you the weight, the tested purity and the figure for each item, in writing, and let you decide. Final offers depend on inspection, item weight, purity, hallmarks, stones, non-gold components, condition and the live precious-metal market.
What you see before you decide. A written, itemised offer by WhatsApp or email: every item, its weight, its tested purity, and its figure. Accept and we aim to pay by bank transfer within one working hour. Decline and the whole parcel comes back by Royal Mail Special Delivery at our cost. No fee, no deduction, no questions.
Your items travel on Royal Mail Special Delivery Guaranteed, fully tracked and signed for on delivery. Royal Mail cover may be available up to £2,500 depending on the postal method and cover level used. GoldPaid can confirm the appropriate postal option before you post. If your items may be worth more, message us first and we can split them across more than one prepaid label at no charge. See postage and cover for the full picture. If a parcel is lost on its way to us, the compensation claim goes to Royal Mail from you, the sender, using your Post Office receipt, and we give you our tracking records and help you make it. Lost parcels, step by step.
Changing your mind is free
Declining costs you nothing. If the written offer does not suit you, say so, and your items come straight back by tracked, signed-for Royal Mail Special Delivery at our expense. No fee, no questions, no chasing. See what happens if I decline the offer for the step by step.
The written offer is dated and holds for a limited time, because metal prices move. If it lapses before you decide, we re-run it against the live precious-metal market on the day, at no charge. You can also accept part of a parcel and decline the rest, with no minimum and no penalty for splitting it.
Being paid
If you accept, we aim to pay by Faster Payments within one working hour of your acceptance, directly to your bank account. It is the last step, and a simple one.
Why sell to GoldPaid
GoldPaid is a small, owner-run UK business built on one promise: show the working. Every item is weighed and XRF-assayed, and every offer is itemised in writing. Postage is free and tracked both ways, and there is never a countdown or a hard sell. If something is worth more to a specialist than to us, we say so.
Common questions
How fast does bank transfer arrive?
We aim to send payment by Faster Payments within one working hour of your acceptance. After that the timing is the banks’: the law gives the sending bank until the end of the next business day to pass the payment on, and longer if it holds it for fraud checks.
Can I be paid into someone else’s account?
No. Payment goes to a UK account in the seller’s own name, so the money reaches the person who sold the items. A joint account in your name is fine.
What if I do not have a UK bank account?
A UK building society account in your name is also fine. We pay to UK accounts only.
Can the bank reference be discreet?
Yes. Tell us the reference you would like on the transfer and we will use it.
What happens if I accept the offer but my bank rejects the transfer?
A failed transfer (a wrong sort code or a closed account, for example) comes back to us, and we send it again once you confirm the corrected details.
Not the question you had? The full GoldPaid FAQ covers the rest, from postal cover and ID checks to what happens if you decline the offer.
Please send us photos on WhatsApp, and we will help you. We give a rough estimate where possible and arrange postage with you after our conversation. Your final offer follows inspection.
Message us with a clear photo of your items on WhatsApp, or call. There is no obligation at any stage and the only commitment is your decision to accept a written offer once you have seen it.
