Gold vs Bank Deposit: Where to Keep Large Savings

Customers often ask us: “My money is sitting in the bank. Should I move part of it into gold?” There is no single right answer, but there are a few things worth knowing before you decide. Here is an honest comparison of both, weak spots included.

A deposit and gold do different jobs. A deposit gives you income you know in advance. Gold pays no income, but it protects your savings from things a deposit cannot. When the amount runs into hundreds of thousands of lari, that difference matters a lot.

01The deposit: known income, two weak spots

The big plus of a deposit is simplicity: you know how much you will get and when. At one Georgian bank, for example, a 12-month US dollar term deposit currently pays 3.2% a year. $100,000 earns about $3,200 over the year. Lari deposits pay more, but they bring a different risk.

The first weak spot is inflation. If prices rise faster than your interest rate, the balance grows but buys less.

The second is the lari. Between November 2014 and January 2016 the lari lost about 40% against the dollar, and in March 2020 a dollar cost a record 3.48 lari. At times like that, a high lari interest rate does not cover the loss. We wrote more about this in gold during a crisis.

02Gold: no interest, and the price moves

Gold pays no interest and no dividends. The only way it earns is through a rising price, and the price moves both ways. In 2025 gold rose 64%. In 2013 it fell 28%, its biggest annual drop in three decades.

There is a fresh example too. On 28 January 2026 an ounce hit a record $5,589. In early November it is around $4,100, roughly 26% below the peak. Anyone who bought in January is still in the red. That does not happen with a deposit.

On the other hand, gold is priced in dollars, so it gets more expensive in lari when the lari falls. And it does not depend on the fate of any bank. That is why many people see gold as insurance for their savings rather than a source of income. Today’s gold price on our page updates about every 10 seconds.

03A large sum in the bank: what insurance covers

In Georgia, deposits are insured by the Deposit Insurance Agency. From 1 April 2026 the maximum payout rose from 30,000 to 50,000 lari.

For modest savings that is enough. But if you keep 500,000 lari in a bank, insurance covers only a tenth of it. Bank failures are rare, yet anyone holding a large sum should keep this in mind.

Physical gold does not depend on a bank: the bar is yours wherever it is kept. The flip side is that keeping it safe is up to you. More on that in how to store gold.

04When you need the money: speed and costs

If you break a term deposit early, banks often keep part of the interest. Every bank has its own terms, so read the contract carefully.

You can sell gold on any day, but there are two costs to know about. First, a bar costs more than the market price, and the gap is bigger on small bars. At the time of writing, a gram in a 1-gram C. Hafner bar cost about 437 lari at our store, and in a 100-gram bar 361 lari. Second, when you sell, the price is the market price minus a margin. Gold.ge buys back the bars and coins it sold, but not jewellery and not gold bought elsewhere.

05Both in one table

06One or the other? Not necessarily

In practice, many people do not swap one for the other. They use both:

• A deposit for money you may need in the next 1–2 years. Here stability matters more than protection.
• Gold for the part you will not touch for years. Price swings feel big over months and much smaller over a long stretch.
• Buying gold in stages. Spreading purchases over a few months gives you an average price and takes away the fear of buying at the top.
• A big bar for a big amount. In a 100-gram bar a gram costs about 20% less than in a 1-gram bar. A 1-kilo bar is available on order and collected in store.

This article is for information only and is not investment advice. The right split depends on your goals and time horizon.

→ How large investors buy gold · Which gold bar size to buy

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