Strota Research

Your ₹60,000 gold scheme can buy just ₹52,011 of gold. The free month isn't the problem

By Strota Newsroom · 2026-10-27 · How Strota reports

goldgold schemesjewellerymaking chargesGSTpersonal finance

Jeweller gold schemes sell the free instalment. We priced the full jewellery bill and read the terms of 30 plans. The making charge and GST eat the bonus, and the fine print holds the real risks.

A jeweller's gold scheme lets you save ₹55,000 and spend ₹60,000. That free month is real. But on a necklace with a 12% making charge, the gold you actually carry home is worth ₹52,011. The bonus is not the trick. The bill for jewellery is, and most families never add it up.

How does a gold scheme bill really work?

Take a simple plan. You pay ₹5,000 a month for eleven months, and the jeweller pays the twelfth. Then you pick a piece. Its bill has three parts: the gold itself, the making charge, and GST. The making charge is the jeweller's fee for turning raw gold into a finished piece. GST is the tax, charged on the gold and the making charge together.

On that 12% necklace, ₹6,241 of your money goes on making. GST takes another ₹1,748. What is left is the gold, and it comes to ₹2,989 less than the money you paid from your own pocket. You gave the jeweller eleven instalments and still got back less gold than you saved.

Does the free month cover the making charge?

Only on plain gold. The tipping point is low. Once the jeweller's fee passes about 5.9%, your free month is used up, and you walk out with less gold than you saved. Many pieces of wedding jewellery carry far higher charges than that. At a 20% making charge, the gold left over is just ₹48,544.

Now the good news. Choose a plain coin, which carries no fee for making, and the same ₹60,000 turns into ₹58,252 of gold, if your plan lets coins count. That is more gold than you paid for. The catch is that many plans do not let coins share in the bonus, as the terms below show.

Be fair to the scheme, though. This is the cost of jewellery, not of saving through a jeweller. Skip the scheme, and a necklace with the same amount of gold and the same 12% making charge costs ₹63,448 after GST. Some plans waive the making charge instead of giving a free month. If the tax is charged on top, you pay ₹1,650 extra at the counter for ₹55,000 of gold.

What does the fine print in gold schemes say?

The terms are where the real risk sits. In 29 of 30 plans, a late or missed payment cuts the bonus or wipes it out. A family that misses one month during a tight spell can lose the very reward it signed up for. Most plans also hand your savings back only as jewellery, never as cash, so the money is locked to one shop.

Coins, the one buy where the maths works, are often shut out. In 15 of 30 plans, coins and bars earn nothing extra from the scheme. Many plans also set a deadline to buy once the plan ends, and miss it and the bonus is gone. Others say the scheme cannot be combined with festive offers, such as a Dhanteras discount. Put together, 22 of the 30 plans have three or more of these catches, and every plan has at least one.

How we checked: we priced a jewellery bill as the gold value plus the making charge, with GST on the total. Jewellers do not publish their making charges, so we tested a few example rates rather than real quotes. We then read the published terms of 30 plans on 26 October 2026 and noted six common conditions. A plan counted only when its terms clearly said so, and many terms were simply silent.

The limits are real. Making charges change from piece to piece and jeweller to jeweller, so ours are only examples. Reading terms is a judgement call, terms change, and many plan pages are incomplete. We did not model hallmarking, stone charges or a jeweller's own gold rate. We also did not look at resale, meaning what a jeweller will pay to buy your jewellery back.

Frequently asked questions

Is a jeweller gold scheme worth it?

The free month is real, but on a typical piece of jewellery it falls short of paying for both the making fee and GST. Once the making charge passes about 5.9%, you walk out with less gold than you saved. The same piece still costs more if you buy it without a scheme.

What happens if I miss a gold scheme payment?

In 29 of 30 plans we read, a late or missed payment cuts the bonus or cancels it. Check your plan's terms before you sign.

Can I buy gold coins with gold scheme money?

It depends on the plan. In 15 of 30 plans, coins and bars earn nothing extra from the scheme.

Sources and method

This note is based on Strota's own backtest research. Historical results are not forecasts or investment advice; see the editorial standards for methodology and limitations.