Robinhood recently announced that it’s launching its own branded bank card called the Robinhood Gold Card. This card offers 3% money back on all purchases, making it some of the rewarding bank cards available today. The big query is whether or not there are any pitfalls or whether this card can really compete with the likes of Chase and Capital One
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Robinhood (Photo illustration by Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Robinhood Gold Card Features and Fees
I even have been working with bank card rewards for greater than 15 years. I also save and invest our bank card rewards, which now stands at 37,501.58. In my opinion, cards that pay a high flat rate on all purchases are the primary card you need to get. I’ve used cards prior to now that pay 2% (Citi Double Cash), 2.5% (Alliant Cashback Visa Signature), and even 2.62% (Bank of America Premium Rewards Card) on all purchases.
The Robinhood Gold Card beats all of that. But is there a catch?
Cashback
The Robinhood Gold Card offers 3% money back on all eligible purchases. Since there may be currently no card in the marketplace that may match this, I used to be understandably skeptical. I immediately checked the advantageous print for restrictions. I discovered that there may be actually 3% money back on all eligible purchases.
Of course, some varieties of transactions are excluded, as is the case with all bank cards. Examples of exclusions include balance transfers, money advances and gambling-related purchases equivalent to lottery tickets and chips at your local casino. None of those transactions provides you with 3% cashback.
Cards that pay high rewards often limit eligible spending. The Alliant Cashback Visa Signature card, for instance, caps its 2.5% rewards rate on $10,000 in eligible purchases per billing cycle. There isn’t any such cap with the Robinhood Gold Card.
fees
Next I checked out the fees. The Robinhood card doesn’t charge an annual fee, which is notable considering its cashback rewards. But there is a catch. To qualify for the cardboard, you should be a member of Robinhood’s Gold program. This program costs $5 per 30 days (or $50 per 12 months), so you might expect the annual fee for the bank card to be $50 to $60.
The annual fee is $60. Compared to a no-annual-fee bank card that pays 2% money back on all purchases, you’d must charge an additional $6,000 annually to interrupt even. Additionally, the Robinhood card wins.
What is the Robinhood Gold Program?
With the Robinhood Gold annual fee you get some additional features. Most importantly, you may get access to the high-interest savings account, which currently earns 5.0%. This is competitive because it is the best rate of interest we’ve got in our database of lots of of deposit accounts currently 5.35%. You’ll also receive a 3% match in your IRA contributions and transfers to an IRA for a limited time. Of course, these advantages are only useful should you already use or plan to make use of Robinhood’s trading platform.
One final thing to notice is that the rewards are paid out in points and might be redeemed for money for a penny per point. However, the cash will likely be deposited into your Robinhood account. You can withdraw the funds out of your Robinhood account, but Robinhood won’t deposit the rewards directly right into a checking account.
How does the Robinhood Gold Card perform?
I’m an enormous fan of bank cards that pay a high rewards rate on all eligible purchases. For those seeking to maximize their bank card rewards, the very first thing you need to do is get a card that offers you at the least 2% money back on all purchases.
There are some cards that pay more, but they’re rare. An example, as mentioned above, is the Bank of American Premium Rewards card. I carry this card and receive at the least 2.62% money back on all purchases. However, to qualify for this reward rate, you should have a Bank of America membership
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Some bank cards do pay the next cashback rate, but only in certain categories. For example, the American Express Blue Cash Preferred Card pays as much as 6% money back on streaming services and groceries (as much as $6,000 per 12 months on US supermarket purchases, then 1%), the Capital One Savor Rewards Card pays as much as 4% Cashback on dining, streaming and entertainment, and Amazon
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However, none of those cards include a base price of unlimited 3% money back on all purchases. In fact, most of them offer 1% cashback by default if the acquisition doesn’t fall into one in all the upper payout categories or should you exceed the monthly or annual spending cap.
Diploma
Ultimately, the Robinhood Gold Card is an actual competitor. Of all of the cards we track, it pays the best base rate of interest for cashback rewards allcards.com (and we track lots of of cards). While it does require a Robinhood Gold membership, which costs $5 per 30 days (or $50 per 12 months), this fee seems reasonable, especially given the opposite advantages that membership brings.
