Robinhood Gold Card review 2024: Impressive flat cash-back rate for Robinhood Gold members
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“Verified by an expert” means that this article has been thoroughly reviewed and evaluated for accuracy.
BLUEPRINT
Published 5:51 a.m. UTC March 28, 2024
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Robinhood, a financial services company known for its commission-free trading app, is shaking up the cash-back card scene with its first credit card. The Robinhood Gold Card * The information for the Robinhood Gold Card has been collected independently by Blueprint. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer. boasts eye-catching cash-back rewards rates, but it’s only available to Robinhood investing account holders who pay for a Robinhood Gold membership.
Our Robinhood Gold Card review assesses whether or not the trading titan’s debut credit card offer is worth paying the Robinhood Gold subscription fee.
Robinhood Gold Card basics
- Annual fee: $0.
- Welcome bonus: None.
- Rewards: 5% cash back when booking travel through the Robinhood travel portal and 3% cash back on all other categories.
- APR: 20.24% to 29.99% variable APR on purchases and balance transfers.
- Recommended credit score: Good to excellent.
- Does the card offer preapproval? Yes.
- Other benefits: Trip cancellation and interruption insurance; secondary auto rental insurance; purchase, extended warranty and return protection and access to roadside dispatch.
Robinhood Gold Card review
The credit card market has plenty of cash-back cards that offer a high flat cash-back rate. Having such a card is a critical part of a credit card rewards strategy so you can earn at a competitive rate on every purchase. And the higher a card’s flat cash-back rate, the more you can earn on purchases that fall outside of common cash-back bonus categories such as restaurants, drug stores, groceries and travel.
Competitive cash-back cards typically offer a base rate of 2% to 2.5%. That’s why the Robinhood Gold Card, which earns 5% cash back when booking travel through the Robinhood travel portal and 3% cash back on all other categories, seems like a game-changer at first glance. For example, a cardholder who makes $25,000 in card purchases every year could gain an extra $250 annually by switching to a card that offers 1% more than their current card. That extra cash can grow if it’s saved or invested wisely.
But the Robinhood Gold Card has one big caveat: it’s only available to Robinhood account holders who pay for Robinhood Gold. This makes it irrelevant for those who aren’t ready to open a brokerage account, as well as investors who have brokerage accounts with other companies and don’t want to switch to Robinhood.
However, for existing Robinhood customers who are on the fence about paying for a Robinhood Gold membership, the Robinhood Gold Card might tip the scales toward making the $75 annual or $6.99 monthly subscription fee worth it. Making just $233 in monthly purchases with the card will earn enough cash-back rewards to cover those fees. And, additional cash back earned can help you meet your saving or investing goals with Robinhood Gold’s other features, such as earning the following annual percentage yield: 5.00% APY on idle cash, as well as a 3% match on IRA contributions (APY accurate as of 03/27/2024).
Pros
- Market-leading flat cash-back rate: The card’s base cash-back rate guarantees that you’ll earn a high amount of cash back on every eligible purchase. This makes it ideal as either a solo credit card or part of a rewards-maximizing credit card combination.
- No foreign transaction fees: Cash-back cards often charge foreign transaction fees of 3%. With the Robinhood Gold Card, you can make purchases in a foreign currency without a financial hit.
- Impressive perks: Shopping and travel protections — such as extended warranty protection, rental car coverage and trip cancellation insurance — provide plenty of additional value.
- Great for warehouse clubs and big-box stores: The Robinhood Gold Card’s base cash-back rate is actually higher than the cash-back rate for Costco purchases on the Costco Anywhere Visa® Card by Citi * The information for the Costco Anywhere Visa® Card by Citi has been collected independently by Blueprint. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer. and the rate for in-store Walmart purchases on the Capital One Walmart Rewards® Card * The information for the Capital One Walmart Rewards® Card has been collected independently by Blueprint. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer. .
Cons
- Available to Robinhood Gold members only: Many competing cash-back cards that offer a high base earnings rate don’t require you to pay for another product to qualify. And although the card technically doesn’t have an annual fee, it does require you to pay a subscription fee to Robinhood.
- Limited elevated rewards categories: The card’s only elevated earnings category is travel bookings made through Robinhood’s travel portal.
- No welcome bonus: Unlike many of the best cash-back cards, the Robinhood Gold Card doesn’t offer a welcome bonus.
Robinhood Gold Card rewards
The Robinhood Gold Card earns rewards at two different rates: 5% cash back when booking travel through the Robinhood travel portal and 3% cash back on all other categories.
Using government data and other publicly available information, we estimate that a household in the U.S. that would be in the market for this card has around $25,087 in annual expenses that can be charged to a credit card. Here’s how our sample household’s rewards could break down if it allocates all of those expenses to the Robinhood Gold Card:
| Spending category | Spending amount | Points per dollar | Points earned |
|---|---|---|---|
Robinhood travel portal
| $2,941
| 5
| 14,705
|
Other
| $22,146
| 3
| 66,438
|
TOTAL
| $25,087
| 81,143
|
Points earned from the Robinhood Gold Card are worth 1 cent each when redeemed in any of the ways below, which adds up to a value of $811.43.
- Transfers to Robinhood brokerage account: You can convert points to cash to be transferred to your Robinhood brokerage account, where you can invest, withdraw or hold it to earn interest.
- Travel portal purchases: You can use points to book travel via the Robinhood travel portal.
- Shopping with points: You can buy merchandise from retailers such as Apple, Nike, Bloomingdale’s and more.
- Gift cards: You can buy virtual gift cards from various merchants through Robinhood’s rewards portal.
Transferring points to a Robinhood brokerage account as cash and holding it uninvested would allow it to earn at an APY of 5.00%, gaining $85.15 in interest over two years, according to our simple savings calculator.
Alternatively, you could invest the $811.43 in one of our recommended ETFs with a proven track record, like the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF, which has had a 10-year annualized return of 11.43%. An $811.43 investment in that ETF would grow to around $2,394 over 10 years at that rate.
*Note that Robinhood Gold’s APY for uninvested cash may change at any time, and an investment’s past performance doesn’t guarantee future results.
Robinhood Gold Card perks
The Robinhood Gold Card’s set of travel and purchase benefits gives the card significant value in addition to its cash-back rates:
- Trip cancellation and interruption: This benefit pays up to $2,000 per person for nonrefundable passenger fares — for example, tickets for flights, trains, buses or cruise ships — in a covered circumstance, such as the death of an immediate family member.
- Purchase security: If an item you bought with the Robinhood Gold Card is stolen or damaged within 90 days of purchase, you can file a claim for the item to be replaced or repaired, or you may get reimbursed up to $1,000 per claim and $10,000 per cardholder.
- Extended warranty protection: Manufacturer’s warranties of three years or less for eligible items purchased with your card will be doubled for up to one additional year. The value is limited to up to $10,000 per claim and $50,000 per cardholder.
- Return protection: If you’re unhappy with an item purchased with your card but can’t return it, you may qualify for reimbursement of up to $250 per item up to $1,000 per card account per year.
- Auto rental collision damage waiver: Damage to or theft of a rental car that you pay for with your card may be covered up to the car’s actual cash value. The coverage applies to rental periods of 15 to 31 consecutive days, depending where you rent the car. If you have personal auto coverage, this policy covers your deductible on that insurance.
Other perks include Visa Signature Concierge Service, roadside dispatch, emergency assistance while traveling and virtual card numbers for online and digital wallet transactions.
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Wells Fargo Active Cash® Card
How the Robinhood Gold Card compares to other cash-back cards
Robinhood Gold Card vs. Fidelity® Rewards Visa Signature® Credit Card * The information for the Fidelity® Rewards Visa Signature® Credit Card has been collected independently by Blueprint. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.
The Fidelity® Rewards Visa Signature® Credit Card * The information for the Fidelity® Rewards Visa Signature® Credit Card has been collected independently by Blueprint. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer. makes for a good apples-to-apples comparison with the Robinhood Gold Card due to its flat cash-back rate and no foreign transaction fees. But it differs from the Robinhood Gold Card in a few key ways.
Unlike the Robinhood Gold Card, you don’t need to pay a subscription fee to qualify for the Fidelity card. But the flat cash-back rewards rate for the Fidelity Rewards Visa Signature card is lower at 2% cash back on eligible purchases. Those who have $250,000 or more in professionally managed assets can enroll in Fidelity Rewards+, increasing the cash-back rate to between 2.25% and 3%.
Although the Fidelity card is technically accessible to any adult U.S. resident who meets credit requirements, the rewards you earn on the card are treated like cash back only if deposited into a Fidelity account.
Robinhood Gold Card vs. Wells Fargo Active Cash® Card
Although the flat rewards rate for the Wells Fargo Active Cash® Card is “only” 2% cash rewards on purchases, it’s a more accessible option than the Robinhood Gold Card, as you don’t have to be an existing Wells Fargo customer. And its low-barrier welcome bonus — a $200 cash rewards bonus after spending $500 in purchases in the first three months of account opening — gives it the edge needed to make our lists of both the best no-annual-fee credit cards and best 2% cash-back cards.
Like the Robinhood Gold Card, there’s no spending cap for earning at the Active Cash Card’s highest cash-rewards rate. But though the Active Cash Card offers cellphone protection, it doesn’t include other travel and purchase coverages that make the Robinhood card so appealing. And the Active Cash Card has a foreign transaction fee of 3%, so it’s not good for traveling abroad.
Robinhood Gold Card vs. Alliant Cashback Visa® Signature Credit Card * The information for the Alliant Cashback Visa® Signature Credit Card has been collected independently by Blueprint. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.
For those who want to push their base cash-back rate beyond 2%, but don’t want to pay a subscription fee for Robinhood Gold, the Alliant Cashback Visa® Signature Credit Card * The information for the Alliant Cashback Visa® Signature Credit Card has been collected independently by Blueprint. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer. might be a good alternative. Unlike the uncapped earning rate on the Robinhood Gold Card, the Alliant Cashback card earns 2.5% cash back on up to $10,000 spent each billing cycle with qualifying accounts and all other purchases earn 1.5%. But, most cardholders are unlikely to exceed that spending cap in a billing cycle.
You must be a member of Alliant Credit Union to qualify for the Alliant Cashback card, and you need to open an Alliant Credit Union High-Rate Checking account and meet some balance and activity requirements to qualify for the card’s elevated cash-back rate. But membership in the credit union is open to virtually every U.S. citizen, the checking account’s balance and activity requirements are relatively easy to meet and neither the card nor the checking account charges annual or monthly fees.
Is the Robinhood Gold Card worth it?
Considering the Robinhood Gold Card’s high cash-back rate and its package of extra perks, it makes sense for existing Robinhood customers to pay the subscription fee for Robinhood Gold and apply for the Robinhood Gold Card.
If, however, you have a different online broker, and you’re happy with its functionality, fee structure and customer service, the extra cash back you can earn from using the Robinhood Gold Card probably isn’t worth the hassle of switching.
The Robinhood Gold Card is right for you if:
- You already have a Robinhood brokerage account, or you’re strongly considering signing up for one.
- You make $250 or more in monthly credit card purchases.
- A significant chunk of your budget goes toward purchases at retailers like Costco and Walmart, or other purchases not covered by common bonus categories.
Frequently asked questions (FAQs)
Robinhood Gold is a fee-based subscription that provides Robinhood account holders with access to premium products and services, like a high APY on uninvested cash, an optional credit card and limited IRA contribution matches, among other features.
Points earned with the Robinhood Gold Card do not expire, provided your account is open and in good standing. If your account is closed, your points will expire after 90 days.
And points will be forfeited immediately if your account is closed due to a violation of your cardholder agreement.
Like most rewards cards you’ll likely need a good to excellent credit score to qualify for the Robinhood Gold Card. FICO defines a good score as starting at 670, however issuers consider a range of factors in addition to your credit score including income and other debt obligations.
If you’re already a Robinhood Gold member, you can join the waiting list for the Robinhood Gold Card by visiting robinhood.com/creditcard.
*The information for the Alliant Cashback Visa® Signature Credit Card, Capital One Walmart Rewards® Card, Costco Anywhere Visa® Card by Citi, Fidelity® Rewards Visa Signature® Credit Card and Robinhood Gold Card has been collected independently by Blueprint. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.
Blueprint is an independent publisher and comparison service, not an investment advisor. The information provided is for educational purposes only and we encourage you to seek personalized advice from qualified professionals regarding specific financial decisions. Past performance is not indicative of future results.
Blueprint has an advertiser disclosure policy. The opinions, analyses, reviews or recommendations expressed in this article are those of the Blueprint editorial staff alone. Blueprint adheres to strict editorial integrity standards. The information is accurate as of the publish date, but always check the provider’s website for the most current information.
