How to Close Your Robinhood Account
If you’re like many younger traders and investors, you got your start in the market in 2020.
Stocks surged, and the pandemic kept everyone trapped at home, so investing became a lucrative and fun diversion.
Like many new investors, you probably went straight to Robinhood, and why wouldn’t you?
Robinhood offered an intuitive, game-like trading experience with their mobile app. And, probably most notably, they provided the golden trifecta for new traders:
- Zero-commission trades, so you could hop in and out of positions without fees eating away at your gains.
- Fractional investing, to make even the most expensive equities affordable.
- Crypto, to expand access to the (then) exploding Bitcoin and altcoin market outside of clunky and tech-heavy coin exchanges.
Today? Maybe you’re ready to move on.
Perhaps you’ve outgrown Robinhood, or maybe your experience during the historical Gamestop saga left a bad taste in your mouth.
Luckily, closing your Robinhood account is simple.
Why Close Robinhood Account?
Aside from questionable practices surrounding payment for order flow and trade halts, the likeliest reason to move away from Robinhood is maturation as a trader or investor.
Lots of us followed the same growth trajectory.
In the mid-2010s, I discovered investing and threw money at 3x leveraged ETFs and pink sheet biotech stocks that had no hope of FDA approval.
But as my knowledge and experience grew, I realized that a whole world of financial freedom was waiting for me that suited my needs as an older and more seasoned investor.
Robinhood simply didn’t cut it for me anymore. I needed to expand my horizons and access financial instruments Robinhood didn’t, and likely would never, offer:
Mutual funds. Robinhood doesn’t offer mutual fund trading, so I couldn’t take advantage of superior diversification and access to premier funds managed by the best permanent capital firms.
Certificates of deposit and fixed income investing. If you have spare cash lying around, it’s
always better to put it to work instead of letting inflation eat away at it.
Unfortunately, Robinhood only earns 4.9% interest on uninvested cash. Since Robinhood doesn’t allow access to higher-yield CDs or even bonds, I couldn’t put my money to work in a worthwhile risk-free asset.
Account types. Robinhood only offers a standard brokerage account. I was getting older and needed access to retirement accounts like Traditional and Roth IRAs.
Education and trading tools. Robinhood’s offerings in this department are OK, but I wanted a one-stop shop for comprehensive stock analysis, news, and tools to expand my investing horizons.
Based on these limitations, I decided to close my Robinhood account. Ready to do the same?
Cash Management Account
Before you close your primary brokerage with Robinhood, remember that your cash management or spending account with its associated debit card will also close.
What do I need to do before I close my Robinhood account?
Before you pull the trigger, you’ll need to decide what to do with your current positions and uninvested cash.
Transferring to Another Brokerage
If you grew as an investor and want to elevate your game to a new brokerage, you’ll want to transfer your account’s positions intact to a new brokerage; this avoids unwanted taxation on gains.
You can transfer accounts without liquidating all your holdings through the Automated Customer Account Transfer Service, or ACATS.
ACATS’ digital transfer system moves both the securities and information about their history, so you can maintain your cost basis and dividends as they are. ACATS transfers all stocks, cash, bonds, and options but does not support crypto. Any crypto assets you have in Robinhood will not transfer. If you want to close your Robinhood account, these positions will need to be sold.
All account transfers through ACATS must be initiated from the gaining account. This means that instead of telling Robinhood you want to move everything to a new provider, you tell the new brokerage, and they handle all the details.
Robinhood charges $100 for account transfers, so if you have a tiny account, it may be worthwhile to
close your positions and withdraw the money to your bank account. Then you’ll be able to fund a new
account with a new brokerage. If you transfer your Robinhood account to
Webull,
they will reimburse this ACAT fee.
To learn how to transfer Robinhood account to Charles Schwab,
follow this link »
Withdrawing All Money to a Bank
Suppose you need the money right away or want to seek alternative investment opportunities like real estate, precious metals, or expanded crypto offerings.
In that case, you’ll want to close all positions and transfer the cash to your bank.
This is simple. First, click each position held and navigate to the “Trade” screen:
Then, just hit “Sell All.” If you’re doing this outside of standard market hours, you will have to wait for the exchange to open for the trade to execute. Otherwise, it will be instantaneous if you set a market order or appropriate limit order.
Unfortunately, if you hold fractional shares, you will need to wait until the next business day for these to settle and close.
Once the cash is pulled from all positions, go to the “Transfers” screen by clicking the three horizontal bars on the top left corner of the app (this takes you to the main menu).
Navigate to “Transfer Money,” and you’ll be prompted to select which bank account you want to drop the cash in. This may take up to 3-5 business days but is usually completed much faster.
And that’s it! You’re ready to close your Robinhood account.
Best Alternatives
Closing Your Robinhood Account
Getting your money out of Robinhood was easy, but closing the account is even easier.
Go back to your “Menu” screen by tapping the three horizontal lines and find “Settings” near the bottom of the screen:
You’ll see a very clear Deactivate your account button on the settings page.
From there, Robinhood walks you through the rest of the process. Forget to close positions or withdraw cash? Don’t worry; Robinhood prompts you to do so before deactivating and closing your account, so there is no risk of losing your hard-earned capital.
Once everything is closed out, you can tap Deactivate account, and you’re done!
How to Delete Robinhood Account Conclusion
No matter the reason, Robinhood isn’t for everyone at every stage of their investing journey.
You may want to keep some spare change in the account for fun money and gambling on out-of-the-money options, but it’s usually easier to close your Robinhood account.
Closing your Robinhood account is simple and intuitive, whether you’re moving on to greener pastures with a new brokerage or consolidating cash for a big buy.
Arthur Chachuna is professional personal finance blogger, and the owner of Brokerage-Review.com.
He has been an avid investor for 23 years, and has background in both applied math and programming.
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