Robinhood Health Savings Account
Robinhood does not offer Health Savings Account (HSA) at this time.
Anyone who wants a $0 cost, easy to use HSA should check out
Lively
(read review).
Company's HSAs are free for individuals and families, so you never have to worry about
hidden costs. Lively health savings accounts are FDIC-insured and use bank-grade security.
Open Lively Account
Overview of Robinhood
The brokerage industry’s lowest-cost services will be found at Robinhood (member of SIPC),
which, living up to its name, has brought securities investing to the masses. It has plans to offer more than securities in the
future as well. Let’s check out the broker-dealer and see how it performs and see complaints in important categories.
Customer Service
While Robinhood emphasizes low fees, it does not put much importance on customer service. The broker’s representatives are available over the phone only during market hours, which are from 9:30 am till 4:00 pm, EST. Strangely, its phone number isn’t toll free. The brokerage firm does not offer any branch locations, either.
Robinhood has a fax number and a snail mail address. The brokerage firm has two Twitter accounts, neither of which is very active. A messaging service is available on the Robinhood site, and a login is not required to use it. It is not a live chat service, however. Finally, an e-mail address can be used to contact the company. A test e-mail from us took two days to receive a response.
Compared to many of Robinhood’s competitors, including some low-cost brokerage firms, the customer service options with the broker are awful. Firstrade provides an on-line chat service, virtually all brokers have toll-free numbers, Fidelity is open 24/7, and Schwab has many brick-and-mortar locations. Robinhood traders must be able to manage their accounts and financial needs without much assistance. Investors who need more help than this have no choice but to find another broker.
Robinhood Commissions, Fees, and Account Requirements
In exchange for the broker’s rather disappointing customer service, Robinhood customers receive the best pricing schedule
possible. Stock and ETF trades are absolutely free. Yes, they really cost $0. (The major competitor offering free investing
is higher rated Webull). On top of that, there is no minimum hold
period for these securities, which, when compared to industry standards, is really amazing. Placing a trade over the phone with
a live rep is available and costs $10 per transaction.
Robinhood claims it can survive with such a minimal pricing schedule by charging for paper statements ($5 per month) and hard-copy trade confirmations ($2 each). Electronic versions are available, and they are free of charge. Regulatory and exchange fees are passed onto the customer, although these tend to be very small amounts.
Robinhood also makes money from its unique margin service, which charges a flat fee based on the amount of the buying power a customer needs. For example, signing up for a $2,000 credit line costs $10 per month. There is no APR charged for this service, which makes Robinhood different from other brokers yet again. A larger credit line results in a higher monthly fee. Customers who want an $8,000 line of credit pay $40 every month.
Borrowing above $50,000 will result in Robinhood imposing an APR of 5.0%, which is very low by industry standards. Fidelity customers, for instance, pay 7.375% for the same loan.
A trading account at Robinhood can be opened with zero deposit, and the brokerage firm does not charge any on-going fees for a funded or unfunded account. There are no annual, inactivity, maintenance, or low-balance charges. Transferring an account to another broker via the ACAT system does cost $75, although this fee is in line with what other firms charge. Transferring an account into Robinhood is always free.
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Mutual and Exchange-traded Funds
All US-listed exchange-traded funds are available for trading at Robinhood, and that unfortunately is the only good thing we can
say in this category. Mutual fund investors will be
disappointed here, because the broker simply doesn’t offer any. None are available, even with a transaction fee.
Obviously, there are no mutual fund resources such as screeners or profile pages. Moreover, Robinhood does not provide much information on ETF’s. Apparently, ETF traders need to obtain their security data from another service, make an investment decision, and then place the trade at Robinhood.
Compared to several other low-cost brokers, Robinhood’s offerings in this category are a disappointment. Schwab offers more than
5,700 mutual funds, for example, with over 3,400 having neither load nor transaction fee. Ally Invest
has more than 12,000 mutual funds. Obviously, in some areas, other brokerage firms do a better job of offering free than
Robinhood does.
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