Personal Finance
Robinhood Raises APY on Uninvested Cash to 3% for Gold Users
With interest rates on the rise after yet another Federal Reserve rate hike, the popular stock trading app Robinhood is upping the amount customers can earn on their cash. Effective as of last week. Robinhood customers who opt into the brokerage cash sweep program can earn up to 3% APY on their uninvested funds. Specifically, those who subscribe to Robinhood Gold will earn the 3% APY rate, while all other customers will currently earn 1.5% APY. Interest earned from these funds will compound daily and be paid monthly.
In addition to the new 3% APY benefit, Robinhood Gold offers a number of other services for customers. For example, Gold users enjoy larger instant deposits — up to $50,000 depending on a customer’s brokerage account balance and status. Gold members also have unlimited access to Morningstar premium stock research reports.
Lastly, eligible Robinhood Gold customers can utilize margin investing at a discounted rate. The first $1,000 or margin is included in the service while customers will pay 5.75% yearly interest beyond that (the margin interest rate for non-Gold members is 9.75%). Robinhood Gold currently comes at a cost of $5 a month. New users can also redeem a 30-day free trial of the service.
This increased APY is the latest move from Robinhood as the app navigates some rough waters. Earlier this year, the company announced layoffs, citing (in part) a downturn in the cryptocurrency market that had helped boost usage of the platform. Despite these setbacks, the FinTech has continued to roll out new features, including introducing a stock lending option, an updated debit card product, and teasing a non-custodial Web3 wallet to arrive late this year.
Interestingly, this 3% APY perk represents a relatively rare push for Robinhood’s Gold service. While the premium tier has existed since 2016, it’s never seemed as though the FinTech has put too much emphasis on it. However, with the company now looking to diversify its revenue, it makes sense that it’d see growing Gold as a potential priority.
Meanwhile, it’s also worth pointing out that the 3% APY figure happen to match what Robinhood initially teased for its “Checking & Savings” product before regulator pushback led to that original plan being scrapped. In any case, while the boosted interest may be nice for existing Gold users, it’s likely not a reason to upgrade for most. Additionally, with rates continuing to rise, customers seeking rewarding rates on their savings have plenty of other options available to them.
