The Offer
- Robinhood is offering their Gold members a 2% unlimited bonus on brokerages funds transferred (via ACATS) from another brokerage into Robinhood. The funds then need to remain with Robinhood for 5 years in order for you to keep the bonus.
You need first signup for Robinhood Gold and then keep it for one year in order to do this bonus; that costs $50.
The Fine Print
- The bonus funds post to Robinhood account immediately after the transfer settles.
- Market movements don’t impact your bonus, only withdrawals or asset transfers out would cause a bonus removal.
- For any full or partial account transfer into Robinhood that’s $7,500 or more, Robinhood will reimburse the transfer fees your other brokerage may charge, up to $75 per account type, per brokerage. Contact Robinhood to request a reimbursement.
- You’ll get a form 1099-MISC for the bonus.
Our Verdict
We’ve seen a 1% brokerage transfer bonus from Robinhood with a 2 year hold period, and now they are offering Gold members a 2% bonus with a 5 year hold period. Obviously the 5 year hold period isn’t great for someone who likes chasing brokerage bonus or who isn’t comfortable with Robinhood for the long term. Personally, if I hadn’t done the 1% deal, I’d consider doing this deal and locking up the investments for 5 years.
Hat tip to reader calwatch
Related:
Seems like you can withdraw at 3 months Per terms
That is not how the “grace period” works.
https://robinhood.com/us/en/support/articles/account-transfer-bonus-faq-gold/
5 years? No thanks, I’ll pass.
Too much fine print
5 year holding requirement is brutal. You can easily find 1-3% transfer bonuses with 1 year holding requirements with Webull, public, etc. Trading away a potential 5-15% bonus over 5 years for 2% today is sucky.
Agree. They made this offer knowing very few would make it to the 5 year mark. Within that 5 years, they could start charging higher fees, mess around with the bonus, etc. For a 2% bonus, not worth it in my opinion.
I did the 3% bonus with my and my wife’s IRAs. For me, that was a no-brainer despite the five year holding period. Bonus was paid up front directly into the IRA, so it was tax-free for Roth IRAs and tax deferred for traditional IRAs. That’s unlike the Wells Fargo $2500 bonus (which both of us had done) where the bonus went into our checking accounts and was taxable.
Since it’s paid up front and the terms are explicit regarding the holding period, I don’t see how they could “mess around with the bonus.” As for fees, it’s not likely they would charge fees beyond the mildly annoying level (as Vanguard does).
But if you have $250k in IRAs you can do WF ($2,500) and Merrill Edge ($1,000) each once a year so that’s $17,500 (7.0%) over 5 years if you’re willing to do the churning.