Those suffering from premium credit card fatigue have yet another heavy metal contender to weigh in their decisions. Only, maybe it’ll have to choose you.
On Wednesday, Robinhood announced the Robinhood Platinum Card, an invite-only, $695/yr annual fee credit card offered by the retail brokerage giant.
Due out in the second quarter of this year, the card will offer a competitive 5% cash back on dining, 5% cash back on flights booked through its own travel portal, plus 10% back on hotels and rental cars.
Its first foray in the premium credit card fold comes two years after the company made a splash with its 3% cash back Robinhood Gold Card. Despite the Gold Card’s premium look and feel, including solid gold variants of the company’s first branded card, the Platinum Card is arguably more of a fair comparable with credit incumbents.
What will the Robinhood Platinum Card offer?
Similar to other premium credit cards, the company has a coupon book of benefits. This has become a standard part of many highfalutin card offerings, even if a little inconvenient.
Robinhood claims that its benefits are worth over $3,000/yr in value, which comes in the form of complimentary memberships, lifestyle credits, and a “courtesy” Robinhood Gold membership.
Aside from cash back, the full list of card benefits includes (in order of value):
- A $500 Hotel Credit
- A complimentary Function Health membership ($365/yr)
- A $300 Travel Credit
- $250 in annual DoorDash credit + a complimentary DashPass membership
- $250 Restaurant Credit
- $250 annual credit for autonomous rideshare
- $200 annual credit for health wearables
- A complimentary Amazon One Medical membership ($199/yr for Non-Prime members)
- A complimentary Oura membership ($70/yr)
- A complimentary Robinhood Gold membership ($50/yr)
The card also includes some pickings which have become standard among comparable premium cards:
- A complimentary Priority Pass Select membership
- Global Entry/TSA Credit (~$120/every 4 years)
How Robinhood’s take on the coupon book might differ from competitors like American Express and Chase has yet to be discerned. These creditors generally require credits to be spent on a quarterly or monthly basis to be completely earned, introducing layers of complexity to earn back the hefty annual fee.
In addition, the brand-new credit card, as the name implies, will ship plated with real platinum. CEO Vlad Tenev called “annoyingly heavy” during the keynote announcement.
A new player enters the picture
The new premium card will be a shot across the bow of premium credit contenders such as American Express and Chase, which rolled out new and improved versions of their flagship Platinum and Sapphire Reserve cards last year. It’ll also join an increasingly crowded cohort of card players, including Capital One and Bilt.
Only, Robinhood might have an edge over incumbents. Its 3% cash back Gold Card made quite the splash nearly two years ago, pulling in over a million waitlist customers after its launch. It has since become available to over 600,000 cardholders, per a company statement. That comes despite skepticism that the company would not be able to offer the product’s industry-leading cash back long-term.
Those who might have mistaken Robinhood’s imagination for gimmicky behavior could be forgiven. After all, the company offered solid gold versions of its Gold credit card and mystery boxes as a redemption option for cash back on the card. But despite that, the credit card business is becoming a meaningful contributor to the business, helping to put a dent in the $75 million acquisition of X1 that it undertook in Jun. 2023.
The card was announced along a slew of new products at the company’s “Take Flight” keynote. Among the new features added were new tax loss harvesting features, new benefits for the company’s Robinhood Gold customers, and short-term offers for customers transferring to Robinhood.
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