I say "did" because I recently got invited to apply for the Robinhood Gold card.  If you're not familiar with this card, it's an invitation-only thing.  You can't just apply for it like you can a card from Chase or Citi - you have to get yourself added to a wait-list and hope they eventually get to you.  I requested an invitation last December and finally got one this July.

The buzz around the Robinhood Gold card is due to it's absurd points structure.  You get a flat 3% back (3 points-per-dollar) on all purchases.  If you haven't looked at reward cards in any depth, that's completely unheard of.  Nobody does that, in part because the swipe fees for credit cards - that is, the transaction fee the card issuer charges the seller for each use - tend to top out in the vicinity of 3%.  It's common to get 3% on a particular category, such as "restaurants", or at a particular store, but nobody else does 3% across the board.  The best you'll get from a major banks is 2% on everything.  There are also a few credit unions that issue 2.5% cards.

What's the catch?

It took me a while to apply for the Robinhood Gold card because I kept wondering where the catch was.  I mean, if they're refunding you most if not all of the swipe fee, how the heck do they make money on this thing?  And while I still don't have a definitive answer to that, now that I have the card I have a much better idea.

To start with, the Robinhood Gold card has no annual fee, but you do have to maintain a Robinhood Gold membership.  Unless you're a dedicated Robinhood user, that pretty much amounts to the same thing.  However, Robinhood Gold is currently only $50 per year, so it's a very low fee.

The first catch is the interest rate.  I got 29.99%, which is absolutely horrendous.  And my credit rating is very high, so this apparently just how they roll.  I don't really care about that, though, because I don't carry a balance, so I don't pay interest.  But if you do carry a balance, then for the love of God don't do it on this card! 

The second catch is that it has a very low credit limit.  Mine was only $7,500, which is very low compared to my other cards.  The only cards I have with lower limits are store cards that can only be used at a particular retailer.  And this isn't a "me thing" - they even have a FAQ addressing this, so it's apparently standard practice.

Third is the foreign transaction fee.  When I first got on the waitlist to apply for the card, there was none, which was one of the things I really liked about it - no worrying about where I use it online.  However, since then, they started charging a 3% foreign transaction fee.  But only to new customers since July 1, which means they didn't have to announce it as a "change in terms" - they just quietly updated the agreement for new customers.  I actually didn't even notice that fee in my paperwork that until I saw this article.  Like most people, I assumed the terms hadn't changed since I first checked them when I joined the waitlist.

The fourth catch is the point redemption.  The industry standard for cash-back redemptions is one cent-per-point (1 CPP).  That's where the "3% cash back" comes from - 3 points per dollar, redeemed at 1 CPP.  You might be required to redeem into an account at the same bank or redeem for statement credit to get 1 CPP, but it's usually hard to get wrong.  There are typically a number of other redemption options as well (often of the "shop with points" variety), many of which get you less than 1 CPP.  With the Robinhood Gold card, those options are all front-and-center.  My personal favorite is the "buy a gold bar with points" option, which lets you spend $2,000 worth of points on a 10g gold bar that's worth about $1,500. 

Of course, you can still get 1 CPP on cash-back redemptions.  But only if you redeem the points into your Robinhood brokerage account.  This isn't a problem or even a bad thing.  It's just something you have to be aware of, since in addition to the "shopping with points" options, even the "statement credit" option doesn't get you 1 CPP.  Of course, all of that is disclosed and obvious if actually read the redemption values, but I imagine a lot of people don't pay close attention.

So the short version is:

• You get a low credit limit, which makes it harder to rack up a huge number of points.
• The interest rate is very high, so if you carry a balance, you're subsidizing the other users even more than with most other cards.
• The redemption options are structured to lead you towards choices that pay less than 1 CPP.

There are probably other aspects that I'm missing, but it seems like the gist of it is that Robinhood has structured their rewards program in a way that tries to turn that "3% back" into more like 2% back.  Of course, this isn't any different from what other credit card companies do - Robinhood is just doing more of it.  The entire credit cards rewards industry is built on trying to not give customers the maximum value for their points.  There's an entire calculus behind it and the companies have figured out the odds.  They're essentially betting that enough people will be attracted by the rewards programs and make bad decisions that it will more than pay for all the people who make good decisions.  Robinhood is doing exactly the same thing as everyone else, they're just leaning in harder.

The good parts

That's not to say that the Robinhood Gold card is a bad rewards card, or that you shouldn't get it.  I've been really enjoying it so far.  Granted, the above points are pretty consumer-hostile (some might say exploitative), but every other credit card issuer does some variation on the same thing.  And it has some really nice features that are worth considering as well.

First is the card itself.  It's one of those nice, premium-feeling cards made of metal with a gold-colored metallic coating.  I know that shouldn't figure into the equation, but let's be honest - doesn't it just make you feel cooler to pull out a card like that?  Doesn't it make you feel like more of a big-shot?  It shouldn't, and you shouldn't make financial decisions based on that, but let's not kid ourselves about our own psychology.

On the more substantive side, though, I find it interesting that the primary card (the metallic one) doesn't actually have the number printed on it.  That's actually a very nice security feature, as it means the number can't be stolen by dishonest service workers or shoulder-surfers.  You can still get the card number from the Robinhood Banking app (which is mandatory) if you really need it.  Note, however, that this only applies to the primary card.  If you order a second card for an authorized user, you either have to pay $50 for another metallic card or you get a plastic one that does have the number on it.

The app has a number of other nice features.  The biggest is the ability to create virtual cards.  This essentially creates a new card number that you can use for online purchases and not expose your primary account number.  I'm not sure if there's a limit on how many you can create, but I haven't seen one.  I've had multiple instances of card numbers being compromised in the last year or two, so I find this an absolutely phenomenal feature to have.  I've taken to creating virtual cards for every distinct online retailer precisely so that I can track down who is at fault if it happens again.

And speaking of virtual cards, they have several different kinds to choose from.  In addition to the "standard" card, they have "single-use" cards that are good for exactly one charge and "free trial" cards that automatically expire after 24 hours.  The standard virtual cards also allow you to set automatic expiration times (24 hours, 1 week, or 1 month), define monthly spend limits, and have a setting to anonymize the cardholder information.  This is great stuff. especially for any online purchases where you're not sure how much you trust the site.  There's also an "Agentic card" which is designed to be used by AI agents.  I haven't used that, but according to this page, it's essentially a virtual card you can give to your AI agent that has some guard rails to prevent it from going off the reservation.  I'm not entirely sure about the wisdom of giving an AI agent direct access to your bank account, but if you're going to do that, it seems like having this sort of protection on your card is a really good idea.

Bottom line

I really like the Robinhood Gold card.  A 3% rewards rate on everything is hard to beat, so this replaces several of my other cards for regular use.  Of course, it doesn't replace all my cards completely - I still have a few that get 5% back on specific categories or stores, and the Fidelity Rewards card still gets me 2% back with no foreign transaction fee and a much higher limit (as well as a much lower rate).  But it definitely simplifies the process of maximizing your rewards.

The virtual cards are also a killer feature.  I know this isn't unique to Robinhood Gold, but it seems uncommon - I don't have any other cards that offer this.  I really wish more providers had this.

Does the Robinhood Gold card have some caveats?  It sure does.  But once you know what those are and how to navigate them, it's not really that big of a deal.  That's the same with most other cards, and knowing how to deal with it is just part of the game.

So if you can get the card, and you're an informed and responsible credit card user, then go for it.  If not...you shouldn't be thinking about this stuff in the first place.