How to Add Money to Robinhood Without a Bank Account (2023)

Written By Branson Knowles

Robinhood has been a starting point for many prospective investors, giving them access to both traditional stocks and cryptocurrency. Most people fund their Robinhood accounts from a bank account, but how do you add money to Robinhood without one?

If you don’t have a bank account you can link to Robinhood, you can add money through other fintech apps like Chime or Current. You can also link a Netspend card to the service. You can also set up direct deposit from your employer, sending your paycheck straight to Robinhood.

You can also transfer outside brokerage accounts to Robinhood. While adding funds from a bank account may be the easiest way to fund your Robinhood account, you have more than enough options without it.

Fintech apps like Chime and Current can be added directly to Robinhood.

Robinhood uses Plaid to link accounts to their service, and you can find both Chime and Current in its search bar where you can enter your login information and have Plaid connect your accounts for you. 

robinhood plaid

If you have a Netspend card, either from a tax return or because you don’t have a traditional bank account, depositing the balance into your Robinhood account can be a great way to make use of the funds. 

You can add your Netspend card to your Robinhood account through Plaid as well. Or, if you prefer, you can enter your information manually into Robinhood. All you need is your Netspend account number and routing number.

Robinhood has a debit card, allowing their users to spend their uninvested balance anywhere Mastercard is accepted.

The debit card makes Robinhood a much more viable candidate to receive direct deposits, another good way to fund your account.

If you get a paycheck every two weeks with no where to put it, consider depositing it automatically into Robinhood.

They offer direct deposit for free, allowing you to receive your funds and add money to your Robinhood account automatically and without ever paying a dime.

Lastly, if you have a brokerage account with another investment firm or investment app, you can transfer it to Robinhood.

It’s a great way to simplify your investing and see all of your assets in one easy to manage app. 

How to Add Money to Robinhood through Chime or Current

Chime and Current are two brand new fintech apps that look to disrupt traditional banking by offering banking services to the underbanked and the unbanked. 

Not only are they both easy and free to use, but you can connect them both to Robinhood, allowing you to add money to your Robinhood balance directly from one of your fintech apps. 

You can connect Chime and Current the same way you would connect any traditional bank account on Robinhood.

To add money to Robinhood through Chme or Current, first start by downloading and opening the Robinhood app. If you have a pin code for Robinhood enter it to access the app.

accessing the app

Head to the Menu tab. It’s the fifth tab at the bottom of Robinhood, all the way to the right.

Once you’re in the menu tab, click transfers and scroll down until you see a section labeled Linked Accounts. Click Add account from this section.

Robinhood will then ask if you’d like to link a debit card or a bank account.

If you choose to link a debit card, you can do instant transfers and have a $1,000 daily deposit limit.

robinhood linking debit card

If you choose to link a bank account, your transfers will typically take between four and five business days.

With both Chime and Current, you can add either your debit card or your bank account.

Robinhood will let you link up to one debit card and up to three separate bank accounts to fund your account. Robinhood considers Chime and Current bank accounts, so click bank account. 

Robinhood uses Plaid to connect your account to their service.

They use Plaid so that they can connect your account to their service automatically while maintaining your data in a safe and secure manner protecting your accounts.

To use Plaid, you can find your financial institution from their list. They display the most popular banks up front, but if you don’t see yours don’t worry, you can use their search bar to find it. 

On my Robinhood app, in the Plaid search bar, Chime is one of the first apps to be found, but Current isn’t.

robinhood plaid search

To find Current, just type their name into the search bar and they should pop up right away. 

You can connect your Chime and Current accounts by entering in your login information straight into Plaid. They will then take all of your information and connect it to Robinhood automatically. 

You don’t want to use Plaid, you can always enter your account number and routing number manually. Once your account has been connected to Robinhood, you can use it to add funds whenever you like.

If you connect Chime or Current as bank accounts, adding money to Robinhood will take somewhere between 4-5 business days to clear.

If you connect your Chime or Current accounts through their debit card, you have the ability to add money instantly. 

How to Add Money to Robinhood through Netspend 

While Netspend is a different type of card than the cards offered by Chime or Current, linking your Netspend account to Robinhood functions in the same way as adding any other bank would.

To link your Netspend account to Robinhood, start the same way you would if you were going to add your chime or current account.

Download the Robinhood app, log in, and head to the menu. There, click linked banks.

You can add your Netspend account to Robinhood using Plaid as well.

It isn’t one of the first Banks to pop up on the Plaid screen, but you can find it in the search bar if you just type in the word Netspend. 

robinhood netspend search

When you type Netspend into the Plaid search bar, they’ll give you three results.

The first one is for the Netspend all access account, provided by MetaBank. The second is the Netspend Skylight One card. The third is just for Netspend.com, if you have a vanilla Netspend card.

Click on the Netspend link that’s applicable for you, provide your Netspend credentials, including your username and password, and you should be able to automatically link your Netspend account to Robinhood using Plaid. 

How to Add Money to Robinhood Without a Bank Account through Direct Deposit

If you don’t have a bank account and you’re looking for somewhere to put your direct deposit, Robinhood might be a good choice for you.

They accept direct deposits for free, and even offer their customers a debit card to use if you’d like to use the balance in your account. 

Moving your direct deposit over to Robinhood is easy.

You can start by opening the app and heading to the menu portion in the lower right hand corner. Click on the transfer section and then click once more on schedule recurring deposits. 

On the schedule recurring deposits screen, Robinhood will ask you how frequently you’d like to make your deposit.

You have a couple options here: you can choose just once and deposit it today, you can choose to deposit weekly, twice a month, monthly, or finally, quarterly. 

robinhood direct deposit frequency

Once you let Robinhood know how much you’d like to deposit and how frequently you’d like to deposit, they will ask for you to choose an account for it to come from.

You can choose to either link to a debit card, or link to a bank account.

You can also move over your direct deposit from your employer straight to Robinhood.

You can search for your employer or your payroll provider directly in the Robinhood app, giving them your Robinhood information and moving your payday checks straight to your fintech app. 

How to Add Money to Robinhood without a Bank Account through a Brokerage Account

If you have assets, like stocks or cryptocurrencies, you can transfer them from your other brokerage accounts into Robinhood so you can manage all of your retirement funds in one place.

To move your brokerage account over to Robinhood, start by opening the Robinhood app and heading to the menu portion.

Click on transfers, and then click transfer accounts into Robinhood. 

robinhood transfer from other brokerage

You’ll have a couple more screens to click through before Robinhood will finally let you merge everything.

Once you click through some screens, Robinhood will let you begin your transfer by making a request from your Individual, Roth IRA, or Traditional IRA.

After you make your request, Robinhood will review your assets.

Once the request is submitted, they will go ahead and check each of your assets and verify which ones are transferable to their system. 

They currently accept their own supported stocks and ETFs, cash and margin balances, and finally, options contracts.

Robinhood lets their customers know that it will usually take between 5-7 business days for them to fully process your request and move your assets over.

You can search for your brokerage in a system fairly similar to Plaid.

They will give you a list of popular brokers and ask for you to choose the broker you do business with. You can then enter your broker’s account number to connect your account.

robinhood select a brokerage

How Do I Transfer Cash to Robinhood?

If you have cash you may wonder how you can get it to your favorite fintech app, Robinhood.

Unfortunately, if you want to add paper money to your investment account, you’re going to have to get creative as there is no way to deposit cash directly onto Robinhood.

At the time of writing, Robinhood doesn’t accept either cash or check deposits to their debit card either.

A lot of other fintech apps will let you deposit checks directly onto their platform, but Robinhood does not.

If you want to get cash into Robinhood, you’re going to have to load it onto a connected external account and make an electronic transfer.

The best way would be to make a deposit into your linked bank account, head to Robinhood, and request a transfer. 

You can deposit any cash you have into either a Chime, Current, or Netspend account and make the transfer that way.

Transfers to Robinhood are free so long as you’re willing to wait a couple of business days. 

If you have a connected debit card instead, you can transfer instantly For a small fee of 1.5% of the total amount of the transfer.

For example, if you were to transfer over $50, and wanted to make it instant, you’d have to pay a small fee of $0.75 to do so.

What is the Fastest Way to Add Money to Robinhood?

If you need to add money to your Robinhood account right away, you don’t have too many options.

As Robinhood is an investing account, they take a lot of time to review each transfer and make sure that it is legitimate.

That’s why transferring money to Robinhood will always take a little bit of time, unless you link a debit card. By linking a debit card, you have access to instant transfers. 

Instant transfers aren’t free, Robin Hood charges a small fee of 1.5%, but they are a way for you to add money to your Robinhood account quickly.

In fact, the fastest way to add money to your Robinhood account would be through linking a debit card and using the instant transfer feature.

If this article was useful to you, check out more fintech guides I’ve written:

About the Author

Lead Researcher, Digital Banking in the U.S. at TopMobileBanks

Branson Knowles is a former banker and current writer at TopMobileBanks.com.

During his years banking, he helped his clients discover their financial freedom through smart savings and spending goals. He started as a teller before becoming a banker and obtaining his federal licenses, furthering his clients' on their financial journeys.

After becoming one of the top producing bankers in the state, Branson decided it was time to pursue his own financial freedom. He started writing freelance finance articles before joining TopMobileBanks.com, breaking down banking like only an ex-banker could.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Featured On:
forbes logo
usnews logo
wall street journal
yahoo finance
marketwatch
techcrunch logo
world finance
bbc logo
gobankingrates
venturebeat
thestreet logo