Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Robinhood launches 3% checking account

techcrunch.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

341–350 of 684 posts

Re: Robinhood launches 3% checking account

#341

Post by kevindong »

philip1209 wrote: post #332

I just spent 3 months in London, and it's crazy how Monzo seems to have taken the market. Almost everybody seems to be paying with a Monzo card, regardless of age. Asking around, I consistently heard that Monzo's competitors like Revolut are going to be a future case study in scaling before great product/market fit. I don't know how many people have Revolut accounts, but nobody seems to be using their cards in public…

> My benchmark is Charles Schwab Bank, which offers free ATM fees on any ATM, anywhere. It's what many millennials that I know use. But, it's a bad product and not very user-friendly.

Why do you say it's a bad product? I use Schwab as my main account and it works great for me.

Re: Robinhood launches 3% checking account

#342

Post by jdhn »

EpicEng wrote: post #198
justaguyhere wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

my dad used to get > 10% rate (not US, and yes, it was much higher than inflation rate). Now we think 3% is bonkers. How times have changed!

I don't know where you're located, but in the US, interest rates used to be much higher. So yes, you got great rates on savings accounts, but you also paid 8%+ on your mortgage.

Housing prices were lower in both absolute and inflation adjusted terms, so the higher interest rate didn't hurt as much.

Re: Robinhood launches 3% checking account

#343

Post by jkqwzsoo »

motivated_gear wrote: post #277
sonnyblarney wrote: post #264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

" Their whole business is to encourage folks that should not be day trading to day trade" Also using the ridiculously upside down moral convention that they are somehow 'the good guys defeating the system' i.e. 'Robin Hood'. "We wanted to do something after occupy Wall Street, you know. Something real. So, how about, get all the young people to, you know, put their money into Wall Street" is basically their 'storyboa…

It's amazing how many times I've seen people post losses in excess of $20,000 on r/wallstreetbets.

The people in r/wallstreetbets usually understand that they're making stupid bets. OTOH, r/Robinhood is full of completely irresponsible traders -- trading in illiquid securities, dumping tons of money in penny stocks, triggering PDT restrictions and getting stuck with unwanted positions, not understanding bid/ask/mark (usually blaming RH or the "market maker" boogeyman for changing the price on them), buying OTM weekly options (known informally on wallstreetbets as "FD"s...), complaining about tons of "glitches" that are actually just them losing money through ignorance, and (one that has always confused me) blaming all losses on some mysterious "market maker" boogeyman who kills all of their trades.

If it was 1996, these people would be speculating on Beanie Baby portfolios hedged with Charizard cards.

Re: Robinhood launches 3% checking account

#344

Post by doctorpangloss »

asdff wrote: post #327
dixie_land wrote: post #163

I think folks are overthinking this. The math itself doesn't matter. Have you seen recent Robinhood commercials popping up on TV? Their whole business is to encourage folks that should not be day trading to day trade. Having your money parked there just facilitates knee-jerk-reaction and follow-the-crowd trading.

> Their whole business is to encourage folks that should not be day trading to day trade Trading for most people used to be deliberately obtuse. $7.5 commission per trade is criminal for most people, so is charging $50 a month to get a weekly email with basic technical analysis, but that's literally been the bread and butter of retail investing for decades and no one bats an eye to how deliberately ridiculous it all…

> Trading for most people used to be deliberately obtuse.

When Robinhood initiates options trading by asking you, "Do you think the stock is going to go up?" on a phone interface, they've decided that trading is now just for morons.

Re: Robinhood launches 3% checking account

#345

Post by MrRadar »

flexie wrote: post #284

This whole checking account / savings account, credit card/ debit card system that Americans have to deal with is so cumbersome and backwards. For Europeans that don't know: Most Americans have (at least) those two accounts, and those two cards. They usually spend from their checking account with their credit card, and save on the savings account. When they spend on their credit card, they sometimes "earn" points, de…

One point of your depiction of the US system I haven't seen other replies address: You can easily and for no fees (though not quickly) transfer money to other people with paper checks. That's the main reason they are used these days. I haven't seen anyone (try to) pay using a paper check at a store in years. Most banks allow for electronic deposits of checks with smartphones so it's not even that inconvenient. Not to say this is an ideal state of affairs (checks can take days to clear and not everyone has access to accounts that can write paper checks) but it's not quite as dire as you portray it.

Re: Robinhood launches 3% checking account

#347

Post by criddell »

jldugger wrote: post #239
criddell wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With 3% interest, that would be where I park money. What information will they get from me other than I dumped $ in and it's sitting there?

Why have two checking accounts?

Because one is from a bank with a high interest rate but a shitty privacy policy and the other is from a bank with a better privacy policy but a lower interest rate.

Re: Robinhood launches 3% checking account

#348

Post by robot »

dixie_land wrote: post #163

I think folks are overthinking this. The math itself doesn't matter. Have you seen recent Robinhood commercials popping up on TV? Their whole business is to encourage folks that should not be day trading to day trade. Having your money parked there just facilitates knee-jerk-reaction and follow-the-crowd trading.

It's all about the math. It is true they encourage unsophisticated people to go stock trading. But that's not how they do business.

They find gaps in the financial institutions' way of doing business and fill the space.

Re: Robinhood launches 3% checking account

#349

Post by tptacek »

mikeryan wrote: post #224
Aunche wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> geeks who believe they have outmathed a financial firm should ask themselves "Are financial firms likely to be bad at math?" and "Are financial firms incapable of hiring their own geeks?" Moviepass was also bought by a financial firm... Come to think of it, they have many similarities. Both companies are basically handing out free money and it's unclear how they would make any profit. People speculate that both com…

Moviepass was bought by what is, primarily, an analytics firm. Though apparently so is Robinhood. https://seekingalpha.com/article/4205379-robinhood-making-mi...

That's not "analytics"; that's order internalization, something almost every retail brokerage does†, both because they get paid to do it and because it improves outcomes for their customers.

† You could argue either way about whether IB gets paid to "internalize" orders or whether the order flow rebates they get are something else.

Re: Robinhood launches 3% checking account

#350

Post by webninja »

sonnyblarney wrote: post #264
dixie_land wrote: post #163

I think folks are overthinking this. The math itself doesn't matter. Have you seen recent Robinhood commercials popping up on TV? Their whole business is to encourage folks that should not be day trading to day trade. Having your money parked there just facilitates knee-jerk-reaction and follow-the-crowd trading.

" Their whole business is to encourage folks that should not be day trading to day trade" Also using the ridiculously upside down moral convention that they are somehow 'the good guys defeating the system' i.e. 'Robin Hood'. "We wanted to do something after occupy Wall Street, you know. Something real. So, how about, get all the young people to, you know, put their money into Wall Street" is basically their 'storyboa…

I’m still up 12% (although down from 30%) in this bull market. The trick to buy an array of better companies and to not sell/trade them. Every trade you make gives the HFT MIT quants an opportunity to take money out of your pocket! Hold at least 1 year for the substantial tax advantage, 2 years for gains to materialize (Peter Lynch’s Advice), or indefinitely as Warren Buffet has advised.

Also don’t touch or put more than 3% in options or crypto. 80% of traders lose money with options and crypto doesn’t usually generate interest or dividends. Also crypto taxes were absolute difficult nightmare for me last year.

Post reply on HN