
Robinhood Overhauls Its $695 Platinum Card
Facing backlash over spend-gated perks, Robinhood is loosening the caps on its top-tier card's travel and lifestyle credits without touching the $695 annual fee — a signal of how unforgiving the premium-card market has become.
Robinhood is restructuring its $695-a-year platinum card after Gold cardholders complained its perks required minimum spending to unlock, calling it a 'coupon book,' reported Wednesday by the Wall Street Journal (July 22). Robinhood raised the annual travel credit to $1,000 from $800 and removed spending limits on DoorDash and fitness-wearable credits, per VP Deepak Rao.
BankGenX Desk · 3 min read- Robinhood raised the platinum card's annual travel credit to $1,000 from $800 and uncapped DoorDash and fitness-wearable credits, addressing the top complaint that perks were spend-gated.
- The $695 annual fee is unchanged; the fix targets access to benefits, not the price of entry.
- More than 50,000 people requested the card within its first week, per Robinhood, showing demand persisted even amid the perks backlash.
- Robinhood Money VP Deepak Rao publicly acknowledged the 'coupon book' criticism, a rare direct admission from a card issuer that its reward structure misfired.
- Additional invitations are expected in coming months, extending the card beyond the initial pool of highest-spending Gold subscribers.
Robinhood is reworking its $695-a-year platinum card after Gold cardholders called it a 'coupon book,' the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday (July 22), cited by PYMNTS. The company raised the annual travel credit to $1,000 from $800 and removed spending caps on DoorDash and fitness-wearable credits, according to Robinhood Money VP Deepak Rao. The $695 fee itself is untouched — the fix targets access to the perks, not their price.
What Robinhood changed
Robinhood raised its platinum card's annual travel credit to $1,000 from $800 and removed spending caps on two of its most-used perks, according to the Wall Street Journal's July 22 report, cited by PYMNTS. DoorDash credits shift from $250 issued in $10 increments on orders of $50 or more to a flat $120 a year, usable without a minimum order size. Fitness-wearable credits also lose their prior spending threshold. The $695 annual fee is unchanged; the fix targets access, not price.
Why Robinhood moved
Gold cardholders told Robinhood the card behaved like a 'coupon book' — perks nominally included but locked behind minimum-spend thresholds that made them hard to actually use, the Journal reported. "Everybody saw the feedback," said Deepak Rao, vice president and general manager of Robinhood Money, who confirmed the company built this round of changes around that criticism. The complaint points to a structural risk for any card bundling third-party credits: high redemption friction turns a nominally rich benefits stack into what feels like a rewards program, not a return on the fee.
The demand signal
More than 50,000 people requested the card within the first week of its initial rollout, Robinhood said, and the company is preparing further invitations in the coming months, per the Journal. Access has so far gone to Robinhood's highest-spending Gold cardholders first, tying card issuance to existing subscription engagement rather than open enrollment. That sequencing — rewarding the most active Gold users before broadening the pool — mirrors how issuers elsewhere use premium metal cards to deepen retention among an existing base rather than to acquire new customers outright.
What this means for cardholders
Current or prospective platinum cardholders should re-check the credit terms rather than assume last year's caps still apply: the DoorDash and fitness-wearable allowances now work differently, and the travel credit is worth $200 more annually. The unchanged $695 fee means whether the card pays for itself still depends on actually using the travel credit in full — a threshold this update does not change. Confirm current terms directly with Robinhood Money rather than relying on the card's original launch terms.
- What exactly changed on Robinhood's platinum card?
- Robinhood raised the annual travel credit to $1,000 from $800, removed the spending cap on DoorDash credits (previously $250 in $10 increments on orders of $50-plus, now $120 a year usable flexibly), and eliminated the spending threshold on fitness-wearable credits, according to the Wall Street Journal's July 22 report.
- Did the $695 annual fee change?
- No. The reporting, cited by PYMNTS, describes changes to how perks are earned and capped, not to the card's $695 annual fee.
- Who is Deepak Rao?
- Rao is vice president and general manager of Robinhood Money, the unit that runs Robinhood's card and banking products; he told the Journal 'everybody saw the feedback' on the card's reception.