Robinhood UK FAQ
The following are some of the most frequently asked questions and their answers about how the Robinhood UK app works.
Robinhood U.K. Ltd (Robinhood UK) is a subsidiary of Robinhood Markets, Inc., a US-based company that has several subsidiaries for different business lines.
When you open a Robinhood account, services will be provided to you by Robinhood UK and Robinhood Securities, LLC (Robinhood Securities), our affiliated US clearing broker. A clearing broker holds your assets (i.e. your cash and securities) and clears and settles your trades. When you place a trade on the Robinhood app, Robinhood UK will receive and transmit your order to Robinhood Securities, which interacts with the market. This is what makes investing in US stocks possible.
Investing with Robinhood UK is commission-free when trading stocks, however contract fees apply when trading options and futures. We also don’t charge you fees to open or maintain your account.
Other costs do apply, such as foreign exchange (FX) fees and regulatory trading fees. Review our Fee Schedule and Trading and ADR fees on Robinhood for more details.
Robinhood UK is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FRN: 823590). You can find us on the FCA register.
To apply for a Robinhood account, you’ll need to meet the following requirements:
What you need to get started has more details.
Your cash and securities are held by our US clearing broker. This means that your assets are not protected in the traditional way by the UK Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). Instead you get the benefit of alternative, US protections.
Your securities will be held by our affiliated clearing broker in the US, Robinhood Securities, a member of the US-based Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC), which protects securities customers of its members up to $500,000 (including $250,000 for claims for cash). SIPC does NOT cover futures positions, but it does cover uninvested British Pound Sterling (GBP) in your brokerage account. Explanatory brochure available upon request or at www.sipc.org. Review the Robinhood SIPC, FDIC and Account Protection for details.
We have purchased an additional insurance policy for accounts held with Robinhood Securities to supplement SIPC protection. The additional insurance becomes available to customers in the event that SIPC limits are exhausted. This additional insurance policy provides protection for securities and cash up to an aggregate of $1 billion, and is limited to a combined return to any customer of $50 million in securities and $1.9 million in cash. Similar to SIPC protection, this additional insurance doesn’t protect against a loss in the market value of securities.
Robinhood UK customers join the Brokerage Cash Sweep program at onboarding (by default) and have their eligible uninvested USD cash automatically (unrestricted cash intended for investing that hasn't yet been invested or spent) deposited at these banks that are referred to as ‘program banks’. The cash deposited at these program banks becomes eligible for Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (‘FDIC’) insurance up to a total maximum of $2.5 million. The FDIC insurance coverage limit at each program bank is $250,000, inclusive of deposits already held at the bank in the same ownership capacity, subject to FDIC insurance coverage limits and any capacity limitations at the banks. andWhile the FDIC insurance coverage limit at each bank is $250,000, $2,000 is reserved for accrued interest. If you opt out of one or more program banks, your FDIC insurance coverage may be reduced.
There may be reasons why customers are unable to earn interest on uninvested cash, such as for religious reasons. For those customers we provide the option to opt-out of the interest earning brokerage cash sweep program through the program banks, in which case the money will be held in a brokerage account at Robinhood Securities that is protected up to $250,000 under SIPC (and not FDIC) as explained above.
Adding money to your Robinhood account is easy—all you need is a UK bank account and their app or website for funding.
The current foreign exchange (FX) rate will show in the app when you convert currency. All trades are executed in USD, but you control how to manage the funds in your account. You can keep your uninvested cash in GBP or USD and only need to pay the foreign exchange fee ( 0.1% during FX market hours or 0.3% on Fridays between 5-9 PM Eastern Time (ET)) when converting GBP to USD or vice versa. FX conversion fees are included in the FX rate shown. For details, review Multi-currency experience.
Stock markets have potential buyers who name their highest price (like a bid) and potential sellers who name their lowest price (the ask). A trade is executed, or completed, at a price somewhere between the bid and the ask. If you want your order to execute at a particular price, you can place a limit or stop limit order. For more details, review Order types.
All your trades require USD because you're investing in the US stock market. You can keep your uninvested cash in GBP or USD and only need to pay the FX fee when converting GBP to USD or vice versa (0.1% during FX market hours and 0.3% on Fridays from 5 PM ET to 9 PM ET).
Traditionally, the markets are open from 9:30 AM-4 PM US Eastern time (ET) during regular business days (Monday-Friday, except holidays). But with extended-hours trading and the Robinhood 24 Hour Market, you can execute trades from 8 PM ET Sunday until 8 PM ET Friday, with some restrictions. Orders placed outside these hours will be queued to process when the market opens on the next trading day.
Check out Extended-hours trading and Robinhood 24 Hour Market for more details about how you can trade during regular, extended, and overnight market hours and the potential risks involved.
For futures trading hours, check out Before trading a futures contract.
Our app will show you the equivalent British Summer Time (BST) that matches up with the US Eastern times for trading hours. For example, 9:30 AM ET is 5 hours behind GMT and 4 hours behind BST, so the time displayed will either be 2:30 PM GMT or 1:30 PM BST.
Robinhood UK is a subsidiary of Robinhood Markets, Inc., which has a number of subsidiaries with revenue streams that allow it to offer a range of financial products and services at a low cost, including commission-free trading in US stocks (contract fees apply when trading options and futures). For more details, review How we make money.