How to Avoid Robinhood Transfer Fee?

How to Avoid Robinhood Transfer Fee?

If you are new to the trading world, and you are just trying to find the best platform where you can keep your assets (stocks, bonds, crypto, or other) and trade with them, you must have run across Robinhood brokerage services at some point. 

The most important thing to look for when you are choosing your brokers is the amount of fee you will be charged for different types of transactions. This is something every platform has, and in most cases, the fees cannot be avoided.

Robinhood transfer fees cannot be avoided, regardless of what type of transfer you have initiated – partial or full transfer. There is a $75 outgoing transfer fee that will automatically be charged from your cash balance. The only way to “avoid” the fee is to find another broker that will reimburse this amount to you once you transfer your assets. 

This is why you need to think twice before you choose brokerage services, and before you choose to change them. Also, be mindful that changing the brokerage services can sometimes be more costly than staying on the current platform.

Can I Transfer My Robinhood Account to Someone Else?

If you wish to transfer stocks from your Robinhood account, you can easily do that, without worrying that your funds will stay trapped on the platform. Regardless of the reason why you want to transfer the stocks or if you want to transfer them fully or partially, there is a $75 transfer fee.

However, bear in mind that if you choose to transfer all your funds or assets from Robinhood to another brokerage, they will close your account and it will be inactive. Even when you initiate the transfer process, your account will be restricted, and that basically means that you will not be allowed to trade – to buy or sell other positions.

If you wish to transfer your stocks to another person that is not connected to the brokerage, then the transfer is not possible without the buy-sell process. If you wish to move your stocks to somebody else, just sell them to avoid complications (mostly with the tax calculation). 

Does Robinhood Charge for Account Transfer?

Moving stocks, cryptocurrency, and other assets from the Robinhood platform to another brokerage cannot be done without paying a transfer fee. As aforementioned, this fee is $75 per transfer, regardless of the fact whether you are making a partial transfer, or a full one. 

If you do have enough money in your Robinhood account, this fee will be charged from there as soon as you make the transfer request. However, if you don’t have enough funds available on your account to pay for this fee, then it will be deducted on the other end – from your new brokerage account where you are transferring assets to.

How to Avoid Robinhood Transfer Fee?

Since the transfer of the assets from Robinhood to the new brokerage is being done through ACATS or Automated Customer Account Transfer Services, there is no way you can legally avoid paying the $75 fee. 

Bear in mind that a transfer fee like this is very common in the industry, and different platforms have different fees ranging from $50 to $125 or more. This is to prevent the person from switching between the brokers very often. 

However, the only way you can technically avoid the transfer fee is to find a brokerage that is ready to reimburse this amount to you as soon as you transfer your assets to their platform. 

In order to attract new users and new customers, some of the brokerage services out there actually offer this as a perk. Also, during some promotions, the brokerage may offer to reimburse the fee, so make sure to check that as well if you are getting ready to transfer your assets. 

Will TD Ameritrade Cover Robinhood Transfer Fee?

If for any reason you choose to transfer your assets from the Robinhood platform to the TD Ameritrade, you will be charged the $75 fee from the Robinhood end. However, TD Ameritrade has a policy where they offer to refund this outgoing fee for all their new customers. 


TD Ameritrade will refund you this fee regardless of where are you coming from. However, there is a maximum refund limit of $150, and most of the companies can fall into this category. 

This is great also because there are many platforms that charge the incoming ACAS fee as well, but TD Ameritrade is free of this charge, meaning that if you do choose to switch to them, your transfer will be basically free. 

Is There a Fee to Transfer from Robinhood to Fidelity?

As already explained, when you are moving your assets from one brokerage to another one, there are high chances that the platform you are moving from will charge you a certain amount of money. On the other hand, the receiving party will usually not charge the incoming fee. 

Bear in mind that the new platform may also have some sort of an exit fee, so make sure to check everything before you decide to move on and switch platforms again. 

If you are moving your assets from a Robinhood platform to Fidelity, there is the exit fee the Robinhood will charge you (the aforementioned $75), which will be applied regardless of the type of transfer you have initiated – partially or fully transfer.

Just a remark – if you do choose to go with a partial transfer, and then after some time you initiate another partial transfer – the outgoing fee will be charged twice. 

The difference between Fidelity and TD Ameritrade is that Fidelity doesn’t have a reimbursing policy, meaning that the $75 will be considered as an expense on your end, and you will not get this money from Fidelity.

The thing that is the same is that both platforms will not charge the incoming fee. Before you decide what platform you are going to switch to, you need to evaluate all pros and cons of both of them. 

Author

  • Tristan

    Tristan has a strong interest in the intersection of artificial intelligence and creative expression. He has a background in computer science, and he enjoys exploring the ways in which AI can enhance and augment human creativity. In his writing, he often delves into the ways in which AI is being used to generate original works of fiction and poetry, as well as to analyze and understand patterns in existing texts.