How to Open a Robinhood Account

Robinhood, pioneer of zero-commission stock trading (other fees may apply) and digital stock trading platform in general, offers brokerage accounts with no fees or huge opening deposit requirements. Opening a Robinhood account is really simple and takes less time than a microwavable TV dinner.

If you'd like to start trading stocks and funds on this popular platform, here's how to set up a Robinhood account.

What you'll need to open a Robinhood account

Here are some key things to get your Robinhood account up and running:

• Your Social Security number
• Bank information to fund the account (you can always set this up later)
• A mobile device (you can only invest through Robinhood on a smartphone or tablet)

The company's site says it takes less than four minutes to set up an account, which is pretty accurate.

There aren't any fees for opening up a Robinhood account or maintaining one, nor does the company charge you commissions when you make your trades. The company also offers a Robinhood Gold service for a $5 monthly charge, giving customers additional features like a higher interest rate on uninvested cash, professional research from Morningstar, a line of credit (to trade on margin), and larger deposit amounts that are instantly available to invest.

Step 1: Set up an account

First, navigate to Robinhood's sign-up page and click "open an account." Here you'll provide an email address and password, following up your legal name as it appears on a government I.D. After that, you'll continue on by filling in some more basic information, such as your phone number, date of birth, residential address, and where you're a citizen. Once you fill this out, you'll be taken to the next step.

Step 2: Verify your identity

To verify your identity, Robinhood will need your Social Security number.

If you're wary of giving out your SSN, just know the app is encrypted and the number will be transmitted in an airtight connection. Basically, all broker dealers are required by law to collect SSN to ensure you're not a known money launderer or terrorist. If you're neither of those, then click the "continue" button to go to the next page.

Step 3: Investing experience

This section asks you some questions about your investing experience. You'll let Robinhood know if you have no experience, some experience, a little more than average, or investing expertise.

The app will then ask if you'd like to enable commission-free options trading. Options trading, which involves buying and selling options contracts, can be complicated if you're a beginning investor, but might be of interest if you're experienced at it. Either way, if you're interested in options trading, enabling this will take you through some additional questions to see if you're approved.

After you answer the options trading question, Robinhood will ask for your employment information. Then, it will ask whether you, or a member of your immediate family, is employed by a member firm of a stock exchange or the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), or if you or a family member is a director, 10% shareholder, or senior officer of a publicly traded company.

Once you're done with this page, just click "continue" and head on to the next step!

Step 4: Review agreements

Robinhood will ask you to review two different agreements: the Tax Certification, which asks you to double-check and certify your information is accurate, and the brokerage agreement. Once you've read them, click "agree" at the bottom and move to the next step.

Step 5: Fund your account

You can fund your Robinhood account with as little as $1. Depositing money in your account is as simple as linking a bank through Plaid.

You can choose to fund the account from a list of financial institutions. If you don't see your bank on this page (or if you want to fund the account later), you can click the "What if I don't see my bank on this list?" link on the right-hand side of the page and then select the "click here" link. This will allow you to go on to the next application step and fund the account later through the Robinhood app.

You can get up to $1,000 instantly after you initiate a bank deposit (unless you have Robinhood Gold, in which case your limit could be between $5,000 and $50,000).

Check out other brokerage accounts

And that's how you open a Robinhood brokerage account. Of course, if you're not impressed with Robinhood -- or you're still unsure if it's right for you -- you can compare it with our other best online brokerages picks. And if you need some tips on how to get started investing, check out these articles:

• How to Invest Money: Getting Started With Investing
• How to Invest in Stocks
• Beginner's Guide to Brokerages