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Cash App Investing Review: Tailor-Made for Beginner Stock Trading

Review Updated
Matt Frankel, CFP®
Author: Matt Frankel, CFP®
Matt Frankel, CFP®
Matt Frankel, CFP®
Writer, Analyst

Matt is a Certified Financial Planner™ and investment advisor based in Columbia, South Carolina. He writes personal finance and investment advice for Motley Fool Money and its parent company The Motley Fool, with more than 4,500 published articles and a 2017 SABEW Best in Business award. Matt writes a weekly investment column for the Motley Fool ("Ask a Fool") that is syndicated in USA Today, and his work with Motley Fool Money has also been syndicated to MSN and Yahoo! Finance. He has been regularly featured on Fox Business and many other major outlets. He’s a graduate of the University of South Carolina and Nova Southeastern University, and holds a graduate certificate in financial planning from Florida State University.

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Cole Tretheway
Reviewer: Cole Tretheway
Cole Tretheway
Cole Tretheway

Cole Tretheway is a full-time personal finance writer whose articles have been featured on Motley Fool Money and The Motley Fool. He has a degree in English with a Certificate in Professional and Technical Communication from California Polytechnic University, SLO.

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Eric McWhinnie
Fact Checked: Eric McWhinnie
Eric McWhinnie
Eric McWhinnie

Eric McWhinnie has been writing and editing digital content since 2010. He specializes in personal finance and investing. He also holds a bachelor’s degree in Finance.

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Cash App Investing might be for you if: You prioritize easy and affordable stock investing. It's seriously simple. You get a quick setup and a simple interface with a few bells and whistles. Cash App Investing charges you $0 to buy and sell stocks. In this Cash App Investing review, we'll cover everything you need to know to decide whether this brokerage is for you.

Ratings Methodology
Cash App Investing

Cash App Investing

Our Rating:

Rating image, 4.0 out of 5 stars.
4.0/5 Circle with letter I in it. Our ratings are based on a 5 star scale. 5 stars equals Best. 4 stars equals Excellent. 3 stars equals Good. 2 stars equals Fair. 1 star equals Poor. We want your money to work harder for you. Which is why our ratings are biased toward offers that deliver versatility while cutting out-of-pocket costs.
 = Best
= Excellent
= Good
= Fair
= Poor
Bottom Line

Cash App Investing gets you started in a snap. It's fast and easy to set up an account, plus it's free to open an account or trade. The app offers some neat features even beginners will like, such as scheduling buys when a stock falls below a certain price. Open an account with Cash App Investing if you want convenient stock trading for cheap.

Fees:

$0 for stocks, fees vary for Bitcoin

Account Minimum:

$0

Alternatives to Consider

We recommend comparing brokerage options to ensure the account you're selecting is the best fit for you. To make your search easier, here's a short list of our best trading platforms of 2024.

Broker Best For Commissions Learn More
Logo for Public
Rating image, 4.0 out of 5 stars.
4.0/5 Circle with letter I in it. Our ratings are based on a 5 star scale. 5 stars equals Best. 4 stars equals Excellent. 3 stars equals Good. 2 stars equals Fair. 1 star equals Poor. We want your money to work harder for you. Which is why our ratings are biased toward offers that deliver versatility while cutting out-of-pocket costs.
 = Best
= Excellent
= Good
= Fair
= Poor
Easy fractional investing in stocks and bonds. $0 commissions, 1%-2% crypto markups
Learn More for Public

On Public's Secure Website.

Logo for E*TRADE
Rating image, 4.5 out of 5 stars.
4.5/5 Circle with letter I in it. Our ratings are based on a 5 star scale. 5 stars equals Best. 4 stars equals Excellent. 3 stars equals Good. 2 stars equals Fair. 1 star equals Poor. We want your money to work harder for you. Which is why our ratings are biased toward offers that deliver versatility while cutting out-of-pocket costs.
 = Best
= Excellent
= Good
= Fair
= Poor
Long-Term Investors, Stocks and Options Traders Commission-free; other fees apply
Learn More for E*TRADE

On E*TRADE's Secure Website.

Logo for Robinhood
Rating image, 4.5 out of 5 stars.
4.5/5 Circle with letter I in it. Our ratings are based on a 5 star scale. 5 stars equals Best. 4 stars equals Excellent. 3 stars equals Good. 2 stars equals Fair. 1 star equals Poor. We want your money to work harder for you. Which is why our ratings are biased toward offers that deliver versatility while cutting out-of-pocket costs.
 = Best
= Excellent
= Good
= Fair
= Poor
Low fees on stocks, ETFs, crypto, and options $0 for stocks, ETFs, and options; up to $5 monthly for Robinhood Gold
Learn More for Robinhood

On Robinhood's Secure Website.

Full Cash App Investing Review

Author's note: My favorite brokers are those that make investing in stocks and ETFs easy and affordable. I've been investing for four years, and I plan on holding my investments for decades. Robinhood is my go-to platform. Top perks include IRA match and a no-frills interface. I don't day trade or dabble in mutual funds, but I do invest in Bitcoin; it's a must-have option.

Investment offerings

Cash App Investing only offers a few investment types. But it's perfect for those who don't want to drop gobs of money on individual stocks: you can purchase fractional shares for as little as $1.

Investments

  • Bitcoin
  • ETFs
  • Stocks

Brokerage accounts

  • Traditional brokerage

TIP

Other financial services

Cash App Investing does more than let you trade stocks. You can bank and send money through the app thanks to Cash App's broad ecosystem and banking partnerships.

Commissions and fees

Cash App Investing is a free stock trading app -- it doesn't charge trading fees. It doesn't offer options, mutual funds, or other types of investments that typically charge commissions.

Margin rates

Cash App Investing doesn't offer margin accounts.

Research and education

Cash App Investing offers tools for beginning investors, such as its "my first stock" tutorial, but it doesn't offer access to stock research or thorough educational tools. It's designed for beginning investors. Check out other online stock brokers to take a more in-depth, analytical approach to choosing stocks.

Interface

Cash App is a mobile app. There's no desktop platform.

Cash App Investing is beginner-friendly brokerage, one designed to be easy to use. One of the biggest obstacles non-investors face is they "don't know how to get started." With Cash App Investing, it's easy. Simply open the Cash App, decide how much you want to invest in a particular stock, and make a purchase. The app needs to collect some legally required information such as your Social Security number, but it's a quick and easy process.

Cash App Investing is integrated with the rest of the Cash App ecosystem. It's all in one place. To trade stocks using Cash App Investing, you don't need a separate app. You can trade stocks, send and receive money from other Cash App users, buy and sell Bitcoin, and more.

Customer service

Cash App is the No. 1 rated finance app in the iOS App Store and the No. 1 free finance app in the Google Play Store, as of writing. It's rated a 4.8 and 4.6 on each, respectively. These are top-tier reviews. It's worth noting Cash App is rated 1.1 / 5 by Better Business Bureau (BBB) reviewers, typical for a large financial organization. Most complaints cite poor communication. Cash App Investing is online-only, so you can't walk into a branch to speak with a representative face to face.

There are a few ways to contact customer service:

  • Phone line is open every day from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. EDT.
  • Social media accounts
  • 24/7 online chat

Security

Cash App Investing is secure. It's SIPC registered, so your investments are secured up to $500,000 in case of the brokerage firm failing. Cash App Investing also encrypts your data and lets you enable two-factor authentication for extra security.

About

Block Inc. (formerly Square Inc.), Cash App's parent company, rolled out stock trading capabilities in 2020. Formerly, Cash App only offered banking and mobile payment features. It still offers these, but it's since added stocks and Bitcoin to its ecosystem.

Today, Cash App is probably most well-known for being one of the top two payment apps in the U.S., competing with Venmo. If you use Cash App already, then you probably get the most benefit from opening a Cash App Investing account -- everything can be accessed from a single app, including payments, banking, and investing.

Learn more about Cash App Investing

Keep reading about Cash App Investing on these pages:

Our brokerage rating methodology

At Motley Fool Money, brokerages are rated on a scale of one to five stars. We primarily focus on fees, available assets, and account types; however, we also take into account features like research, education, tax-loss harvesting, and highly rated mobile apps. Our highest-rated brokerages generally include low fees, a diverse range of assets and account types, and useful platform features.

See our full methodology here: Ratings Methodology