Robinhood Negative Balance: What Happens If You Owe Money?
Dealing with a negative balance or deficit on Robinhood is an annoying problem that makes it difficult to trade stocks, options, and ETFs.
You lose access to Instant Deposits and cannot trade until your account deficit is resolved.
How Do You Get a Negative Balance on Robinhood?
- Failed Transfer: The most common reason for a negative balance is when you trade with Instant Deposits but your bank transfer fails due to insufficient funds.
- Margin Call: If you trade with margin then your Robinhood account will turn negative when you get margin called and suffer losses.
What Happens If You Owe Money to Robinhood?
You won’t be able to trade on Robinhood until you deposit additional funds and settle your account deficit.
Robinhood will sell any shares you hold to settle the balance, but you may need additional cash to resolve the deficit.
Transfer funds from your bank account but keep enough funds in your account for 1 to 2 business days until Robinhood debits your account.
Robinhood won’t close your account, so you have plenty of time to transfer funds.
How to Fix the Robinhood Account Deficit
Step 1
Log into your Robinhood account.
Step 2
Tap “Account Deficit” next to the red warning sign
Step 3
Tap the red “Deposit” button at the bottom of the screen.
Step 4
Choose Deposit Amount and Tap “Transfer” to settle your margin call.
