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‘Like sneaker culture’: Are gimmicky debit cards overplayed or a smart business decision?

  • Revolut’s glow-in-the-dark debit card is the latest in a series of flashy debit cards to hit the market.
  • Experts say it’s a smart, cost-effective strategy that builds customers, brand equity and culture.
Shehzil Zahid | April 13, 2021
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‘Like sneaker culture’: Are gimmicky debit cards overplayed or a smart business decision?

For the last few years, flashy, novelty debit cards have dominated the digital banking market. Nothing quite captures their spirit of prestige than reddit user AverageStergios talking about Revolut’s new glow-in-the-dark debit card.

“Now you pay at the club like a badass 😎”,” writes AverageStergios on a Revolut/Anthony-Joshua subreddit without any irony. 

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Robinhood is an online stock brokerage that offers its customers commission free trading and investing. Robinhood users can invest and trade in stocks, exchange traded funds, options, and cryptocurrency. Customers can invest in over 5,000 stocks with Robinhood, including most U.S. equities and ETFs listed on U.S. exchanges.

Robinhood Financial, LLC and Robinhood Crypto, LLC are wholly-owned subsidiaries of Robinhood Markets, Inc. All cryptocurrency holdings are held in Robinhood Crypto as opposed to Robinhood Financial.

The company was founded in 2013 by Stanford roommates Baiju Bhatt and Vladimir Tenev. It has its headquarters in Menlo Park California and offices in the U.S and the UK.

Account Types

Robinhood’s products are accessible through its three different accounts: Robinhood Instant, Robinhood Gold and Robinhood Cash.

Robinhood Instant

Robinhood Instant is the default Robinhood account which is a margin account that has access to extended hours trading and instant deposits. Robinhood Instant account users do not have to wait for funds to process while selling stocks or depositing up to $1000.

Robinhood Gold

Robinhood Gold comprises a range of investing tools and premium products such as greater instant deposits starting at $5000 to a max of $50k, research from Morningstar on 1700 stocks, Level II Market Data from Nasdaq and more access to trading on margin. It has greater buying power and larger instant deposits as compared to the Robinhood Instant account.

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1 comments on “‘Like sneaker culture’: Are gimmicky debit cards overplayed or a smart business decision?”

  • 2 years ago
    OpinionMakerScott MillsPresident, William Mills Agency

    I’m inclined to believe the gimmicky card trend is a good thing — examples in this piece referenced supporting charities and some real creativity in card design. I had a vertical designed card a few years back and thought, “Wow, that’s a little different.” If you are offering cards, don’t you want a little “wow” every now and then? If so, why can’t card issuers have 50 or 100 cards to choose from?

Outlier OpinionsMakers

“I had a vertical designed card a few years back and thought, "Wow, that's a little different." If you are offering cards, don't you want a little "wow" every now and then? If so, why can't card issuers have 50 or 100 cards to choose from? ”

Scott Mills

President, William Mills Agency
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