Scoring free money is simply the best. From passive income apps to the best reward apps, there's something deeply satisfying about getting some of your hard earned money back after you spend it.
However, it's important to use reward programs that actually pay so you don't waste your time with apps and programs that won't ever let you redeem a reward.
So, if you're looking for a legit, awesome money-making app, you need to check out the Drop app.
Drop is my absolute favorite rewards app, and I've been using the app to earn rewards for nearly 3 years now.
But is Drop legit? And how much money can you actually make with this app when you shop?
In this Drop app review, I'm sharing my personal experiences with this app, how it works, and what some of the best alternatives are.
Looking for other great money-making ideas? Checkout:
- Branded Surveys: Earn free gift cards and PayPal cash for sharing your opinion!
- Arrived: Invest in income-generating real estate with only $100!
What Is The Drop App?
Drop is a free app that pays you to shop at dozens of your favorite stores and for buying from partnered brands. It began in 2012, and since then, Drop has grown into one of the most popular cashback apps with over 3 million downloads.
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The Drop app is also available on both Android and IOS. Currently, Drop is available for download in the U.S. and Canada, and almost anyone with a debit or credit card can join the program.
I've been using Drop since college to save more money. Overall, it's a high-paying app that has a number of ways to earn rewards.
And if you frequently shop on your mobile device, the Drop app should definitely be on your radar.
How Does The Drop App Work?
As mentioned, I've been using Drop for a few years, and I try to earn rewards with it whenever I can.
The app is also very simple and works in just five steps:
- Download & Sign Up – Create a free Drop account after downloading the mobile app.
- Connect a Card – Connect your credit or debit card to the app.
- Shop Online Through Drop – Drop members earn through special offers and (un)Limited Drops, which I explain later on in our review!
- Earn Drop Points – Earn points for shopping at Drop partners, by playing mobile games, and from answering surveys.
- Redeem – redeem your Drop points for free gift card rewards.
Realistically, by having this app and shopping online with Drop, you can probably earn $10-$30 in free rewards each year without any effort.
Plus, if you take advantage of some of Drop's more lucrative shopping options, you can definitely earn well over $100.
Time to examine all of the steps to use the Drop app in greater detail!
1. Sign Up & Connect Your Credit & Debit Cards
Once you download Drop from the Apple or Google Play Store, singing up is easy. Just open the app and choose your banking institution to connect your debit or credit card.
Note that you need to enter your banking information to connect your cards. This is what lets Drop track your shopping habits to properly credit you with points.
This may concern some users. However, Drop uses the same level of security and encryption as other top FinTech companies..
Currently, Drop works with the following major banks:
- TD Bank
- Chase
- Bank of America
- Wells Fargo
- Citi
- RBC
- Scoitabank
- CIBC
- Capital One
- Tangerine
- American Express
- Simpli
- Walmart Rewards
Some other banks are on the list, and you can even search for local banks. Pretty much, if you have a debit or credit card, you're good to go!
2. Shop Online With Drop For Special Deals
I'm editing this Drop app review because there has been a massive change to how you make money with Drop.
Drop has now removed Power Offers from the app, which was the passive earning option Drop used to have that let you automatically earn cashback for shopping at your 5 favorite stores.
Drop states Power Offers were removed because many members simply don't shop anymore at the original 5 merchants they picked.
Instead of Power Offers, Drop members can now participate in (un)Limited Drops to earn more points. As you can see in the screenshot above, there are plenty of Power Offers and deals at a given time.
The orange lightning bolt in the Drop app launches the Today's Deal tab.
On this tab, you'll find (un)Limited Drop cards that let you know how many points you'll earn for shopping with a linked card for a specific offer.
You have to activate an offer before shopping, and (un)Limited Drops are share regularly and are personalized to suit your brand preferences.
(un)Limited Drops don't stick around forever, so it's important to enable notifications in the Drop app to get updates when new opportunities are released.
However, you can usually find cashback deals from companies like:
- Nike
- Postmates
- DoorDash
- Walmart
- Target
- Starbucks
- Adidas
- Subway
- Disney+
- Indigo
- Uber Eats
- Chapters
Plus, (un)Limited Drops work in-store and online as long as you shop with a linked card, so don't miss the chance to earn even more Drop points with this nifty feature.
Drop's removal of Power Offers is a downside since that feature meant Drop used to be completely passive income.
If you're looking for apps that don't require pre-selecting offers to earn, I suggest checking out my post on the best apps like Dosh, which is another easy-to-use reward app.
Extra Reading – How I Saved More Than $400 With Rakuten.
3. Shop For Other Drop Deals
In addition to making use of (un)Limited Drops, you can also earn a hefty amount of Drop points is to actually shop through their app or to shop in-store at a merchant you manually select from the app.
The Drop app regularly lists partnered brands where you can shop to earn additional points. If you ever plan on shopping, it's probably worth checking out the app for offers before deciding to buy.
There are usually dozens of offers available, and many ‘boosted' offers give nice cash back bonuses that are much higher than your normal Power Offers. In fact, I've seen some boosted deals offering as much as 8% cash back.
However, where Drop truly shines is in their high value bonus offers.
If you sign up for various reward programs, credit cards, or even apps, you can actually earn upwards of $75-$100 in Drop points!
This “25,000 points and more” section is where you find all of the highest-paying sign up bonuses, so I definitely recommend checking it out frequently.
Take the above screenshot for an example. Sure, you might not be interested in CoinSmart or a new RBC Rewards Visa, but their Lyft offer is paying $30 right now if you sign up and complete a ride.
I don't know about you, but I already use Uber quite often. It's an absolute no-brainer to sign up and use Lyft once to get a free $30.
4. Refer Friends To Drop
Another way to earn Drop points and get your rewards faster is to refer your friends to Drop.
The app has a “Get $5” icon in the top left corner that you tap to find your Drop referral code.
If you invite friends with your Drop invite code, both of you get 5,000 bonus points, which is worth $5, as long as your referral earns at least 1,000 points by shopping with Drop.
Points from surveys don't count towards this 1,000, so the person you refer needs to basically shop once or twice to get their 1,000 points.
My Drop referral code is mjxl4, so you can sign up with this code to get a free $5 sign up bonus of Drop points for no effort!
Honestly, $5 for you and your friends is a pretty decent way to kickstart your earnings, so this is a nice feature to use.
Just note: you can only earn up to 10 referral bonuses!
5. Play New Mobile Games
There are a number of apps that pay you to play games, and Drop has now joined that list! This is similar to apps like Mistplay and Rewarded Play, so it's great news if you're a fan of playing mobile games.
A new Drop feature is their games tab. Under this tab, you'll find a plethora of games to download and play in exchange for Drop points.
There's a decent range of game genres, including:
- Strategy games
- Simulators
- Cards
- Survival games
Games generally have a level requirement for you to earn points. However, there are some truly lucrative opportunities.
For example, in my screenshot above, you can see that you can earn $28 worth of points for installing the Rise of Kingdoms app and reaching a certain level.
If you want to make money playing video games alongside shopping, definitely check out this new Drop feature!
Extra Reading – 10 Best Game Apps That Pay Instantly To PayPal.
6. Answer Surveys
With Drop's survey section, you get matched to brand questionnaires after you fill out some demographic information. Surveys are only a few questions long, and if you get disqualified, Drop still pays you partial points.
Recently, Drop has also expanded its paid survey section to include slightly longer surveys that pay 25 to 500 Drop points or so upon completion.
You also know how many points each survey pays making it easy to choose which ones are worth your time.
Survey sites like Survey Junkie or sites like Prolific are still better than the Drop app if you want to make money answering surveys, but it's nice that Drop is expanding its number of ways to earn points.
Extra Reading – 30+ Beermoney Sites & Apps To Earn Free Rewards.
7. Try The Drop Chrome Extension
If mobile apps aren't for you, you'll be happy to know that the new Drop chrome extension is being rolled out in Beta testing for the United States!
Like other money saving browser extensions, the Drop extension allows users to earn points when they shop through their computer.
Other platforms like Honey or DollarSprout already have this system, so it's nice that Drop is expanding their reach and enabling users to earn rewards more easily. With this extension, you just have to shop as you normally would, and you'll earn Drop points that are credited to your mobile app/account.
Pro Tip: You can also try out the Capital One Shopping extension to automatically apply available coupon codes at checkout and earn rewards!
Note: Capital One Shopping compensates us when you sign up with the provided links.
Drop App Rewards
Currently, users can redeem a healthy number of rewards from the Drop store. Popular rewards include gift cards to:
- Apple
- Amazon
- Starbucks
- Dunkin Donuts
- Aerie
- Hotel.com
- Old Navy
- Gap
- American Eagle
- Best Buy
- Boston Pizza
- Groupon
- Sephora
- Lulu Lemon
- Uber Eats
And plenty, plenty more. However, Drop recently changed their reward structure.
Previously, users could redeem points for rewards as low as $1 Amazon gift cards, and there were plenty of $5 reward options as well. Now, in order to unlock lower-tier gift cards, users must use the ‘Shop with Drop' function outlined above at least once.
Again, this isn't a massive dealbreaker since Drop updates their offers all the time and you're bound to find something that you were panning on buying anyway. However, it wouldn't be a truly honest Drop app review if I didn't bring up this fact.
Drop is still a rather passive savings app. However, users have to put in a bit of work if they want to maximize this app and earn more than a single reward each year.
My advice is to check the Drop app frequently for deals so you can unlock the lowest tier of gift cards quickly. If you don't do this, Drop requires 50,000 Drop points, or $50, to redeem your first gift card.
Extra Reading – 9 Best Apps Like Fetch Rewards To Earn Rewards For Grocery Shopping.
Is Drop Legit?
Yes, Drop is legit and lets you earn free gift cards for shopping at hundreds of popular brands. I've never had a problem receiving my Drop points or redeeming them for rewards. Additionally, rewards are always paid out on time, and my entire experience with this app has been smooth.
Sure, you won't make $5,000 a month with this app or anything crazy. But it's an effective way to earn quick cash the next time you shop online.
Just note that you might have to wait a while for your points to credit. I suspect this is to ensure you cannot game the system with purchase and return games.
Overall, Drop is a legit app that pays its users, and there are plenty of positive reviews and other pictures out there that prove this app pays.
How Much Money I've Made With Drop
I've been using Drop for the last 3 years. In that time, I have earned approximately $52. But I didn't shop very much to earn this amount, so I'm pretty happy with how much I've made by using Drop.
$40 has already been redeemed, as seen in the above screenshot, and the additional $12 are in my account balance (shown in next screenshots).
Additionally, $20 of my rewards resulted from referring other users to Drop, since their referral program gives new users and the referrer $5 each.
This is free and easy to do, but it goes to show that Drop is truly a nice way to make money doing nothing when you shop for products you'd purchase anyways.
So, you get the picture: you can earn some free gift cards with the Drop app, but it won't dramatically change your finances.
However, I don't shop online very often. If you're a frequent shopper, I can see this app clearing $50 to $100 per year in free gift cards, no problem.
Pros & Cons
Pros:
- Extensive list of partner stores and new ones are added regularly
- Variety of earning options
- Some lucrative shopping offers that pay $50 to $75+
- Extensive gift card rewards
- Decent referral program
- You can get a $5 to $10 sign up bonus during promotions
Cons:
- The Drop app isn't passive anymore like when it began
- A $25 redemption minimum is on the higher side
- You can't redeem PayPal cash or cash out with direct deposit
The Best Apps Like Drop
I thought I would update my Drop app review with some other useful cashback reward apps you can try out if you really love using Drop but want to maximize your rewards.
Some of the top other apps like Drop include:
- Ampli – This is a Canadian-only app that is basically how Drop used to be when it was passive! Checkout my review and earn a $5 sign up bonus as well!
- Fetch Rewards – A leading grocery rewards app that pays you for uploading pictures of your receipts.
- NCP Mobile – Another popular receipt scanning app that pays you with free PayPal money.
- Upside – A leading gas rewards app that pays you up to $0.25 per gallon of gas.
- Pogo – This app pays you with free PayPal cash whenever you shop with a linked card.
- Dosh – Dosh is a U.S. reward app that pays you real cash for shopping at hundreds of stores. Again, this is like Drop when the app was passive.
- Checkout 51 – A popular rebate app for groceries and gas. You have to scan receipts unlike Drop, but it's another nifty way to earn rewards with your smartphone.
- Bumped – This app pays you bits of stock in the companies you spend money at, completely passively!
- Receipt Hog – Another popular receipt-scanning app that pays you for shopping like Drop.
- CoinOut – A rewards app that pays you with cash for uploading picture of any shopping receipt.
Hopefully, this list of Drop alternatives helps you maximize your annual rewards!
If you want, you can also checkout my recent YouTube video which cover the Drop app and other reward programs you can use to earn free gift cards and PayPal cash:
Again, these apps won't let you quit your day job, but it's all free and fun money at the end of the day!
Extra Reading – How To Make $30 Fast – 10+ Best Methods.
Who Should Use The Drop App?
In my opinion, the ideal Drop app user is someone who already shops from their mobile phone and wants a straightforward way to earn free gift cards.
If you barely shop, you can still earn rewards by playing new mobile games on Drop, but this app is definitely a shopping rewards app at its core.
In contrast, if you mostly shop with your computer, browser extensions like Rakuten or Capital One Shopping are a better solution to save money and earn rewards for your shopping.
Personally, I use Drop and check the app every so often for brands I like so I can earn some easy points, but there's lots of ways to earn cash back for shopping.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is The Drop App Safe?
Yes, Drop is safe, and the app uses Plaid to ensure its app is secure. Plaid is the same technology popular FinTech apps like Acorns and Robin Hood use to protect user data, so this is a great sign.
However, at the end of the day, you have to be comfortable with sharing your data and logging in with your personal banking information.
According to its privacy policy and security documents, Drop:
- Is securely encrypted
- Uses industry leading security. Drop relies on transport layer security (TLS) which basically protects your information by only transmitting it to Drop's servers and not letting it be intercepted.
- Is completely transparent. If you have questions about Drop's security, you can reach out to their support team for help.
Drop also states that they only see your transaction information. They never see account balances or personal info that is linked to your account.
Additionally, to access your transaction data, the drop system “transforms your credentials into a key that is meaningless out of context, even to us. No one will be able to tell from our system which account is yours once linked.”
So, technically your data is just an amalgamated mess that is not tied to you. But, once again, you need to be 100% comfortable with the fact that you are giving up your personal data for financial compensation.
Is Drop Worth It?
In my opinion, Drop is worth it if you're looking for easy, free money. It's an amazing app in the sense that you can use it to double-dip on credit card rewards or other offers.
This app won't revolutionize your finances, but that's not really the point. The point is to score some freebies and to treat yourself or a loved one to some fun gift cards!
So, I'd suggest downloading this app to give it a try, at the very least. Additionally, there are plenty of other apps like Drop that you can use to earn cash back rewards, so find a system that works for you!
How Does Drop Make Money?
Drop makes money when you shop through their app or download new mobile games.
Basically, companies pay Drop in exchange for sending them customers. After it gets paid, Drop passes on some of their earnings to you in the form of cashback.
This is the same model websites like Rakuten use to make money and pay users, so nothing earth-shattering here!
Extra Reading – The Best Apps That Pay You Money Instantly.
Do Points Expire?
Drop points never expire, which is one thing I really enjoy about this rewards app. So, try out the app, earn points at your own pace, and redeem Drop rewards whenever you get the chance.
Extra Reading – How To Make Money On Autopilot.
Final Thoughts
I hope my Drop app review helps you understand how this reward app works so you can decide if it's worth using.
Personally, I've been using Drop for a few years. And I enjoy using the app and like the fact I can earn a quick $10 or so when I shop through the app.
Sure, the Drop app won't make you rich. But every little bit counts when you want to save more money each month.
If you ever have major shopping trips plan, check the app beforehand for offers. By doing so, you can probably score around $50 of free rewards each year without much work.
Thanks for reading, and have fun on your next shopping trip.
Sign up for the Drop App & Start Earning Free Gift Cards Today!
Extra Reading:
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- The Best iOS Games That Pay.
Drop App
Name: Drop
Description: Drop is a free reward app that pays you for shopping in-store and online at your favorite stores and for new and exciting offers! To date, I've earned numerous free gift cards from using Drop before I shop.
Operating System: Android, IOS
Application Category: Reward Apps
Author: Tom Blake
- Earning Potential
- Earning Options
- Reward Options
- Ease of Use
- Cashing Out