bodiddely

Has anyone been using/experimenting with the Drop app? In theory it sounds great -- you earn up to 2% back for purchases at select merchants -- many of whom sell VGCs, such as Walmart, 7-11, Safeway, Whole Foods, Walgreens etc. The best earning rate is at 7-11 which earns 1.9% back on purchases. Drop points aren't actual cash back but can be redeemed for Amazon GCs which to me is almost as good.

I signed up a few days ago and have made a few VGC purchases at 7-11 with an AmEx card and my Alliant 3% card. The 7-11 AmEx purchases shows up as pending points, but not the Alliant purchase. I made another Alliant purchase last night at Walmart, but that hasn't shown up as pending yet. Given that Alliant is a relatively small CU I wouldn't be surprised if the points never show up as pending; there's probably some bug in the link-up with Drop.

DoC reports that many users are experiencing problems with the app (http://www.doctorofcredit.com/issues-drop-warning/) and they recently added some anti-MS language to their T&C (http://www.doctorofcredit.com/drop-a...usiness-spend/).

So, I don't expect this will last (and it's really too good to be true/sustainable), but wanted to see if any others had experiences to share while it does. I'll report back if any of my Alliant purchases show up as pending, and if/when my AmEx purchase points go from pending to actual.

dethkultur

I signed up when it first popped up. I got points for Walgreens and amazon reloads (.50 debit reloads for transaction purposes) until 7/3, nothing has been awarded since despite daily purchases. I did get enough points for Walgreens to get a $10 gift card before all activity stopped, I don't expect anything in the future though.

bodiddely

Thanks for sharing. Have any of your purchases since 7/3 showed up as pending points? Or has it just been like they haven't registered at all?

Prometheus77

I signed up the last week in June and earned just over 25K in points between WM, Walgreens, and Whole Foods over about a week while testing out the app. The points posted for my Walgreens purchases in under 48 hours, WM in 48-76, and Whole Foods in 6 days. The 25k was only what showed up in the app. If all my transactions had tracked I would have been just over 45K, but 20K didn't and when I emailed support they said they had no record of the transactions.

I redeemed 10K for a DD gift card on July 5th which I got instantly. I earned another 15K in the following few days at WM, but even thought the points tracked I haven't been able to redeem my remaining 30K points. Everytime I email support they say they are having problems with the redemption system, but myself and others seem to think they've caught on to MSers and have suspended redemptions and earning on those accounts.

I have since changed all my PWs to the accounts I liked to Drop and only load up the app to try to redeem the points every couple days.

Ultraboost

Drop has been dead for me since 7/3. No new purchases have shown up, not even small ones from Amazon. I have about 10,000 existing points in my account that I can't even redeem, not even for a Starbucks or Amazon giftcard. Customer service is also non-responsive. I recommend to not even waste time signing up and giving out your bank info, which I now regret. It's a fail of a company.

perkunas

I signed up around 6/29 and it tracked all of my purchases as intended for the first several days.

I accrued ~110k points but I have not been able to redeem anything. I simply get an "error" message from the app when I try to confirm a gift card.

I emailed Drop last Friday morning, and I have yet to receive any response.

3ZeroT

Yeah they locked things down quickly (around July 1st?) after noticing the spend in U.S. accounts was probably putting them on a quick trajectory to bankruptcy. The original terms had no transaction exclusions or caps (someone didn't do their homework) but now as of July 10th they added disqualification of MS, gift cards, business expenses, or anything else they can deem fit to be disqualified. However it would seem if they don't pay out rewards earned under the old terms they are breaking their agreement.

bodiddely

My pending points from 7-11 purchases using an AmEx card have disappeared. Guess this will likely be a short-lived thread! I'll give it another week to see if anything changes and then change all my bank logins.

I wonder what their business model is such that the behavior they seem to want to encourage -- higher spending at their partnered merchants -- will, if scaled, bankrupt them. Maybe they don't actually have any kickback agreements with the partners and what they're actually after is all of our spending data, with the points given as a loss leader.

bobunf

http://freequentflyerbook.com/blog/2...-your-accounts

kingofkingsforu

Only useful post in the thread

perkunas

Response from the Drop App Team:

Hey there,

Our system automatically flags users who have a corporate card connected for business spending or users who it suspects to be engaging in manufactured spending. We're unfortunately unable to award points and allow redemptions on these purchases as Drop aims to reward our users' every day spending.

The current course of action is to unlink your corporate and manufactured spending cards from your Drop account. You'll be able to once again earn Drop points and redeem rewards. Note that you won't be able to get your points from purchases made with the unlinked card, even after you've unlinked. As well, you'll be reflagged if you relink your corporate and manufactured spending cards.

Give us a shout once you've done so and we will manually unflag your account.

Thanks for being a member,

YUL

At least, that flagging solves somewhat the international financial transaction reporting regulations. The gift cards to be given out for normal (non m/s) spendings are peanuts in relative terms.

The Feds should not consider this scheme as risky for money laundering etc.

yosithezet

chaser123

All good for me. I am able to log in to the app, I see points posting and able to redeem. I might be a minority but i love this APP. Every-time I log in I see lots of unexpected points post. I do not use it for ms'ing. I have Uber, Starbucks, Whole Foods, Amazon and Seamless as my power offers and I use all frequently on everyday spend.

msp3

Is Drop dead? They had money problems, made you wait forever to get any gift card cash out, then they put on a whole song and dance about it being resolved except their fix is by not letting anyone cash out at all. Are all our points considered forfeit? I have (stupidly) $200 sitting in there...