【January 2025 Update】According to Dosh’s official announcement, Dosh will officially shut down on February 28, 2025. If you still have money in the app, remember to transfer it all to your bank account by February 23. This app used to be quite useful: all you had to do was link a credit card and you could double dip for an extra layer of rewards. But clearly, this kind of free-money model can’t last forever. If similar apps show up in the future, the best move is to earn the rewards early and cash out quickly.
The Dosh app will officially sunset on February 28, 2025 with the last day to make a qualifying transaction on January 16, 2025. Withdrawal Reminder: We’ve lowered the withdrawal limit to $0.01, allowing you to retrieve any remaining balance from your Dosh account until February 23 2025. Please note that any remaining cash back balances after this date will be forfeited.
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Overview of the Dosh Cashback App
Dosh is a cashback app that was relatively new when it launched. Its main advantage is that it offers cashback directly through linked card purchases, so there’s no need to click through a special link or scan anything every time. Once you add a credit card in the Dosh app, purchases made with that card at eligible merchants can automatically earn cashback.
At the moment, most brick-and-mortar merchants offering cashback in Dosh are restaurants. Dosh also has a shopping-portal-like feature. If you tap a merchant inside the Dosh app, you can visit the merchant’s page through the built-in browser, and if you complete your purchase there, you can also earn cashback. There are quite a few merchants in the portal, including Walmart, Best Buy, and Target. You can also earn some cashback by booking hotels through Dosh.
Sign-Up and Welcome Bonus
If you sign up for Dosh through a referral link and link one credit card in the app, you can get $1 in cashback. If you link a second and third card, you may get another $1 for each one (after app changes, it’s unclear whether this still works).
- Dosh app sign-up link ($1, $2, or $5 sign-up bonus may be available; open on your phone and it will automatically redirect you to the app download page)
- If you need to enter a code, use: YUANZHC1
You need to enter and verify a mobile phone number during registration.
Cashback Features
Dosh’s cashback can be divided into three categories: in-store cashback, in-app shopping cashback, and travel cashback. Right now, there still aren’t that many in-store offers. Hopefully more gift-card-selling merchants will be added in the future, especially ones that can be stacked with AMEX Offer.
In-Store Cashback
Dosh’s in-store merchants fall into two groups. One group is restaurants, where the cashback offers are generally fairly stable. You can search nearby participating restaurants directly on the map. The backend for this cashback app is the same as Yelp cashback, so if you link a credit card to one of them, it will automatically be unlinked from the other.
The other group includes various non-restaurant merchants, such as gas stations, department stores, cosmetics, and more. These merchants change frequently, and cashback rates may also be adjusted at any time. A partial list is below (updated on July 11, 2019):
- Sam's Club 5%
- Staples 3%
- Carter‘s 3%
- LaneBryant 5%
- US Polo 2%
- Forever 21 2%
- The Body Shop 3%
- Academy 5%
- Crocs 5%
- "Unavailable" Exxon/Mobil 3%
- "Unavailable" CVS 5%
- "Unavailable" JCpenny 5%
"Sam's Club strategy" Dosh added 2% in-store cashback at Sam's Club. If you regularly shop at Sam's Club, remember to add the credit card you plan to use in Dosh first, and your purchase will automatically earn 2% cashback. Sam's Club also sells a variety of gift cards, including Mastercard gift cards, Disney, Southwest, and more. Aside from Mastercard gift cards, many of them are discounted by around 5%, which is pretty nice. Staples may have a similar opportunity as well.
In-App Shopping Cashback
You can browse and search these offers under Online offer. There are many merchants here, including most of the commonly used ones. Note that to get cashback, you must enter through the Shop Now button inside the app and complete your order in the app’s built-in browser. To be safe, it’s best to pay with a credit card you’ve already linked.
Travel Cashback
Dosh’s hotel booking feature has been revised somewhat. It seems the fixed $25 cashback for new users is no longer available. However, cashback rates are now much higher. That said, after checking a few hotels myself, the lowest bookable prices were generally about the same as Dosh’s final price after cashback. If booking through Dosh can trigger certain credit card travel credits, then it may still be worthwhile, since that would effectively turn the Dosh cashback portion into immediate cash value. As always, it’s best to compare the real final price before booking.
Redeeming Cashback
You need at least $25 in cashback before you can withdraw it. You can choose to transfer it directly to a bank account or PayPal. There also seems to be a Top up mobile plan option, though I’m not exactly sure what it does—maybe it’s for paying your cell phone bill?
Best Way to Use It
Dosh’s biggest selling point is that once you link a credit card, you can automatically earn cashback. The biggest benefit is that it can stack with other deals. For example, if a merchant has AMEX Offer + Dosh + Coupon, that can be a very solid combo. At least based on the current setup, Sam's Club is the most practical use case. If you combine it with a credit card that earns 5% back at wholesale clubs, getting 7% back per purchase is pretty attractive.
Summary
This is another cashback site trying to build around linked-card offers. The earlier Earn By Microsoft shut down after running for a little over a year, so it’s hard to say whether Dosh can come up with anything new. If you’re interested in in-store cashback, you can also try the following apps, which I think are all fairly reliable:
- Spent App ($10 sign-up bonus; merchants include Amazon, Starbucks, Whole Foods, Uber, 711, and more; very useful)
- Drop ($5 sign-up bonus; merchants include
Amazon,Walmart, Target, Starbucks) - Ebates ($10 sign-up bonus; has in-store cashback at Macy's, BuyBuyBaby, Saks, etc., also via linked cards)
- Ibotta ($10 sign-up bonus; upload receipts after in-store purchases to get cashback, good for household shopping)
- Shop Kick (500 kick sign-up bonus; in-store check-ins and shopping cashback, requires scanning or location access)
Sign-Up Link
- Dosh app sign-up link ($1, $2, or $5 sign-up bonus may be available; must be opened on a phone and will automatically redirect to the app download page)
- If you need to enter a code, use: YUANZHC1