Since launching in the US, Drop has been heavily churned by users. Since then, it has rolled out various changes to limit rewards, improve the app, and claw back points from long-inactive accounts. If you’re interested, click here to see our previous coverage.

KUKU has around 20+ Drop accounts, and here’s a summary of the latest 3 changes:

Main accounts that are still actively used

The linked offers on actively used main accounts are still there (including Amazon, Walmart, HEB, Starbucks, etc.). The earning rates have already been cut—see here—but something is better than nothing. At the moment, the specific earning rate is no longer shown.

Although the Amazon earning rate was reduced, the author has still seen transactions track recently, which is better than nothing.

This account has new Shop through Drop offers, mainly for mobile apps. The Uber Eats 40 points/$ (4%) deal the author found earlier was one of these promotions; see this quick post: Uber Eats | Drop currently has 40 points/$ (through 04/07).

Also, a reminder: Starbucks here can still be triggered perfectly by purchases made in China. If you have McDonald’s and 7-11 linked, they also seem to work outside China.

Old accounts that have not been used for a long time

The author recently checked one secondary account: its points had already been wiped out, and the linked offers were removed. You now need to complete a task before you can redeem a $25 gift card: Unlock $25 gift cards

You only need to choose one app and make one purchase to unlock it; otherwise, redemption starts at $30. Thanks to reader DarkIce for the heads-up.

Referral reward changes

Now each Drop account can refer at most 10 people. Not sure whether Drop is seriously enforcing it.

Summary

Back in the day, Drop had a lot of opportunities for rewards maximization (all of these are gone now):

  • You could self-refer for $5 each time; going back and forth made it $10, with no cap. This was also the main reason the author once had 20+ accounts.
  • The earning rates were high. Amazon could go up to 20 points/$, equivalent to 2%, with no cap, and there were often lots of extra promo offers.
  • You could double-dip. Using AMEX or Citi primary/authorized-user cards (both with online accounts), it could count twice, effectively making Amazon 4%, and extra promo offers could also be completed twice at once.
  • Combined with Chase’s recognition bug on MPX, Drop could still track correctly after Chase credit card bonus multipliers posted.
  • Amazon gift cards used to redeem for as little as $10, and sometimes even $5 (now it’s $50).

Not sure what signing up for Drop is like now.

https://www.uscreditcards101.com/drop-app-review/