Dosh Review (2024): Everything You Need to Know

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Free
No hidden fees

Dosh is a free cashback app that allows you to earn real money on shopping, dining, and booking hotels. While the app allows you to earn without scanning receipts or activating offers, there are maintenance fees, and it isn’t ideal for people that only use cash.

Dosh earned the following reviews:

• 4.7 out of 5 Stars on the Apple App Store (132,000 reviews)
• 4.5 out of 5 Stars on the Google Play Store (46,000 reviews)
• A+ from the Better Business Bureau
• 4.0 out of 5 Stars on Think Save Retire

Our Dosh Review: 4.0 Stars

Dosh is one of the only cashback apps we’ve reviewed to offer automatic earnings — no need to scan receipts or activate an offer before you shop. This makes it much more passive to use than competitors, although it does have a few downsides

What We Love

There’s a lot to love about Dosh.

Less Work Than Competitors

One of the major benefits of Dosh is just how easy it is to use. Unlike other platforms, where you’ll need to activate the offer before shopping or scan a receipt after you’ve made your purchase, Dosh allows you to simply connect your card, then it handles the rest.

When you make a purchase using a card connected to Dosh, your transaction will be tracked automatically. The corresponding cashback will load into your Dosh wallet. This makes it an incredibly passive way to earn cashback.

More Local Merchants

I live in a small town, so I tend to find that most cashback apps don’t have offers at local restaurants and retailers. However, I was surprised to see several local merchants on Dosh with decent cashback offers.

In an effort to not dox myself, here’s what the offers look like in a nearby city, as opposed to my hometown.

Great Referral Program

For each friend you refer to Dosh, you’ll receive $10. Your friend will need to connect a verified credit or debit card and make a purchase with a Dosh merchant for the referral to count, but it’s still a solid offer.

What We Don’t Love

As with all cashback apps, there are a few notable cons to Dosh.

Only Available in App Form

While the Dosh app is both free and user-friendly, there is no website version. This means that if you don’t have a smartphone, or if you simply prefer a web version, you won’t be able to access it via the web. You may find cashback platforms like Rakuten or Honey better.

Can’t Do Debit Transactions

Dosh tracks credit transactions from both debit and credit cards — huh? With Dosh, you can use both debit and credit cards, but you’ll need to make sure you process transactions as credit.

When you use a credit card, this will happen automatically. When you use a debit card, you’ll need to follow the store’s process for running the transaction as credit — typically hitting the green button when it prompts you to enter your pin does the trick.

If, for some reason, a transaction runs as debit, you can take a picture of your receipt and send it to Dosh. They’ll process the receipt and add the proper cashback to your account.

Inconsistent Merchants

We sifted through thousands of reviews to find common complaints, and one of the repeating gripes was how merchants come and go from the platform. Keep in mind, however, that this is common.

Merchants team up with platforms like Dosh to drive new traffic to their business. Once they’ve achieved their desired result, they might leave the platform. Similarly, for businesses that want more customers on weekdays but not weekends, you may find that their Dosh offers are only available for weekdays. This leads to a bit of inconsistency for users, and it may be a bummer when your favorite merchant or the merchant that offers you the most cashback leaves.

Not the Best Customer Service

One of the other major gripes lies in users’ dissatisfaction with Dosh’s customer service. According to reviews, some users claim that customer service isn’t responsive. While this won’t be an issue for everyone, you should be able to receive help in a timely manner when you need it.

Maintenance Fees

Like Ibotta, Dosh charges a monthly account maintenance fee of $4.99 after your account is inactive for 12 months. The funds come out of your Dosh wallet — not your bank account — each month until the balance runs out or the account becomes active.

Limited Card Options

At the time of writing, Dosh allows the following cards to connect to their platform:

• Visa credit and debit cards
• MasterCard credit and debit cards
• American Express credit and debit cards

They do not allow the following:

• Healthcare cards (HSA cards)
• Apple cards
• Discover
• Prepaid cards (like VISA prepaid cards)
• Department store cards (like a Macy’s or Target store credit card)

While we aren’t surprised by the limitations around healthcare and government-issued cards, we’d love to see Discover and Apple cards accepted given the popularity of them.

How the Dosh App Works

To use Dosh, complete the following steps:

1. Download the app. It’s available in both the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store.
2. Connect your cards. Dosh uses Plaid, an incredibly secure data transfer network, to connect banks to financial services.
3. Shop as normal. Make purchases, both in-store and online, like you typically would. Cashback will automatically populate into your Dosh wallet when applicable.
4. Withdraw earnings. Once you’ve hit $15 in cashback, you can withdraw directly to your bank account. You can also choose to donate your earnings if you’d like.

Cashback Apps Like Dosh

If you prefer to spend in cash or simply want to explore other options, there are several cashback apps worth checking out.

Ibotta

Ibotta offers cashback at over 2,000 retail chains, restaurants, movie theaters, convenience stores, and more. With their convenient browser extension, it’s no surprise users are earning around $10 to $20 in cashback per month.

Fetch

If you don’t mind scanning receipts, Fetch is ideal. Active users scan around 28 receipts per month, and depending on what they buy, this could amount to quite a bit in cashback.

Rakuten

If you shop mostly online, Rakuten will be your jam. With thousands of retailers and up to 40% cashback, you’ll earn a decent chunk of money.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Dosh a Legit App?

Yes. Dosh is a legitimate, safe cashback app for earning real money.

Can You Use Dosh and Rakuten?

In the past, you weren’t able to connect a card to Dosh if it was connected to another cashback platform. However, we weren’t able to find evidence of such at the time of writing. That said, we don’t have reason to believe you can’t stack Dosh and Rakuten earnings.

What is the Dosh Cashout Minimum?

The minimum to withdraw from Dosh is $15.