Dosh Review: Important Update as the App Shut Down on February 28, 2025

If dosh review important update is on your radar, this short guide cuts through the noise. Here is what is worth knowing, and how to put it to work today.

Key Takeaways

• Share Some links on our website are sponsored, and we may earn money when you make a purchase or sign-up after clicking.
• Learn more about how we make money and read our review methodology.
• Dosh is officially shutting down on February 28, 2025.

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Some links on our website are sponsored, and we may earn money when you make a purchase or sign-up after clicking. Learn more about how we make money and read our review methodology.

Dosh is officially shutting down on February 28, 2025. While they’ve announced that users can withdraw their cash back rewards until February 23, 2025, I recommend cashing out immediately. They’ve lowered the cash-out minimum to $0.01, but given the uncertainty of app closures, there’s no guarantee rewards will remain accessible until the deadline.

While Dosh is ending, you can still explore cash back opportunities through other reward programs.

Dosh offers passive cash-back on purchases made with select partners, including restaurants, gas stations, hotels and more. In theory, users can link their credit or debit cards, shop normally, and watch the cash roll in. 

Unfortunately, I earned $0 in passive cash-back during my three-month testing period.

In this Dosh review, I’ll explain how the app works, the different ways to earn cash-back, and everything else you need to know if you’re thinking about signing up.

4/5

Dosh offers cash back on purchases made at select merchants with a linked credit or debit card. During our three-month testing period, we earned a total of $20.18 through online shopping and $0 from in-store purchases. Almost all of our cash-back was still pending at the time of publication.

Pros:

• Dosh is one of the few true passive cash-back apps, paying you for transactions made with linked cards without the need to activate each offer.
• The platform has a generous referral program that pays you $10 for every new user who signs up with your link and completes the onboarding requirements.

Cons:

• It takes up to 90 days to verify purchases (your cash-back is unavailable during this period).
• Dosh does not use a secure third-party platform (like Plaid) to collect your card details.
• If your account is inactive for more than 12 months you will incur a hefty “maintenance” fee of $4.99 per month.

Download Dosh

Table of Contents

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• Dosh App Basis
  • Four Ways to Earn With Dosh
  • Key Facts to Know About Dosh
• Our Dosh Test Results & Getting Paid
  • Dosh Maintenance Fee
• Dosh Alternatives
• Dosh FAQs
• Dosh Review: Final Verdict

Dosh App Basis

Dosh is a card-linked cash-back platform that automatically pays you for shopping at partnered merchants. Unfortunately, there weren’t any offers available at places where I normally shop, and after three months of testing, I had earned zero card-linked cash-back. 

Note that most of the offers available in the three metro areas where we collected data (Baltimore, Chicago and Washington DC) were for local/independent restaurants, with a handful of national chains mixed in.

Dosh also offers cash-back for certain online purchases, and I did have some success with these offers, as described in the “our earnings” section below.

Four Ways to Earn With Dosh

1. In-store purchases. Dosh partners with restaurants, retailers, grocers and other merchants. These offers are passive, meaning you’ll earn cash-back any time you use your linked card to pay for a purchase.
2. Online shopping. These offers are not passive because you have to shop within the Dosh app in order to earn.
3. Hotel bookings. Dosh offers cash-back on a wide selection of hotels. To receive cash-back on bookings, you must make the reservation through the Dosh app using a linked card and wait about 30 days for the transaction to post to your Dosh wallet.
4. Referrals. You can earn $10 if a person you refer links their card, verifies their email address, and makes a qualifying purchase.

Key! Dosh only pays cash-back on swipe transactions. So when using a debit card, make sure to run it as a credit card instead of entering your pin number.

Key Facts to Know About Dosh

During testing, I made note of a few quirks that you’ll want to be aware of.

• Dosh only accepts Visa, MasterCard and American Express. For people like me who have a different preferred credit card, this poses a bit of an issue.
• Dosh does not use a third-party service for card linking. In other words, you are required to manually enter your credit card number, expiration date and security code into the Dash app. We view this as a less secure approach than the methods used by competing apps. Learn more in our “Is Dosh safe?” FAQ answer.
• Dosh does not always show full hotel availability. Dosh told me that the hotel I was trying to book was full, but rooms were available when I went directly to the hotel’s website.
• It takes a very long time to get your cash-back. In order to cash out, you have to build up $25 in your “available to withdraw” balance. Most cash-back apps have a minimum withdrawal amount, but $25 is among the highest we’ve seen. Additionally, all the funds I earned , except for the $1 bonus Dosh paid me for linking my first payment card , are still pending nearly three months after my first transaction. Since I’m still a couple of transactions away from hitting the $25 minimum (and will have to wait an additional 90 days for those funds to be available), it’s going to take me a minimum of six months to actually see any money in my bank account.

Our Dosh Test Results & Getting Paid

Overall, my experience testing Dosh went well, earning $20.18 over a three-month period. However, it’s worth repeating that I earned no money through the passive card-linked cash-back program, which is Dosh’s primary feature and the main reason people download the app.

In contrast, our senior editor has been a long-time Dosh user and has racked up more than $300 in lifetime cash-back, as shown in the screenshot below. However, this is primarily because his family frequently visits a handful of local restaurants that happen to be participating merchants.

In my case, none of the partnered vendors in my area were places I regularly shop or eat, so I would have had to change my habits and go out of my way to earn , negating the “passive” aspect of the app.

Our senior editor’s lifetime Dosh cash-back (and some recent transactions).

Our view is that how much you’ll earn with Dosh depends on whether you already purchase from the company’s partners. If you do, then the app gives you free money. If you don’t, it may not be worth your time and hassle.

Dosh Maintenance Fee

Most cash-back platforms charge some type of “maintenance” or inactivity fee. These fees allow a company to recoup funds it has allocated to users who have stopped using the platform.

Note that these fees cannot make your account go negative. You will never end up owing the company money. They’re just designed to reduce your account balance to zero. 

While we understand the purpose of these fees , without them, a company would be forced to indefinitely hold onto millions of dollars of unclaimed funds , we think Dosh’s policy is unusually aggressive.

Dosh charges a $4.99 account maintenance fee after 12 months of inactivity, which is defined as no qualifying transaction

Final Thoughts

Before you check out, double-check dosh review important update against current offers and any coupons you can stack. Small habits like this add up to real savings over a year.

Originally published at thewaystowealth.com.