Dosh Review: Earn Cash Back When You Shop (2022)

Cashback apps are a great way to passively earn money on everyday purchases. If you’re going to shop anyways, it’s a good idea to get some extra cash back while you do.

In our Dosh review, we take a look at a mobile app that offers cash rewards for your online shopping. We’ll cover everything you need to know about the Dosh app and how to properly use it.

Let’s get into it!

What is Dosh?

Dosh is a cash back money app that is available for both Android and Apple IOS. Dosh allows you to automatically receive cash back at thousands of participating restaurants, hotels, and retailers without having to use coupons or scan receipts.

How does Dosh work?

The best thing about Dosh is how easy it is to use. You simply connect your debit or credit card number to your Dosh account. From there, just shop as usual.

Any qualifying purchase made by a linked card will result in automatic cash back getting deposited into your Dosh account, or Dosh wallet. Once you’ve accumulated at least $25 in your Dosh wallet, you can transfer that money via Venmo to your banking account, or to your PayPal account. Or you can donate to your favorite charity.

Signing up for Dosh

Getting started with Dosh is easy.  First, download the app for your android or IOS device.  I’m a fan of the iPhone, so I went with IOS.

After downloading the Dosh app you create a profile. After that, you’ll see the home screen of the Dosh app. This is where you find cash back offers for eligible purchases locally and online.

Making money with Dosh

There are a few ways you can earn cash back using Dosh.

$5 for linking your credit card

The first way you can earn is just by linking your credit card information to your Dosh account. Doing that earns you a $5 bonus. 

They do this so they can verify purchases you make against your credit card.  It also finds purchases you didn’t even know were eligible for.

Everyday purchases

The primary way you make money and earn Dosh cash back is through purchases in a participating store. This can be an in-store purchase (like at a grocery store) or shopping at online stores.

By attaching your credit or debit cards, you can shop and earn cash back with every purchase. You can use department store cards, or cards from any credit card issuer. This includes American Express cards.

Booking hotels

Hotel bookings provide a great opportunity to get free cash. According to Dosh, there are over 600,000 participating hotels, and you can earn as much as 40% cash back on your hotel stays.

Refer your friends

You can also earn money through Dosh’s referral program. You are given referral links, which you can pass to your friends. Dosh’s referral program sends you $10 for every referral who links their credit card or debit card information to their new Dosh account.

Dining out

The Dosh website boasts over 10,000 local restaurants that participate in Dosh’ cash rewards program. So go out to eat and save some extra money.

How Dosh Pays You

Dosh will pay any money you earn via a Paypal account or a linked bank account.  This makes it easy to save the money you’ve earned since they can seamlessly deposit it in your bank account!

Before you can cash out you’ll have to earn a minimum of $25. This includes cash back from purchases AND referral fees.

Who is Dosh for?

Dosh is a great app for students, people on budgets, and anyone that shops online. Basically you are able to get free money back for shopping that you were already going to do anyway.

Is Dosh legit?

Dosh is a trusted company that has been featured on numerous financial publications, such as Fortune and Forbes.

Checking out their Better Business Bureau page shows they scored an impressive “A” rating. When this article was first written, Dosh’s customer reviews averaged 3 stars.

However, it appears that there have been numerous customer complaints during the pandemic about the service quality from their customer support team, which has brought their reviews to a 1-star average.

Usually, I take BBB ratings with a grain of salt, because I rarely see enthusiastic customers take the time to hunt down a company’s BBB profile and give them rave reviews. I tried to read the complaints section, but the BBB website wouldn’t allow me to read any of the closed complaints.

Serious about security

Dosh is serious about security. They boast bank-level encryption by securing their app with 256-bit encryption SSL. That means there is an extra layer of security protecting your data from outside attackers.

Dosh also does not store any personal or banking information. This includes the credit card information to your linked accounts.

Their app also uses multi-factor authentication to ensure no one can access your Dosh account except you.

Where can you shop?

There are tons of merchants who participate with Dosh. Here are just a few of the participating stores and the cash back rewards they offer. Make sure you check frequently those as these do change.

• Costco – $20 cash back on Executive memberships
• Sam’s Club – 2% cash back
• Walgreens – 1.5% to 4.5% cash back on online purchases
• Home Depot – 6% cash back on online purchases 
• Fandango – 1.5% cash back on tickets, 2% cash back on gift cards
• Shake Shack– Up to 15% cash back for purchases $30 and above
• Banana Republic – 4% cash back on online purchases
• Nike – 3% cash back on online purchases
• Office Depot– 2% cash back

Pros

These are some of the positives that we found during our review.

• Welcome bonus: $5 for signing up and connecting a credit card. It doesn’t get any easier than that!
• Refer a friend: If you send your referral link to a friend who signs up, you earn $5
• High cash back amount: Dosh awards up to 10% on everyday purchases. This is the highest of the apps we’ve reviewed. And their website boasts up to 40% cash back for hotel bookings!

Cons

Here are negative aspects we found about the Dosh app.

• Country restricted: Unfortunately at this time, Dosh is only available for United States residents.
• Slow customer service: Some of the most common complaints against Dosh were related to customer service. Virtually every negative review on the BBB website were based upon customer service experience. Only time will tell as to whether this was because of the coronavirus pandemic.
• Not all cards can connect: Not every credit card is eligible to connect with Dosh.

Frequently asked questions

Here are some of the more frequently asked questions that we saw, online and on the Dosh website.

Is the Dosh app safe?

The Dosh app appears to be safe. It’s available through the Apple Store or on Google Play. According to the Dosh website, the app uses bank-level encryption to safeguard your purchase information, and Dosh does not store your personal information.

Is the Dosh app legit?

As far as cashback apps are concerned, Dosh is legitimate. According to Crunchbase, Dosh has completed 9 rounds of venture capital funding, the latest of which was in 2019.

At the time of its latest round of funding, Dosh raised $40 million in venture capital based upon a then-market valuation of $300 million. If venture capitalists are investing money into the company, the average consumer can assume that it’s legit.

How many participating Dosh merchants are there?

According to the Dosh website, there are thousands of participating merchants. There appear to be at least dozens of online retailers, and lots of local restaurants in our local area. However, your mileage may vary, based upon the Dosh merchants in your area.

Wrapping up our Dosh review

Overall, our Dosh review found it to be one of the best cash back apps we’ve had the pleasure to try. They offer pretty decent cash back options and a variety of merchants to choose from.

What makes the Dosh app so great is that you don’t have to do much. Just shop like you normally would and earn money.

You also get a $1 welcome bonus after registering and connecting a card, and $10 for every friend you refer.

You can download Dosh on iTunes here and from the Google Play store here.