What Happened to the Drop App? It Shut Down (What Still Pays)

Drop shut down and its old website now belongs to someone else. Here is what happened, what it means for your points, and what still pays.

The Bottom Line

Drop has shut down, so there is nothing left to sign up for and no way to redeem old points. If you want an app that still pays, start with Testerup, which gives you a $10 welcome bonus for testing games. Bigcash has a $15 bonus and lets you cash out from $1, and Freecash starts you with $10 paid in cash or crypto.

What happened to the Drop app? It shut down. The rewards app no longer operates, and the company gave up the web address it used to run on. That address has since been sold to an unrelated overseas operator and now hosts an online gambling site, so do not go looking for Drop at the domain you remember. There is deliberately no link to it anywhere on this page.

Before it closed, users were already reporting the usual warning signs: earn rates cut, reward options shrinking, cashout minimums raised and gift cards arriving late or not at all.

If you came here for a Drop invite code, a look at your points balance or a way back into your account, none of that exists any more. This page covers what happened, what it means for points you never redeemed, and what is genuinely worth using instead.

What Drop actually was

Drop was a points based rewards app built around linking a card rather than scanning receipts. You connected a debit or credit card, chose a small number of retailers you already shopped with, and earned points automatically on spending at those brands.

  • How it worked. You linked a card and picked your preferred retailers, then points accrued on qualifying purchases without any further action
  • Bonus points. Beyond the automatic earning there were offers and in app activities that paid extra points for trying a service or completing a task
  • How you got paid. Points were redeemed for gift cards rather than cash, which was the main limitation compared with a cash back app
  • Who it suited. People who wanted rewards to accumulate quietly in the background on shopping they were doing anyway

The trade off was always the redemption threshold. Points built up slowly on ordinary spending, so reaching a worthwhile gift card took a long time unless you also worked through the bonus offers, which is a pattern worth recognising in any rewards app you consider next.

What happens to the points you never redeemed

Drop paid in points rather than cash. Points only turned into something you could spend at the moment you redeemed them for a gift card, and the redemption threshold was $25, which is high enough that a lot of people were still short of it when the service stopped.

An unredeemed points balance is not money held for you in an account. It is a promise from a company that has stopped operating, which puts you in the same position as any other unsecured customer. With the app off and the company gone from the web entirely, there is no support desk to appeal to and no redemption screen to use. Treat those points as gone.

There is one thing worth doing. Because the old web address now belongs to somebody else entirely, any email that appears to come from Drop, or any page you reach by searching for the old domain, should be treated as untrusted. Do not enter an old password there and do not reuse a Drop password anywhere else.

What to use instead of Drop

Drop tried to reward you for shopping you were doing anyway, and the return on that was thin enough that the model did not last. The three apps below work the other way round. They pay you for short tasks, and each one credits a signup bonus at the start rather than making you accumulate toward a distant threshold.

These are the bonus amounts we track through our own accounts. The apps do not publish these figures on their own websites, so treat them as our numbers rather than an advertised rate.

Testerup app icon

Testerup

Best for the biggest single payouts
Our top pick

Get paid to try new games. You get a $10 welcome bonus straight after sign up, and a single goal in a game like Monopoly GO can pay over $200.

$10Welcome bonus
$200+One goal can pay
Within hoursPayout approval
Get your $10 at TesterupFree to join. Cashout minimum is $55.
Bigcash app icon

Bigcash

Best for a fast first cashout

Drop made you wait for $25 before you could redeem anything. Bigcash has a $15 bonus and lets you cash out from $1, so you see it pay almost straight away.

$15Bonus
$1Minimum cashout
3,000+Offers live
Freecash app icon

Freecash

Best for choice in how you get paid

Drop only paid in gift cards. Freecash starts you with a $10 sign up bonus and pays in cash or crypto, with a low withdrawal threshold.

$10Sign up bonus
Cash or cryptoHow you get paid
LowCashout minimum

How the three compare

AppBonus we trackWhat you actually doWorth knowing
Testerup$10Paid app and game testing$10 welcome bonus, payouts approved within hours, $55 cashout minimumVisit Testerup
Bigcash$15Apps, games and short offersCash out from $1, 3,000+ offers liveVisit Bigcash
Freecash$10Offers, games and surveysPays in cash or crypto, low withdrawal thresholdVisit Freecash

What to take from how Drop ended

The pattern is worth recognizing because it repeats. Earn rates get trimmed, the reward catalog thins out, the cashout minimum creeps up, and then the app goes quiet. Every one of those happened at Drop before it closed.

  • Cash out early and often. A balance you have withdrawn cannot be devalued or written off.
  • Be wary of a high redemption threshold. Drop wanted $25 in points before you could redeem anything, which is exactly the balance that becomes worthless when a company stops operating.
  • Treat a suspended referral program or a shrinking reward list as a real warning rather than a temporary glitch.

If you only try one, make it Testerup for the $10 welcome bonus. If you would rather see a cashout land first, Bigcash lets you withdraw from $1.

Frequently asked questions

What happened to the Drop app?

Drop shut down. The rewards app no longer operates, and the company gave up the website it ran on, which has since been sold to an unrelated operator. Before it closed, users reported lower earn rates, fewer rewards, higher cashout minimums and gift cards that arrived late or not at all.

Is the Drop app shut down?

Yes. Drop no longer operates and the company gave up the web address it ran on. That address was bought by an unrelated overseas operator and now hosts a gambling site, so it is not a safe place to visit and there is no link to it on this page.

Can I still redeem my Drop points?

No. Points could only be redeemed inside the app, the app no longer works, and there is no support channel left to contact. An unredeemed balance is a claim against a company that has stopped operating, so treat it as lost. If you want to start again with a bonus paid up front, Bigcash credits the largest of the three we track at $15.

Is the old Drop website safe to visit?

No. The domain was sold and is now run by an unrelated overseas operator hosting a gambling site. It has no connection to the original company. Do not enter an old Drop password there, and if you reused that password elsewhere, change it.

Do old Drop invite codes still work?

No. There is no signup left for a code to apply to. Any site still promoting a Drop invite code or referral bonus has simply not been updated since the app closed.

What is the closest replacement for Drop?

Nothing replicates passive shopping rewards well, and that model is part of why Drop did not survive. For actually getting paid, Bigcash has the largest bonus we track at $15 and the widest mix of tasks, Freecash pays $10 with a low withdrawal threshold and settles in cash or crypto, and Testerup pays $10 for app testing but holds a $55 minimum payout, so check that threshold suits you before starting.

Where to go next

If you liked the games side of Drop, get paid to play games and the best game apps to win real money both cover that properly. If gift cards were the point, how to get free Amazon gift cards covers the routes that still work, and the best money making apps is the wider list these three come from.

Brian Meiggs
Brian Meiggs founded My Millennial Guide and has spent over a decade writing about money. He tries every app and product before it goes on the site. No fluff, no guesswork. Named to the Northern Virginia 40 Under 40 earlier this year, and featured in WSJ, Business Insider, and Entrepreneur. Off the clock: chess, the gym, a quiet night in.
Drop has shut down, so there is nothing left to sign up for and no way to redeem old points. If you want an app that still pays, start with <a href="https://www.mymillennialguide.com/testerup?_s3=drop-app-review~verdict-testerup" target="_blank" rel="nofollow sponsored noopener" data-placement="verdict-testerup">Testerup</a>, which gives you a $10 welcome bonus for testing games. <a href="https://www.mymillennialguide.com/bigcash?_s3=drop-app-review~verdict-bigcash" target="_blank" rel="nofollow sponsored noopener" data-placement="verdict-bigcash">Bigcash</a> has a $15 bonus and lets you cash out from $1, and <a href="https://www.mymillennialguide.com/freecash?_s3=drop-app-review~verdict-freecash" target="_blank" rel="nofollow sponsored noopener" data-placement="verdict-freecash">Freecash</a> starts you with $10 paid in cash or crypto.What Happened to the Drop App? It Shut Down (What Still Pays)