Last summer, a new cash back app called Drop hit the market with much fanfare. While there were some bumps in the road as they entered the U.S. market—they’re a Canadian company—they seem to have found their footing.

At 10xTravel, we’re always on the lookout for new and better ways to maximize our spending to earn tons of points and miles so we can travel. One of our favorite ways to do so has been to use Plastiq to pay billers that otherwise don’t take credit cards. Well, Drop has launched a new partnership with Plastiq that can make this an even better deal for you!

Pro Tip: You can read our complete guide to Plastiq to learn everything you need to know about paying rent, utilities, car payments, student loans and more with a credit card so you can hit minimum spend requirements and earn sign-up bonuses.

While Drop originally focused on ongoing offers, but they have since regularly rolled out limited-time offer. However, this partnership with Plastiq does not have an end date. So, get as much out of it as you can!

Details Of Drop’s Plastiq Offer

Here’s what you need to know about the Plastiq offer. It’s quite simple, really. For everyone $100 you spend through Plastiq, you will earn 200 Drop points. These points are worth 1 cent per point and can be redeemed for a variety of gift cards such as Amazon, American Airlines, Best Buy, Starbucks, and more.

The terms and conditions are pretty basic:

Points are earned on each dollar billed through Plastiq, you must use a card that is linked to Drop, your rebate points are awarded within 5 days after the transaction is processed, etc.

If you are new to Drop, keep reading. We’ll cover the basics of what you need to know to use Drop below.

How The Plastiq Offer Works

So, you’ve linked the offer and are ready to go. Let’s start by considering some important variables.

Plastiq charges a 2.5% processing fee to pay bills with a credit card. This means that using Plastiq to earn points and miles is generally best for hitting minimum spends to earn big sign-up bonuses. Occasionally, it is worth using to continue earning points, but those cases are rare.

With this Drop offer, though, you can trim a little off the processing fee.

Let’s say you have to make a $2,500 rent payment and your landlord or apartment complex doesn’t accept credit cards. If you’ve linked the Plastiq offer to your Drop account, you will earn 5,000 Drop points as every $100 spent provides 200 Drop points.

Pro-Tip: If you’re using Plastiq for rent, you might also consider using RoomiPay which has a 2% processing fee and the first 75 new users each month can pay rent fee-free.

For every 1,000 Drop points, you earn $1 toward a gift card redemption. With the 5,000 Drop points earned in the example, you could redeem them for a $5 Starbucks gift card. For many people, Starbucks is a daily part of life so this is nearly as good as cash.

This deal effectively lowers Plastiq’s fee from 2.5% to 2.3% which isn’t that much. However, for those using Plastiq to hit minimum spends, why would you want to leave anything on the table when it’s so easy?

Maximize The Plastiq Offer

We wouldn’t recommend using your Chase Sapphire Preferred on this deal if you’ve already earned the sign-up bonus, but it can save you a few bucks if you need hit the $4,000 minimum spend requirement to earn the sign-up bonus.

Other cards have an even higher minimum spend requirement. Take the Business Platinum Card from American Express, for example. It often has a very steep minimum spend requirement.

Many small businesses have plenty to spend but, sometimes, vendors don’t take credit cards. This offer can help shave off a bit of the fee so you can earn a welcome bonus —which can help you book some amazing travel.

New To Drop? Here’s What You Need To Know

Drop works a little differently than many of the airline shopping portals probably know well. Rather than going through Drop each time to earn your rebate, you just attach a credit card to your account and you will automatically receive credit when you take advantage of a Drop offer.

Here are the easy steps to sign-up:

  1. Search “Drop Loyalty” in the app store on your Andriod or iPhone
  2. Download the Drop app
  3. Enter an invite code when you sign up and you’ll receive 1,000 Drop points (my code is spencerformiles)
  4. Link a credit card (or cards)
  5. Choose your ongoing offers—at this time, they can’t be changed once selected
  6. Add limited-time offers as they pop up

If you’d like a more in-depth look, check out our piece explaining the ins and outs of Drop.

Editors Note: Since we published our guide to Drop, they have since limited the points you can earn with ongoing offers per week to 5,000 points and reduced the earn rates of ongoing offers.

Bottom Line

Is the new Plastiq partnership with Drop a game-changer? No. However, many of us have big expenses that don’t typically accept credit cards for payment. Plastiq provides a great way to easily earn sign-up bonuses with these payments.

This new Drop offer is an easy way to reduce the cost of Plastiq’s processing fee and I’m all about easy wins. I will happily take any reduction in fees I can get. Maybe, it’s me but I doubt it.

Hopefully, you can take advantage of this offer to reduce the cost of earning a great sign-up bonus or two… or three.

 

See you in the sky,

Spencer

 

Bonus: Advanced Method to Maximize The Plastiq Offer

If you aren’t working on a minimum spend but still want to take advantage of this Drop offer to pay some bills with Plastiq, here’s a scenario you might consider.

If you have both the Blue Business Plus Card and the Business Platinum Card from American Express, you might find some easy value out of this Drop offer even when not trying to earn any sort of bonus.

With the Blue Business Plus Card, you earn 2X Membership Rewards points per dollar on all purchases up to $50,000 in spend per calendar year. With the Business Platinum Card, you will receive a 35% rebate if you use points to book flights via Amex Travel in first or business class or economy on your selected carrier.

This rebate makes your Membership Rewards points worth roughly 1.54 cents per point. Now, pair this with the 2X you are earning with the Blue Business Plus and you are effectively getting 3.08X per dollar spent if you’re booking flights through Amex Travel.

If you use your Blue Business Plus to make a $1,000 payment on Plastiq and have linked your card to the Drop offer, you will pay $25 in fees, earn 2,000 Drop points (worth $2), and 2,000 Membership Rewards. These 2,000 Membership Rewards can easily be turned into 3,080 points via Amex Travel.

With the Drop rebate of $2, you are effectively paying $23 for 3,080 points. If you break it down, that’s 2,300 cents for 3,080 points which means you are paying just under $0.75 per point. Not a bad way to go if you ask me.

This doesn’t even take into account the impact of transferring Membership Rewards to an airline partner which could yield a value of 4 or 5 cents per point when booking business or first class award flights.

The fact remains, the best way to maximize Plastiq and the Drop offer is to earn a sign-up bonus, but this is a great backup plan if you a do a little planning ahead of time.