Spencer from Straight to the Points is back to talk about a new Plastiq promotion… and an exclusive offer for Out and Out readers to earn 5,000 points with Drop! 

Update 9/25/17: The Plastiq offer from Drop may possibly be targeted. We are checking to see what we can do. If anything, you still get $5 just for downloading the Drop app with promotion code “outandout“!

Save on Plastiq Fees (Plus a Special Offer from Drop for Out and Out Readers)

A few months ago, Drop launched in the US to much fanfare in the miles and points world as the hot new shopping portal. You just needed to attach your credit or debit card (or cards) and shop as usual.

Redeem the points you earn for merchant gift cards like Hotels.com, Amazon, American Airlines, and Starbucks to help offset future expenses.

The launch was rough.  But Drop is starting to get a handle on the US market. Shortly after launching, they limited the number of points you could earn with their ongoing offers to 5,000 points per week. That definitely put the brakes on some people, but there are still one-time offers to help boost your rebates!

That brings us to today.

A New Drop Plastiq Promotion!

• Link: Sign up for Plastiq

Drop just added an awesome ongoing offer with Plastiq that runs through December 31st, 2017. You can already earn points paying your rent, mortgage, utilities, etc. with Plastiq – and now you can get a small rebate thanks to Drop.

Harlan has written extensively about how to use Plastiq to earn maximum points on your bills, so I won’t rehash it all here.  But let’s take a quick look at some of the key points to remember:

• Plastiq cuts a check on your behalf (although electronic payments are available for several payees)
  
• 2.5% processing fee (unless there is a promo)
  
• Schedule payments early so your check arrives on time
  
• Make sure the points you earn will outweigh the processing fee
  
• Often best for hitting minimum spends
  

Remember: If you sign up for Plastiq with a referral, you’ll receive 500 fee-free dollars after you spend $500 via Plastiq.

Now, what does this Drop promo have to offer?!

For every $100 you spend through Plastiq, you will earn 200 Drop points. This means that, if you spend $1,000 on your rent or mortgage (or other bills) each month, you will earn 2,000 Drop points.  2,000 Drop points are worth $2.  So this isn’t an earth-shattering deal. But it’s an insanely easy way to get a few bucks back through the end of the year – and helps offset some of Plastiq’s processing fees.

The Plastiq offer is listed as an ongoing offer so I expect that they will cap the points you can earn at 5,000 per week. For people like Harlan, who have Airbnb properties, that might restrict the potential, but it’s still an easy way to earn a small rebate!

Special Drop Offer for Out and Out Readers: 5,000-Point Sign-Up Bonus!

• Link: Download Drop for iOS
• Link: Download Drop for Android

Through the end of September (that’s 8 days!), Drop has increased the sign up bonus for Out and Out readers from 1,000 to 5,000 Drop points. That’s enough to redeem for a $5 Starbucks gift card!

To sign up, just download the app on your Android or Apple device. You will earn the 5,000 bonus points by using the referral code “outandout” once you link one of your accounts to Drop.

Once you’ve set up your account, choose your 5 ongoing offers from retailers including Starbucks, Uber, Walmart, Chipotle, Whole Foods, Shell, and more. At this time, you can NOT change your ongoing offer choices once a selection has been made, so choose wisely!

Another reason for signing up now is that the rebate rates for some of the ongoing offers will be decreased for those who join after October 9th, 2017. If you sign up before October, you’ll be grandfathered in at the old (better) rates AND receive the increased sign-up bonus of 5,000 Drop points.

Combine Promos to Pay a Mortgage?

Drop says this offer won’t combine with other promos, but that won’t restrict you from using the current reduced fee promo that Plastiq is running for mortgage payments made with a MasterCard.  They’ll drop the processing fee to as little as 1.5% after a rebate if you schedule 3 mortgage payments and pay with a MasterCard. This promotion also runs through the end of the year.

When this promo and the Drop promo combine, you can take your ability to earn points to the next level.

With the Citi Access More card continuing to earn 3X points per dollar on rent and mortgage payments, this is a great opportunity to earn Citi ThankYou Points. When paired with the Citi Prestige or Citi ThankYou Premier card, these points can be transferred to any of Citi’s 15 airline transfer partners to book some fun flights.

Or, you can earn 2X Membership Rewards with the Blue Business Plus from American Express.

Finally, if you’re working on a minimum spend to earn a sign-up bonus, this could be huge for you. Harlan has big plans for his new Chase British Airways Visa and Plastiq is going to help him earn that 100,000 Avios points sign-up bonus. That comes out to 6X Avios per dollar!

Maximizing Your Drop Points

This is all great but what can Drop points actually do for you? Well, this is my favorite part.

For the coffee addicts out there, you can redeem 5,000 Drop points for a $5 Starbucks gift card. If you earn a ton of Drop points – 100,000 points to be exact – you can redeem them for a $100 American Airlines gift card.

If you’d like to book a paid hotel stay, you can redeem 50,000 Drop points on a $50 Hotels.com gift card.

However, my favorite way to use Drop points for travel has to be redeeming them for Amazon gift cards. You might be wondering how exactly Amazon gift cards can help you offset some travel costs. Well, stick with me, this gets better…

Here’s how it works:

1. Redeem 10,000 Drop points for $10 Amazon gift cards
   
2. Do this 5 times and you’ll have $50 Amazon credit to load to your account
   
3. Visit JetBlue’s Amazon Shop and Earn page so you can earn 3X True Blue points per dollar on your Amazon purchases
   
4. Sign into your TrueBlue account
   
5. Click “Shop and Earn” to be redirected to Amazon
   
6. Purchase a Southwest Airlines $50 gift card (or any other gift card!)
   

By stacking Drop rewards and the JetBlue Amazon shopping portal option, you can take your 50,000 Drop points and turn them into $50 of credit to Southwest Airlines for your next domestic trip (or positioning flight before a fun international journey) and get 150 True Blue points toward your next JetBlue redemption.

If you aren’t already earning 3X True Blue points when shopping at Amazon, start doing so now! This can get you tons of points and is especially useful if you have one of the three co-branded JetBlue credit cards issued by Barclaycard. If you live near an airport served by JetBlue, these True Blue points could be especially useful. 

Bottom line

• Link: Sign up for Plastiq (you’ll receive 500 fee-free dollars after you spend $500 via Plastiq)

Earning points so you can take fantastic trips across the country and around the world is fun. What makes it even more fun is when we can lower the cost of earning those points.

Is the Drop promo going to be the craziest deal of the year? No, of course not – and that’s OK. It’s still a fun way to offset your Plastiq fees and help you earn a few JetBlue True Blue points and chip away at the cost of a Southwest flight or two… or three.

Get 5,000 Drop points (worth $5) when you download the app for Android or Apple and use promotion code “outandout” through September 30th, 2017!

Let us know in the comments if you take advantage of this deal. We’d love to hear everyone’s experience combining the current MasterCard promotion with the Drop offer!

About Spencer

Spencer Howard is the founder of Straight to the Points where he cuts through the noise to help busy professionals travel the world on miles and points.

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