Raise’s Slide App Is Now On Android As Well As iOS – My Initial Impression

Back in June 2020, Raise launched a new app called Slide. This offers a flat rate of 4% cashback when buying a range of third party gift cards and paying with PayPal, Google Pay or a credit/debit card, or 5% cashback when paying with funds already loaded to the app.

It was initially only available on iOS, but they’ve now released the app for Android and so it can be found on Google Play. Due to the number of apps with Slide in their name though, it’s best to search for ‘Slide Raise’ and then you should see it listed.

Seeing as I’ve got an Android phone, I’ve only just now been able to test out the app and my initial impression is meh. It’s nice to have an option to buy gift cards instantly and get 4% cashback regardless of the brand, but you can often get a better deal elsewhere.

Even Raise’s own website can offer a better deal, even on cash back gift cards (i.e. first-hand cards). For example, at the time of writing this post here are just some of the brands you can buy for more than 4% cashback:

• Lowe’s – 5%
• Southwest Airlines – 5%
• Cabela’s – 10%
• Delta – 10%
• Bass Pro Shops – 7%

In terms of payment options, you can pay with PayPal, credit/debit card and Google Pay, or you can pre-fund your account for an additional 1% cashback. PayPal is a nice option right now seeing as it’s a 5% category on the Discover It card during Q3 2020, so you’d earn a total of 9% cashback.

I was curious if the Slide app would pass through the retailer coding like the MPX app often does, or if it would be more like the Fluz app where it codes as general merchandise or something similar.

To test this out, I tried buying a $5 Office Depot gift card and paid with my Chase Ink Plus card which earns 5x at office supply stores.

Well, I tried to pay.

After sliding to confirm that I wanted to buy the gift card, I got an error message saying it couldn’t connect to Raise Oracle or something like that. I therefore tried to pay again and got a different message this time – one that said my transaction was incomplete and my account was now locked.

Transaction Incomplete

Unfortunately, your transaction could not be verified. For your protection, your account has been locked temporarily. Please call Slide Support between 9am-5pm CST Monday-Friday to verify your account and continue using Slide. Your payment was authorized, but the authorization will be reversed in 1-3 business days. You will not be charged.

I tried calling Support, but it had a busy signal. I then tried calling again and the phone rang, but went through to a voice mail at Slide which asked me to leave my name and phone number and that they’d get back to me. Not the brightest of starts.

I don’t know if I’ll actually bother calling back Slide Support as there’s nothing particularly compelling about the app. In many cases, it’s possible to get discounts/cashback/rewards at a similar rate to Slide through other apps and websites like Raise themselves, Fluz, MPX, CrayPay, etc. Although the app has a good selection of gift card brands, it doesn’t (understandably) include Amazon or Best Buy gift cards which would make it far more interesting.

With them locking my account after trying to buy a $5 gift card, I’m not sure it’s worth the hassle of having it unlocked as I’d probably use it in very few circumstances. You have to earn at least $15 cashback in order to withdraw your balance and the cashback you earn expires after two years, so that provides even less incentive to use the app. It seems like you can use cashback earned towards the purchase of another gift card, so that would help prevent the cashback going to waste, but all in all I’m finding the app to be a little snoozeworthy.