Update 3/12/26: Bilt has provided the following statement:
We are aware of the questions surrounding final transaction amounts for foreign transactions and are actively reviewing this matter with our card partners that manage the program. There should be no change to foreign transaction fees vs. the 1.0 card, and if any fees have been added, we will ensure our partners refund them. We will communicate when we have more information.
Original post: One of the advertised benefits of the Bilt Cardless (Bilt 2.0) cards is no foreign transaction fees. Unfortunately it seems that if a 0.2% foreign transaction fee is being charged. This is because Mastercard charges card networks a 0.2% foreign transaction fee. Most (all?) card issuers eat this fee when advertising no foreign transaction fees but it seems that this is not happening with the Bilt card.
It’s unclear if this is affecting other Cardless cards such as the Qatar Airways card (that’s a Visa card so wouldn’t be subject to the 0.2% FTF Mastercard charges) that also advertises no foreign transaction fees. I’d be extremely surprised if this issue is not fixed and if Cardless/Bilt doesn’t offer full refunds for any fee charged, but stranger things have happened. We have reached out to both Cardless & Bilt for comment. If you’re interested in how foreign currency transactions are calculated you can read this admittedly old article of ours here.
Hat tip to FM
