Bilt Complicates Paying Rent Out Of Network

Bilt has sent out an e-mail to members stating the way you pay for rent (if paying out of network) will change. Statement on reddit as follows:

Hey everyone,

Members who live outside of our network and pay rent with a Rent Rewards account (the routing and checking account number) will receive an email today announcing an update to how you pay rent thanks to our revamped BillPay by Bilt system.

This has no effect on the points you earn, their value or how you redeem points.

As we’ve scaled (now 1 in 4 apartment buildings nationwide) we needed a more seamless and secure payment process while building the foundation for new features – including our mortgage rewards program launching this year, and other future bill types.

Going forward, here’s how you’ll pay rent:

1. 1. Pre-authorize your payment in the Bilt app – this will include selecting your rent amount and how you want to pay rent (Bilt Mastercard for waived fees, other cards for earning both Bilt Points and your card’s rewards like the 3X Alaska miles when using an Alaska card)NOTE: You’ll receive new BillPay by Bilt routing and account numbers the first time you do this and will need to update it in your property’s payment portal – you’ll only need to do this the first time and it needs to be done by April 29th
   2. Submit your rent payment as usual through your property’s payment portal. Make sure to submit your payment within 5 days of authorizing it in the Bilt app

If you live in a building in the Bilt network or pay rent by check, there is no change to how you pay rent today.

No, the BillPay by Bilt routing and account numbers won’t work on anything besides rent/HOA….yet. This is pretty exciting stuff as we scale, and unreal to think of compared to where we started four years ago.

As always, appreciate the reddit community being our biggest fans and source of feedback. Our focus has been on setting up this BillPay infrastructure, but look for several more notes in rapid succession on the many things coming in 2025, including our card 2.0. – Kerr, Bilt 

Update with FAQ:

1. 1. This does not affect BiltProtect.
   2. The auto-authorize feature will be live next week. If you want to use this, you can instead of authorizing each month.
   3. You don’t need to authorize the exact amount of rent including utilities. If you authorize within a reasonable amount (a few hundred dollars) you payment will be fine.
   4. BillPay is designed for many more uses to earn rewards on other than rent and mortgage.
   5. You only need to update the account and routing numbers once on the first time you pay rent.
   6. You can still pay rent by Venmo.

I suspect Bilt has seen some people abusing this which is why the changes are being made, but it does complicate the process for a lot of people. Bilt users are understandably unhappy regarding these changes.