We’ve posted a smattering of information on the Bilt Rewards Mastercard (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) as the card evolved over the past year. I thought it useful to consolidate everything into a single formal review which we’ll try to keep updated. Please let us know in the comments if there’s anything missing in this review and I’ll add it in.
Contents
Overview
Direct application link for Bilt card
Bilt is a platform for paying rent. They’ve launched a credit card, in partnership with Wells Fargo, which offers the ability to charge your monthly rent to the card and earn rewards, even if your landlord does not accept credit card payments. You can earn up to 100,000 points per year and set up the payment to be sent out either via check or ACH (they give you a routing/account number to draw the rent from).
The card comes with many top-notch travel partners where you can transfer points and has no annual fee or foreign transaction fees. The Bilt credit card earns 3x on Dining, 2x on Travel, and 1x on all other purchases, including Rent payments.
Rewards
Earning
Card earns the following reward earnings:
- 3x points per dollar on Dining
- 2x points per dollar on Travel (see this comment)
- 1x points per dollar on all other purchases
- 1x points per dollar on rent payments, up to
50,000now 100,000 points per year- (The ‘rent payments’ category apparently includes HOA fees, condo fees, gas, electric, and related charges; though they might be cracking down on this somewhat.)
- Note: You must make a minimum of five purchases per statement period to earn rewards (a rent payment counts as one)
They also offer a special ‘Bilt Rent Day’ rate for the first 24-hours of each calendar month to earn double rewards, up to 1,000 in bonus points per month:
- Dining: 6x points (regularly 3x points)
- Travel: 4x points (regularly 2x points)
- All other purchases (excluding rent): 2x points (regularly 1x points)
Redeeming
- Points are worth 1.5 cents each when applying them toward a down payment on a home (you might need to have ‘Gold’ status in order to use this option (?) which is someone who accrues at least 50,000 points in a calendar year)
- Points can be redeemed at a rate of 1.25 cents per points on the Bilt Rewards Travel Portal powered by Expedia. Points can be redeemed at 500+ airlines, 700K+ properties, 120+ car rental companies.
- Points can be redeemed at the rate of 1 cent per point to pay off student loans with Sallie Mae, MOHELA, Neinet, Navient, or Aidvantage. (link to our original post about this)
- Bilt is also a partner in the Amazon Shop With Points program and also with Walgreen’s which gives a redemption rate of .7¢ per point ($.007). A little better than the cash redemption rate.
- Points can be cashed out by applying them toward a future rent payment or offsetting any charge on the card at a rate of 0.55¢.
Points can also be transferred to travel partners at 1:1 ratio to the following travel partners:
- American Airlines AAdvantage
- World of Hyatt
- Air Canada Aeroplan
- Emirates Skywards
- Air France/KLM Flying Blue
- Turkish Miles & Smiles
- Virgin Atlantic Flying Club
- Hawaiian Miles
- Cathay Pacific Asia Miles
- IHG Hotels and Resorts
- United Miles
- Southwest
- Japan
Points never expire. Points can be transferred in 2,000 point increments (or in lower 1,000 point increments for ‘Silver’ members who accrue at least 25,000 points in a calendar year).
Transfer Specials
Bilt often offers special transfer bonuses on Rent Day. The amount of the bonus depends on your status tier: Blue, Silver, Gold, or Platinum. Read more about how to reach those tiers our post here.
Signup Bonus
There is no official signup bonus on the card. Anecdotally, for many nows now (written 4/20/23), Bilt has been sending out a nice bonus for the first five days after signup which goes as follows (find the terms here), hopefully you’ll get this offer too:
- For 5 days from the date this email was sent, you will earn a total of 5 rewards points, (1 base point plus 4 bonus points), per $1 spent on net purchases (excluding rent). Max 50,000 total points can be earned with this offer.
Card Details
- Card is issued in partnership with Wells Fargo Bank
- No annual fee
- No foreign transaction fee
- Primary car rental insurance
- $800 of cell phone insurance
- Mastercard World Elite benefits
- Trip cancellation & interruption protection (up to $5,000)
- Trip delay reimbursement for a delay of 6 hours or more (max $200/day and $1,800 total)
- Purchase protection for damage or theft (up to $10,000)
- Card is metal
- Upon approval, you get an instant virtual card number from the Bilt app which can be used digitally until the physical card comes
- Cardholders will earn 2x points on all travel purchases made through the Bilt Rewards Travel Portal powered by Expedia
- Bilt also has Milestone Rewards for every 25,000 points earned
Other Bilt Benefits
- Bilt also offers users access to Point.me travel search integration which is free useful perk, though you don’t need the Bilt credit card to get this perk. You can see the desktop version at this link.
- Bilt also has Bilt Dining card-link program. Does not require the Bilt credit card to use.
- Bilt also allows paying rent with any credit card for a 3% fee. You’ll also earn 1x Bilt point per dollar spent.
Referral Program
Bilt offers a referral program: get 2,500 bonus Bilt points for each friend you refer to the Bilt Rewards Mastercard. For each five referrals, the referrer gets an additional bonus 10,000 points. I’m not aware of any limit to the 2,500 or 10,000 referral bonuses. Max 2,025,000 points can be earned from the Bilt referral program. (Terms)
No referral links in the comments below, please.
Our Verdict
The Bilt card is an easy opportunity for someone who rents to earn up to 100,000 valuable, transferable points per year by paying with the Bilt card at no cost for you or the landlord, even if your landlord does not accept credit card payment. Some people might be nervous trusting the system to have the rent in on time; I suppose you can set up the payment to go a week early and ensure it gets there on time.
Beyond the rent payment angle, there are some nice rewards and benefits which are unique to a no-fee card: 3x dining & 2x travel earnings are nice, primary car rental insurance is useful, along with other travel protections and no foreign transaction fee.
For those who don’t travel, the redemption options are more limited. The 1.5 cents value toward a future down payment is nice for someone who plans on buying a house in the near future, but otherwise you’re stuck with .55 cents value toward a rent payment or .7 cents value on Amazon.
In the end, I see this card as useful for someone who has a decently high monthly rent payment, who can make use of the valuable transfer partners, and who is willing to sacrifice a 5/24 spot for the card. The card can also make sense for someone starting out who doesn’t have many other chargeable expenses and wants to build a credit history with their rent payments. Or, more generally, it can be a practical no-fee starter card.
With the addition of the double Rent Day promo, the card gets more interesting for anyone who can manage to spend a lot in a single day, e.g. use the first day of each month to pay out the bills for the entire month.
