When Bilt Card 2.0 launched this week, there were a few surprises in the terms and conditions. Among them is the fact that using your card for tax payments will not earn rewards or Bilt Cash (if you choose the Bilt Cash option). Oddly, there are also restrictions against online marketplaces like eBay and Facebook Marketplace that are worth knowing before you use your card heavily, only to be surprised that you don’t earn rewards on certain purchases.
The Bilt Rewards Card Offer Terms include the following description of “eligible purchases” which will earn rewards and those which are do not earn Bilt Points or Bilt Cash (bold is mine and added for emphasis):
“Eligible Purchases” or “Purchases” means transactions for goods or services made with your Bilt Card, minus returns, refunds, or credits. Purchases that do not earn Bilt Points or Bilt Cash: Balance transfers, Special Transfers, cash advances, travelers checks, money orders, wire transfers or similar cash-like transactions, prepaid cards, gift cards, person-to-person payments (such as Venmo, PayPal, Cash App, or Zelle), tax payments, online resale marketplaces (such as eBay or Facebook Marketplace), cryptocurrency or other digital currency purchases, fees or interest posted to your Account (including annual fees, late fees, and returned payment fees), lottery tickets, casino gaming chips, race track wagers or similar betting transactions, and checks that access your Account
Most credit cards exclude things like cash advances, money orders, and that sort of thing. I am not aware of any other credit cards on the market that exclude purchases made via online resale marketplaces such as eBay or Facebook Marketplace. That seems crazy to me, as those are mainstream online shopping outlets. Furthermore, that creates a lot of ambiguity: If eBay and Facebook Marketplace are excluded, is Etsy excluded? Surely an Amazon Marketplace seller wouldn’t be excluded, would they? I suppose that Bilt is trying to prevent some sort of abuse, but I don’t like the ambiguity there or the propensity for ordinary customers to end up with an unpleasant surprise, as no reasonable ordinary customer would expect online resale marketplace purchases to be excluded.
Many readers will find the exclusion of tax payments also surprising and disappointing, particularly since tax payments are coded as ordinary purchases (that earn rewards) on all other credit cards in the market with which I am familiar. While Bilt had long ago excluded tax payments from earning double rewards on Rent Day (which is now capped at 1,000 additional points anyway), it is disappointing to see tax payments excluded from earning rewards altogether. We thought it was particularly important to highlight this here as these cards are launching around tax time, and many readers have already written to us with plans centered around making tax payments in order to earn rewards on their mortgages. Be aware that, as the terms are written, tax payments will not earn rewards or Bilt Cash.
Of course, it is possible that real-world experience won’t match the terms word-for-word. For instance, the terms exclude the purchases of gift cards. If you’re at the grocery store, and in the checkout lane, you grab a $100 Olive Garden gift card to give your sister for her birthday, is Bilt really going to know and/or care? It would be surprising if they drilled down in that type of detail. On the other hand, if you’re spending $2,000 at a time on GiftCards.com purchases, be aware that the Bilt cards might not be good cards for those types of purchases.
We will continue to monitor program terms for updates.
Want to learn more about miles and points? Subscribe to email updates or check out our podcast on your favorite podcast platform.
I guess this begs the question about whether Bilt is going to continue to allow people to pay rent via venmo and earn points. I’m renting from an individual and that person prefers venmo. I never had a problem before earning bilt points or Alaaka miles.
It’s pretty clear that Bilt still isn’t for ‘us’ and that’s fine. When you look at the opportunity cost the juice isn’t worth the squeeze, except maybe for one year with the SUB.
Compared to Chase and Amex they are still a niche program. Giving Bilt all my spend to earn points on rent or mortgage simply isn’t worth it.
People love rent day points promos, but we all know speculative transfers often lead to stranded points or redeeming at elevated award prices because that’s where your points are now. So good for you for getting a 100% transfer bonus… It really only creates value when you can also redeem for a standard award.
Pretty sure Bilt excluded taxes and also insurance payments from the Rent Day 2x promos when they cut the max from 10K to 1K a few years ago.
Also, the US Bank Smartly 4% back card also excludes these categories as Stephen and Tim noted here:
https://frequentmiler.com/changes-to-the-us-bank-smartly-card/
Here’s where Tim wrote about Bilt excluding tax payments from Rent Day:
https://frequentmiler.com/bilt-rewards-will-exempt-tax-payments-from-rent-day-bonus/
With the CSR refresh, you got to a point at which you said you’re done mentally and you moved on. And, even if Chase subsequently corrected this or that, there’s an energy threshold you have to overcome to switch back. So, in spite of Chase’s subsequent changes, you don’t switch back.
That’s the point at which I’ve arrived with Bilt. I have been with Bilt since the very start. High spender. Bilt was very good to me and I am grateful for it. Long-time readers of this blog know that I’ve been a strong advocate of Bilt over the years. But, things change. As with Chase, irrespective of changes, I’m done mentally, I’ve moved on, and I don’t see myself switching back. It’s rather sad.
You could use the card and pay with a service like plastiq correct? Yes plastiq has a higher fee, but might be worth it for some.
So if your mortgage includes your tax they are happy to pay 1.33x in points, but if you don’t escrow your tax then they exclude it.
My property tax is paid to city treasurer, just like my water bill and plenty of other services, I don’t see then excluding these tax payments. I look forward to hearing some real world data points.
I’m curious on this as well as we didn’t have to put property taxes in escrow. This was going to be how I earned Bilt cash for the year to unlock rewards on mortgage payments (paying property tax in January).
Do the tax exclusion only apply to income tax payments made quarterly or property tax payments too?
What once looked kinda promising is seeing diminishing returns within one month of its launch.
Yes, there are many of us who are curious about whether property tax payments are excluded. That’s a substantial amount we pay twice a year, and trying to decide whether to pay with C1 Venture X or BILT Palladium for points.
I’m not certain that a payment via Plastiq would be eligible. It might be used for a person-to-person payment irrespective of what they say. There’s a question mark.
What about bona fide businesses that accept PayPal . . . or *only* accept PayPal? There are businesses in Europe with which I do business that only accept payment via PayPal. Etc.
I wanted this transition to be seamless. Instead, it has become unseemly. I’m not willing to wait for all of the questions to be answered. It’s a waste of time and energy. With the Venture or Venture X, we know what we’re getting.
If I used the card to reload my Amazon gift card balance with say $500 would Bilt even know what it was? Doesn’t it just code as Amazon? Not sure how much details they get?
I’m not a fan of Bilt, never have been. But the outrage regarding the tax exclusion is quite amusing since every post I’ve read from many bloggers about how to make a SUB spend includes overpaying taxes. With so many people online boasting about the thousands of dollars Uncle Sam owes them in refunds and the 6 figure SUBs earning as a result, no one saw this happening? This loophole being closed isn’t a surprise with Mr Kerr at the helm-it takes a thief to catch a thief, right?
Let me understand this better, tax payments wont earn the 2x nor Bilt cash but it will count to meet the sign up bonus. If that is the case I will still consider the spend to get the 50k Bilt sub (4k) + 50K promo (up to 10k total). I think thats not a bad deal for 1 card set up deal (for the Palladium)
I would not expect a transaction that earns zero points to count towards meeting the minimum spending requirements.
Bilt has already stated that tax payments won’t count toward meeting spending requirement for SUB.
This is Bilt response to this :
“Tax payments made with your Bilt Card 2.0 will count toward the $4,000 minimum spend required to unlock the Palladium Card sign-up bonus, as long as they are considered purchases and not categorized as rent or mortgage payments.
Only rent and mortgage payments are excluded from the minimum spend calculation for the sign-up bonus.
If you have a specific type of tax payment in mind, let me know and I can check if it qualifies.”
I asked Bilt chat and this was their response:
“do tax payments count to meet the sign up bonus threshold for the bilt 2.0?
Tax payments made with your Bilt Card 2.0 will count toward the $4,000 minimum spend required to unlock the Palladium Card sign-up bonus, as long as they are considered purchases and not categorized as rent or mortgage payments.
Only rent and mortgage payments are excluded from the minimum spend calculation for the sign-up bonus.
If you have a specific type of tax payment in mind, let me know and I can check if it qualifies”
So for a 4k tax bill you will meet the 4k SUB. Not sure if the additional 6k spend done within the first 5 days of activating the cc (4k for SUB + 6k = 10k total spend -100k Bilt pts) will trigger the additional 5x/per dollar for an additional up to 50K from the TPG link promo.
Does this change Greg’s opinion on this now?
Greg can speak for himself I’m sure, but he was certainly the opposite of complimentary in today’s email newsletter…
I can’t speak to Greg’s opinion on it, but I can say that I think that launching Bilt cash half baked along with the abrupt Friday changes feel like unforced errors that probably dampened enthusiasm in a lot of corners. I don’t think it is any one thing, it’s the combination of missteps in a short period of time that have slowed me down on it.
In Bilt 1.0, tax got excluded in the 5x promotion offer for the first 5 days when opening the card. It ‘s such a bummer that 2.0 now excludes tax as regular spending
Ugh. This BILT 2.0 just keep getting worse and worse. It’s irritating that they’re trying to outthink us. Just give us our points and stop worrying so much about your profit margin. It’s about US, not YOU. LOL 🙂
Instead of listing what won’t earn rewards, it would be quicker to tell us the 3 things that will.
I guess the VC money has dried up. Surprised they didn’t say they were transitioning to an AI or robotic company.
Nick – Thanks for raising the awareness of this issue. I was aware of there being some sort of issue in the past with paying taxes on the original Bilt, but the 100% exclusion is bad. Perhaps in the future they will start excluding warehouse/wholesale clubs, which have could have negotiated preferred interchange fees.
Well, that is final nail in the coffin. I don’t know why tax payments or ebay purchases can’t be counted, but this is how I planned on making sure I can meet the spend requirement. They can’t help but make it complicated and undesirable.
The more I learn about the Bolt 2.0 cards, the less I want to apply