Update 1/28/26: There’s been a positive change regarding excluded transactions. A reader spotted that Bilt has now removed the exclusion for eBay and Facebook Marketplace payments. We’ve confirmed with Bilt that those transactions will indeed now earn points and be eligible to earn 4% Bilt Cash if that’s the earning setup you’ve chosen for your new Bilt card.
Do note though that tax payments are still excluded.
~
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.
Bilt still bans eBay purchases Found out today
Our county issue water bill every quarter, and it was payable on the same website as county property tax payment (maybe even the same payment processor). How would Bilt differentiate between the quarterly water/utility bill and the property bill? Do I have to fight them every single quarter? That would be really annoying.
I mean property tax bill in the question.
Just got the email that new Bilt card is on the way. It asks if I want to close my WF account on 2/7 and transfer my balance. It also says in small print that the transfer will be treated as a standard purchase on my new Bilt Palladium card. I take that to mean if I have a $10K balance transfer it will code as a purchase and I will get 10K Bilt points along with $400 of Bilt cash.
I read this the same way. My biggest concern is that I will be charged interest by WF….. but unsure how this will all play out. Might risk it.
What about student loans? Since we have an account + routing number with BILT
I had the 100% bonus, but oddly, only let me buy 160,000 (320,000 total)
Oops wrong spot. This was supposed to be response to Hilton .05 points buy.
It’s okay. It’s early. Have another drink.
Will payments made through Plastiq earn points?
Yes
In the terms, the very last part of the ‘what’s excluded’ paragraph references ‘checks to access your account’ as ineligible for points. So, I’ve assumed that Plastiq gets zero. Do you have any word from Bilt humans (not AI chatbot) than Plastiq earns?
On Reddit, there’s dialogue with the Bilt COO. The takeaway is this:
– Just focus on earning points
– Ignore the complexity of the statement credits
– To the extent you can, convert Bilt Cash to points
That’s it.
Which is the same thing that a DoC article said.
Bilt changes their terms more often than I change my underwear.
I will begin considering Bilt 2.4… or 2.x only after it’s remained unchanged for three billing cycles.
Also, on a separate note the only thing more ridiculous than this launch in 2026 is fat grumpy goblin VFTW’s shilling for Citi Strata.
We know it’s you… ‘Rod’… thanks for not impersonating here, at least.
It’s all such a joke. Why was it not figured out pre-launch? This card caters to people who have nothing better going on in their lives that they can spend time optimizing all this bs. It’s all indicative of half baked nonsense that will continue for the foreseeable. Anyone involved with this launch should be prohibited from any future employment.
This is a big relief. I do business with a few firms that only take PayPal. Crazy as that sounds. Thanks for the further review the replay official.
I think Im missing something here. What do you mean by big relief. I know you can still use the card using PayPal, but as far as Im understanding, you won’t receive points for paypal transactions. If I’m wrong, does that mean we can make estimated tax payments using PayPal to earn points?
I checked with BILT on the chat took the screen shot. Yes, we can pay mortgage with Platique and points and spending to earn bonus. Also can pay home insurance direct to State Farm.
The chat is just an AI and if you want to enforce what it says you’ll probably have a monthslong fight with them.
Yesterday the AI told me that the Palladium only earns 1x on everyday spend. Trust the AI at your own peril.
Peter gets it. Seriously, I trust your ‘hot takes’ on these cards, more than any AI.
Huge Kudos to the FM team here. They keep digging deeper to understand the value proposition.
Tim S did some excellent follow up over the last 24-48 hours on whether unlocking housing points counted as status points which I believe led Bilt to update their FAQ. And these are very positive changes. Copying my comment to Tim on another thread below:
They updated the FAQ to expressly include all points unlocked by redeeming Bilt Cash for rent/mortgage. AI also claims you’re getting 2x status points on everyday spend and 3x status points when accelerator activated, which tracks with this new language “all points earned in a calendar year from both rent and non-rent spend.”
This completely changes the math very positively at the higher ends of spend because you’re earning way more Bilt Cash so you need less spend to unlock the housing points. Even just on the 3x housing accelerator now, you’re earning $150 in Bilt Cash if you max it out (75k points – $150 versus how I previously thought about it, $25k spend = $50). Obviously everyone should run their own math but on a higher spend scenario i’m looking at this lowered spend by almost 10k and increased my blended cpp with the 3x accelerator to 3.45cpp.
This is potentially a big deal – but again, it’s Bilt, not even February 7 yet, and things change every day. Who knows.
New FAQ-
Qualifying points include all points earned in a calendar year from both rent and non-rent spend, including points unlocked by redeeming Bilt Cash for rent or mortgage payments. Points from all of these activities are added to your spendable points balance and also count toward your status tier. You will achieve status based on the following point milestones:
Blue – anyone enrolled in Bilt Rewards with under 50,000 Bilt Points earned
Silver – 50,000 Bilt Points earned
Gold – 125,000 Bilt Points earned
Platinum – 200,000 Bilt Points earned
Points earned in the following ways do not count toward status tier: referrals, courtesy points, points from member surveys, and incremental campaign bonus points (such as the 5X for 5 Days promotion).
This is old news. It has appeared elsewhere over a week ago. A week in Bilt-bashing time being an eternity.
I did indeed break this news on r/churning News and Update a week ago. Surprised that FM didn’t pick it up.
I still think the product is horrendously designed.
Thanks for the specific reference.
Horrendously complicated but brilliantly designed. It simultaneously deals with the lack of incentives for ongoing use that beset 1.0, maintains the hook of paying off for renters, adds mortgagees, appeals to the travel crowd owned by AMEX, Chase & Citi. Has the most innovative program for diners.
Who will use C1 Venture Now? Nobody.
Most C1 X users will switch as well.
AMEX and Chase will lose some users but are the target in Bilt 3.0;
Also, have you heard of EZBilt?
> Horrendously complicated but brilliantly designed.
How is it brilliantly designed when people are not opting into Bilt 2.0 because they don’t understand it?
> Who will use C1 Venture Now? Nobody.
It was always a churn and burn card.
> Most C1 X users will switch as well.
Just transitioned my P2 from Bilt 1.0 onto the Venture, will turn that into a Savor and go for a VentureX soon.
The Bilt cards are great for you if:
* You want the simplicity of a low-card setup, but also simultaneously are fine with clipping a bunch of coupons, and also you have a lot of catch-all spend you aren’t directing at churning SUBs
* You have a high enough rent to support your spend (we live in a LCOL area)
Bilt just selected for a bunch of retired churners. I would not be surprised if redemptions materially moved towards Hyatt/Alaska/JAL instead of the cheap statement credit/Amazon/etc. that were previously helping keep the program afloat.
And no, I have no idea what EZBilt is.
Robinhood Gold also excludes tax payments. Might also exclude purchase of gold but I forget. The tax block may or may not apply to local tax payments, which seems to vary.
Bilt brought someone from our community in (Richard Kerr) to both figure out what partners bring the most value (Hyatt, etc) and also know exactly how we all think. I like Richard, but more and more it’s really apparent that BILT doesn’t want us. They want high end spenders that they can pull from Amex Plat or CSR, or they want low end spenders that will carry massive balances and pay reoccurring interest fees. My small business buys a lot off ebay (not to MS, but as inventory). Excluding ebay is the straw that breaks the camels back for me. If they only want high end buyers that shop at Aritzia or low end consumers carrying massive balances, they’re going to lose market share on both counts.
Bilt points are still valuable and I plan on getting (and then transferring out) as many as possible before year end. I don’t want to be rug pulled if and when this company becomes unsustainable and can’t get any more venture capital to keep it afloat.
Consider they are way dumber than any of that. BILT simply wants to survive after sugar-daddy Wells dips out next month, and they need enough hype to keep VC money flowing, otherwise it’s game over for Ankur and his buddies. They’re basically a meme running on vibes at this point. Not serious people.