The new Bilt 2.0 cards – Bilt Blue, Bilt Obsidian, and Bilt Palladium – went live on Saturday February 7. Bilt promised that this would be a seamless transition, but in addition to the myriad of other issues that have made the transition seem less, there’s now a brand new issue.
Over the weekend, we saw widespread reports in our Facebook group, on Reddit, and in other private groups that cardholders were encountering issues with declined transactions on their new Bilt cards, with those cards subsequently being frozen.
There have been other issues with the 5x earning rate that many cardholders should’ve been eligible for not being honored, with an abysmal response from Bilt’s CEO.
5x frozen
That’s annoying enough as it is, but it’s particularly frustrating for the large subset of cardholders who signed up for the cards within the first 24 hours using the affiliate link on The Points Guy website (which we also shared on this site as that was the best offer at the time). That welcome offer included a 5x spending offer on up to $10,000 spend in the first six days in addition to the 50,000 point welcome offer, meaning a total of 100,000 bonus points were available.
Needless to say, people who were able to get in on that offer wanted to do their best to start maxing out the 5x spending component over the weekend. While some people were able to get a few purchases approved, many others reported that their transactions were declined and cards subsequently frozen even when not making purchases that were in any way substantial.
In order to get their cards unlocked, cardholders have to provide ID. However, despite immediately providing that, some cardholders are still waiting for their cards to be unlocked. With the clock ticking on the six day timeframe where eligible cardholders can earn 5x, this is seriously hampering people’s ability to max that out.
Even the means of providing ID is amateurish. This Reddit user had their card frozen after their first purchase attempt and the email from Cardless said the following:
Your security is our priority, so we have suspended your account while we conduct an investigation. To assist in our investigation, we need additional verification of your identity. Please send the following items in a reply to this email:
**- A current picture of you while holding** your valid state or government-issued photo ID
– Review your account and let us know if you see any unauthorized activityOnce we receive the requested information, please allow up to two days for our review to be completed.
Your account will remain suspended until we complete our investigation.
Thank you,
The Cardless Team
Sending a selfie of yourself with your state or government-issued ID over email – rather than via a secure method – is far from ideal.
5x not attached
There’s been a whole other issue regarding the 5x application links too. Many people applied using the TPG link within 24 hours before Bilt abruptly pulled that promotion. Bilt didn’t provide a way for cardholders to see if that bonus earning rate was attached to their card, so some people understandably used Bilt’s chat feature to verify that the 5x rate was indeed attached.
Unfortunately, it’s an AI chatbot and it sounds like it was pretty much always advising people that the offer wasn’t attached. After asking to speak to a real-life (and hopefully not also hallucinating) human agent, some people did receive confirmation that the 5x was attached. Sadly, many others were told that they weren’t eligible for the 5x – even though they were – and so it wasn’t attached to their account.
Bilt also sent out an email to some cardholders on February 6 (the day before the cards went live) confirming that they had the 5x offer attached. In true Bilt 2.D’oh fashion, they also sent that email to people who knew for sure that they hadn’t used the TPG link in the first 24 hours of applications going live.
That wasn’t the only incorrect email. Other people – myself included – received an email encouraging us to add an authorized user to our Bilt card. That’s despite the fact that we’re not cardholders (and, for me at least, have never had a Bilt credit card in the first place). They did at least subsequently send an “Oops” email.
Delays with physical cards being mailed
The “seem less” transition issues don’t stop there. Despite some people applying for a Bilt card weeks ago, they haven’t received their physical card yet even though they were assured at the time that they’d have it in hand by February 6 at the latest.
In fact, in at least one case we’ve seen, a cardholder isn’t due to receive their card until February 17 – a full week from now and more than 10 days after the latest date that it should’ve arrived. This is someone who did have the 5x offer attached to their account, but that delay in the card being issued means they’re unable to make any purchases using that physical card. Mobile wallet purchases are still possible, but that’s not always going to be a viable option for affected cardholders.
Bilt’s stance: Pound sand
We reached out to Bilt over the weekend when first hearing reports of cards being frozen. We asked if affected cardholders would be given an extended 5x spending period due to the inability to make purchases and, if so, how many extra days they’ll be given.
In addition to that, we asked about the issue with people not having the 5x spending offer attached to their account in the first place.
We haven’t heard back from them yet, so we’ll update this post if and when we do receive a reply.
That said, the prospect of any kind of satisfactory resolution appears to be highly unlikely. A Reddit user sent a DM to Bilt CEO Ankur Jain and received the following response (spelling, grammatical, and punctuation errors are per his reply):
Sorry we can’t accept anything on TPG. This was a TPG offer not us. And we were given a list of participants.
In the past few days I’ve received thousands of people claiming to have participated with hundreds using the same identical screenshots (clearly all shared in online groups), many also sending doctored images etc
Not saying that’s your case here. But the attempt at showing good faith to a few people early on has clearly backfired and thousands of people online sending in fake requests has meant we can’t honor anything beyond what TPG provided us.
Sorry not a better answer. Have always tried taking care of Bilt members first but seeing the extreme levels of gaming and false inbounds has hurt our ability to make exceptions for good customers like you.
There will be plenty of ongoing promos that you be able to take advantage of.
Thanks for understanding and for being a bilt members
That’s a crazy policy. I can understand Bilt’s frustration that some people are probably trying to game the system, but I can also imagine that a not insignificant number of people who they think are gaming aren’t actually doing that. There are many reports of people who’d legitimately applied within the 24 hours that the TPG link was live not having the 5x earning rate honored. If they didn’t happen to take screenshots, video recordings, etc. at the time of their application, it wouldn’t surprise me if many of them are subsequently relying on other people’s screenshots. That doesn’t mean they’re trying to scam Bilt – they’re simply trying to resolve the problems caused by Bilt themselves.
It’s also wild that Ankur is explicitly placing all the blame on The Points Guy. The 5x offer link was indeed advertised on the TPG website, but that special offer was done in partnership with Bilt and the earning rate is being processed by Bilt; it’s not like TPG is awarding the 5x points themselves. As a result, Bilt should’ve had proper processes in place to track eligible applications not only on the TPG side, but on the Cardless side too. If they didn’t set it up that Cardless could also track where applications were coming from and when those applications were submitted, that points to rank incompetence on Bilt’s end, not TPG’s.
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I haven’t had any issues with my Palladium. I was lucky and got targeted for the promo to earn 2500 points for every social media platform I post an unboxing video or photo on with hashtags (up to 10k points). I have no idea why I was targeted. I was also targeted for the 3x mobile wallet promo (up to 500 points) and strangely when I clicked on the terms for that promo the 10k point social media promo popped up. I could only see it on my computer, not in the app. So check your accounts.
Does anyone know how to find the routing and checking account number to give to my mortgage servicer for autopay? Bilt chatbot told me to go to “My home” then “bill pay for home” then open my mortgage setup to view the billpay routing and account number. I don’t see it.
Readers: Here is a much more accurate, insightful, and useful post-rollout appraisal of Bilt:
https://viewfromthewing.com/im-earning-over-3x-points-on-everything-with-the-new-bilt-palladium-card-its-more-of-a-juggernaut-than-i-expected/
How is that article more accurate or insightful? All it basically says is that it’s the best single card solution which is meaningless since most people that read FM and other similar sites prefer optimizing with a suite of cards.
The 5x list of eligibles was provided by TPG. If you weren’t on it, call them.
How many people had problems with the rollout weekend, out of the 1.8 million Bilt 2.0 cardholders? You need to post numbers or pull this amateurish hit piece. Every case cited above needs a name. The standards that apply to the Wall Street Journal’;s journalism apply to you too.
Since you need something useful to write about, here is the article you should have written: “Why I have a Personal Animus With Bilt”. Oh, hangon you did. Except you thought the title was written “Why I have a Personal Anima with Built”.
A product targeting gamers attracts gamers, then is surprised when gamers proceed to game.
All the while making a former gamer (Kerr) one of the public faces of the product.
To Phil, I also have not received my card and I applied Jan 29. How did you even get the new CVC code and new expiration date to charge things on Apple Pay? This really is so unfortunate… leaves a bad taste to not want to use afte the SUB. And actually, it has a ton of features that I would use. But now, I just don’t trust them.
I’ve had the card in had for several days but I can’t activate it. Similar to their logo, it is literally a brick.
The only other time I’ve been asked to send a picture of myself holding my ID was for an offshore sportsbook. That’s where we are here. I had a fantastic ride on the 1.0 train, scooped up points like a pool skimmer but I actually put somewhat meaningful spend on the card not just the bananas. I chose to get the free Blue, and wait a while before trying to pay any rent/mortgage. Minimal skin in the game till the clown show is over and we see what shakes out.
Get used to it. It is becoming the norm with financial accounts. Although the primitive method used by Bilt/Cardless/Column will disappear soon. Expect to be sasked to look at your camera, turn your head left and right, while holding your DL.
You know why, don’t you? Fraud. And much bigger than the low-value 5x status crowd worshipped by Stephen in his pepper spray above.
So they had a promo that gave you only 6 days to spend up to $10K. And then they fault people for actually trying to spend $10K in that period of time and call it fraud?
This is a great reminder for people to send in their Arbitration Opt Out letters within 30 days of obtaining the card. I don’t have a Bilt card but based on my experience with a sports Cardless card, this requires you to mail a letter to their office in San Francisco. This would preserve your option to participate in a class action lawsuit vs mandatory arbitration.
This is a remarkable display of ineptitude by Bilt.
I think they were desperate after Wells dumped them and they took whomever they could find for a replacement issuer.
Cardless looks to be way out of their depth.
I was among the Bilt doubters (plus I don’t pay rent) so I never signed up for the original version.
Thank goodness I stayed away from this disaster. If they get it together, I will give them another look.
“This is a remarkable display of ineptitude by Bilt.”
How on earth can you conclude that? You haven’t been given any facts. Just a couple of anecdotes by someone who cannot explain the response of another writer, Gary Leff (see my link from View From The Wing, above), who documents, item-by-item, how he is getting record value from Bilt 2.0 and has reviewed just about every card on the market.
You are far too uncritical.
Are we going to trust them with our mortgage/rent payments after all this?
Regarding Ankur’s response, Kerr is a major gamer, so the suspicions abound.
Regarding the 5x for 5 days…not sure why that was available on a shill website, but not to the Bilt faithful/longstanding customers who went to the app (as has been thoroughly marketed to us to do by Bilt — their whole platform and messaging is around engaging the app!) to apply. \
Visionary disruptors in the truest sense of the word.
I think they are very limited on how many free points they can dole out right now. I am pretty sure BILT is on an extremely short leash with Cardless and Cardless does not want to be the new Wells Fargo and cannot afford to be. They should have never offered this TPG bonus to even begin with. They should have either offered this promo to anyone signing up in the first 24 hours or just not do it at all and saved themselves some face with all the launch disasters that already went down. I think getting out of doing the TPG promo for as many people as possible is definitely intentional and to their benefit as Cardless probably went into this with a caveat to BILT that they have a short window to either become profitable or go away into the sunset forever.
Slightly different take here…WF ate the cost of the rent before. This time it’s Bilt. Cardless pays Bilt for the points that are earned – 1X, 2X, 3X – and Bilt pays for the multiplier or the Bilt Cash. They figure Cardless is paying enough for the original points that they can cover the rent points. So this all means each bonus point is coming out of their pocket and they are just trying to “sell” points to Cardless and “buy” them from the airlines and keep the spread. Raises two risks: 1) they are buying for higher than they sell for because customer purchasing behavior has changed with the new cards, or 2) they devalue the program to stay above water because they can no longer afford to be as generous as they once were. Let’s hope their math was right.
Can I add my user experience with the Bilt Palladium? Received my Bilt Card early last week – and anticipated the 2/7 kickoff after I activated (or so I thought) my card. I waited until 2/7 – and opened my Bilt App. The $500 in Bilt Cash was there, but no Palladium card was listed. Strange? It gets better. In the drop-down – it offered the ability for another Palladium card – preapproved, no less … despite me physically having my first card in my possession – yet not shown anywhere. Not on the PC – and not on my Phone App. Hey – but the Bilt Cash is there – right? Lol. Naturally, just for giggles, I tried adding the shiny new Palladium (I did ‘activate it’ after all) to my Samsung and Google wallets to get the additional 3x multiplier for the mobile wallet (expires today – oh well). Of course, neither the Samsung nor the Google wallets would add it… Why would I expect a different result? Then I called Bilt, who, after a very long hold, told me that it was not their issue – I needed to call Cardless. Three calls later to Cardless after being ‘expedited’ two levels, I have been told that it is a ‘system problem’ affecting many accounts, and they ‘hope’ to have it fixed by the end of the week. Of course – they did offer to send me another brand new Palladium card if I’d prefer – but it wouldn’t arrive for10 days. I told them I’d wait for the fix (it’s ‘in’ by the way…lol). True story. Can’t make this up.
I guess I’m the one lucky guy who hasn’t had any problems. Got the card early set up first day. No TPG promo, but I also didn’t sign up from that link.
Card worked online and in person on day one. With 3x point boost activated and tracking. Only goofy thing was not being to add card to DoorDash. Also be careful at Walmart I got a display at the register with the option to pay with points.
I set up mortgage account and bank linking to pay card. I have not paid my mortgage yet, but seemed pretty integrated, fingers crossed.
Right now I’m pretty close to the SUB, and was thinking about building a good stack of points in Bilt. I was not a 1.0 member but have decent ish amount from rakuten and Lyft.
My hope for this not being Mesa 2.0 is there are several other aspects of their business beyond cards. However I do worry if a panic run on points becomes a “run on the bank”.
I know 5 people personally who got Palladium, 2 with TPG promo and 3 without (including myself and my P2). And only these 3 with no problem at all (online transactions and in-store).
The statistical sample is small, but thought-provoking.
Knock on wood, but I haven’t had any problems either. Signed up through TPG. Confirmed through Bilt chat. Card arrived on the 6th, as stated in the tracker. Already hit the MSR and received the SUB along with TPG bonus points for each posted transaction. Tried a small mortgage payment and it posted the next day and the points arrived today after Bilt Cash was deducted. One more big transaction to go to max out the TPG bonus. Fingers crossed.