90K Bilt points through welcome bonuses

Until recently, there weren’t many opportunities to earn many Bilt points through welcome bonuses. People previously earned Bilt points primarily through credit card spend, rewards for paying rent, and shopping or dining with Bilt’s partners. Two big developments have changed all that. First, with the rollout of Bilt 2.0, Bilt introduced a big 50,000-point welcome bonus for the Palladium card. Second, Bilt teamed up with the Rakuten shopping portal. It’s now possible to earn Bilt points through Rakuten, and that unlocks several new ways to earn Bilt points, including through welcome bonuses and signup offers.

This is interesting because Bilt points can be incredibly valuable. Compared to other transferable points programs, Bilt has the best collection of transfer partners. Additionally, Bilt periodically offers incredible transfer bonuses, especially for those who have elite status. If you have Gold elite status plus Bilt Cash to spend (both of which you can get from the Palladium card), it’s common to get access to 100% transfer bonuses on select Rent Days (the first of the month). This is why, despite many issues with the Bilt 2.0 rollout, I signed up for the Palladium card and spend heavily on it (see: My revised Bilt 2 plan).

The following steps show how it’s possible to earn 90,000 Bilt points, or more, through welcome offers…

Rakuten portal: Bilt elite status is essential

Within the Rakuten portal, you can choose to earn cash back, Amex Membership Rewards points, or Bilt points. The portal tracks your earnings over time and pays out just once per quarter. The next quarterly payout will be on May 15th, and that’s the last time those who choose to earn Bilt points will receive one-to-one payouts from Rakuten… unless they have Bilt elite status. Starting with the August 2026 payout, non-elite Bilt members will receive only 1 Bilt point for every 2 cents of portal-earned cash back. Elite members, though, will continue to earn 1 Bilt point for every 1 cent of portal-earned cash back. If you don’t have Bilt elite status, I highly recommend choosing to earn Amex Membership Rewards points or cash back instead.

You can earn Bilt Silver elite status by earning 50,000 points or through $10K in qualifying non-housing spend. Unfortunately, points earned from a Bilt welcome bonus or from Rakuten don’t count towards the 50,000 points for elite status. If you have a Bilt credit card, you can qualify for elite status with $10K of non-housing spend (or a combination of credit card spend and purchases with Bilt partners or through Bilt’s travel portal). Read more about Bilt elite status here.

Another way to earn Bilt elite status, valid for the rest of this year and all of next, is to sign up for Bilt’s Palladium card and meet the minimum spend requirements…

Bilt Palladium Card: 50,000 Bilt points

At the time of this writing, the welcome offer for the Bilt Palladium card is as follows:

• Earn 50,000 Bilt points plus Gold elite status after $4K non-housing spend in the first 3 months, plus $300 Bilt Cash when you apply & are approved.

Learn more about the Palladium card and find the current offer here.

Rakuten Portal: 5,000 Bilt points

If you haven’t yet signed up for the Rakuten portal, you can sign up through a friend’s referral link in order to earn extra points. Once you have an account, you can select to earn Bilt points (rewards will still be shown as cash back, but once per quarter, the cash back will be converted to Bilt points). At the time of this writing, Rakuten’s refer-a-friend offer is as follows:

• Earn $50 (equal to 5,000 Bilt points if you have Bilt elite status) after you spend $50 through the portal within 90 days of signing up.

Learn more about this deal and find the current referral offer here.

Bank of America Credit Card: 15,000 Bilt points

The Rakuten portal offers bonus points for signing up for select credit cards (see here), and these points are in addition to the welcome bonuses offered by the issuing bank. At the time of this writing, most Rakuten portal members (but weirdly, not everyone) are being offered $150 cash back (equal to 15,000 Bilt points if you have Bilt elite status) for clicking through to sign up for either the Bank of America Travel Rewards Credit Card or the Customized Cash Rewards Credit Card. Note: For a few days, Rakuten was offering $250 for the Travel Rewards card, but that payout was reduced to $150. This is a good reminder that Rakuten’s payouts can change at any time.

It’s important to note that Rakuten’s $150 is in addition to the welcome bonus that Bank of America is currently offering. So, you can earn 15,000 Bilt points from Rakuten, plus $200 to $250 back from Bank of America. Both rewards require application approval. The Bank of America cash back also requires $1,000 spend on the new card.

It is possible to sign up for both Bank of America cards in order to earn both sets of bonuses. See detailed application rules for Bank of America here.

Rakuten’s payouts change frequently. Find current Rakuten credit card offers here.

Rakuten American Express Card: 20,000 Bilt points

The Rakuten American Express card normally offers $100 (equivalent to 10,000 Bilt points if you have Bilt elite status) after $1,000 in spend within 90 days. However, Rakuten periodically offers a $200 bonus (equal to 20,000 Bilt points if you have Bilt elite status) instead. Sometimes this bonus is available to everyone for a short period. Sometimes, the bonus is targeted. For example, shortly after installing the Rakuten browser extension, I found that the $200 offer popped up frequently.

If you’re interested in this card, I recommend waiting to sign up until you find a $200 offer.

Other signup bonuses

There are many other ways to earn signup bonuses through the Rakuten portal, beyond signing up for credit cards. For example, at the time of this writing, I see the following offers (note that offers change frequently and are sometimes targeted):

• Mercury Savings Account 15,000 Bilt Points: Earn $150 (equal to 15,000 Bilt points if you have Bilt elite status). Requires being a new customer, opening a new savings account, and doing a direct deposit of $1,000 or more within 30 days.
• SoFi Banking 12,500 Bilt Points: Earn $125 (equal to 12,500 Bilt points if you have Bilt elite status). Requires opening a new checking or savings account and doing a direct deposit of $500 or more within 45 days.
• BILL 12,500 Bilt Points: Earn $125 (equal to 12,500 Bilt points if you have Bilt elite status). Requires being a new user and making your first payment of an Accounts Payable/Accounts Receivable subscription plan (plans start at $49 per month).
• Willow Wealth 10,000 Bilt Points: Earn $100 (equal to 10,000 Bilt points if you have Bilt elite status). I don’t fully understand the terms, so I’ll copy them here: “Cash Back is available only on AI AIQ Approved. Members must prove annual income of at least $200,000 for single household, $300,000 for joint household, or individual net worth of $1,000,000 excluding the value of primary residence for two years to be eligible. Cash Back is not available on AI Signup and AI Upload AIQ. This offer and any payouts are from Rakuten, not Willow Wealth (formerly Yieldstreet).”

Conclusion

The combination of Bilt’s new card offers and its partnership with Rakuten has opened new ways to earn Bilt points through welcome offers and sign-up bonuses. If you haven’t completely soured on Bilt due to its many Bilt 2.0 rollout issues (Details: here, here, here, and here), then a path like the one shown above may be worth considering.

Note: Whenever we write anything even slightly positive about Bilt, some commenters inevitably accuse us of being sellouts, as if we wrote the article to earn a commission. That is not true and has never been true. Bilt has no sway over our content. We never publish sponsored posts, and we never write posts to earn commissions. Our goal is always to publish information that we think our readers will enjoy reading and/or benefit from. In fact, this particular post is more likely to result in less revenue for Frequent Miler, not more, because it will prompt readers to apply for credit cards by clicking through Rakuten rather than our site.

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