In a recent post (First steps towards rebuilding my point fortune: Bilt and AA) I reported that I had been approved for a Bilt credit card. Since then, I received the card, started using it, and have already accumulated 50,000 points and Gold status. Here are a few quick first impressions…
Instant credit card access
One really cool thing about the Bilt card is that the moment you are approved for the card, you can start using it. Within the Bilt Rewards app, you can view your full card number and add the card to your mobile wallet (Apple Pay, Google Pay, etc.). Unfortunately, the card’s welcome bonus (currently: 5x rewards for 5 days), doesn’t kick in until you get the card in the mail and activate it.
Quick card delivery
I received the physical Bilt card just 3 days after approval.
Wells Fargo’s systems are buggy
When you get the Bilt card, you can see your rewards within the Bilt app, but in order to manage your credit card, view pending transactions, and pay your bill, you have to log into your Wells Fargo account. When I tried to activate my online account, the system told me that I already had one. That was true. I used to have a Wells Fargo checking account, but no longer do. But, I do still have access to my Wells Fargo online account. Unfortunately, when I logged in, it said that I didn’t have any active bank accounts and so there was literally nothing I could see or do within the web site (or app, which I tried too). I then tried setting up a new Wells Fargo online account, but it told me that I already had an account and should log into that. Round and round it went. Luckily, all it took to fix this was a quick call to Wells Fargo. The phone agent apparently clicked the “make this account work correctly” button because within seconds I was able to log in and see my Bilt card information.
Bilt’s 5x for 5 days welcome bonus email never came
Bilt’s welcome offer for their card is now official: everyone who signs up can earn 5x rewards within the first 5 days upon the card arriving, with a cap of 50,000 bonus points (card details here) This offer is targeted to some cardholders. Since the 50K cap is on bonus points rather than base points, this means that a new cardholder can earn 5x on up to $12,500 of 1x spend. Until this offer became official, we only knew about it because readers kept reporting that they received an email with this offer after signing up for the Bilt card.
I never got that email. I had timed my application to correspond with some very large planned spend, and so I really wanted to earn 5x!
After a couple of days with the card, I messaged support, but even before getting a reply offering to reset the promo, I noticed that I had already earned 5x on the few purchases I had already made.
Bilt points post lightning fast
I completed a total of ~$10K of spend at 3:14PM on Monday. Tuesday morning at 8:01 AM, I received an email congratulating me for earning Gold status. You get Gold status once you’ve earned 50,000 Bilt points in a year. And, sure enough, when I logged into my Bilt account I saw that 50,000+ points were there! That’s amazing to me because with other credit cards it usually seems like charges stay pending for several days. Additionally, some other programs wait until your statement closes in order to make the rewards points available to you. I believe that Capital One is quick to dole out points like this as well, but they’re the only other issuer I can think of that does that. This is awesome. It means that if I’m short on the points needed for an award, and if I have spend that I can do quickly, I now know that I can get the needed points from that spend quickly.
Overall impression
While there were a few hiccups with signing up for the card, and setting up the card, I’m very happy with it now that it’s up and running. It’s absolutely awesome that points are awarded so quickly! So far, I’ve earned about 40,000 of the 50,000 bonus points allowed with the 5x promo. As I write this, I have one day left with the 5x promo and about $2,000 left to spend in 1x categories (or more in 2x or 3x categories). If I max out the promo in time, entirely within 1x categories, I’ll earn a total of 62,500 points on $12,500 spend. That’s excellent when considering how many great transfer partners Bilt has, and how they regularly offer incredible transfer bonuses during Rent days.
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As usual, I am grateful and impressed with FM advice. I also got the 5x offer for first five days! Tell me, the miles and benefits seem too-good-to-be-true for a fee-free card, no??? So, when I read 6 hour delay travel insurance (wow!) up to $200pp/day…paint me skeptical. It goes on to read only if the entire fare was paid with card. Does that cover an airline award ticket where I charged ~$6 in taxes?
Just got the Bilt card and the 5x for 5 days bonus offer email. Can I make payments for bills through Plastiq and still get the 5x or is that not allowed?
I’d be very surprised if that wasn’t allowed. Can you make one small payment through Plastiq now and then wait a day or so to see if it earns 5x before doing more?
I just got the card. Was delivered yesterday. No email for 5x. Put a charge on it yesterday and was at 1x, put one today and currently pending
Reached out to support and got this email “The eligibility of a new Bilt MasterCard holder for the 5x promotion is determined randomly. Once a member has received the card but has not received the email for the promotion, we’re unable to override the system.
Additionally, please note that you’ll receive promotions via email every month, so be on the lookout.”
Any thoughts here?
I am in a similar situation too. I have seen quite a few data points of those who received the 5x offer even though they didn’t get the notification email. Did you manage to pursue the matter further with the rewards team?
1x earning on first 3 days of card. reached out again to rewards team
the rewards team told me that this is a targeted offer so it is not true that anyone who signs up will get it
Our Bilt contact is trying to get this resolved. The person that told you that gave you incorrect information
Update: Bilt has now ended the 5x promo as a standard feature (eg now some people get it but others do not). We’re trying to get guidance from Bilt about how to fix this for those who signed up while we showed the 5x offer as standard. We’ll post as soon as we know. In the meantime anyone who hasn’t reported the problem to Bilt support should do so ASAP.
Appreciate it. Reached out to them but haven’t heard back. Let us know if there’s any update!
I applied back in June and never got the offer and was told it was targeted in June. BILT is all over the place and I don’t trust them. This is what I received from them by email on June 23: “The 5X for the first 5 days promotion you might be referring to is given randomly to a few new cardholders after they activate the Bilt Mastercard. If you received an email from us letting you know of this promotion, send me a screenshot of it so we can take a closer look.”
If I open a new Bilt card to pay school tuition via check mode not credit card mode, will that count as 5x bonus?
No
In the Wallet tab of the Bilt app, I can see all my card transactions and pay my bill. But my welcome offer of 5x points on all transactions was simply that- 5x. It doesn’t take into account the base rate and allow 50K bonus like discussed on the latest podcast.
It doesn’t show you that complexity but it’s there
I am not seeing the 5x bonus anywhere on the page, so I’m hesitant. Am I missing something?
I read from somewhere else that you will get an email from Bilt after opening the account to “surprise” you with the 5x bonus. Bilt claims that they only send the email to some but not all. However, it looks like everyone is getting it now. But no one knows how long this will last.
Greg, I am still confused. At the end of the month I have expenses (home improvement $6,000 and cruise payment $6,000) to be paid. How many points will I earn, if I spend this much (in 5 days) when I sign up for Bilt? Or am I overspending?
I’m sorry for the very late reply. Here’s how it would work if those payments fell within your 5x promo:
Base earnings:
Bonus earnings:
Since the total bonus earnings are less than 50K, you would get all of the above points for a total of 60K
Sounds like with the referral, you won’t get the points if the person already has a Bilt account (but not the Bilt Mastercard) ? Unsure if I should wait to sign my P2 up for a Bilt account for the various rent day promotions/free points or wait until maybe she gets the Bilt CC to get the 2500 points.
[…] Update: This signup bonus of up to 50,000 points is now apparently official, as reported by FM. Some people are seeing it on the app when signing up, but I didn’t see it when I checked. […]
[…] page上写出来，但是大家在开卡之后会收到email说有这个开卡奖励。HT: DoC&FM。我们向Bilt官方确认了一下，他们的意思是他们想把这个作为surprise […]
I have two HOAs :-(. Someone told me you can only pay one HOA with Bilt. Is that true?
Yes that’s my understanding
[…] Greg Davis-Kean confirms that new cardmembers are still extended this offer, […]
Important also to note that you have to pay RENT instead of a mortgage for most of Bilt’s benefits to work. For the rest of us, the card has little value
Don’t forget to link to partners in the app. You get a bonus for this, too.
I’ve mentioned this briefly before but clearly their are huge differences in income with people in this community.
How does a regular Joe with a 9 to 5 job drop $12,500 in spend in 5 days? Not to mention all the big spend requirements on the oodles of business cards everyone seems to get.
Unless I hear some solid legal manufactured spend suggestions that aren’t loading up on zillions of dollars in gift cards at office supply stores for 5x and then doing ??? with them I’m not seeing how the average Joe does most of this stuff?
You have identified the dilemma correctly.
If Average Joe office worker makes $50K per year, even if he somehow manages to run 100% of his income through credit cards, that’s only what … 4 or 5 of the “big card” SUBS per year? (The AMEX business gold is $10K to get the SUB, the business platinum is $15K) And most folks can’t get that much through cards, when considering it’s usually not worth it for a mortgage, and you likely have 25% of your income going towards paycheck deductions (401K, insurance, taxes, etc).
So, as I see it, Average Joe has 3 options:
1) Be happy with a modest amount of points annually
2) Pay bills for other people (a player 2 can come into play here)
3) Do some manufactured spending
I’m about as average as it gets. 9-5 job, wife, 2 kids. Very little side income.
I do a combination of 2 and 3.
Not easy, but rewarding.
This card can help those that pay rent and have modest incomes. But the trick would be concentrating on cards that offer SUB’s with lower spend requirements. There are cards that award bonuses with just a single purchase. Turn every unexpected expense into a SUB. AC goes out, find a card with SUB and interest free period to pay for it. Anyone can find something to show ~business activity to be eligible for Biz Cards.
There are posts on this site and others about how to meet min spend requirements.
What Greg doesn’t mention here (but has alluded to in a few other post and the podcast) is that he has a method to manufacture spend at about a 2% loss. Obviously, the 5X points more than make up for this (as he’s probably using each point for greater than 2 cents per points with Hyatt and AA, meaning he probably is going to make back 10%+ on these purchases that he lost 2% on). He’s already said he won’t share his MS method as he doesn’t want to kill it.
If you’re not familiar with MS, FM has a whole post about the general concept, but the gist is that you “spend” money in some way, and then find a way to get that money back into your bank account. In your example, using gift cards, you’d generally buy money orders or find some kind of prepaid card you can load to return funds back to your bank account.
If you wanted a more above the board way to do this, you could use some of your savings to “time shift” your spend, such as paying / overpaying estimated taxes, prepaying utilities that accepts cards, or any pre-paying any other large, reoccurring payments that you have.
As you astutely pointed out, this is one of the only ways for middle class people to rack up big spend.
“He’s already said he won’t share his MS method as he doesn’t want to kill it.”
Worthless to me then. Not sure how I feel when a resource that is supposed to teach you how to do this holds back information on how to do this. 🙂
The 2% method died at the end of last year. I had promised not to share it and so I didn’t.
Did you promise not to share it posthumously too? It could be instructive.
I wanted to understand how BILT Protect works because i do not like such a huge credit on my history at any point of time. But Wells Fargo is bad with its CS.
I use Bilt Protect and it works well. Basically, the charge appears on your card and Bilt immediately triggers a payment for the same amount from your designated bank account. If you’re only worried about your credit report, you could accomplish the same thing by paying it down yourself anytime before the statement closing date, but their system is obviously easier and also preserves your Bilt credit line if you have other purchases to make on the card and might be getting close to your credit line.
Any data points on how BILT feels about tax payments? I just got the card and was thinking about putting a $12,500 quarterly payment (payment + payment to equal $12,500) on it.
I put my 1040 ES payment on the Bilt card on the first of June. Received the 2X points, with no issue.
Also made some insurance payments on the first of the month, same thing.
Great, thanks!
[…] 8/11/23: FM is saying that this signup bonus is now official. (We still don’t see it showing on the […]
Those who haven’t figured out the value of the Bilt card don’t want to put in the effort to figure it out. They want to be given all of the answers. They want to be spoon fed. They want someone to wipe their butt for them. Wallow in mediocrity.
What a lame attitude to have about ANY card.
Where’s my pee-wee soccer trophy for just showing up?
Mister Miyagi says, “Paint the fence.”
Been a BILT card member since Jan 22 so before they started the 5X points for first 5 days – so that IS a sign up bonus. Second – the problems I’ve encountered – their customer service team always fixes – eventually. I thought I would only transfer to AA but their rent day promos for flying blue and virgin were hugely valuable. And the rent day via BILT app is a fun way to engage customers.
If you apply for this card via a friend’s referral link, do you still get this 5X for 5 days welcome bonus?
Yep
Here’s something I found with payments to the Bilt card:
1) if you pay via Wells Fargo using a non Wells Fargo account (like chase in my case) it takes 2 weeks for the payment to post. I spoke to customer care three different times and they all said, it’s a “non Wells Fargo” account.
2) if you pay using any account via Bilt app, the payment posts between instant to 24 hours. So I got rid of the Wells Fargo app all together and just use the Bilt app.
3) They do a hard pull for Credit limit increases. You have to call the number on back of your card (wells Fargo’s customer care for bilt). I recently did that and went from $4k to $10k.
Just something I found being a Bilt card member since April 2022.
Hmm, that’s interesting – I also use my Chase acc to pay BILT via WF website bill but never faced such a lag, it’s usually between 2-3 business days and yup it’s def f aster via the App.
Things might have changed. This was during April-July 2022. It was frustrating so I started using BILT app for payments and never looked back.
Honestly shocked people still recommend dealing with this company. I had to interact with their customer service during the Bilt/Hyatt promo and it was truly horrific. HARD pass on this card..
Just a little anecdote in regard to quick posting of points. Although Amex US takes until the statement following the statement that the points are earned on for membership rewards, Amex Canada somehow can manage to post MR the same day as the transaction posts.
Just to confirm, so you can start the 5X / 5 days window several days (through card activation) after receiving the card in the mail, e.g., if you happen to be out of town when it drops into your mailbox?
I think so
I’ve been out of town since my card arrived at home (8/3), I confirmed with Bilt and We’ll Fargo that I could continue to use the digital card. And have also confirmed that I earned the 5x/5days without activating the physical card.
Cheat code! Just never activate and always use your phone????
They only give you a month before the digital card expires though
So the digital / temporary card earns 5x too even before you activate physical?
Yes, I received a text and email confirming the “SUB” and then confirmed that purchases I made with the digital card were posting with 1x + 4x bonus
This is very very interesting
Greg; Your website is truly renowned for its unwavering integrity. Regrettably, endorsing these individuals doesn’t quite align with the lofty standards you typically uphold.
An exceedingly poor experience with them. Their customer service is virtually non-existent.
All I’m doing is being completely honest about my experience with the card — and I’ll continue to do so. Yes, as with every bank ever, we’ve heard some complaints, but we’ve also heard from plenty of readers who love the card. I don’t have any reason to single Bilt out and treat it differently than other rewards cards.
Not an “integrity” issue at all. If you disagree, disagree. (Although I don’t know how you disagree with someone else’s experience). Questioning his integrity is bizarre and mean.
I don’t see how his reporting his experience is not aligning with those standards. It’s not like Greg is hiding something. I imagine if he had a bad experience he’d report that, too (and he has talked about the hiccups he’s encountered).
I’ve had the card for almost 2 years (2 come November) and have never had a negative experience with them; and it’s probably one of the two or three cards I use the most.
All that aside, sorry you had a bad experience, though!
You go to a restaurant and have a rotten meal. Greg goes to the same restaurant, enjoys his meal, and reports on. Are you actually saying because you had a rotten meal that Greg cannot report on his enjoyable meal? Express your opinion that your meal was rotten but don’t criticize Greg.
1. Your experience is not everyone’s experience. Even the best companies have some unhappy customers. (Not saying Bilt/ WF is one, because. . .)
2. Greg has reported several frustrating aspects of dealing with Bilt in his posts. But those might not matter because. . .
3. We’re sometimes willing to deal with poor customer service if the value is there otherwise. I have a Barclay’s card and have booked with Avianca Life miles in full cognizance of their respective reputations
I hate Wells Fargo with a burning passion and will never get the Bilt card for that reason. However, I don’t run a blog so I can have as many strong opinions as I want. I appreciate FM’s excellent coverage, including of many products I never plan to use myself for a variety of reasons. Please appreciate that as bloggers part of what they do is to get out and try as many things as possible so we all learn from their efforts. I have no doubt Greg will report his experiences, warts and all.
Approved for a $2k limit with this card. Don’t think I can hit the sign up offer.
There is no sign up offer
Didn’t read the blog post? 😉
Grigory, will all three of you be Bilting or are you going solo for the time being?
Solo. Sort of.
My son has had the card for a while now and just uses it like a normal person 🙂
What a weirdo. Lol.
So we can finally put the rest the zombie myth that the Bilt card has no SUB! It has a 50k bonus if one makes $10,000 in purchases in the first 5 days, plus the possibility of reaching Silver or Gold status instantly. Very tight window with high spend, but if you’re on your A-game, and lined up for the sprint, it’s possible. They’re still working out a few bugs, but they’re easy to get past, and the card is unquestionably awesome for people who know what they’re doing.
Add in the fact that it’s a Mastercard, and you can stack it with SimplyMiles offers. Glad that you’ve had a great experience, Greg…welcome to the club!
I understand they have good transfer partners but how is 50k points on 12.5k spend within 5 days considered a good SUB?
Just of off the top of my head if you would do the same at office supply stores with a ink cash you would wind up with 137.5k points(177.5k with a referral). And you would have 3 months to do it
I’m not sure anyone said that it was a good SUB, just that it has a SUB
I guess not a great SUB is better than none at all.
Question is how do you plan on amassing bilt points from here on? Even with their great transfer bonuses, 62.5k points will only get you so far…
I don’t know for sure how Greg will do it, but I imagine he’ll use the card for 6x dining on the first of the month and 2x “everywhere else” on the 1st of the month now and then. Obviously he isn’t going to generate millions of Bilt points, but that doesn’t make it not worth generating what he will using it in those ways. And for dining, if he isn’t going to use an Amex Gold card (or can’t because it isn’t accepted), I think 3x Bilt beats 3x URs. In Greg’s case, he still has a Citi Prestige card and 3x Bilt probably doesn’t beat 5x Citi, so maybe he won’t use it for dining on a regular basis, but I could certainly see some doing that.
I use the card to reload my Foxtail Coffee balance and eat out on the 1st for 6x, and 2x on utilities, automated charities, prepaid tolls, Costco gift cards, and any other spending I can wait for the top of the month (beats my CFU/EDP/BBP – can’t get a Venture card). My go-to for dining all other times (3x Bilt beats 3x UR), and will replace my Amex Green for hotels. Occasionally get 4x booking awards and/or paid travel when prices aren’t volatile. Add in the 100%-150% transfer bonuses for double effect. It doesn’t generate a morass of points, but it doesn’t take anything away from any of my other cards, and generates a consistent stream without effort, coupon booking, or cost.
Forget racking up millions, I’m asking how is he planning on getting to 100k? How much does he eat out on the 1st day of the month already? I don’t see how 3x bilt is better than 5x Citi TYP for the other days of the month.
I get that this is a “fun” card with a slick app and some cool features but I’m just struggling to see the value.
I imagine he’ll do what I’d do: buy gift cards at his favorite restaurants on the 1st of the month and use them whenever he wants. Greg has previously noted in posts about the CSR that he spends quite a bit on dining.
Like I said before, 3x dining probably isn’t better than 5x dining, though I also wouldn’t be surprised if Greg has or eventually gets enough Thank You points that he doesn’t need more (there are only so many Choice Privileges stays he’s going to have, and otherwise he’s got the other partners he uses there covered with other currencies as well). So I wouldn’t be shocked if at some point he decides he has enough TY points. On the other hand, I don’t think he’ll ever decide that he has enough Hyatt points and there’s no other way to earn 3x AA miles, so I could see shifting some dining spend this way.
Again, he’s not going to end up with as many points as he will in other programs, but if he can earn 6x dining on the first of the month and 3x other days and then transfer them when there are these ~100% transfer bonuses, that’s a return that would be silly to turn down. I’m not sure why he wouldn’t take advantage of that. We obviously don’t know that there will continue to be big transfer bonuses and who knows which ones will be useful for him, but part of this game is positioning yourself for those wins.
I don’t have a concrete plan, but here are my thoughts about how I’ll use the card going forward (whether it will get me to 100k or not, I don’t know):
In general, even without thinking about dining and travel, if one could spend $4K each Rent Day, and none of it was dining or travel, they would earn almost 100K points per year. 4K x 2 = 8K x 12 months = 96K
If you could do $10K each month, that’s a total of 240K points per year.
I guess it sounds like you have a plan. I just find it strange that you would spend 10k a month on this card when you could be churning Inks and Amex NLL offers for the same spend (unless you are able to MS without limit), especially on a blog where everything has a “RVV” and every spend is weighed to the smallest details up to which portal to use.
Greg explained in another blog post “Plans for rebuilding my point fortune” that he has enough chase points and amex points for the moment and he is low on AA miles. Greg also mentioned that if you have enough certain points and miles, you may prioritize other currency. For example, if you are burning faster than you can generate the necessary chase points, focus on Inks. If you earning faster than burning chase points, you can look for other transferrable currency or even airline miles and hotel points.
If he is short on AA miles the logical step would be to get the SUB on all of the Citi and Barclays AA cards first.
Again, in Greg’s post “Plans for rebuilding my point fortune,” he has a section that hopefully will answer your question. I copied and pasted it below. And is it that important for Greg to apply credit cards in certain orders? Bilt points can be transferred to AA and I assume it is not like Greg needs AA points tomorrow.
“My Point Plans…American Airlines AAdvantage MilesThe fastest way to earn AA miles is through credit card welcome bonuses. Last month I picked up the Citibusiness AAdvantage card when the welcome offer was for 65,000 points after $4K spend. Going forward, I could earn significant numbers of points from Barclays’ Aviator Red card, Barclays’ Aviator Business card, the Citi AAdvantage Platinum Select card, and the AAdvantage Executive World Elite card. As I write this, there in an excellent 70K offer for the Barclays business card, but only 50K offers for Aviator Red and the Citi AAdvantage Platinum Select card. The Executive card offer is expected to jump up to 100K in the next day or so, along with its new bigger annual fee (see: AA “enhances” the Citi Executive card and encourages spend elsewhere).
Beyond the welcome bonuses, several AA cards offer companion certificates with $20K or $30K spend (see our AA card comparison here). So, simply spending a lot on AA cards can result in both miles earned and additional perks.
In addition to earning AA miles from new credit card offers and from spend, I can shop through the AAdvantage eShopping portal and maybe even book some hotels through AAdvantage Hotels if I can find any good deals there.”
All blogs are there to drive affiliate revenue and conversions. It’s not a charity. These guys have kids to put through college just like everyone else. I have a feeling that affiliate commissions pay out more than 6x at the Cheesecake Factory on the 1st of the month (could be mistaken, haven’t eaten at the Cheesecake Factory in awhile).
Exactly, Greg. It’s not an ideal SUB, but it’s not zero; that’s the counterpoint to naysayers. What constitutes a “good” SUB is highly subjective. There’s plenty of people who would disagree that the Ink Preferred or Business Platinum offers are good SUBs because the spending requirement to hit them is unobtanium, even if Plastiq still worked as well as it once did to use rent and other expenses. Those folks simply don’t and can’t spend that much money without financial risk in 6 months, much less 3 (not for a lack of creativity). Doesn’t matter how many points or perks are on offer if there’s no practical way to reach it.
The Bilt card’s value is accessible to anyone, from broke college students to savvy bloggers, and one can get no-brainer value regardless of your level of spend or fee tolerance, without having to contort oneself. It’s not a niche value like the Ink Cash, which is only great if you are able and willing to jump through those hoops.
I think I’d asked this before but didn’t follow up to see your answer. I’m a homeowner but also own a business. Can I put my company’s rent in the Bilt card?
I think it’s one of those things where they don’t officially allow it but some people have been successful anyway. Here’s the comment thread from your original question: https://frequentmiler.com/first-steps-towards-rebuilding-my-point-fortune/#comment-2376858
You can also put HOA fees on the card. I don’t rent, so I do this instead. You are limited to one “rent” transaction per month.
Don’t forget to couple it with your curve card for 6x on dinning and 2x everything when you “call back in time” on rent days! Cr: Calby Ng on YouTube
What’s the play here? Use your Curve card for purchases in the days prior to the first of the month, then change them to Bilt on the first? Does this work in practice?
Yes that’s exactly how it works. Curve puts the charge on another Mastercard and you can move it one time within 30 days to another mastercard-bilt in this case. I wonder if this trick can extend the 5 day 5x period to essentially 35 days if you are timing it right haha. Ps Look for Carby’s video if you want more details.
Bilt says this won’t work. It might squeak through occasionally, but they have systems in place to keep this from working regularly.
How do you know they have systems in place to stop this in particular? Source? Not trying to start an inquisition, just curious. I believe mastercard allows curve to do this, if bilt had an issue then it would be a confliction between issuer and network.
It was asked on FlyerTalk and a representative for Bilt said it would not work. I am not sure MC has much to do with awarding of points. Posting a payment and getting points for that transaction are two different things.
I’m not 100% sure how curve works as I don’t have it. But if it keeps the same MCC(dining) and charges on the first of the month I’d expect points to be award. As long as MCC is good, date is good, and network rules are followed, Idk why you’d have a problem. Granted, bilt may try to do some super contortion, hoop jumping, to deny it, if that happened it’d tell me more about them.
Not sure why them denying the gaming of their system as a negative on their credibility. They market it as BILT DAY, not apply all your charges from the month on a particular day to get more points Day. Most things I read from them is they have a good amount of people in their office that are points and miles people. So they know the tricks most use to game the system and have worked to keep that to a level they are comfortable with. I have no experience with trying this and maybe it works, but as with most all card providers, I wouldn’t be surprised if they determine it is being done and if it is officially against their policy, that points could be clawed back.
I don’t have a curve card and don’t know much about it beyond what i have read, but i do work with a lot of merchant account systems and you would be horrified in the amount of data that comes in with credit card transactions. So I would give it a decent chance that there is a field they can scan to tell if it is working through the curve system to reallocate prior period transactions and could screen those so awards don’t post the same.
Everyone is welcome to test those limits and hope we can get some first-hand experiences with Bilt on the subject.
Here is the referenced post.
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/35464945-post274.html
You don’t need to wait for them to figure out how to hit the Curve ball to tell you something about them — they’re pretty well known to be anti “gaming” and presumabely they will continue to be so. For a program that can’t be too easily gamed they’re pretty rewarding. If it doesn’t work for you, that’s okay.
I tested a few Go Back in Time purchases and found that Bilt awarded only the bonus points but not the base points on those purchases. If they do the same for Rent Day that will mean that you’ll earn the regular amount rather than the Rent Day doubled amt. I’ll do some more testing but I’m thinking that Bilt has plugged the Curve Rent Day hole.
Here’s another data point. I made a small test payment of $200 to our landlord, then realized it had been counted as my one rent payment for the month. I messaged support and explained the situation, and they instructed me to pay my rent with whatever method I wanted and then email back with documentation. By the end of the day, I had built points in the amount of my rent, even though I had paid it through ACH transfer at my bank. I was very impressed with that customer service decision and the speed with which it was completed.
I had a Well Fargo mortgage account and had to call for the magic button treatment when I got the card. I kept going in circles logging in. It was resolved with just one call and one agent.
I’m renting now and my landlord ‘strongly prefers’ zelle. I reached out on Reddit to Bilt and they have me send the zelle confirmation to Bilt via email and my points show up each month. Great customer service!
Make sure to post 5 transactions during your statement cycle or bonus points won’t post
Yep, thanks for the reminder
In response to a couple of the questions below, I updated the post with this info:
I received the physical card just 3 days after approval
In general, the points hit very fast (a day or two), but I had one month where they took 7-8 days. I also maxed out during the first five days. I do like the card for the 10,000 Hyatt points from spending on the first of the month, and occasionally they run targeted bonus opportunities (I have 5x on Amazon and 5x on food delivery).
Good to know! Thanks.
DSK, what is the 10,000 Hyatt points from spending on the 1st of the month offer?
If you spend $5000 on the first of the month, you get 2x points (more if bonus categories). So that is 10,000 Bilt points that can be transferred to Hyatt.
thank you very much!
I signed up for this credit card following your recommendation, and it was a huge mistake from the very beginning. The problems started from the moment I was approved and up until now. The rent payment I sent was canceled twice, the physical card never arrived, and on the virtual card, I am being denied for $3…
I love and appreciate your Side, but please be very cautious about recommending this card.
We had a hiccup in the beginning (2 months) when we used the card for rent payments, the memo info was incorrect. Since then we haven’t had an issue, going on our 2nd year. I use the card in physical and apple wallet without issues so that I cannot help with any info. Hopefully you are able to get it sorted since the tent point earnings are great. Flying to Hawaii for family of 4 in first because of rent and BILT promo. Good luck and hope it works out.
Sorry to hear about those issues! No luck with their support team?
Their support team is really bad. I had many issues with setting up this card, including the same verification problem you had applying and not getting the 5x promo (or at least not knowing if I did, I didn’t do any test purchases). It took over a week to fix the first issue, and they responded to me with completely non-sensical information on the second. Everybody gets a welcome email from the CEO 1-2 weeks after getting the card, with an offer to respond directly to the email with any questions or concerns. I did that and laid out all the issues I had and he quickly responded back and had the 5x promo added to my account. It’s great that he’s willing to work on behalf of new customers like that, but I wish the frontline support team was better equipped.
Does their esteemed customer support division actually exist?
I tried communicating with them through Twitter. It was a waste of time. It took them a whole day to respond. And, of course, they don’t have answers.
Hi Tuv, Theo here from Bilt Rewards support. We’d love to help you out. Would you be able to send me an email support@biltrewards.com so I can take a look at your account?
This all sounds really frustrating. I hate poor customer service. I wrote a couple of months ago about a family member’s really poor experience with Barclays in getting approved for the Wyndham Earner Business card (didn’t get instantly approved, then needed to fax copies of SSN and ID and then the fax wasn’t dark enough and had to fax again and then they wanted a mailed copy of a 4506-T but then she got approved sooner than they could have possibly received the 4506-T — customer service all along the way was really poor. Does her poor experience make me feel like I should be cautious about recommending the card? Not really. Another family member was instantly approved, as was I. We hear customer service complaints about every entity in the business — if we stopped writing about every company with which some people have reported negative experiences, we’d not write about anyone. That doesn’t excuse the poor customer service stories, it’s just to say that we tend to write about our experience and frankly my expectations for customer service from most companies are pretty low these days, so I always hope to not need it.
Agree Nick, but I know Greg specifically mentioned that he had reached out to higher ups to fix his issues at the beginning, so in this particular case, I don’t know that FM is getting the true onboarding experience. It took me a lot longer to resolve the same issue he had.
That said, I’ve heard from others that their experience was smooth, and in my case, even with the bumps, I still wouldn’t hesitate to recommend the product. I mean, I was able to accumulate 180k Virgin points after a couple of months, so it’s definitely not a question of whether to recommend, just to be aware that they have some deficiencies when it comes to communication.
I missed the 5x completely – totally my fault for not being prepared when I got the card in March. In any case, I still love this card. I moved most of my “routine” bills to the first of the month (long process BTW), and hit them up for 2x monthly. I will rotate this card, in with Gold, CSP for dining to spread the points out. Rarely use for travel. The speed of posting (esp when you want to test a new vendor for 3x or 1x is helpful). I do get more false positive fraud hits than any other card I have so pay attention to your emails as you can easily resolve this by saying “not fraud”.
Got the card before the 5x, wish they would retro some of that for us OG card holders lol. Got it when it was synchrony (?) bank.
Thank you, Greg!
How long before you received the actual card?
Greg, roughly how long did the physical card take to arrive? That info might help people wanting to time the 5x promo spend, which as you say requires physical card activation.