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Bilt Rewards has announced a partnership with Walgreens that will allow members to earn points on many/most pharmacy purchases: 2x on Walgreens-branded items; 1x on everything else. In addition, you can also earn 100 Bilt points per prescription refill.
It’s not necessary to use the Bilt Mastercard in order to receive bonus points, nor do you have to be a Bilt elite member. As long as you shop with a card that’s saved to your Bilt Wallet, you’ll earn points in addition to credit card rewards (like 3x Ultimate Rewards on the Chase Freedom Unlimited card).
As part of this rollout, Bilt is also offering a service to identify purchases that are eligible for reimbursement by a Flexible Spending Account (FSA) or Health Savings Account (HSA). After flagging eligible items, it will then help by transferring funds to your credit card from a linked FSA/HSA payment card.
The Deal
- You can now earn Bilt points in addition to credit card rewards on most purchases at Walgreens:
- Earn 1x on in-store and online Walgreens purchases
- Earn 2x on Walgreens-branded items
- Earn 100 points on up to 26 prescription refills per year
- There’s a decent list of excluded items (see below)
- In order to earn rewards, you have to save a credit card to your Bilt Wallet and then use that card at Walgreens. In order to earn the 100 points prescription bonus, you’ll have “enable rewards” in the Bilt app by going to the “Neighborhood” section of and selecting “Pharmacy” from the top menu option. Note that the below image is a screenshot provided by Bilt. I don’t have the Pharmacy section in my app as of writing this.
- In addition, Bilt can automatically identify items that are eligible for reimbursement by a Flexible Spending Account (FSA) or Health Savings Account (HSA).
Terms and Conditions
- The following items are excluded from earning bonus Bilt points through this offer:
alcohol; dairy; tobacco; stamps; phone/prepaid/gift cards; money orders/transfers; transportation passes; lottery tickets; charitable donations; pseudoephedrine or ephedrine products; clinic services; pharmacy items or services covered under Washington state workers’ compensation laws. - Bilt points cannot be earned on prescriptions received through mail-order services;
prescriptions received through specialty pharmacy services; sales tax; shipping; and or where prohibited by law. - Bilt points may not be earned for transferring a prescription to a Walgreens
retail location by a user who is, or at any time in the prior 6 months was, a beneficiary of Medicare, Medicaid, Tricare or any other healthcare program funded in whole or in part by the federal government
Quick Thoughts
This is probably a “might as well” opportunity for most people, even if you don’t often shop at Walgreens. Earning additional points on top of credit card rewards is a great deal, especially if paired with a card like the Chase Freedom Unlimited or Freedom Flex, which would allow you to earn 3x Ultimate Rewards and 2x Bilt points the next time you buy those Walgreens store brand cough drops.
For some folks who have an HSA or an FSA, having the opportunity to manage reimbursements without having to submit receipts is a game-changer, probably making the inconvenience of switching prescriptions over to Walgreens worth doing regardless of points bonuses.
For others, giving Bilt access to purchase data and HSA/FSA info will seem like a step too far. Bilt has said that, with the prescription bonus, they only see what that you filled one – they don’t see what the drug is. However, they will see all of your pharmacy purchases at Walgreens, and it’s necessary in order to sort out which items are HSA/FSA-eligible (and which ones qualify for the 2x Walgreens store-brand offer).
It’s also worth highlighting that the shopping portal Rakuten’s in-store offers often have CVS at 5x-15x back, which can translate into 5x-15x Membership Rewards, depending on the excluded items. That could be a significantly more rewarding card-linked option if you have both CVS and Walgreens near you.
Regardless, Bilt continues to try to show that it’s not just reliant on the Bilt Mastercard for revenue, and this is another outside-the-box partnership that’s available to any Bilt member. As long as you’re comfortable with the data-sharing, it seems like the one-click FSA/HSA redemptions would be decent, time-saving opportunity for many folks.
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Will it work if you use Paypal, Google Pay, etc?
Exclusions include “pharmacy items.” Lol.
I think you’re referring to “pharmacy items or services covered under Washington state workers’ compensation laws”. My read of that is it’s one item, not two, so a pharmacy item is included for sure if you’re not in WA state.
The FSA redemption is convenient, but people trying to optimize and min-max their finances shouldn’t be using their HSA funds for medical expenses unnecessarily unless they absolutely have to as it’s such a tax-advantaged investment vehicle.
Somewhat like Bilt Dining. Use any card.
The earning rates are weaker, but I do like the concept.
The phrase “might as well” applies perfectly here. I’ll take advantage as best I can, but unclear how many additional points I’ll earn through it (CVS is much closer to me, anyway).