Bilt will be launching its three new cards in a week’s time, officially announcing their full details on January 14. However, Bilt might have inadvertently (or deliberately to create buzz) leaked details of the cards via this page that’s now been taken down.
Needless to say, nothing that’s published on the internet disappears, so the code that appeared on that page was recorded by others in order to get the card details. If true, this is what should be expected from the new cards.
Bilt Blue Card
- Annual fee – $0
- Welcome offer – $100 Bilt Cash upon approval (no minimum spend required)
- Bilt points earning rate – 1x on everyday spend (including mortgage and rent)
- Bilt Cash earning rate – 4% on everyday spend (excludes mortgage & rent)
- Card features/benefits:
- No foreign transaction fees
- Access to Neighborhood Benefits program
- Redeem Bilt Cash to waive mortgage and rent transaction fees
Bilt Obsidian Card
- Annual fee – $95
- Welcome offer – $200 Bilt Cash upon approval (no minimum spend required)
- Bilt points earning rate:
- 3x on dining or grocery (your choice). 3x grocery earning is capped at $25K spend per year
- 2x on travel
- 1x on everyday spend (including mortgage and rent)
- Bilt Cash earning rate – 4% on everyday spend (excludes mortgage & rent)
- Card features/benefits:
- $100 Bilt Travel Hotel credit (twice annual i.e. $50 Jan-Jun & $50 Jul-Dec)
- Cellphone protection
- Redeem Bilt Cash to waive mortgage and rent transaction fees
Bilt Palladium Card
- Annual fee – $495
- Welcome offer – 50,000 Bilt points + $300 Bilt Cash after $4,000 spend in first three months
- Bilt points earning rate:
- 2x on everyday spend
- 1x on mortgage and rent
- Bilt Cash earning rate – 4% on everyday spend (excludes mortgage & rent)
- Card features/benefits:
- Gold status
- $400 Bilt Travel Hotel credit (twice annual i.e. $200 Jan-Jun & $200 Jul-Dec)
- $200 Bilt Cash annually
- Priority Pass
- Redeem Bilt Cash to waive mortgage and rent transaction fees
Quick Thoughts
Again, these are all the rumored features and benefits of the new Bilt cards, so there’s no guarantee that when they’re officially launched next week the details will be the same.
If these details are all true though and that’s the extent of the benefits, I don’t think Bilt will be overwhelming anyone with their generosity. It’s hard to look at that lineup and say that any of them are must-have cards. Having said that though, the cards could still make sense for a good number of people.
Blue Card
We’ll start with the Blue card which, in theory, should be the closest match to the existing Bilt Mastercard as neither have an annual fee. If you were hoping for something comparable, you’ll likely be sorely disappointed. Gone is the 3x on dining, gone is the 3x on Lyft, and gone is the 2x on travel. In its place is a bog standard 1x earning card, although it will also earn 4% in Bilt Cash.
I can’t imagine this card will have a lot of uptake. It might – in theory – make sense for someone who wants to earn rewards when paying for their mortgage or rent, but who doesn’t want to pay an annual fee. However, the likely fees for paying those housing bills might make it nonsensical (more about that in the Bilt Cash section below).
That said, if you think you’d get good value when redeeming the 4% Bilt Cash you’d be earning, that plus the 1x transferable Bilt points could make it more rewarding than it seems at first glance. However, on the redemption side of things, the 4% Bilt Cash might not get you as far as you think versus your other options.
Obsidian Card
It feels like Bilt is taking aim at the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card with this one. Both have a $95 annual fee, although I can picture Bilt saying “But look – we offer two $50 credits towards hotel bookings each year versus only one on the Sapphire Preferred.”
And, to be fair, they’d be correct. The ability to earn 3x on groceries – not just online groceries like with the Sapphire Preferred – on up to $25,000 spend per year will also be an appealing option for some. Otherwise, you could choose to earn 3x on dining, but it’s a shame that it’s either/or rather than both/and.
2x on travel also matches the Sapphire Preferred card, but the Sapphire Preferred card also earns 5x on all travel booked through Chase Travel℠, 5x on Lyft rides through September 30, 2027, 3x on streaming services, and a 10% annual point bonus at renewal each year. Considering the Sapphire Preferred also offers primary rental collision damage waiver, free DoorDash DashPass, $10 off a non-restaurant DoorDash order each month, and Ultimate Rewards earnings can be juiced up with no annual fee cards that earn 1.5x everywhere or 5x in certain categories, the benefits on the Bilt Obsidian card seem a little lacking in comparison, although perhaps there’ll be other non-listed benefits upon launch.
Perhaps the biggest downside of the Obsidian card is the incredibly weak welcome offer. $200 of restrictive Bilt Cash and zero bonus Bilt transferable points is surprising, especially considering the minimum welcome offer on the Sapphire Preferred card nowadays seems to be 60,000 Ultimate Rewards points, with its welcome offer sometimes going much higher than that. If you’re below 5/24, it’s hard to make a case for choosing the Bilt Obsidian card over the Sapphire Preferred based on the welcome offer alone.
To determine your 5/24 status, see: Easy Ways to Count Your 5/24 Status. The easiest option is to track all of your cards for free with Travel Freely.
Palladium Card
Last, but not least, there’s the Palladium card. With an annual fee of $495 per year, Bilt seems to be positioning this as a more expensive version of the Capital One Venture X card.
Its launch welcome offer is clearly significantly better than the other two Bilt cards seeing as you’ll earn 50,000 Bilt points and $300 Bilt Cash after spending $4,000 in three months. For comparison, the Venture X card’s welcome offer dropped to 75,000 miles the other day, although it had been at 100,000 miles for quite some time. Depending on how you value Bilt Cash, getting $300 of that plus 50,000 Bilt points that can be transferred to programs like Hyatt and Alaska could be a decent enough tradeoff if you’d be trying to pick between the Palladium card and a Venture X.
However, this new premium Bilt card comes with an annual fee that’s $100 more expensive than the Venture X. The Venture X comes with a $300 travel credit for bookings on Capital One Travel and 10,000 bonus miles at renewal each year, while the Palladium card has a $400 hotel credit for travel booked through Bilt’s travel portal. That $400 hotel credit is far less appealing than it could be though because a) the Venture X credit can be redeemed not only on hotels, but flights, car rentals, and vacation rentals too. Also, the Palladium card’s hotel benefit comes as a twice annual benefit, so you have to remember to book $200 worth of hotels in the first half of the year and $200 in the second half of the year in order to fully redeem it. You therefore shouldn’t value the $400 at face value. However, the Palladium card does also come with $200 annual Bilt Cash which helps make up some of the difference.
I’m a little surprised to see that the card earns 2x on all spend (other than 1x on mortgage and rent) as I would’ve expected at least one or two categories to earn at a higher multiple. You can earn 2x transferable points on cards with no annual fee like the Citi Double Cash card and the Blue Business® Plus Credit Card from American Express, while the Capital One Venture Rewards card earns 2x on all spend with only a $95 annual fee.
Depending on how good future Bilt transfer bonuses are for that status level, automatic Bilt Gold status could be valuable, especially for those who earn a high level of rewards through Rakuten as Gold status will ensure you’ll continue to be able to redeem Rakuten earnings as Bilt points at a 1:1 rate beyond mid-May. That said, someone who’s willing to pay a $495 annual fee for a Bilt card might already be deeply invested in the Bilt program and so may well already earn Gold or Platinum status organically.
It also remains to be seen how the automatic Gold status will play into earning higher status levels. At the moment, you have to earn 125,000 Bilt points to get Gold status and 200,000 for Platinum. Will Palladium cardholders start off each calendar year with a 125,000 point boost and therefore only need to earn an additional 75,000 points for Platinum status, or will you have automatic Gold status but be starting from scratch when it comes to earning 200,000 points for Platinum status each year?
For a card with this level of annual fee, Priority Pass is a must-have and the Palladium card does indeed have it. We don’t know how good this version of the Priority Pass is, so it remains to be seen if it includes restaurant access. Given the limited benefits for all the cards listed above, I suspect not, but we’ll hopefully be pleasantly surprised when the cards are launched to find that it does include Priority Pass restaurants.
I’m certainly hoping that this isn’t it when it comes to Palladium card benefits. There’s no mention of a Global Entry/TSA PreCheck credit, primary car rental collision damage waiver, cellphone insurance, etc. Again, these kinds of incidental benefits might be listed upon the full launch, so we shouldn’t assume right now that the benefits for each of the cards are limited to solely what’s listed above.
I think it’s safe to assume that there will in fact be more to the cards. For example, the no annual fee Blue card has no foreign transaction fees listed as a benefit, but that’s not listed for the cards with an annual fee. It’s hard to imagine that foreign transaction fees would be incurred for overseas spend on those cards but not the no annual fee card, so we can (hopefully) expect more to come.
Bilt Cash
It’s thought that when these cards are launched, Bilt members will incur a 3% fee for paying their rent or mortgage, but that fee can be offset with Bilt Cash. If so, that means high spend could be required on your Bilt card each month in order to earn enough Bilt Cash to offset those fees.
For the purposes of this math, we’ll ignore the Bilt Cash that’s earned as part of the welcome offers on the three cards and focus solely on the Bilt Cash earned on an ongoing basis.
Let’s say your rent or mortgage payment is $2,500 per month. To pay that through Bilt you’ll incur a $75 fee. All three Bilt cards will earn 4% Bilt Cash all non-mortgage and non-rent spend, so you’d need to spend $1,875 each month to offset that $75 fee. That’s a very high spend requirement considering you only need to use your existing Bilt Mastercard five times per month at present. Requiring that much extra spend each month could be very off-putting depending on how much you’d be likely to spend on the cards organically. $1,875 per month is $5,625 over the course of three months which is more than enough spend to earn you a high welcome bonus on a new credit card from a different card issuer.
Some of that 3% fee would be offset by the 1x Bilt points you’d earn for your monthly rent or mortgage payment. You’d need to do your own calculations based on how much you value Bilt points, as well as any value you might get from earning a higher level of Bilt status via that spend.
If Bilt does indeed charge everyone 3% to pay their rent or mortgage, that has the weird effect of seemingly making these Bilt cards better for people who don’t pay for their rent or mortgage through Bilt. That’s because you’d be earning Bilt points through spend, as well as 4% Bilt Cash which can be redeemed in the following ways based on the Bilt website:
Starting in 2026, you’ll be able to redeem your Bilt Cash in the Bilt App toward:
- Hotel bookings: apply Bilt Cash toward hotel bookings made in the Bilt Travel Portal.
- Lyft credits: redeem for Lyft credits and get where you’re going for less.
- Fitness Classes: use Bilt Cash toward bookings in the Bilt App and save on your favorite workouts.
- Dining: use Bilt Cash to pay your tab when you use Mobile Dining Checkout at select Bilt partner restaurants.
- Home Delivery: save on everyday essentials ordered through Home Delivery, powered by Gopuff.
- The Bilt Collection: redeem Bilt Cash for select items and limited drops from the Bilt Collection.
You can also redeem your Bilt Cash to unlock exclusive access across the Bilt ecosystem, like:
-
Elevated status for transfer bonuses: redeem Bilt Cash to boost your status tier and access a higher transfer bonus during Rent Day.
-
Home Away From Home collection: redeem Bilt Cash to gain access to Bilt’s luxury hotel collection and exclusive benefits during your stay.
-
Exclusive Bilt experiences: redeem Bilt Cash to book exclusive experiences like dining reservations, fitness classes, and more.
Let’s use the example from above to illustrate this. You have a $2,500 mortgage or rent payment and you happen to spend $1,875 on your Bilt card. In addition to the transferable Bilt points you earn (which will vary depending on which card you have and which bonus category – if any – you spend it in), you’ll earn $75 Bilt Cash. You could pay your mortgage or rent to earn 2,500 Bilt points and use the Bilt Cash to offset the fee, or you could redeem the $75 Bilt Cash towards Lyft rides, hotel bookings through Bilt’s travel portal, etc. You’d therefore have to value 2,500 Bilt points higher than $75 Bilt Cash to make that a worthwhile tradeoff.
For some people it certainly would be worth it, especially if you’ll have access to 100% transfer bonuses via high enough Bilt status. It’s certainly not a no-brainer though.
Something else to bear in mind with regards to Bilt Cash is that you’ll also earn $50 of Bilt Cash for every 25,000 Bilt points you earn. That means that $12,500 of spend on the Palladium card at 2x will earn you an additional $50 Bilt Cash. Spending $8,333.33 in a 3x category on the Obsidian card will earn you an extra $50 Bilt Cash. That will in turn make it a little more rewarding to put spend on those cards.
The 4% Bilt Cash earnings on all three cards might initially seem like it’s unsustainable seeing as it’s in addition to the Bilt points you’ll earn. However, the value that can be obtained on the redemption side of things is questionable.
For example, one of its best redemption options is for hotel stays, but booking that way means you’re forgoing shopping portal earnings which can be significant, earnings through Rove’s travel portal which can be extremely high at times, or high earnings via a bank’s travel portal such as 10x on the Venture X card for hotel bookings through Capital One Travel. Depending on where you’d be staying, you’d be missing out on earning multiples by paying for your stay with that chain’s credit card (e.g. 14x on a Hilton Aspire), as well as missing out on card-linked offers (e.g. Marriott Amex Offers, Hyatt Chase Offers, etc.)
Another redemption option is for discounted Lyft rides. Redeeming Bilt Cash for Lyft rides can save you money, but also shouldn’t be valued at full face value seeing as you can save 5% on Lyft gift cards bought from GCX (formerly Raise), plus there have been several deals giving a 15%-20% discount on Lyft gift cards in recent months. Alternatively, you can earn 5x on some Chase cards for Lyft rides, while other cards offer credits for Lyft rides.
Your Bilt Cash can also be redeemed for dining, but it’s only available at select restaurants. Depending on the restaurant, you might be able to save more via a program like inKind, or by paying with a card that earns 4x transferable points like the Amex Gold or Business Gold, while also linked to a card-linked dining program.
Home delivery is another redemption option, but it’s fulfilled by GoPuff and items purchased through GoPuff tend to be extremely overpriced.
It’ll soon be possible to redeem Bilt Cash to gain access to higher transfer bonuses. That could certainly provide some good value, but we don’t know yet how much Bilt Cash will be required to get those higher rates, so this benefit’s value remains to be seen.
As a result, 4% Bilt Cash shouldn’t be valued at full face value; its worth will be up to you and how you’ll redeem it.
Another key feature of Bilt Cash that definitely shouldn’t be overlooked is that Bilt Cash earned in 2026 will expire on December 31, 2026, with the exception of up to $100 that’ll be rolled over. That reduces the value of Bilt Cash unless you’ll be regularly redeeming it. I imagine there’ll be many Bilt members who aren’t aware of that miserly quirk and so could end up losing out on a substantial chunk of Bilt Cash they earn over the course of a year.
Your Thoughts
What do you think of these purported card lineups? Are you champing at the Bilt bit to apply for one of these cards, or are you less enthused? Let us know in the comments below.
h/t Reddit via Doctor of Credit
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This is all coming to an end on or about February 7. Does anyone know whether we can still earn points on rent up through that date, assuming we have five separate transactions in that applicable, current billing cycle?
I don’t see why not. February 1 rent should still be 1.0 earning structure. I donno if that means we only have a few days to pull off the 5x transactions. BILT should probably further clarify this beforehand (but probably won’t and folks will be upset, frustrated, confused.)
To me, there seem to be two distinct paths:
1) if Bilt Cash kinda sucks, the opportunity cost to pay down rent/mortgage card fees is little for that 1x. The only major opportunity cost is the spend — as long as you spend a decent amount outside of SUB hunting, either the Obsidian or the Palladium card could work — they are competitive with other cards on the market.
2) If Bilt Cash is actually useful (let’s say at 75% of face value), it probably doesn’t make sense to pay rent on these cards anymore. But they give you the earning power of the CSP (Obsidian) or VX (Palladium) + you get all the Bilt Cash toward munchies from GoPuff or as hotel discounts (I think most of Bilt’s inventory for hotels is still white-labeled Expedia, so Bilt Cash would be somewhat equivalent to Hotels.com gift cards with short expiration). In this scenario you can just pay 3% fees to pay rent with the Atmos Ascent/Summit cards with no required extra spend — that’s basically using rent to buy Atmos points for 1cpp. Them you can spend on a Bilt card as you see fit.
Both the Obsidian and the Palladium come with 2 hotel credits that largely cover the AF. That’s not as good as the VX credit, but it is much better than the CSR credits and arguably better (or at least more flexible) than Amex FHR because of the restriction to certain hotel collections.
Bottom line: would you jump through a couple more hoops to earn 2x Bilt points instead of 2x Venture miles or 2x TYP? Would you prefer Bilt points to Chase points with a card that has a nearly identical earning structure? It isn’t just Hyatt. For me, it is the flexibility of having so many high value partners (like Accor, JAL, and Atmos). I think there’s no question that these cards are competitive. There is a bigger question about whether or not you pay rent/mortgage with them, or if you consider eating the fee to get United (2x) or Atmos (3x) points. Or maybe you use a Double Cash to get 2 TYP and .5 Bilt point for that 3% fee.
Your analysis makes sense except, we don’t know if the Alaska cards will still work?
Last we heard, yes. And United was just added at 2x last month for using a United card for rent with the 3% fee. They seem to be expanding that program, not contracting it.
But regardless, you can just use a VX, Double Cash, Blue Business Plus… whatever. And for those, k they also give you 1/2 Bilt points per dollar on top. So, would you pay $3 for 2.5 transferrable points? That’s 1.2cpp. Are you a buyer at those rates?
If I can pay mortgage through Atmos Summit card (without the hassle of getting any Bilt cards), even worst case scenario (no additional bonus spent on Summit)
$36,000 mortgage per year = 108,000 Atmos points, costs $1,080
$24,000 taxes = 24,000 Atmos points, costs $420
At 60k = 100,000 Companion cert
Assuming I am able to utilize 100k fully (i think a bit of stretch)
I get 232,000 Atmos points for $1500 (Plus Alaska Gold)
Works out to be 0.65 cents per Atmos point.
How are you getting 3x on the Atmos from paying rent on Bilt?
https://frequentmiler.com/bilt-alaska-3x-rent/
Best we can do is… “munchies from GoPuff”
Garsh.
I reconsidered my earlier negative reaction to the cards when the podcast reminded me the Bilt portal is planning to allow us to book *elite-qualifying stays*. That actually changes the calculus a lot. If you can use the $200 credits towards elite qualifying stays they ARE much more useful than Delta Stays credits – and Bilt Cash itself gets closer to face value. At this point the Palladium card starts to look like a no brainer especially ironically if you don’t pay rent.
None of this is a ‘no-brainer’… and if you’re going for Medallion status via Delta Stays, bud, you’re doing it wrong. You can earn Gold without taking a flight just by having 4 cards: personal and business Platinum and Reserve. That’s 2,500 MQD Headstart x4 = 10K MQD.
Second conclusion:
Assume:
1) you don’t rent or pay a mortgage;
2) Priority Pass is worthles (i.e. duplicative);
Then the Palladium Card is no-brainer in terms of net benefit. The signup points, gratis BILT cash, and travel credits make is worth > $495. One could even argue it is the best value.
I think a lot of the people announcing they are leaving BILT will reconsider when they do the math (as best we know it) and, in particular, see that BILT points are essentially free food at nice restaurants.
One conclusion: The Blue Card is too expensive unless you pay rent. That is its only benefit that is not ‘dominated’ (in the math. sense) by other brands’ cards;
Do we think that tax payments will be excluded from the 2x on the Palladium card? I know that they’re just a 1x now… That would be a way to get meaningful spend onto the card.
I think it would be included at first. However, I can see it getting excluded at some point. It would be nice to make estimated tax payments on this card to get 2x in Bilt points then additional 4x in Bilt cash.
The value i see here is ability to earn 3X Hyatt points at grocery stores. Would be more useful if not capped at $25k spend, but better than nothing. Something to add to grocery rotation with Amex gold and Citi Premier
All deeply unappealing prospects on top of an unappealing program. Pay $75 for the privilege of paying my rent through Bilt? To earn transferable points? A $900 annual fee for their flagship offering?
“You could pay your mortgage or rent to earn 2,500 Bilt points and use the Bilt Cash to offset the fee, or you could redeem the $75 Bilt Cash towards Lyft rides, hotel bookings through Bilt’s travel portal, etc. You’d therefore have to value 2,500 Bilt points higher than $75 Bilt Cash to make that a worthwhile tradeoff.”
The last sentence is gibberish.
BILT cash is always at parity with the dollar:
BILT Website:
“What is Bilt Cash worth?
Bilt Cash provides fixed redemption value when used for eligible purchases and experiences in the Bilt ecosystem. For example, this means $10 of Bilt Cash could be redeemed for a $10 credit to use when you book a fitness class.”
$75 Bilt Cash can be redeemed for $75 worth of stuff that Bilt Cash can be redeemed for, but that doesn’t mean you should value it as $75 face value. I’m not going to give Bilt $75 of regular cash in exchange for $75 of Bilt Cash because Bilt Cash is far less useful than actual cash because it can only be used for select redemption options.
With regards to the final sentence though, the point of that was to say that cardholders would have the choice to redeem $75 of Bilt Cash to eliminate the $75 of mortgage/rent fees which in turn would earn them 2,500 Bilt points. To make that a worthwhile exchange, they’d need to value 2,500 Bilt points as being worth at least the same as $75 Bilt Cash.
“ cardholders would have the choice to redeem $75 of Bilt Cash to eliminate the $75 of mortgage/rent fees which in turn would earn them 2,500 Bilt points.”
Utter nonsense. “redeem $75 of Bilt Cash…which would earn them 2.500 Bilt points”. Redeeming Bilt cash does not earn Bilt points.
They’d be redeeming $75 of Bilt Cash to offset the 3% of fees from paying their mortgage or rent with their Bilt card. That mortgage or rent payment would earn them 2,500 points.
That is not whatyou said though, is it?
“You could pay your mortgage or rent to earn 2,500 Bilt points and use the Bilt Cash to offset the fee, or you could redeem the $75 Bilt Cash towards Lyft rides, hotel bookings through Bilt’s travel portal, etc. You’d therefore have to value 2,500 Bilt points higher than $75 Bilt Cash to make that a worthwhile tradeoff.”
Where did the OR condition come from? A dollar of Bilt cash is always worth a dollar (see the T&As again).
“You’d therefore have to value 2,500 Bilt points higher than $75 Bilt Cash to make that a worthwhile tradeoff.”
Nonsense. Total confusion of concepts.
You need to get an editor to check your work. You clearly don’t understand what you are writing.
You also thought that a post that’s specifically about card-linked dining programs shouldn’t focus on card-linked dining programs, so you’ll have to forgive me if I don’t take to heart your critiques. https://frequentmiler.com/hotel-airline-loyalty-program-dining-programs/#comment-2462403
It should not have. It should have focused on the deals on food — that is what your audience wanted to read. They don’t care whether it is inKind style, or Seated style, or Rewards network dining points. What was true, that you didn’t notice, was that Rewards Network was always the worstv deal, and therefore last choice, short of starvation.
Sound like you need to start your own website man and write what “your readers” want to know
Nah, L3 and anyone else can and should comment whatever they’d like here and elsewhere if they want, so long as the owners of these sites allow it.
I don’t like DTrain’s subtle attempt at censorship/requesting to ban/silence others.
Wow are you THE Dontrelle Willis? I was such a fan of D-Train’s windup when with the Marlins. Didn’t they pay you enough not to fart around with credit card points?!
“Something else to bear in mind with regards to Bilt Cash is that you’ll also earn $50 of Bilt Cash for every 25,000 Bilt points you earn.”
No. It depends on the card and the pattern of spend.
Example: With the Palladium card, $12,500 of non-rent/mort. spend produces 4% Bilt cash ($500 – not $50).
” That means that $12,500 of spend on the Palladium card at 2x will earn you an additional $50 Bilt Cash.”
No. See above.
The $25 he’s talking about is separate from the alleged 4% Bilt cash. It’s their replacement for their previous milestone rewards for hitting 25k, 50k, 75k, etc point thresholds each calendar year.
No. He is not talking about $25. Read the article.
25 is a typo, I meant 50. And yes he’s clearly talking about the milestone replacements as seen on the Bilt website. https://support.biltrewards.com/hc/en-us/articles/40132420650509-Bilt-Cash which would be in addition to the 4% earned by the cards.
From the Bilt website https://support.biltrewards.com/hc/en-us/articles/40132420650509-Bilt-Cash:
How do you earn Bilt Cash?
Starting in 2026, you’ll earn $50 of Bilt Cash for every 25,000 Bilt Points you earn toward your status across the Bilt ecosystem.
Bilt 1.0 is a card for paying rent. I see no reason to pay rent with Bilt 2.0 with its 3% fee, and then try to offset the fees with spending in other categories. If spending in other categories makes sense on their own, why not just use the card for spending in those categories only and forget about paying rent with it? Bilt Cash is a bit sketchy with very limited options to use it and a short lifespan. I’d value it at 50% of its face value at best. So for me, the no-fee card is a non-starter, and the question is whether the other two cards offer enough incentives to justify their fees (and they don’t appear to be based on what I know so far).
It just depends on your rent/mortgage
I have a 3k mortgage. Let’s say I get the 495 card and put about 1500 in categories I’m weak in, like my 600/month this month in utility bills. 2x BILT is good earn for me on plenty of things
I would pay $90 for my mortgage at 3%. 60 would be offset by the BILT cash earned. I’d be earning 3000 BILT points for $30 (compared to having the card and not paying the mortgage). If I offered to sell you BILT points for 1 CPP most people would say yes
The real variable though is the opportunity cost of using up the BILT cash. Did I just burn 60$ of useful BILT cash I could have used on something else?
If you don’t value BILT cash much using it to earn points on rent seems like a no brainer
My problem is that there isn’t a single category that I can think of that I’d use Bilt 2.0 for. In the example you use (i.e. utilities), I’d use my US Bank Cash+ card for which I’ve always selected utilities as one of the categories that I’d earn 5% on. The opportunity cost for using Bilt 2.0 to potentially offset the 3% fee Bilt 2.0 would charge is just too great for me.
I would agree for someone who is highly optimized this is very much not the card
However, most people don’t readily have a card for every one of the 10-12 categories they spend meaningful money on a month
It seems like this is very much anti-optimizer, which would mean they’re trying to completely redesign their user base and directly compete with more “casual” cards
I have no idea if it’ll work
Isn’t the goal to be ‘highly optimized’?
Like, you’re basically admitting that Bilt 2.0 is for dummies, who won’t mind getting fleeced, paying 3% fees, etc. because they’re dumb.
Dummies would be far better situated with any of the no-fee 2% cards already out there.
Why does anyone even care? Given how much this card was already hated, why are people wasting time talking about it? It’s like talking about the LV (Oakland) Raiders. Should we not be focused on who’s in the playoffs?
Hardly anyone ‘hated’ the 1.0 card.
2.0 is a dumpster fire.
I don’t hate 1.0, but to me it’s worthless aside from paying rent and dumping the points off to my Hyatt account. It’s only about 20k points annually but costs me nothing. As soon as fees are included (2.0) I’m out. I’m too heavy into MR/UR to care about a third ecosystem.
The Palladium card might be interesting as an alternative to dumping spend on hotel cards.
Hilton Aspire:
30k spend, get:
Bilt Palladium:
30k spend, get:
I don’t know. I just used three Hilton free night certificates on an SLH hotel that would have cost me 240,000 points per night or about $1450 cash per night. So, I’m staying there for three certs and no points. That’s not a bad deal.
Great use of FNCs. I’m still a huge fan of the Aspire card. To me, it’s a keeper.
Easy skip. If I had the original Bilt I would transfer it to the Autograph. What a disappointing lineup if this does indeed hold. Makes it easy to take it off my future card list and turn Rakuten back to MR after July. Shame
According to someone on Reddit, a Wells Fargo banker told them that January 3rd, 2026, was the last date for customers to reject Autograph; you’d have to have cancelled/closed your current BILT card to be able to stop that BILT to Autograph transition process. So, at this point, all 1.0 BILT cards are getting Autograph automatically. Whether they decide to get a new BILT product is still open to rejection, I think.
I thought Bilt would be offering something competitive to keep people aboard. That’s a negative, Ghostrider. I’m out.
For real. Whoever said these would be ‘competitive’ is a joker.