Bilt arguably has the best set of transfer partners and the best periodic transfer bonuses among transferable points programs. Despite that, Bilt hasn’t been my favorite transferable points program. The primary reason for this is that Bilt points have been hard to earn in large quantities unless you have very high rent payments. Until now, Bilt had only one credit card, no dependable signup bonus, and no way to earn points through a shopping portal. Further, they used to offer a way to get at least 2x on all spend on Rent Day (the first of each month), but a couple of years ago, they capped that at a measly 1,000 points per month. All of this changes with Bilt’s new Rakuten Shopping partnership and with Bilt 2.0, which includes earning 1x on rent or mortgages, 2x on all other spend, and a 50,000-point signup bonus. But all of this goodness comes at a cost…
The downsides of Bilt 2.0
There are several downsides to Bilt 2.0 that involve the transition from old to new… One obvious downside to Bilt 2.0 concerns those who used to earn lots of points from paying rent but didn’t otherwise spend much on their Bilt cards. That group will have to drastically ramp up card spending if they want to continue earning points on rent payments fee-free. Another downside is that the old fee-free card had a couple of valuable category bonuses, whereas with Bilt 2.0, you need the $95 card to match that earning power.
Let’s ignore how things used to be, though, and look at Bilt 2.0 as a set of brand-new credit card products. Even from that light, there are things I dislike:
- Complexity: The Bilt 2.0 cards earn two types of rewards currency: Bilt points and Bilt Cash. Bilt Cash cents can be indirectly converted to Bilt points at a 3-to-1 rate by using Bilt Cash to cover the fees when paying rent or mortgage. That’s complicated enough, but there’s also the fact that Bilt Cash seems to be less than half-baked at launch. Other than using Bilt Cash to cover payment processing fees, we don’t yet have any clear information about how Bilt Cash can be used elsewhere. We know there will be limits and restrictions. What will they be? We’ve been told that the answers may vary by merchant and circumstance. This has made it impossible to get any clear idea of how much we should value Bilt Cash. Oh, and all but $100 of your Bilt Cash expires at the end of every year, even if it was earned in December.
- Coupons: Coupons have infected almost all new credit cards, and Bilt’s cards are no exception. The $95 Bilt Obsidian card includes twice-annual $50 hotel credits to offset the annual fee. The $495 Palladium Card includes twice-annual $200 hotel credits plus annual $200 Bilt Cash to offset its annual fee. I’d be happy with the hotel credits if they could be used for any bookings, but we’ve been told that they require a minimum of 2 nights and may have caps on how much can be spent per booking. Bilt Cash itself is like an uber-coupon (but not “Uber” coupon) that can be used for many things, each with its own limits and restrictions.
The good stuff
There’s a lot to like in Bilt 2.0:
- Earn points paying your mortgage: People have been asking Bilt for the ability to earn points when paying mortgages since the beginning of Bilt time. Now, cardholders can do exactly that.
- Pay multiple rents and mortgages: With Bilt 2.0, you are no longer limited to paying a single landlord, and there’s no need for the lease or mortgage to be in your name. This opens up opportunities for those with multiple payments to make and those who don’t have rent or a mortgage to pay on their own. For example, my mom has large rent payments, so I plan to use Bilt to pay her rent (and she can pay me back separately).
- Earn 4% Bilt Cash on all non-rent/mortgage spend: All three cards offer points for spend, plus 4% in Bilt Cash. Bilt claims that Bilt Cash will be redeemable for more and better things over time. If/when that pans out, this could be incredible. Earning anywhere near 4% in value on top of 1x to 3x in points would be unbelievable.
- Earn 2x to 3.33x everywhere with the $495 Palladium Card: The Palladium Card is incredibly rewarding for spend. It offers 2 points per dollar on all non-rent/mortgage spend, plus 4% in Bilt Cash (which can be indirectly exchanged for 1.33x points through rent or mortgage payments). The net result is that it is possible to earn up to 3.33x on all spend as long as one has enough rent and/or mortgage payments to make good use of their Bilt Cash. Earning between 2x and 3.33x transferable points on all spend is incredible enough on its own, but when you consider that Bilt has the most valuable transfer partners (Hyatt, JAL, Alaska, etc.) and periodically offers huge transfer bonuses, it’s really crazy how valuable this opportunity can be.
My Approach
It’s awesome that Bilt is letting current 1.0 cardholders get the signup bonus when they switch to a Bilt 2.0 card. Even if I didn’t want the $495 Palladium card long-term, I’d go for that one now for the 50K bonus and cancel or downgrade in year two. In my case, though, I do want the Palladium card:
- Annual fee – $495
- Welcome offer – 50,000 Bilt points + $300 Bilt Cash + Bilt Gold status 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:
- $400 Bilt Travel Hotel credit (twice annual i.e. $200 Jan-Jun & $200 Jul-Dec). Two night minimum stay required.
- $200 Bilt Cash annually
- Priority Pass
- Redeem Bilt Cash to waive mortgage and rent transaction fees
I don’t like the card’s $495 annual fee, I have no use for yet another Priority Pass, and I don’t like coupons. That said, the card’s earning power is really impressive. I’ll hold my nose with the hotel coupons and find ways to get good value from them. And I’ll use the Palladium card for all of my non-category-bonus spend (spend that doesn’t otherwise get better multipliers from other cards).
Consider this plan:
- Monthly:
- Spend $6,000, earning 2x. Earn 12,000 points plus $240 Bilt Cash
- Pay $8,000 in rent, earning 1x. Use $240 in Bilt Cash to cover the fees. Earn 8,000 points.
- Annual Total:
- Earn 240,000 points per year
- Earn Platinum status each year (You get Platinum status with $50K spend or 200K points earned. I would qualify on both counts)
- Platinum status would qualify me for the top transfer bonuses when available. Historically, these usually top out at 100% (although we’ve seen even higher), so 200K points could become 400,000 airline miles.
- Having any elite status at all will mean I can continue, long term, to earn Bilt points through the Rakuten shopping portal at the full 1-to-1 ratio.
Conclusion
A number of people are understandably upset about some aspects of the transition to Bilt 2.0. And Bilt 2.0 is absurdly complicated. But under the right conditions, Bilt 2.0 can be extremely rewarding.
I’m in.
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You didn’t mention that the $8k you spend on rent will come out directly from your ACH. Of course you can now pay rent for anyone because you are paying inmediatly from your credit/savings account.
I still need clarification, if I have large expenses like Tax payment to the IRS or Property which is like a huge 25 to 30K. I won’t be able to use all the cash to maximise rent/mortgage payment, and it would get carried over to future months until December? Or do I still have to put monthly expenses on the card? Greg did not calculate the annual fee cost and opportunity cost of spending on suppose Ink or Gold card. Every influencer or blogger is somewhat biased towards BILT, justifying the card and the changes. All cards do make sense when you put large expenses on them.
Taxes aren’t considered an eligible purchase for rewards:
“Eligible Purchases” or “Purchases” means transactions for goods or services made with your Bilt Card, minus returns,
refunds, or credits. Purchases that do not earn Bilt Points or Bilt Cash: Balance transfers, Special Transfers, cash
advances, travelers checks, money orders, wire transfers or similar cash-like transactions, prepaid cards, gift cards,
person-to-person payments (such as Venmo, PayPal, Cash App, or Zelle), tax payments, online resale marketplaces
(such as eBay or Facebook Marketplace), cryptocurrency or other digital currency purchases, fees or interest posted to
your Account (including annual fees, late fees, and returned payment fees), lottery tickets, casino gaming chips, race track
wagers or similar betting transactions, and checks that access your Account.
The Bilt juice is no longer worth the squeeze, with them closing pretty much all sweet spots. Sorry Bilt, but no thanks.
Assuming the Priority Pass doesn’t have restaurants
I’m out. F Bilt 2.0.
Thank you Greg, I really like your take. I believe, as you do, in getting while the getting is good. Will it devalue? Will they play games with their monopoly money to make it profitable for them? As far as I know that is the only guarantee in this game. And I guess that is technically the whole point. But regardless, well played BILT. You reeled me in. Now let’s see if see if we can find some value before your investors force you play short term gain rather than long term loyalty.
That’s a great plan, except who on earth is paying $8000 a month on rent?
When my grandmother moved into assisted living, her rent was more than that. Looks like the national median is $5K-$6K for assisted living, though it notes that regions like the northeast tend to be higher. I have no idea whether his mom lives in assisted living, but that’s an easy example where there are people paying that much.
Average rent for a 1-bedroom in NYC is over $4,000. I imagine there are a lot of people paying $8,000+ for larger apartments and/or in more prime locations.
And some folks have a mortgage of their own and have a kid in college whose rent they pay — I could imagine there are more than a few people spending $8K/mo.
Is that everyone? Of course not. And it may not be you. It isn’t me. But it isn’t hard for me to imagine that there are people who are.
I was disappointed overall, but I agree that there does seem to be a lot of room for points earning under the right conditions.
I’m exhausted by the complexity, and my HCOL rent is several multiples greater than what I spend in all other spending. Doing the math, I’d have to seriously ramp up manufactured spending just to try to spend 3/4 of my rent to cover the rent fees. That would also come at the cost of directing that spend toward SUBs.
In fact, paying rent (with a fee) is my easiest path toward SUBs. And even a crappy Hyatt card SUB is more points than I’d make in paying a year’s worth of rent through Bilt after jumping through all these hoops–to say nothing of the new Atmos card SUBs.
All that, and the 5/24 hit? I’m out and canceling 1.0. Hope others have fun.
That’s a great plan, but what are you spending $6k a month on? In general, a 2x everywhere card is a nice catch-all card, but with that amount of spend, it would require most people to put 100% of their spend (or more) to hit $6k a month. So do you abandon your 4x Amex Gold (food), 5x Platinum (flights), and other high multiplier cards? Are you doing this for the helicopter ride (is that still a perk)? Do you need 2 more annoying hotel-only credits to manage (you must be drowning in hotel credits already)?
3.33x on all purchases with partners like Hyatt, JAL and Alaska?
Gotta be honest. Sounds a bit too good to be true…Is giving up a 5/24 status worth it with the potential risk of all this goodness being cut in the short term?
And given what happened to Mesa, I think we need to be as critical as possible. Specially since the plug with Mesa was pulled with no notice.
This is exhausting. I need a nap.
This is me. I’ve been on both sides of this like 3 times so far today. That’s a good sign for me to go to bed. I guess I have 15 more days to figure this out.
With the new cards earning structure why would you want to waste bilt cash on mortgage payments ? Unless you highly value 30 days more float on your mortgage payment by putting on a credit card ? Can someone explain this?
Can’t float anymore with Bilt 2.0
Highly likely Bilt Cash is not worth very much
What changed, why can’t you get 30
days float anymore?
Rent no longer goes on the credit line, it goes from your bank account.
This is where the Bilt lose me at. You cant float nothing anymore, the money comes directly out ACH immediately.
Thank you for the level headed approach to Bilt 2.0. If definitely sucks for people who used their card to pay rent, but that model was used to get VC money and eventually banks to buy in, but wasn’t sustainable. Just ask WF. Remains to be seen if this is sustainable
My mortgage is relatively modest so $1,800/month maxes me out on points on my mortgage for a total of less than 30,000 points per year.
I currently value Bilt cash at zero based on the lack of any real information on how it can be used beyond paying the fees on rent/mortgage. I need two more hotel credits requiring a two night stay like I need another hole in my head.
With the SUB, the value of Palladium is obvious. Without the sub, beyond the first year, since I already have a 2X everything card in my household (Venture), the question is would I prepay $500 for 28,800 Bilt points, Bilt status, and the ability to transfer from Rakuten. I think my answer is yes, but I will be annoyed about it.
Bilt Gold status will end by the end of 2027, you’ll need to earn it normally afterwards
$1,800 per month in spend to max out the mortgage points would get me to Bilt Silver, which is all I need for Rakuten 1:1.
One thing to bear in mind is that the Gold status is only part of the welcome offer – it’s not an ongoing benefit of the card. You’ll get Gold status through the end of 2027, but it’ll expire on December 31, 2027 if you don’t earn status organically in the meantime.
Right, but if I am spending an average of $1,800 per month to max out the mortgage bonus, that will get me to Bilt Silver organically. Bilt Silver is enough for 1:1 Rakuten transfers.
Yep, that’d be good for the ongoing 1:1 transfers from Rakuten. I just wanted to make sure you knew that the Gold status was only temporary (albeit two years of temporary) as I’ve seen people elsewhere under the impression that the Gold status was an ongoing Palladium card benefit.