Thank you Bilt. It was a good run. When I signed up almost exactly a year ago, I was one of the lucky ones who got targeted for 5x rewards for 5 days. I maxed out that promo, and since then have used my card almost almost exclusively during Rent Days when point earnings were doubled, up to 10,000 bonus points each month. And thanks to occasional amazing transfer bonuses, my Bilt points turned into 100,000 Alaska Mileage Plan miles, 102,500 Air Canada Aeroplan miles, and 295,000 Air France/KLM Flying Blue miles. Amazing. But, the party is ending soon. Rent Day Doomsday comes 10/1/24 when Bilt will begin limiting Rent Day doubling to 1,000 bonus points per month.
What will become of my Bilt card then?
Prior to Rent Day Doomsday, there was a great synergy between Bilt’s elite program and their Rent Day promotions, including the occasional huge transfer bonuses where the best bonuses were only available to top-tier elite Platinum members. The Rent Day doubling meant that spending ones way to top-tier status made sense. I’ll take a minimum of 2 Bilt points per dollar any day. And when those huge transfer bonuses came about, Platinum members received either a 100% bonus (Alaska) or 150% bonus (Aeroplan, Flying Blue, and others). A 150% bonus meant that 100,000 Bilt points would become 250,000 airline miles. Incredible.
My plans for the August 1 and September 1 2024 Rent Days is to max out the bonuses by earning 10,000 bonus points each time. I had been making $5,000 in Kiva loans each month with my Bilt card, but for these two months I’ll double that to $10,000 each month. At the time of this writing, I have just over 25,000 Bilt points. After September’s Rent Day, I should have a total of 65,000 points. And I’ll have secured Platinum status through the end of next year. That will give me more than a year to wait for great new transfer bonuses where I’ll spend down my points.
After the last Pre-Doomsday Rent Day, I’ll simply stop using the card. Outside of Rent Day, I earn higher category bonuses with other cards. And I’m not fond of Bilt’s requirement of using the Bilt card 5 times per month to earn points. That’s a minor annoyance I’ll be glad to be done with. Sure, Rent Day earnings up to 1,000 bonus points would still be nice, but there’s just not enough upside to make it worth the effort.
If I had large rent payments (I don’t have any), my decision would be different. In that case I’d want to continue earning free points for paying rent, and I would max out each Rent day as well. Maybe I’d buy a $333.33 gift card from my favorite restaurant each Rent Day. If I did so, I’d earn 2,000 points each Rent Day, plus points for rent. And I’d continue use my card 5 times per month to keep those points flowing. If I had $4K monthly rent, the rent points plus Rent Day points would add up to 72,000 points earned each year. That would only be enough to earn Silver status, but at least that would mean getting slightly better transfer bonuses than non-elite members. For example, with the latest Alaska transfer bonus, Silver elites got a 50% bonus whereas non-elites got a 25% bonus. If the 72,000 points earned each year were always transferred out with a 50% bonus, that would mean earning 108,000 miles per year with minimal effort.
I’m sad to see the Bilt gravy train ending soon, but I’m certainly glad I enjoyed it while I could.
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I believe this to be the case. United TravelBank spend will code as travel via Bilt so you will get 4x today on Aug 1st. Trying to max out the next few months like everyone else and OK to have United TravelBank based on living in a United hub.
I can confirm UA TravelBank codes as travel for Bilt. I also live in a UA hub and am in the same boat 🙂
My frantic quest to max out today’s Rent Day is causing me to realize how restrictive Bilt’s “travel” category is. Hotels.com hotel booking? Not travel. JR Pass bought directly from official JR site? Not travel. Public transit tickets? Not travel. Grrrr…..
Perfect. I bought some TravelBank to make up the delta. I was in same boat, nothing else travel really counted as 4X so did some 2X transactions plus a dinner out at 6X and then rest via TravelBank. Thank you.
Frequentmiler graphics team stay winning 😀 These frequently get a good chuckle from me.
Unsure if the below statement intended this, but I wanted to clarify that points for paying rent do not count towards status
> If I had $4K monthly rent, the rent points plus Rent Day points would add up to 72,000 points earned each year. That would only be enough to earn Silver status
Points for paying rent DO count toward the status thresholds of earning 50k/125k/200k points for Silver/Gold/Platinum. They do NOT count toward the “fast track” path of earning status by spending $10k/$25k/$50k.
So $4k/month in rent would give you 48k points toward the 50k for earning silver status.
There is one aspect to this that the Bloggerati seem to not be focusing on, and that is this: cards that devalue never revalue. The devaluation happens quite simply because of economics. If the devaluation leads to better economics then that improvement will not then be given up with a revaluation.
All this to say, Bilt will never be better, and will likely be worse in the future. So better put your spend (MS or otherwise) into programs with more stable economics
Yeah, I get the problem here for you. You can still make silver status with $1000 in spend on the first of the month, then do 4 small dining transactions (mobile wallet at the bagel shop around the corner or something). But then it sort of becomes like the Amex Gold credit dance for about 25k Bilt points per year. It isn’t nothing, but probably not worth the work for such a small payoff.
This change doesn’t affect my monthly organic spending on the Bilt card, as I ran the numbers and still have about $540 of breathing room with the revised cap. However, this change dramatically changes the calculus when it comes to MS, as I was using Rent Day to bridge the gap to Silver/Gold elite status buying fee-free GCs from Staples/Office Depot. In 2026, it all depends on the frequency of valuable transfer bonuses to Flying Blue or Aeroplan whether that juice is still worth the squeeze. I’d rather just focus on getting the FNC on the Hilton Surpass and save myself the effort.
[Before Captain Obvious shows up, I don’t have a Chase Ink card, and am waiting to drop under 5/24 in a few months to get one, thanks. Bilt was a useful stopgap]
AAAAAAUUURRRRGGHGHHH *inaudible* #&$^%@ &#^#%$!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I can’t believe how much of a sellout Frequent Miler is for Bilt and Richard!!! Still carrying water for them I see!! I can’t take it anymore!! Will you EVER write a negative article about this excuse of a rewards program!?!?
Is this satire? Greg literally writes that the card no longer makes sense for him and he’s going to stop using it. He acknowledges that it might still make sense for others.
The fact of the matter is that users like Greg are highly unprofitable for Bilt and they don’t want users like him (and me) profiting off them/WF. It’s their program, so it’s their right to try to discourage unprofitable customers. I rent in a VHCOL city so I will continue using the card, but will greatly be reducing my non-rent spend (had already re-qualified for Platinum next year as of last month).
It is satire. I’ve started trolling Bilt Shills by using his name in my comments a few months ago because I didn’t like his gross insults and innuendo. Mr. Shills has since stopped commenting, but I’m enjoying this bit. Look back at the last few posts on Bilt if you want to see more of my work.
Ultimately, the change is a nerf to manufactured spending getting outsized value. Which sucks and does possibly make the card less valuable in that scenario. But with the interesting transfer bonuses and good transfer partners I’ll likely keep it as a dining card and for my rent.
I rent in a high rent city, so I’ll be doing pretty much exactly what Greg details. My favorite restaurant where I live is also in the Bilt Dining Network, so I’ll continue going there on the 1st of each month for 9x, but dinner for two there will already have me bumping up against the new Rent Day limit. Then it will just be a bunch of $1 top-ups to hit the 5 purchases. That will easily get me to Silver, but Gold will be too far away to bother trying for.
It’s funny because I had been putting a decent amount of other spend on the card (though always on the 1st of the month) – my taxes, medical bills, prepaid hotels, any other shopping I happened to do on the 1st. But I guess Bilt (and Wells Fargo) are ok with that spend going to someone else.
Since my rent keeps going up and up, this card is still super lucrative for me. I don’t even bother to game it usually; I just let the points accrue from rent while I work on other SUBs with the rest of my spend. That being said, I am going to try to spend a lot over the next two rent days while we still get a bigger bonus.
I’m curious about the decision to use Kiva for spend. Am I correct that you don’t get any interest on these loans and about 96% get repaid? So, on average, it’s costs you 4% for money that you will have tied up for months to years? I guess that if you are getting 2x that you can turn into 4.5 points/miles (with a 125% transfer bonus), then it’s like you’re buying points at 0.89 cents/point. But you don’t know that these transfer bonuses are going to continue and that calculation doesn’t include the erosion of your money to inflation. So, I’d argue that the cost should easily be over 1 cent/point.
So, I’m curious about those details and why you use Kiva vs. other methods of spend (or even bother to do all of this for points at the cost of 1 cent/point). Is it more about how the money is being used as opposed to squeezing every last fraction of cent of value out of each MS purchase? I’d certainly understand and have great respect for that decision, but I just wanted to ask since this is generally a community that tries to find every way they can squeeze value out of this game.
I think Greg wrote a post detailing his Kiva experience awhile back. IIRC, the gist was that defaults were higher than he thought so it wasn’t as good of a “deal” as he was expecting, but he believes the loans do good so he’s happy to continue doing it.
But I think that was pre-pandemic and before the rise in interest rates. I assume the pandemic would have caused even more defaults. And with savings accounts paying over 5% now, the opportunity cost to having the money tied up is quite a bit higher. I haven’t done the math, but I can’t imagine it comes anywhere close to making sense on a strictly financial basis.
Some details aren’t quite right. I’ve averaged over 98% back and there are ways to pick “safe” loans that can do even better. Additionally, there are ways to make sure that the paybacks happen sooner rather than later. But still, you’re 100% correct that this is not a great MS technique for those who want to minimize the costs involved. Instead, I do it because I believe it’s doing a lot of good!
https://frequentmiler.com/why-i-love-kiva-for-earning-rewards-and-doing-good/
The biggest change for me is that I simply won’t care to put the card in my wallet on rent day. I may have only surpassed the current 1,000 point bonus, but other months I’ve gotten close, and I don’t want to try and maximize it only to find myself only earning 1x on part of a large purchase.
I also think it makes it clear that Bilt is going to get worse over time. There may be glimmers of hope, but the best days for those of us as maximizers are behind us. I’ll still use it for rent, and P2 will have it as the default payment method in her Caribou Coffee app (she goes enough that we’ll easily get the additional 4 transactions that way and earn 3x in the process,) but otherwise it’ll collect dust in a sock drawer.
Yes, it’s clear that Bilt is trying to get rid of or discourage unprofitable uses of the card. Bilt said to TPG and I think Kerr has posted on social media that less than 2% of its users were exceeding 1k bonus points on Rent Days. For other programs, unprofitable users can basically be subsidized through profitable users, but I think Bilt is having a hard time getting people to use the card in profitable ways. I’d be curious how many of their users simply use the card for rent along with 4 other very small transactions each month and then simply sock drawer it.
They probably don’t care if those ~2% of users who were earning more than 1k bonus points cancel the card or stop using it because their spend was unprofitable for them to begin with.
Don’t see why people ( I’m looking at you Greg) don’t like this card. It’s the same rewards structure as the CSP with $0 annual fee. It transfers to Hyatt and Alaska which you can get outsized value for short AA flights at 9k miles and $38 RT. It also has other transfer partners that are valuable and 4 hotel partners ( although that’s usually not a great use of points ). I’m keeping this card regardless of the rent day changes unless they start to lose valuable transfer partners.
The 5 transactions is easy to do especially since there’s no threshold spend. I personally get more use out of this card than the CSP. Only reason I have CSP is to unlock chase transfer portal
How many years of AF does a CSP SUB cover?
I do like the card — it’s just not for me at the moment because I have other cards that are better for spend. I earn 5x dining every day with the Citi Prestige and I earn 3x travel every day with the Sapphire Reserve (can do the same with the Ink Business Preferred).
That said, the card works well for my son. This change to Rent Day doesn’t affect him at all.
But that’s because you’re grandfathered with the Prestige – for most of us, 3-4x is the max (putting aside $500 max with Citi CC)…would it change your calculation if you didn’t have the Prestige?
Yes. If I didn’t have the Prestige and if I cancel our Gold card, I’d use the Bilt card for 3x dining
Provided BILT continues the tradition of some very lucrative transfer bonuses it still makes more sense for me to use it for restaurant spend than my Chase Sapphire Reserve. I don’t have an Amex Gold however, but I still would lean towards BILT I think.
Clearly, the game has changed for Bilt. Based on what we’ve *observed*, what might we expect going forward? There has been a disruption in the pattern of transfer bonuses and my sense is that they might be moving to semi-annual and ultimately annual. The top transfer bonus rate might drop from 2.5X to 2X (other than for IHG). And, as always, will the selected transfer partner even be a given cardholder’s program of choice? To me, it’s not looking good.
With the Rent Day bonus points capped at 1k, at scale, “all other spending” is 1X. Throwing in the Rent Day transfer bonus and you end up with substantially the same number of airline points as Chase Freedom Unlimited or Citi Double Cash or Capital One Venture (given their respective earn rates and typical transfer bonuses) . . . to one’s airline program of choice and no monkeying around. Not looking good.
For those who rent, why not put five or six recurring payments on the card and get your points-for-rent? For all others, maybe dining but how much are we really talking? It’s simply no longer a hobbyist’s card.
Different from other fi-tech cards, Bilt’s window of opportunity lasted for two to three years. Detractors refuse to acknowledge this. Those who got in during that window — like Greg — profited nicely. Detractors refuse to acknowledge this. It might have been apparent that Bilt would ultimately throttle back but, to be intellectually honest, detractors must admit it was good while it lasted.
I expect rent day transfer bonuses to go down to the 25/50/75/100 tier setup going forward (well, until they rework things entirely.) It made sense for Alaska to not have the crazy-high transfer bonuses, but I think it also gave them a reason to set a new standard for rent day transfer bonuses.
I’m still using it for fast food restaurant apps, both because the 3x is decent and because I’m still hoping that I can get a nice transfer bonus, but I agree that the best of this card is behind us. I think the biggest unknown is what they do for rent earnings, as it’s clearly not profitable in its current setup. They have to do something, but they also have to find a way to make it still lucrative enough for people to want to sign up for it and put spend on the card.
They want to stop or limit people like Greg who were probably loss-leaders for them. Capping the amount of points eligible for the transfer bonus (like in the recent Alaska promotion), making it harder to get status, and reducing instances where they’re giving away free points (elimination of the trivia game, capping rent day bonus at 1k points) are all aimed at making their program more sustainable (for them).
I would expect going forward more limited transfer bonuses and hard caps on the bonuses as well (50k or 100k or something like that). I think getting unlimited 2.5x for Aeroplan or Virgin or similar won’t happen again.
I didn’t mention caps on the transfer bonuses (a la Alaska) but I think you’re right. This will further limit the sexiness of the 2.5x or 2x transfers . . . to a single program . . . a program that only so many would want.
While my use of the Bilt card going forward will be quite limited, I will fondly remember its go-go days (that some refused to acknowledge). Gratitude.
There’s only so many programs they can convince to take on the burden of transfer bonuses to get more US engagement (and then devalue, ahem Turkish), before those deals are done and they stop altogether or do 15-20% once yearly.