Bilt Rewards is a loyalty program for renters, but they’ve gotten into rewards for real estate and say that in 2025 they’ll offer points for refinancing and for paying your mortgage.

Mesa will get out ahead of them. They offer a points-earning ‘mortgage marketplace’ and a no annual fee credit card that earns points for paying your mortgage (up to 100,000 points per year). The card has been in limited release with a wait list, but they say it will be opening up broadly during January.

They describe their mission was rewarding homeowners on every dollar they spend on their home, on the financial products surrounding homeownership – like mortgages, contractors, property tax, and insurance.

Currently they offer two products:

• Mesa mortgage marketplace if you originate or refinance a mortgage they’re earning commission and rebate 1 point per dollar of loan after close.

  This is something that many companies have offered over time – from Chase (‘100,000 Ultimate Rewards points!’) to companies like ‘Miles For Mortgages’. Yet it’s never worked sustainably before. Mesa offers that there’s “never been a program designed for homeowners” that wasn’t “tack[ing it] onto other products” and that they’re offering “a lot of rich value” so this should be attractive.

• Mesa homeowners card which is going to offer points on mortgages and accelerator category spend in the home category. I’ll describe it in greater detail below.

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The Mesa credit card is a Visa Signature Preferred from Celtic Bank.

• Earning: 1 point per dollar (up to 100,000 per year) on mortgage payments; 3x on home expenses (décor, improvement, insurance, taxes, general contractors, flooring, fireplace); 2x on gas and groceries; 1x on other spend. Monthly minimum of $1,000 spend in order to earn points on mortgage spend.

• Benefits: $100 statement credit on home improvement annually; Up to $60 big box membership statement credit annually (Sam’s Club, BJs, Costco); Pet benefit with Wag and another partner adding next year worth up to $240 annually across the two brands; $100 statement credit on Armadillo home warranty purchases; $200 annual credit with Thumbtack for home maintenance, cleaning, or even Christmas tree removal.

• Annual fee: None

• Redemption options and point value: Points are worth 1 cent apiece through Mesa’s travel portal; $0.007 to $0.0085 apiece towards gift cards; and approximately half a cent apiece as credit card statement credits. They also offer redemptions for closing costs on mortgages obtained though their marketplace.

  In the first quarter of 2025 they will be introducing points transfer to travel programs, and intend to do so at 1:1 “where possible.”

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We don’t yet know the date in January when card applications will become available, but it’s a lot closer to fruition than the planned new card that rewards making tuition payments.

The $1,000 per month minimum for earning on mortgage payments is interesting. Bilt requires 5 card swipes. This won’t let you just make 5 consecutive 10 cent purchases at the gas pump or de minimis Amazon gift card purchases. The intent is clearly to get you to keep the card top of wallet.

This should be of huge interest to homeowners, though I’m hoping that Bilt’s foray into mortgage payments will be attractive enough to keep this at bay – competition is great! – and if I had one concern, it’s that they tell me they’ve raised $9.2 million plus $2 million in debt funding so far. Building a card portfolio is expensive. They express confidence in their ability to raise capital, noting they’re “working on [their] next funding round” and have a “huge waitlist” for their card. But I’d like to see a bigger warchest before taking more than an earn and burn approach to building a points balance with them.

Going forward, beyond the card and mortgage marketplace, they see opportunities with home equity lines of credit and with other home partnerships like home insurance and home warranty.