Bilt Unveils 3 New Credit Cards: Unlimited Rent and Mortgage Points—Plus 4% Back in Bilt Cash

Bilt has announced 3 new credit cards to replace their current no annual fee Wells Fargo product. Existing cardmembers can pick the new card they want by January 30, to ensure they receive their new card by February 6th. Old Wells cards will stop working – and the new ones will start – on February 7. That’s when new customers will be able to apply.

Existing customers can also choose whether to Bilt close their existing Wells Fargo account, or have it convert to an Autograph card (not Autograph Journey).

Customers who like earning points for rent and sock drawering the card will be disappointed. But you can potentially do better with these cards for a strong return on everyday spending than anywhere else. Things get complicated, there’s a lot to digest but also a lot of value here, and I can’t wait to get spending on the new Palladium card.

What Is Bilt And Why Are They Changing Their Credit Card?

Bilt Rewards is the most innovative new program in loyalty in many, many years. They created a coalition loyalty program, where you earn their points across a wide variety of different businesses, from apartments to restaurants to drugstores and delivery. And they did it while:

• Creating the most valuable points. They have more and better transfer partners than anyone else, their travel portal is better (you’re booking direct most of the time so still get your hotel points and status, and can get your reservations managed by the airline), and their points can be spent on the portal at 1.25 cents apiece (something Chase has ended).

• Building up a program from scratch without their own brand. Nobody knew what Bilt was four and a half years ago. However, they found a way to reach desirable customers – young, urban professionals with high disposable income – where they live. And they found a way to give customers something that nobody else did – rewards for their biggest expense, which in many markets is rent.

They started processing rent for major building owners, reaching tenants. Apartment buildings are like airline flights. When a plane takes off, empty seats can never be resold. And that’s how you get saver awards. When an apartment sits empty for a month, that month can never be resold. And they can use the loyalty program to help fill it early and keep tenants.

The first thing they had for customers was the credit card. It earned points on rent, and was very similar to a Sapphire Preferred – but with no annual fee and better points transfer partners. They wanted the card to be used for everyday spend, but too many people just used it to earn on rent.

You had to swipe the card 5 times a month on other purchases to earn on rent, but people would go to a minimart and buy 5 bananas in 5 separate transactions, or they’d go fill up on gas and break it up into 5 fills.

Bilt Says Goodbye To 5 Bananas

Wells Fargo didn’t like that people spent heavily on rent and naturally pay that off each month. Bilt and Wells Fargo negotiated an end to their co-brand agreement, and without Wells paying Bilt for each point awarded on rent, the old model wasn’t going to work.

Introducing 3 New Bilt Rewards Credit Cards From Cardless

Bilt built their brand on ‘rewarding rent’ and the old no annual fee card let you earn points for charging your rent to the card as long as you made at least 5 other purchases on the card each month. But there were limits on how much rent spend could earn.

• They’ve now added mortgages. You can charge mortgages and rent.

• And there’s no more cap on earning. You can earn paying more than one mortgage, and more than one rent payment.

• The 5 transaction minimum to earn points is gone. But in order to earn points on rent and mortgage spending at no fee you’re going to need to do other spending on the card, too.

Existing cardmembers are eligible for new cardmember bonuses, which are being described as limited-time. Moving from a Wells Bilt card to a Cardless one will not involve a hard credit pull, but it should be a ‘new account’ for Chase 5/24 purposes.

Here Are The New Cards

There will be cards at the $0, $95, and $495 annual fee price points – the Blue, Obsidian, and Palladium cards. Blue and Obsidian are World Mastercards, while Palladium is a World Legend card. (Citi Strata Elite was the first in this new ‘Legend’ card tier.)

All 3 cards come with cell phone protection; purchase assurance; and trip cancellation and delay coverage. The mid-tier card adds extended warranty. And the Palladium card has lost, damaged, and delayed baggage coverage and price drop protection.

Bilt Rewards Palladium Card

This is the premium product, with a $495 annual fee ($95 per authorized user).

• Unlimited 1X points on rent and mortgage payments; 2X + 4% back in Bilt Cash on everyday purchases
  
• $400 Bilt Travel portal hotel credit (split semi-annually per calendar year) valid on stays of 2 nights or more
  
• $200 Bilt cash (annual)

You’ll receive $300 in Bilt Cash on approval. The card has an initial bonus offer of 50,000 points after $4,000 in non-housing spend in the first 3 months, and when you hit that you also receive Gold elite status valid for the rest of the year and the entire next year. That unlocks early access to events and special activities, higher transfer bonuses, and also to Bilt Home Away From Home their program that answers Amex Fine Hotels & Resorts. It also preserves 1:1 transfers from Rakuten (they’ve only promised that for all members for six months).

It comes with a Priority Pass that includes two complimentary guests. Lounges are included, restaurants and experiences (airport spas, gaming) are not. It’s a Palladium metal card, and for a limited-time comes as a mirror card and comes with a Bilt smudge cloth to keep it shiny.

The Club at MSY

Bilt Rewards Obsidian Card

The Bilt Obsidian Card has a $95 annual fee ($50 authorized user fee) and earns:

• Unlimited 1X points on rent and mortgage payments
  
• 1X points + 4% back in Bilt Cash on everyday purchases
  
• 3X points on your choice of dining or grocery spend (up to $25,000 per year) + 4% back in Bilt Cash
  
• 2X points on travel + 4% back in Bilt Cash

The card offers a $100 Bilt travel portal hotel credit (split semi-annually each calendar year) and there’s an initial bonus of $200 of Bilt Cash on approval.

Choosing your 3x category is interesting. It defaults to dining, but you have 30 days from approval to adjust to grocery if you prefer. And you can change between dining and grocery once each year in January. (With this new card launch you can make the switch on February 7).

Bilt Rewards Blue Card

The current Bilt card has no annual fee, and the Bilt Blue Card is the new no annual fee product.

• Unlimited 1X points on rent and mortgage payments
  
• 1X points + 4% back in Bilt Cash on everyday purchases

The card’s initial bonus is $100 of Bilt Cash on approval. Like the other products, it has no foreign transaction fees.

This new card is still a ‘good card’ in the sense that it’s earning valuable transferrable points with no annual fee. Chase and Citibank no annual fee cards don’t have access to full points transfers. And Bilt Rewards points have better transfer partners and better portal value. By spending enough to get fee-free rent or mortgage points, you’re essentially earning at a better rate as well.

How To Think About The Value Of These Cards

While these cards ‘earn points on rent’ and ‘earn points on mortgages’ don’t think of them that way. Instead, think of them as earning an extra 1.3 points per dollar on all spend up to the amount of your rent or mortgage payments. In other words, they’re fast-earning cards, earning a highly valuable points currency, and your rent or mortgage payment counts as the cap on that accelerator.

• You earn points on rent, there’s a fee for doing so, but ‘Bilt Cash’ covers that fee.
  
• Earning 4% of your non-rent/mortgage card spend in Bilt Cash, and with a 3% fee for earning points on rent and mortgage, you’re getting 1.3 fee-free points for every dollar you spend.

That’s a bit complicated, but if you pay rent or mortgage on these cards, even the no annual fee card is earning 2.3 Bilt points per dollar on most of the spend that most cardmembers will do. That’s huge because it’s (1) more than 2 points per dollar (what you’d earn pairing the no annual fee Citi Double Cash with a Strata Premier or Elite which have fees but are needed for full points transfers) and (2) more valuable points than you’ll earn elsewhere.

The $95 annual fee card is worth it – effectively earning 4.3 points per dollar on your choice of dining or groceries, up to the amount of your rent spend or $25,000 per year cap – if you’re going to spend heavily on whichever category (dining or groceries) that you choose. You’re basically paying to earn at a faster rate in that category. It can be well worth it, but that’s the real differentiator between this card and the $0 annual fee Blue.

You can only be the primary cardmember of one Bilt credit card, so you have to choose which one you want – you can’t do the $95 annual fee card to get 3x on groceries and also the Palladium card for 2x on everything (although you can be an authorized user of someone else’s card).

Palladium is really interesting because up to the amount of your rent or mortgage spend this is the clear best card for unbonused spend. In fact, even after that it probably is, too. I’d gladly spend on this card over Venture or Venture X – both earn 2x, Bilt earns extra points on rent/mortgage, and Bilt’s points are better because their transfer partners are better, travel portal is better, and points worth more for travel portal spend.

Over Time Real Value Will Come From Earning Bilt Cash

Each of these cards earns 4% back in ‘Bilt Cash’ in addition to points. Most people will use Bilt Cash to cover the cost of paying rent or mortgage and earning points for it. Bilt charges 3% to earn points on these bills, but earn 4% Bilt Cash on all of your other spend, and can use the Bilt cash to cover this cost – so mortgage and rent points-earning is completely free if you spend 75% as much on non-rent/mortgage charges as you spend on rent and mortgage charges.

But if you’re spending more than that on the card – plus, even the no annual fee Blue card comes with Bilt Cash as an initial bonus offer – you’re going to have some to spend.

And in fact you’re actually earning more than 4% back in Bilt Cash with your spend – because the program awards you with $50 in Bilt Cash for every 25,000 points you earn in the program and all the points you earn from the cards count towards those thresholds – points from rent/mortgage, points from dining and groceries, and all points from everyday spending.

Bilt cash can be used with Bilt partners like Lyft, Walgreens and GoPuff. It can be used to unlock bigger transfer bonuses. So you might significantly increase the value of your points during a Rent Day transfer bonus.

Since Bilt Cash is brand new as of the first of the year, and very little has been earned yet, we don’t have a lot of experience with it. It appears that there will be limits on how much you can use each month with each partner, or on hotel bookings through Bilt’s travel portal.

However, if you take Lyft, go to restaurants in the Bilt network, shop at Walgreens, you’re going to get a lot of value from the cash. If you live in a rural area without these things, perhaps less so.

The one major frustration I have is that Bilt cash expires at the end of each calendar year, with only up to $100 allowed to roll over to the next year. So spending a lot on a card in, say, December and earning the cash in December doesn’t give you very long to use it! Ultimately I don’t know just how much Bilt Cash is going to be worth beyond covering fees for rent and mortgage points.

There’s the potential for a lot of value but it’s brand new and developing. It could be the game-changer in this whole portfolio but we’ll have to wait for it to unfold to really know. There’s enough value in the meantime that I’m not waiting.

Who’s Not Going To Like These Cards?

The people who won’t like these changes are the ones who had the old Bilt card, used it on rent, and made five $1 Amazon gift card purchases each month with it to qualify for points-earning that month. For them, since they were sock drawering the card otherwise, this change is a clear downgrade. If that customer doesn’t want to engage the program in other ways, they’re being cut loose.

My Bilt Card Strategy

I don’t rent so I wasn’t getting maximum value out of the old card. I plan to get the Palladium card. Here’s how I think about it. My wife’s primary spending is on an Amex Gold for dining and groceries. She’s a former professional chef and maxes out of the grocery 4x each year with that card. And then most of the rest of her spend goes on Venture X. So we have a decent amount of unbonused spending currently earning two transferable points per dollar.

I think the Bilt Palladium card offers more value for spending than Venture X. And moving Venture X spending will unlock fee-free mortgage points-earning for us, plus 2x Bilt points are worth more than 2x Capital One. And I’ll use the travel portal credits to offset the card’s annual fee.

I just wish there was an option to get something other than another Priority Pass card. I already have four of them.