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I’m excited for my Bilt Palladium Card (see rates and fees) to arrive. The Bilt Obsidian Card (See rates and fees) is an amazing product for your choice of groceries or dining.
But the no annual fee Bilt Blue Card (See rates and fees) is going to be a real sleeper hit: 2.3 transferable points per dollar spent up to the amount of your rent or mortgage payment every month.
- Earning is 1X points on your spent + 4% back in Bilt Cash
- That Bilt cash lets you buy points up to the amount of your mortgage payment. You also start off with $100 of Bilt Cash when you apply and get approved for the card.
$750 in spending on the card earns $30 Bilt Cash, which can be used to earn 1,000 points on $1,000 of mortgage or rent spend. Put another way, you can choose to earn an additional 1.3 points for every dollar of spending on the card, up to three-quarters of your monthly rent or mortgage.
If you don’t use any of the ‘coupons’ or other offers from Bilt Cash, and simply convert all of your Bilt Cash into points this way, you’re earning 2.3 points per dollar spent – 1 point directly from the card, plus another 1.3 points up to 75% the amount of your housing paymnet using Bilt Cash. That makes it the market-leading points on all spend from a no annual fee card.
So if you make $4,000 monthly rent or mortgage payments through Bilt, this card lets you earn 2.3 points per dollar spent on it up to $3,000 in spend each month. (To be sure, if you’re a bigger spender than that, you’ll do better with the annual fee cards, especially Palladium.)
And these are transferable points, that can also be used in Bilt’s travel portal at 1.25 cents apiece (often direct bookings for hotels and air).
- Star Alliance: Air Canada Aeroplan, Turkish Miles & Smiles, United Airlines MileagePlus, Avianca LifeMiles, TAP Air Portugal Miles&Go
- oneworld: Cathay Pacific Asia Miles, Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan, Iberia Plus, British Airways Club, Japan Airlines Mileage Bank, Qatar Airways Privilege Club
- SkyTeam: Air France KLM Flying Blue, Virgin Atlantic Flying Club
- Non-alliance: Emirates Skywards, Southwest Airlines, Aer Lingus Aer Club, Etihad Guest, Spirit Airlines Free Spirit
- Hotels: World Of Hyatt, IHG One Rewards, Marriott Bonvoy, Hilton Honors, Accor ALL – Accor Live Limitless
Etihad Airbus A380 First Class
There is no card outside of Bilt that earns 2.3 transferable points per dollar on all spending (up to your monthly cap). And there are very few other no annual fee cards that even earn transferable points at all. Tell me a better standalone no annual fee card out there than the Bilt Blue Card? There isn’t any.
Since most hotel points generally transfer to airline miles, no annual fee hotel cards earn transferable points – albeit usually at a terrible rate. Capital One has transferable points on a no annual fee product (and a business card). The closest value, though, is Amex’s Blue Business Plus but that’s a business card. It earns 2 transferable points per dollar (capped).
And though it’s less value than Bilt Blue, can I say that I miss the grandfathered Amex Everyday (and annual fee Everyday Preferred) that was oddly aimed at ‘women and families’? I attended the launch event for that card a dozen years ago.
Here’s a question – from the T&Cs: Card Purchase Rewards: Bilt Points and Bilt Cash earned from Bilt Card purchases typically post within 2-5 business days after the transaction posts to your Account.
So it’s not on a statement basis, it’s on a per transaction basis and sort of in real time? That’s fascinating. And I wonder how that will work in December… last week of December purchases may not post until January for instance? So does that Bilt Cash expire? Is it based on the transaction date or the posting date? Just so used to all the points becoming available on the statement date… very different model here.
As for the $0 Blue card – I agree there’s a lot of value there, I’ll wager though that many Blue card holders would rather redeem Bilt Cash for the tens of dollars coupons than take the points (although the points can be converted to statement credits which folks also might value). As OMAAT pointed out, Amex’s top 3 points redemptions were for gift cards, paying with points at check-out, and statement credits, all sub 1cpp.
Bilt simply needs to get past the “confusing” moniker and market this better (you’re doing real yeoman’s work for them) because the success of Bilt Blue will lead to the long-term success of Bilt. And if some of us can get real points out of this program – fantastic.
Gary how much is Ankur paying you? Bilt is a loser.
I cannot possibly understand why someone would take out the Blue (or maybe even Obsidian) card if they have the Palladium available. If you get the Blue as of now you are never eligible for the Palladium SUB according to the terms
Obsidian has at least some use case due to grocery earn making up some of that
Unless you believe they are lying about downgrading later which both Ankur and Kerr stated you will eventually be able to do, and is mentioned in the T&Cs as well. Which admittedly they might be so YMMV and I get the caution.
For 495 you get 50k (Hyatt/Alaska) points, 400 hotel credit (admittedly limited use) and 1x extra points on all spend. Who isn’t buying BILT points at well under 1 CPP net?