Bilt Rewards has a great monthly promotion, Rent Day. Each month they have several offers with their partners, such as access to fine dining at discount prices; elite status offers; and generous transfer bonuses. While other programs might offer 20% or 30% bonuses to an airline or hotel program for a month, for a single day Bilt may offer a 100% bonus. (I’ve taken advantage of 150% transfer bonuses to Air France KLM Flying Blue and Virgin Atlantic Flying Club.)
There are also recurring offers each month, such as Bilt SoulCycle classes, and a Family Feud-style game show to earn a cash prize meant to cover rent.
And each month they offer double points on the 1st for spending with their co-brand credit card. All non-rent spend doubles, and that doesn’t mean just an extra point. Dining earns 3 points per dollar with their card, so earns 6 points per dollar on the first. Travel earns 2 points normally, so earns 4 points on the first.
- Currently that’s capped at 10,000 bonus points per month.
- Starting October 1, that will be capped at 1,000 bonus points per month.
Effective 10/1/2024, the maximum amount of bonus points you can earn under this promotion will be 1,000 per month regardless of how much you purchase.
That’s a big deal to me personally. While I certainly look at it as a nice incentive to eat out on the first of the month, I save up bills to pay on the first of the month. I use my Bilt card to pay those bills and earn 2 points per dollar. There are two reasons why I do this.
- I can earn 2 Capital One miles per dollar spent on my Venture X. But I value a single Bilt point more than any other currency. I’d rather earn 2 Bilt points than any other option I have for unbonused spend.
- Card spend counts towards elite status, and I want to keep my Bilt Platinum. It means Air France KLM Flying Club Gold. It means a free Blade helicopter trip. It means access to the highest-value transfer bonuses, and earliest access to dining reservations and experiences they make available through rent day.
I’m probably not going to earn Bilt Platinum on dining spend and Lyft spend. Their Neighborhood Dining program has some of my favorite restaurants, which is great. But I need that spend on their card the first of each month to earn status.
| ANNUAL POINTS EARNED | NON-RENT CARD SPEND | |
| Silver | 50,000 | $10,000 |
| Gold | 125,000 | $25,000 |
| Platinum | 200,000 | $50,000 |
I’ll requalify for 2025 Bilt Platinum on August 1. But without making card spend more valuable on the first of the month to the same degree, which I make it for 2026? I’m not sure!
What a week for hype machines – Delta’s meltdown now Bilt devaluing
I have my doubts that bilt will survive
I agreed, from 10k to 1k is quite the sting. Makes me think these bonuses aren’t sustainable for Bilt. Wells Fargo already seems unhappy with the relationship. I have a fear we are going to see more devaluations as time goes on unless Bilt can monetize their user base better.
I guess that Bilt card wasn’t worth a 5/24 slot after all, huh Bilt fanboys? Glad I didn’t bite. It would take years of rent payments to equal one good signup bonus.
I called this on a reply earlier today regarding Bilt. They are sustainable and Wells will cut it off well before the end of their agreement (as noted they used a delayed corporate entity to contract for that which can easily be thrown into bankruptcy or shot down). Without Wells there is no Bilt.
When things are too good to be true they don’t last and there is no way Bilt (and Wells) will ever make money with these promotions. Redeem those Bilt points quickly before they are worthless
That’s genuinely silly @Retired Gambler.
1/ Wells isn’t walking away from this contract. It has 5 years to run. Changes are clearly going to help their economics.
2/ You take advantage of great deals while they exist. The fact that they might go away later doesn’t mean you don’t want to benefit from them today
3/ Bilt is apparently profitable on an adjusted-GAAP basis and has plenty of funding, and great connections like the former CEO of American Express as their board chair. They might have to make adjustments but they still have huge upside like mortgages and a great Mastercard deal. Huge assets.
I benefit mightily from Bilt, month-after-month. You go skip it. As they adjust the value prop, I’ll adjust how I use the program. That’s how you go about this.
@Mantis – years of rent payments? Where do you live, Des Moines?
As long as I can earn on rent, I am fine with it. Soon it will be strictly rent and 5 small transactions card.
It’s probably safe to assume that those who hate the Bilt card either owns a home or still live with their parents. For anyone renting, the card is a no-brainer.
@ Gary — Currently, the Ink Preferred card offers a 120,000 bonus for $8,000 spend. That is 128,000 points total. You would have to charge $128,000 of rent to earn those points on BIlt. That is 74 months at the average US rent rate of $1,713 per month, so no you don’t need to live in Des Moines for the Bilt card to be a poor choice. As a homeowner who eats at home, I find Bilt to be a generally useless card.
@Gary
Why you slamming Des Moines? Don’t be a coastal elitist. No, I live in the SF bay area actually, but the extra 5/24 slot plus all the sign up bonuses I get from paying rent with Plastiq are infinitely better than the Bilt CC.
@ Gary — Plus, if @Mantis has rent control, which is common in SF, his rent may not be $4k-$5k/month. I have friends living in the same place there for 30 years, and they are paying like $1,000/month.
Doesn’t really sound like a worthy thing with bilt. It kinda goes with the old attage- If it’s too good to be true,then it is,which means a total Scam
@Gary: The WSJ reported that regular spend on the Bilt card was lower than their (Wells) models. Since these changes will reduce spend it is hard to see how “Changes are clearly going to help their [Wells] economics.”
@Gary: You appear to have your work cut out. Your 120,000 point first-of-month spend is now 12,000, leaving you with 108,000 to find for Platinum. Assuming you eat your way to it, that is $36,000 in new restaurant bills. Lucky Austin.
@Gene…excellent use of cherry-picking. The Ink Preferred is a business card, a minor detail you left out. Not everyone owns a business. Also, why can’t people get both cards, if they’re eligible? Finally, you own a home and don’t eat out much. The card clearly isn’t for you, but there’s clearly a market for this type of product.
@L3
50k of non rent spend for platinum – 12k now done in future on Rent day after Oct 1
Leaves 38k for rest – loses 2x points
but if the transfer promos are 50% for Gold and 100% for platinum, the exxtra 38k non bonused spend may be worthwhile after all.
I think it is not a trust worthy because I have some doubts.
@L3 this shaves unprofitable spend (and they may still get *some* of the spend without the higher level of expense)
I agree, Gary. I also will qualify for 2025 Bilt Platinum, but without the bonus for spending on the first of the month, I’ll divert spend over $500 (or less, if it’s dining) to the Venture X card. So likely no more Platinum status after 2025!
This is another reason to hold on to the Venture X card.
I have had BILT for 18 months. Love the promos (Alaska was such a great surprise). I do mostly see where this is going though since they are passionate about the no AF. The economics still seem mostly promotional and primarily to grow (and likely diversity) the base. They are on the favorable side of the contract but dont be a fooled. a lopsided contract with a startup and big entity will not end favorable to BILT, This news seems like some internal cost cutting to absorb more of fees they likely will be paying on rent with current issuer or a new issuer (if forced to shop this contract around). I think we will see a more gradual decline until economics stabilize for everyone. . The other quagmire BILT faces its trying to deal with 2 distinct customer bases: points enthusiasts, and the everyday Joe who just wants a non AF card to charge rent and other everyday categories like dining. The spend habits are totally different and likely much of the enthusiast base is hyper optimizing for bonus points, rent if they need it, and the huge xfer bonuses (which many max out). Im sure this is a bit of a drain to them forcing their hand
If their goal is to encourage people to put more everyday spend on the card, they haven’t been succeeding so far. Bilt has a remarkable habit of taking legitimate changes (see, e.g., the status requirements last year) and going about them in the most customer-unfriendly ways, all cloaked as normal, course of business ways to keep up the overall value prop of the card. Kerr, in particular, is guilty of this: he seems incapable of recognizing the tonal problems with Bilt. I won’t stop using the card, because I pay rent, and transfer to both Alaska and Hyatt, and I’m not personally someone who maximizes the points to such a degree that I hit the 10k figure on Rent Day, but this rollout is an insult, and makes me far less likely to choose this card over my CSP, or even my AA card, since I can earn miles and LPs there.
Honestly, it doesn’t affect me much. I’m just looking to maintain silver status. I often go out to eat on Rent Day, but not always. We have been putting the phone bill on the card for Rent Day, and will continue to do so (the cell phone insurance at WF is good). I was considering some quarterly tax payments, and given what I need to do, I can still probably fit it into the structure of the card under the new rules.
Otherwise, this is still my dining card. The points are still valuable, and I don’t want to play the Amex statement credit game just to get the AF down to a reasonable level. As such, this is the best 3x dining option out there (though Citi has been killing it with the transfer bonuses lately).
I get why some people are frustrated, but a Venn diagram of the population that cared about this threshold and the readers and writers of Boarding Area blogs would probably look like a circle within another circle.
@FFI: “50k of non rent spend for platinum – “. Wrong numbers,. He has to find 108k points lost due to the change.