Category Archives for Credit Cards.
I got the new Bilt Palladium card expecting good value—but now I’m consistently earning over 3 points per dollar on all my spending. The card’s points-earning power, especially combined with paying my mortgage, Bilt Cash redemptions, and frequent transfer bonuses, makes it an absolute juggernaut. Here’s why it’s quickly become my top card.
Citibank is devaluing ThankYou Rewards transfers to Choice Privileges and Preferred Hotels effective April 19, cutting the Choice ratio by 25% and the I Prefer ratio by 50%. The change wipes out value from these niche hotel partners. Preferred had been one of the program’s sweet spots.
Capital One has built its travel app to make the things cardholders actually care about easier to handle in one place: lounge access, rebooking, flight updates, and using points at checkout. The changes will not turn every traveler into a portal loyalist, but they do make the app much more useful for people already booking through Capital One Travel or trying to navigate delays and crowded lounges on the road.
The new Bilt Palladium Card earns more valuable points faster than any other card I carry, and for everyday spend it is not even a close call. That is exactly why its messy rollout and a handful of frustrating design choices matter so much: this could be the best spend card on the market by far, and Bilt still managed to get several important pieces wrong.
Citi new Strata Elite card delivers a surprisingly strong first-year value play. The current offer combines 75,000 points with up to $1,200 in travel credits, and those points can now transfer directly to American Airlines AAdvantage.
Bilt’s new $495 Palladium card is already delivering in ways that matter: the 50,000-point bonus posts fast, Gold status locks in through early 2028, and with the right stacking strategy the card can generate 4X on everyday spend — turning routine purchases into outsized transfer value with partners like Alaska, Hyatt, and Air France-KLM.
Bilt says cardholders will be refunded after reports that some foreign transactions were posting about 0.2% higher on statements than they first appeared in the app, despite the card being marketed with no foreign transaction fee.
I was about to place a GrubHub order when I realized something that does not get enough attention about Bilt Cash.
Used the right way, it can be worth a full dollar on the dollar toward something you were already going to buy anyway. That is far better than stretching for a redemption that feels more exciting but delivers less real value. And because this works through a GrubHub gift card, it can stack with monthly card credits and be saved for later use.
Robinhood just unveiled a $695 “platinum-plated” credit card aimed at premium spenders, but the headline benefit is the metal, not the earning. Outside of portal rebates and limited categories, it’s just 1% back, and the real value is locked behind a long list of monthly credits with restrictions, minimums, and timing rules. In other words: it’s an expensive coupon book that only works if you want to manage it like one.
Bilt Palladium’s earn rates and transfer bonuses can generate outsized value — especially if you’re redeeming to expensive partners like Hyatt or stacking a big Rent Day bonus to Japan Airlines. The problem is simple: swipe fees don’t cover that, particularly for heavy spenders who maximize housing earn. It needs cross-subsidy: less engaged members redeeming cheaply and leaving value on the table to fund power users who extract it.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
