Cardless – which offers Qatar, LATAM, TAP, Avianca, Coinbase and Simon Malls credit cards, and will be the new issuer for Bilt starting early next year – raised a $60 million Series C.
If I lived in New York, Chicago, Dallas, Miami, Philadelphia or Los Angeles I’d be all over the Qatar Visa Infinite card, since it comes with oneworld sapphire status the first year – which means American Airlines business class lounge access when flying American or Alaska (even domestically).
American Airlines Flagship Lounge, Philadelphia
Four years ago when Cardless was still quite new I walked through their model and how they could be disruptive. Several months ago they ended their one card per person rule. And by the way, the Bilt Wells Fargo card application now says,
The current Bilt Mastercrad offering will be replaced with a new lineup of cards in early 2026. Details on the new lineup of cards, including how existing customers can transition to a new card, will be announced Fall 2025.
The President of Cardless, by the way, was a miles and points blogger who had been approved for about 150 credit cards while a Stanford undergrad, mileage running on American Airlines and earning miles with Redbird and Bluebird cards.
I love having more options for rich rewards cards beyond the biggest banks. Competition is good, more cards are too. With this new funding round they’ve raised over $170 million, which positions them well to grow. So I expect to see them launching more new cards soon.
Well, as a New Yorker, shame on me for not being ‘all over’ that Qatar card yet…
Gary, what’s going on with Cardless and BILT 2.0, because the transition from WF to them has some of us concerned that much of the program will disappear overnight.
I guess, the real question… when is Gary Leff gonna start his own card empire (blogger turned…)
It’s a good one year offering in NY if you will do a lot of AA/oneworld travel out of JFK T8 in a one year period and value access to Greenwich and other OW business class lounges for $499 and do not value crediting your flights to another program. I suppose it’s theoretically possible to requalify with Qatar but not something I would expect most people deploying that strategy to actually do.
Very curious what the new Bilt cards will look like including mortgage earning, especially with Atmos as a Bilt transfer partner. Certainly welcome further disruption – competition is a good thing!
@Peter — Well said! At least in the credit cards space, competition is alive and well. Thank goodness.