Bilt Rewards Card Review: Earn Points By Paying Your Rent

As an avid traveler, I’m always looking for new ways to earn more points and miles through my everyday spending. As a result, I earn over one million points every year, allowing me to enjoy all kinds of free flights and hotel stays, upgrades, lounge access, elite status, and more.

Collecting points and miles has saved me thousands and thousands of dollars over the years, and I wouldn’t be able to travel as much without it.

However, there’s traditionally been one huge expense that has always been hard to earn points for: rent.

For years, points and miles collectors have taken advantage of temporary offers that waive credit card fees or gone through complex procedures to pay their rent so they could get points.

But these maneuvers were all hit or miss and never lasted long. Thousands of potential points continued to be left on the table.

Until now.

With the arrival of the Bilt Mastercard®, you can now earn points on rent (up to 100,000 Bilt Points per year), without paying any transaction fees for doing so. And it has changed the game.

 

What is Bilt?

Bilt is a credit card that allows you to earn points when you pay your rent (as well as on everyday purchases). You then use those points like you would any other rewards program: you can use them to book travel directly, you can transfer them to travel partners, or you can use some of the other redemption options.

There are two ways to earn Bilt points: by renting a Bilt Alliance property, or by using the Bilt World Elite Mastercard®.

Bilt Alliance properties form a network of two million units across the US. But I’m not going to focus on that. I’m going to talk about its credit card since that’s what most people will be using.
 

How Does the Bilt Card Work?

Once you open a Bilt Mastercard® (which is issued by Wells Fargo and has no annual fee), you go to the Bilt app or website to set up your recurring monthly rental payments.

Bilt then creates a unique bank account tied to your Bilt credit card so that your rent is paid with an e-check rather than through your credit card. This bank account is basically a legal “dummy” account created as a workaround for credit card processing fees. You do not use it for anything else, and you do not withdraw or deposit money from it.

Whenever these unique routing and account numbers are used to pay rent, your Bilt Mastercard® is charged for the same amount. (You still have to connect your personal bank account to pay off the card each month.)

And, if your property is old-school and only accepts checks, you can still pay with your Bilt card through the Bilt Rewards app, and Bilt will send a check on your behalf.

It all takes about five minutes to set up. When you’re done, you’ll be earning points on your rent (capped at 100,000 points per year). I use it, so I don’t leave any points on the table, and it’s one of my favorite cards.
 

Earning Bilt Points

Once your account is set up, you’ll start earning one point per dollar spent using the Bilt credit card on rent payments, up to 100,000 points each calendar year.

And, while earning points for rent payments is Bilt’s main draw, you’ll also earn two points per dollar spent on travel (when booked directly with airlines, hotels, motels, resorts, cruise lines, and car rental agencies or through the Bilt Travel portal), three points per dollar spent on dining, and up to 5 points per dollar spent on Lyft. You’ll get one point per dollar on other purchases. All and all, Bilt makes it easy to earn points (which, again, is why this card is one of my favs).

Just note that you have to make five purchases each statement period (with no minimum spending requirement) to earn these rewards (more info on rewards and benefits here).

You can transfer points 1:1 to travel partners, including Alaska Airlines, Avianca, Aer Club, British Airways, United, Emirates, Iberia, Hawaiian, Virgin Atlantic, Air Canada, Air France/KLM, Turkish Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Hyatt, Marriott, Hilton, and IHG.

The fact that you can transfer Bilt points to Alaska Airlines and Hyatt really sets this card apart (besides the rent thing). No one transfers to Alaska, so this is a huge selling point for this card. It’s the only way to get these points without having an Alaska Airlines card. And earning Hyatt points allows you to have a way out of the Chase system.

It’s easy to find the best use of your Bilt points when both booking flights and hotels, as Bilt integrates with both Point.me, the search engine for finding award flights (learn more about Point.me in my review), and Awayz, which helps you find award hotel stays (more in my Awayz review here).

Just put your desired destination into the flight or hotel search function in the Bilt app, and you’ll be able to see options that you could book with Bilt points. Once you’ve decided, you can transfer your Bilt points to the necessary travel partner right within the app.

You can also redeem points for fitness classes, like SoulCycle, Solidcore, and Y7, and for items in the Bilt Collection, a curated selection of artisan home décor items. But redeeming for fitness classes comes out to around one point per cent — you get a better redemption on travel purchases.

Bilt Milestone Rewards and Elite Status

Purchases also help you earn status and Milestone Rewards in the Bilt Rewards program, based on the total points earned or total spend over the year:

Points earned towards these benefits include all annual spending made on your Bilt Mastercard (except rent) as well as the following purchases made on any linked cards: flights and hotels booked through the Bilt travel portal, Bilt dining purchases, Lyft rideshares (when Bilt is your linked loyalty card), and fitness classes booked through Bilt.

The status tiers are as follows (subsequent tiers include everything in the aforementioned ones):

• Blue: Earn points on rent and the ability to transfer them 1:1 to travel partners
• Silver (50,000 Bilt Points or $10,000 of eligible spending): interest on your points balance (at the FDIC published national savings interest rate), priority Rent Day access, higher Rent Day transfer bonuses, 10% off BLADE airport flights
• Gold (125,000 Bilt Points earned or $25,000 of eligible spending): Gold priority Rent Day access, even higher Rent Day transfer bonuses, access to a home ownership concierge (who will walk you through the home-buying process)
• Platinum (200,000 Bilt Points or $50,000 of eligible spend): Platinum priority Rent Day access, even higher Rent Day transfer bonuses, one free BLADE flight between Newark, JFK, and Manhattan or Monaco and Nice

Again, all spending on the Bilt Mastercard is eligible. And every 25,000 Bilt Points you earn, you’ll unlock a new level in the new Bilt’s Milestone Rewards system, with limited-time offers including accelerator earn opportunities, points towards the Bilt Collection, extra points on Bilt Dining, and more.

Once you hit a reward tier, you can claim your offer, which will then be valid for the allotted time period. Except for Bilt dining, all bonus earn is only for purchases made with your Bilt Mastercard. Milestone Rewards you can hit are as follows:

• 25,000 and 50,000 points: Double points on Bilt Dining for 7 days, 2X at grocery stores for 30 days, 2X at gas stations for 30 days, 2X on sports & concert tickets for 30 days, 1,000 points for the Bilt Collection
• 75,000 points: 2X on digital wallet purchases for 7 days, 10X on your next 3 Lyft rides
• 100,000 points: Get 5,000 points closer to the next status
• 225,000 points: 7,500 points for the Bilt Collection
• 250,000 points: 4X at grocery stores for 30 days, 4X at gas stations for 30 days

You can see your progress towards your next milestone reward when logged in on the website or app:

Bilt is constantly improving upon this rewards system too, so while this is a strong start with some nice bonus earn offerings, I expect to see even more to come from Bilt here. And remember that even at the base rewards level, you can still take advantage of Bilt’s main attraction: earning points on rent.

Plus, in addition to earning points, the card also gives you:

• Trip Cancellation and Interruption Protection
• Trip Delay Reimbursement (for delays of six hours or more)
• Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver
• Cellular Telephone Protection (up to $800 USD, subject to $25 deductible)
• No foreign currency conversion fee (Terms & Conditions)
• $5 USD in Lyft credits each month after taking three rides that month

Click here for a full breakdown of Rewards and Benefits and Rates and Fees.
 

Who Is This Card For?

This card is suited for anyone who wants to earn points on their monthly rent. Once you set up the online payments (you can also set up auto-pay) and use your card five times a month, it’s largely a “set it and forget it” kind of card. With no annual fee, you have nothing to lose and only points to gain.

The card is especially geared toward travelers and restaurant-goers, since it offers 2x points spent on travel and 3x points on dining out. It’s best paired with other travel credit cards that have better perks, nice welcome bonuses, and higher earning rates, though.

I’ve been using the Bilt card a lot more instead of my Chase Sapphire, because I get a lot of Chase points through business spending, and because I wanted to earn AA points for my recent trip to Japan (AA is a partner with Japan Airlines).
 

Who Is This Card Not For?

As with any travel credit card, you should not get the Bilt card if you’re already carrying a balance or plan to carry a balance. Interest rates for travel credit cards are notoriously high, and the Bilt card is no different. The points just aren’t worth it if you’re paying interest each month.

This card is also not for anyone with poor credit, as you need good or excellent credit to qualify.

Furthermore, the Bilt card won’t be for anyone looking for one with a big welcome bonus (as there is none), and it does count toward Chase’s 5/24 rule (you can’t open more than five Chase cards within 24 months). If you’ve already opened five Chase cards or want to open more, you might want to skip this one for now.

In sum, if you are a renter and want to earn points on this major monthly expenditure, then it’s worth considering the Bilt card. It has no annual fee, and easy to set up, so there’s really nothing to lose. Even if your rent isn’t particularly high, points are points, and the Bilt card could be a nice additional resource for earning those coveted points and miles (especially if you fly Alaska Airlines, as Bilt is the only card that earns points transferable to this airline).

***

As the only rewards card that lets you earn points on rent without transaction fees while doing so, Bilt is a welcome new player in the travel space. In my opinion, it’s really a no-brainer if you pay rent, so you can start working toward some free flights and hotel stays. I think this card is a must-have for travelers in the US. It’s my go-to card currently and I can’t recommend it enough!

Click Here to Sign Up for Bilt!