Bilt Rewards and Bilt Mastercard Review
Bilt Rewards, the new renter loyalty program launched by an alliance of the country’s top real estate owners, and Mastercard today announced a multifaceted partnership to launch the Bilt Mastercard. The co-brand credit card offers renters across the United States a way to pay rent via credit card with no fees, earn points on their largest expense and raise their credit history with every on-time rent payment. I first wrote about this card back in June, but now big changes have been announced with an even more rewarding earning structure, additional member benefits, a simpler status program, and an additional point transfer partner.
0-1-2-3 Earning Structure
Bilt Mastercard now has a new 0-1-2-3 points earning structure:
- $0 annual card fee
- 1x on rent payments with no fees (on up to $100,000 in rent payments every year)
- 2x points on travel (when booked directly with an airline, hotel, car rental or cruise
company) - 3x points on dining
- Plus 1x points on all other purchases
- Get double points on the 1st of every month. Earn even more on Rent Day with 6X on dining, 4X on travel, and 2X on other purchases (except rent).
- APPLY NOW
Cardholders must meet a minimum of 5 card transactions per statement period in order to earn points. All new cardholders will also earn 2X points on all purchases for the first 30 days.
Bilt Mastercard Benefits
Newly added benefits for all loyalty members include:
- Earn Interest on Points (Silver, Gold, Platinum)
- A first-of-its-kind offering, Bilt will pay interest in the form of points to a member’s Bilt Rewards account every month, based on their average daily points balance for each 30-day period.
- The rate will be based on the FDIC published national savings rate found here: https://www.fdic.gov/resources/bankers/national-rates/.
- Bilt’s Homeownership Concierge (Gold, Platinum)
- Members who opt to redeem Bilt Points towards their home down payment can utilize the help of a dedicated concierge that will walk members through the home buying process step-by-step.
- Bonus Points on New Leases or Renewals (Silver, Gold, Platinum)
- Bilt will deposit up to 50% bonus points on top of points issued by landlords to members for signing for new tenant leases and lease renewal., depending on member status.
- Complimentary Bilt Collection Gift (Platinum)
- Upon reaching Platinum status, members will receive a complimentary gift from the Bilt Collection – an exclusive and curated assortment of home decor and art
Other important benefits include:
- Cell Phone Insurance – Up to $800 per claim if your cell is stolen or damaged. Limited to 2 claims per year.
- Purchase Protection – Covered from theft or damage within 90 days of the date of purchase, up to $1,000 per claim.
- Trip Cancellation Protection – You’re protected against forfeited, non-refundable, unused payments and deposits if a trip is or interrupted. Up to $1,500 per incident.
- Rental Car Insurance – Get covered for physical damage and theft of most rental cars when you pay for the rental transaction with the Bilt Mastercard
- $120 of Doordash credit per year. A $5 discount will be applied to your first 2 Doordash orders of each month.
- $60 of Lyft credit per year. Take 3 rides in one calendar month, get a $5 Lyft credit.
- No foreign transaction fees
Bilt Rewards
Anyone can sign up for a Bilt Rewards account and remember, there are never fees to earn Bilt Points. Bilt Rewards loyalty program members can immediately earn a minimum of 250 Bilt Points per month by paying rent through the Bilt Rewards app. It doesn’t matter how much your monthly rent costs.
You link your bank account in the Bilt Rewards app and payment to your landlord will be seamless. If your landlord is a member of the Bilt Rewards Alliance, they will be paid electronically through the Bilt Rewards app. If your landlord is not a member of the Bilt Rewards app, your landlord will receive a paper check via USPS First Class mail. You should plan for 5-7 business days for the check to reach your landlord.
If you live in a building that is a member of the Bilt Rewards Alliance, your landlord may offer periodic incentive points and/or Bilt status to sign a lease, refer a friend to move-in, offer points for consecutive months paying rent on time and other building-specific promotions.
From time to time, Bilt Rewards will offer different opportunities to earn bonus points so make sure to regularly check the Bilt Rewards app. You can normally earn 350 free points just for taking a quiz during Rent Day, or you can get transfer bonuses and elite status with partners.
Third Party Status
Bilt has simplified its status structure so that member status is based on total points earned over the calendar year, vs. monthly point accumulation. Points can be earned from any source such as rent transactions, non-rent transactions, bonus points, and more.
The new structure is as follows:
- Blue – anyone enrolled in Bilt Rewards with under 25,000 points
- Silver – 25,000 points earned
- Gold – 50,000 points earned
- Platinum – 100,000 points earned
Check out the initial status benefits at each tier in the following chart. Additional status benefits are coming out in the coming months.
If you earn status between Jan 1 and Jun 30 each year, it will expire Jan 31 of the following year. If you earn status between Jul 1 and Dec 31, it will remain active the rest of that year and the entire following year.
Redeeming Bilt Rewards
Bilt Rewards offers several redemption options. One of the obvious uses is to cover all or part of your next month’s rent. But there are also travel partners that could make these rewards more valuable.
You can transfer your points at a 1:1 ratio to any of the seven airline partners or the lone hotel partner, World of Hyatt. Click the flights and hotels tabs in the Bilt Rewards app to learn about the power of points transfers. You can also link your loyalty accounts and transfer Bilt Points. Airline partners include American AAdvantage, Aeroplan, Emirates Skywards, Flying Blue, IHG Rewards (new), Turkish Miles&Smiles, HawaiianMiles or Virgin Atlantic Flying Club.
There are also some other redemption opportunities such as exclusive seasonal collection of artwork, and classes with Rumble, SoulCycle and Y7.
Guru’s Wrap-up
Hopefully this Bilt Rewards and Bilt Mastercard review gives you the information you need to make a decision on whether it’s worth applying.
I think this is an interesting concept, and at least you should sign up for Bilt Rewards for free. You can normally earn 350 in free points every month, and take advantage of monthly promotion on Rent Day every first of the month.
The Bilt Mastercard could make sense as well if you pay rent, especially if you pay a substantial amount. You can earn up 100,000 points every year, but most people don’t pay $100,000 in rent per year. Besides earning 1x point on rent, the card has a good earning rate in general for a no fee credit card. It also provides some important benefits such as travel a purchase protections.
Let me know what you think!
See Rates and Feesmore Rewards and Benefits.
Disclaimer: I have a business relationship with Bilt Rewards and receive compensation if you apply via links in this article.