Bilt Mastercard® Review
2023.8 Update: There is a small improvement: Bilt points can now be redeemed as statement credit at a fixed ratio of 1.0 cent/point. Although this obviously is not the best way to redeem Bilt points, it provides the lower bound of the points value. Here’s the screenshot. Sorry, my mistake, the redemption rate is only 0.55 cents/point. The ratio is too low.
2023.4 Update: The point cap you can earn from rent is increased from 50k to 100k per calendar year.
2022.10.1 Update: Bilt introduced a series of promo called “Rent Day” on the 1st day of every month. You can open Bilt app and participate them to earn some bonus points. Also, you can earn double points (excluding rent), up to 10k bonus points each Rent Day.
Contents
Application Link
Benefits
- No transaction fee if you pay rent with this credit card via the Bilt app. Even if your landlord is not a Bilt partner, you can still pay rent via the Bilt app: Bilt provides its credit card users a routing number & account number to pay rents; or you can choose to let Bilt send a check for small or private landlords.
- Bilt points are worth about 1.6 cents/point, and we will talk about this more in the following section. Its 1:1 transfer partners include Hyatt, AA, and UA!
- Earn 1x Bilt points on rent, up to 100k points per calendar year; earn 3x Bilt points on dining; earn 2x Bilt points on travel; and earn 1x Bilt point on other purchases.
- [New] Earn double points (excluding rent), up to 10k bonus points each Rent Day (1st day of every month).
- Trip delay insurance (6 hrs).
- Primary car rental insurance.
- Cellular Telephone Protection (subject to a $25 deductible).
- No foreign currency conversion fee.
Disadvantages
- No sign-up bonus now.
- You can only earn points when you make 5 or more transactions that post each statement period. But it’s not a big deal, because you can always reach the goal by reloading Amazon Gift Cards.
- Bilt does not allow you to pay mortgages, unfortunately. But it’s rumored that Bilt will support mortgages soon.
- Although you will get a routing number & account number, you can’t use them to do things like paying mortgages or tuition fees, etc. If you do so, the transactions will be reversed and you will get warnings from Bilt.
Bilt Rewards Points
Bilt rewards points are surprising flexible and valuable. Its 1:1 transferrable partners are:
- Aer Lingus Avios
- American Airlines AAdvantage
- Air Canada』s Aeroplan
- British Airways Avios
- Cathay Pacific Asia Miles
- Emirates Skywards
- FlyingBlue
- Iberia Avios
- Turkish Miles & Smiles
- Virgin Atlantic Flying Club
- HawaiianMiles
- United Airlines MileagePlus
- World of Hyatt
- IHG
Note that Hyatt, AA, and UA points are quite valuable and not that easy to get.
Bilt points can also be redeemed towards Bilt travel portal, powered by Expedia, at a fixed ratio of 1.25 cents/point. Although this is not the best way to redeem Bilt points, it is a flexible way to redeem the points.
Bilt points can also be redeemed as statement credit at a fixed ratio of 0.55 cents/point. It is not recommended to redeem the points in this way because the ratio is too low.
Summary
Rent is usually a big expense that you can’t earn credit cards rewards from. With Bilt credit card now you can earn points! What’s more, Bilt points can be 1:1 transferred to Hyatt, AA, or UA, which is really nice. As a relatively new company, Bilt points are surprisingly strong. I hope they can provide more features over time such as allowing people to pay mortgages.
Historical Offers Chart
Application Link
See Rewards and Benefits and Rates and Fees for more details.