Bilt Adds Bonus Points and FSA Benefits at Walgreens
Tl;dr: Get 2-3 bonus Bilt points per dollar spent at Walgreens and 100 points on Rx refills.
Bilt has added yet another way to earn extra points, this time in a partnership with pharmacy chain Walgreens. Now, Bilt members can earn bonus points at Walgreens in addition to their usual rewards and receive bonus points for prescription refills. In addition, members can link their accounts to a Flexible Spending Account or Health Savings Account to easily identify and track Walgreens purchases eligible for use with those tax-advantaged accounts. Read on for more about these great new benefits.
Use any linked card
These benefits at Walgreens aren’t limited to purchases made with a Bilt Mastercard. Rather, they will apply to any purchase made with a credit or debit card linked to your Bilt wallet. (You can also earn 100 Bilt points for each card linked, up to 300 points total).
This makes this a set-and-forget benefit—just link your card of choice to Bilt and you’ll get extra rewards anytime you happen to shop at a Walgreens.
Bonus points at Walgreens
Purchases made at Walgreens with a linked card will now earn 1 bonus point per dollar spent on most purchases, with 2 bonus points on Walgreens-branded items. Most prescription refills will also earn 100 bonus Bilt points. These points are in addition to the card’s usual rewards, so the Bilt card will earn 2-3x per dollar spent. But you might want to use a card with strong earnings at drugstores like the Chase Freedom Unlimited (3x/3%) or the Capital One Venture X (2x).
FSA and HSA benefits
The new FSA/HSA benefit allows you to link a Bilt-linked card to an Flexible Spending or Health Savings account and apply those benefits at checkout with a single click when purchasing eligible items.
For the FSA, this is a huge benefit. Flexible Spending Accounts offer a tax advantage by allowing you to set aside funds to use tax-free on eligible products like prescriptions and over-the-counter medications. However, those funds are use-or-lose, and Bilt’s announcement notes that Americans lose $4 billion worth of that money each year. Part of that is the potential complication–you generally need to remember to bring an account-linked card to pay for your expenses, or submit a claim after the fact. The Walgreens-Bilt partnership simplifies this process, potentially making it much easier to get the full value of your FSA funds.
The HSA, meanwhile, lets you set aside pre-tax dollars to pay for qualified healthcare expenses, and is limited to individuals with qualifying high-deductible health plans. However, with their triple tax advantage, using this Bilt benefit could be detrimental over the long-term. However, most people do use their HSAs primarily to pay for healthcare expenses, and linking the account to Bilt can mean more points and more convenience.
Stackable benefits
In addition to these Bilt-specific benefits, you can also take advantage of a (free) MyWalgreens membership to earn 1% back in Walgreens Cash on all purchases, and 5% on Walgreens-branded products, as well as benefit from applicable coupons. If you shop online (free pickup in store and free delivery on $35+ orders) you might also be able to take advantage of a shopping portal bonus, like the current 2%/2x bonus via Rakuten.
That means I could use my Bilt-linked Venture X to buy Walgreens-branded products online and get 2x Capital One miles from the spending on the card, 2x Bilt points, 5% Walgreens Cash, and 2 Amex Membership Rewards points via Rakuten.
Conclusion
Any opportunity to snag more of Bilt’s ultra-valuable points is welcome, and the addition of Walgreens to Bilt’s network of partners is a particularly valuable one. It doesn’t require you to have or use a Bilt card, and allows for extra value when your shopping or healthcare needs take you to Walgreens. The FSA option is particularly valuable, as it can make it much easier to take full advantage of the tax advantages of that account.