Bilt Mastercard Review
You know a card is good when the bank is losing tons of money to its customers for a change. The Bilt card is probably my personal favorite thanks to its enormous earning potential for renters like myself, excellent base earning rates and travel protections, fun opportunities to maximize value for points nerds, and simple earning and redemption options for the lazier among us.
Check out the card details below!
Quick ratings
2️⃣: #2, Best Cards 2024
💎: Elite card
💸: Earner
🆓: No fee
🦥: Lazy
🤓: Points nerd card
🛡️: Travel protections
✈️: Great redemptions
Bonus
None. Some new cardholders may be offered 5x points for 5 days.
Laziness rating
⭐⭐⭐⭐
It’s not easy to get the absolute most value out of this card, but only because it has so many ways to wring extra value out of it (more on that below). You will have to set up rent payments, but that’s a set-and-forget process that only takes a few minutes and can easily be accomplished via Bilt’s excellent app. Otherwise, you could get great returns simply by using the Bilt card for everything, or do what I do and use it mostly when dining out (and for rent, of course). You won’t earn any rewards, however, unless you make at least five transactions with the card each month. But that won’t be hard; you can always set up a few recurring transactions if you are concerned about that minimum. If you use it to pay your cell phone bill, you’ll receive up to $800 in insurance on your device.
Net fee
This is a no fee card. 🆓
Earning
To earn points, cardholders must make 5+ transactions per billing cycle.
3x: Dining
2x: Travel, defined as “airlines, hotels, motels, resorts, cruise lines, and car rental agencies.”
1x: Other purchases
1x: Rent or HOA fees, up to 100k points per year (payment via ACH or check, so no transaction fees involved)
3x: Lyft (3x for using the card, plus 2x for choosing Bilt as Lyft loyalty partner)
Points doubled on “Rent Day” (first of the month), up to 1,000 bonus points, excluding rent.
Perks
Redemption bonus: Points are worth 1.25¢ when used to book travel on Bilt’s Expedia-powered portal.
Rent day: double points on purchases excluding rent (up to 1k points); Rent Free game for a chance to win free rent and other prizes; rotating perks (e.g. temporary hotel or airline status, enhanced transfer bonuses to partners).
Milestone rewards: For every 25k Bilt points earned, unlock extra earning opportunities, such as: double points on groceries for 30 days, double points at gas stations for 30 days, double points on sports and concert tickets for 30 days, and double points on (non-bonus) digital wallet purchases for seven days.
Status Tiers. Bilt members get extra benefits based on their points earned or spending in a given year. Rent Day benefits are often tied to Bilt status, e.g. higher transfer bonuses to partners for higher Bilt status tiers. Each tier also has specific benefits, like earning interest on points, beginning at the first elite level.
Blue: anyone enrolled in Bilt Rewards
Silver (50,000 points earned or $10,000 in non-rent spending in a calendar year): earn interest on bonus point balance; 10% bonus multiplier for new lease or lease renewal with participating properties.
Gold (125,000 points earned or $25,000 spent): home ownership concierge; 25% bonus multiplier for new lease or lease renewal with participating properties.
Platinum (200,000 points earned or $50,000 spent): complimentary gift from the Bilt Collection; 50% bonus multiplier for new lease or lease renewal with participating properties.
Point.me. Bilt members can use the Bilt app’s point.me integration to search award flight and hotel availability and pricing with Bilt transfer partners.
Bonus for signing or renewing leases at participating Bilt properties.
Bilt Dining access.
Protections
Here’s how the Bilt card stacks up on common cardholder protections:
No foreign transaction fees ✅
Trip Delay Insurance ✅ (delay >6 hours, up to $200/covered traveler/day, max $1800)
Trip Cancellation/Interruption Insurance ✅
Baggage Insurance 🚫
Baggage Delay Insurance 🚫
Rental Car Insurance ✅
Purchase Protection ✅ (up to $10,000 in coverage for theft or damage within 90 days of purchase)
Return Protection 🚫
Extended Warranty 🚫
Cell Phone Insurance ✅ (up to $800; $25 deductible)
Travel Accident Insurance 🚫
Hacks
Take advantage of double points on Rent Day. On the first of every month, Bilt offers double points on every purchase (apart from rent). To maximize your points, set recurring bills linked to your Bilt card to pay on the 1st of the month, hold off on big purchases until the 1st, reload your balances (e.g. Starbucks accounts) on the 1st, book travel on the 1st, and so on. This is also a great way to maximize points on AirBnb bookings.
Link your frequent flyer accounts. Bilt will give you 100 points every time you link your Bilt account to one of their transfer partners.
Plan major purchases around your milestone rewards to get the most out of, e.g., double points on concert tickets or groceries.
Set up your Bilt wallet. Add your Bilt card to the Bilt wallet app and earn 100 points (plus add two more credit cards for another 100 points each).
Set up your Lyft account. By setting Bilt as your loyalty partner within the Bilt app, you’ll earn 5x Bilt points per dollar spent on Lyft rides. You’ll also earn a $5 Lyft credit after your third Lyft ride in any given month and save 10% on scheduled airport rides.
Get friendly with Bilt. Bilt uses social media to keep people informed of their (frequent) promotions and deals. On Instagram (and perhaps other platforms I’m not familiar with), you can go a step farther and become a “close friend” with Bilt’s profile. “Close friends” can see content not accessible to the general public. To access these easy points-earning opportunities, simply message Bilt directly and ask to become a close friend.
Set up a SimplyMiles account. Sign up for AA’s frequent flyer program and log into SimplyMiles and link your Bilt card to register for merchant offers and receive AA miles for any purchases on your linked Mastercards such as the Bilt card.
Take advantage of the Bilt Concierge to book restaurants, hotels, and other activities when traveling in an area where you don’t speak the language. After calling once, you can contact the concierge via their website, so make sure to contact them before your trip if you’ll have trouble calling in your destination country
Play Rent Free every month for a (very remote) chance to win free rent.
Use Point.me. If you’re interested in taking advantage of Bilt’s transfer partners but don’t want to scour half a dozen airlines’ websites for reward opportunities, you can use the Bilt app’s integrated miles-based search function.
Boost your credit. While rent payments normally do nothing for your credit score and history, using your Bilt card to pay rent can help build that history. But, conversely, Bilt also offers the opportunity to withdraw funds for your rent payment directly from your bank account rather than using credit, which can boost your credit score by keeping your credit utilization ratio low.
Take advantage of Bilt property bonuses. If you happen to be living in a Bilt-affiliated property, you can earn bonus points for signing or renewing your lease.
Save at Walgreens. Although you can earn Bilt points with any card linked to your Bilt account, you can get bonus points at Walgreens thanks to that partnership.
Points/Rewards
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Bilt has the best rewards available on a credit card, including a 25% redemption bonus when booking travel through Bilt, the high-value and predictable award charts of Alaska Airlines and Hyatt, U.S. carrier United Airlines, and a host of international airlines.
Alternatives
If you want to earn points on rent, you can pay via Bilt using your own card, although it will be subject to a 3% transaction fee, likely outweighing the value of the rewards you might earn. Plastiq is similar. One exception might be the Alaska Airlines card, which earns 3 miles per dollar spent on rent via Bilt.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred offers similar benefits to the Bilt card, albeit with an annual fee and without the ability to earn points on rent. (Although you can get a welcome bonus, occasionally a huge one.)
For a high-quality, premium, no-fee travel card with redeemable points… Bilt is really the only game in town. The Capital One Venture One earns 1.25 transferable Capital One miles per dollar, but lacks the premium features of the Bilt card.
Conclusion
The Bilt Mastercard has the earning rates and protections of a premium card, but with no annual fee. If you don’t pay rent, it’s a better, free version of the Chase Sapphire Preferred. If you do pay rent, the Bilt card is maybe the best single card on the market, and it could net you hundreds of dollars of extra points and travel each year.
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