Bilt Blue Card: No Annual Fee Sounds Nice, But What About The Perks?

Link: Apply for a Bilt credit card, with three options to choose from

Bilt is the platform that is most known for offering rewards for housing payments. We’ve seen major changes to the company’s rewards concept, and Bilt now has three Mastercard credit cards serviced by Cardless, which are potentially worth considering. This includes the no annual fee Bilt Blue Card, $95 annual fee Bilt Obsidian Card, and $495 Bilt Palladium Card.

I’ve written a guide to Bilt credit cards, and in general, I’ve argued that the highest annual fee Bilt Palladium Card is most worthwhile, followed by the mid-range Bilt Obsidian Card.

That being said, I haven’t really taken a more detailed look at the no annual fee Bilt Blue Card. Is the Bilt Blue Card potentially compelling as well, for someone who doesn’t want to pay an annual fee, or is it worth skipping no matter what?

Basics of the no annual fee Bilt Blue Card

As mentioned above, the Bilt Blue Card is the most affordable card in the portfolio, and here are the basics of the product:

• The Bilt Blue Card has no annual fee, both for the primary cardmember and for any authorized users
• The Bilt Blue Card has a welcome bonus of $100 in Bilt Cash upon approval
• The Bilt Blue Card offers 1x points on eligible purchases (Bilt Rewards points are super useful)
• The Bilt Blue Card offers 4% back on spending in the form of Bilt Cash, which can be redeemed for all kinds of things, including the ability to earn 1x points on housing payments, points accelerators on spending, and more

I’ve written in-depth about Bilt Cash, so I recommend checking out that post if you have questions regarding the currency, since there’s a lot to understand. It makes up a key part of the card’s value proposition, so you can’t get a good sense of the program while overlooking that.

Who should apply for the Bilt Blue Card?

You can either look at the value proposition of the Bilt Blue Card in absolute terms, or you can look at it in relative terms, in comparison to the $95 annual fee Bilt Obsidian Card or $495 annual fee Bilt Palladium Card. Let’s start by looking at the card in absolute terms.

As I view it, the argument for this card is pretty simple. There aren’t any exciting bonus categories or benefits on the card, so you’d want the card simply for the return on spending that it offers. The card offers 1x points on all purchases, which doesn’t sound terribly exciting. On the plus side, Bilt Rewards is a valuable point currency, so having a no annual fee card that offers full access to points is good.

But ultimately making the return on spending on this card work comes down to utilizing Bilt Cash, as the card offers a 4% return on spending in the form of Bilt Cash.

On the most fundamental level, you can redeem Bilt Cash to earn 1x points on your housing payments, whether it’s rent, a mortgage, or an HOA. So if you have a significant housing payment, there’s a lot of upside here.

You can redeem $30 in Bilt Cash to get 1,000 points on a housing payment as often as you’d like. So the idea is that spending $10,000 would earn you $400 in Bilt Cash, and that would be enough to earn around 13,333 points on housing or mortgage payments.

The idea is that in the right increments, you can get a 3:4 ratio between rewards on your everyday spending and rewards on your housing payments. Put another way, if you absolutely maximize things, you could in the end be earning up to 2.33x points per dollar spent, between factoring in the 1x points on purchases plus the 1x points on housing payments (potentially for a greater amount than you actually spent on the card).

For someone who specifically optimizes purchases in that way, I’d say that’s a pretty compelling return on spending, especially for someone who would prefer a no annual fee product.

Is the Bilt Obsidian or Palladium Card the better option?

In isolation, I think the argument could be made that the no annual fee Bilt Blue Card is worth it, assuming you insist on only having no annual fee cards, and you spend a decent amount on housing payments. The issue is that this completely ignores the upside of having one of the more premium cards.

At a minimum, I think the $95 annual fee Bilt Obsidian Card is worth the premium. The annual fee is reasonable, and you get the following incremental perks (I’d say that the improved rewards structure really makes the math much more favorable):

• The Bilt Obsidian Card offers 3x points on your choice of dining or groceries (dining is uncapped, groceries is capped at $25K of spending per year), 2x points on travel, and 1x points on all other purchases, in addition to 4% back in Bilt Cash on all spending
• The Bilt Obsidian Card offers more ways to redeem Bilt Cash; for example, if you have the card, you can use the points accelerator, whereby you earn an extra 1x points on the first $5,000 spent by redeeming $200 in Bilt Cash, which is a great opportunity (you can do this up to five times per calendar year)
• The Bilt Obsidian Card offers up to $100 in Bilt travel portal hotel credits every calendar year; this comes in the form of a $50 semi-annual credit, valid for a two-night minimum stay

However, I think the best argument is in favor of picking up the $495 annual fee Bilt Palladium Card, which is a better option for many people. As I see it, this comes down to a few main factors:

• Unlike the lower fee and no fee cards, the Bilt Palladium Card has a welcome bonus of 50,000 bonus points and Bilt Gold status after spending $4,000 within the first three months (on non-housing purchases), plus $300 in Bilt Cash upon approval; so the first year value on the card is really good, and it gets you a valuable Bilt elite status tier
• On an ongoing basis, the card offers $200 in extra Bilt Cash annually, plus up to $400 in Bilt travel portal hotel credits every calendar year (in the form of a $200 semi-annual credit, valid for a two-night minimum stay), and a Priority Pass membership, with up to two guests allowed; everyone will value those perks differently
• I love the card’s rewards structure, as you earn 2x points on everyday spending, which is hard to beat

So I really do think this is a tiered card portfolio where the cards with annual fees are worth the premium, in terms of the number of points that you can earn. While I’d recommend going with one of those cards, for someone who strictly doesn’t want to pay an annual fee, there’s still upside with the no annual fee card, as you can essentially average up to 2.33x transferable points on spending, after factoring in housing rewards via Bilt Cash.

Bottom line

The Bilt Blue Card has no annual fee, so on the surface, it might sound like the most appealing Bilt credit card. While the card does offer 1x points per dollar spent in addition to 4% back in the form of Bilt Cash (which can be used to earn rewards on housing payments), I still think it’s the weakest card in the portfolio, in terms of the overall potential upside.

As I see it, the $95 annual fee Bilt Obsidian Card has some useful bonus categories on spending, and offers more ways to redeem Bilt Cash. That makes it worth the annual fee, as I see it, assuming you spend a decent amount on the card. Then there’s also the $495 annual fee Bilt Palladium Card, which I’d argue is the most compelling card in the portfolio, given the additional perks, 2x points on everyday spending, plus much bigger welcome bonus.

Where do you stand on the value of the Bilt Blue Card, and how do you think it compares to the Bilt Obsidian Card and Bilt Palladium Card?