Bilt is the rewards platform that potentially helps people earn rewards on their housing payments, whether paying rent or a mortgage. While a lot has changed about Bilt in recent times, there’s still value to be had for many, especially thanks to the Bilt rewards points currency. In this post, I’d like to take a…
Continue reading: How To Redeem Bilt Rewards Points For Best Value: Are They Worth Collecting?
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
"Up until now, I’ve exclusively used my Bilt points for situations where there are transfer bonuses. I hope these offers continue, as that’s how I’ll continue to use my points."
Yes, that's THE BEST use of Bilt points. However, I predict such opportunities of greater-than-50% transfer bonuses will diminish gradually but quickly in Bilt 2.0, as the program's finance deteriorates.
redeem every time you get to 1000 points. Soon, BILT will go poof, as will all your points!
I think Tony is right. The launch has been such a clusterfuck and I have no confidence that BILT will be around to accumulate enough points to be useful. I got my card, activated it, waited a day (since I know there are fintechs involved, so there are more places where things need to be updated) and my card was still declined for a pizza! (this is on a credit line that could actually pay my rent in advance for more than a year).
Others have reported more dramatic screwups ... I'm just gonna stick this in the back of my sock drawer until it actually becomes useful.
Ben, if the purveyors of doom are wrong and Bilt happens to survive, could you please republish this article on February 7th of each year? For the just-completed year, could you please assess whether Bilt offered a reasonable ecosystem when compared to other card-issuer ecosystems? Thank you.
I recently dumped my Bilt card with the plan to pay rent via my Atmos Summit Card. Went into Bilt to pay rent and they no longer support Venmo payments unless you're a Bilt member, even though I'm willing to pay the 3% fee. What a joke.
I do like the points accelerator feature. And that’s the only thing I like about BILT. I’m gonna pass. BILT and cardless are two terrible companies. I’ll check back at end of 2026…if they’re still around.
I know of 3 people personally that have a BILT card…only one of them is able to use card, they have no housing costs running thru BILT. The other two have been locked out for over a week!
Hyatt, Hyatt, Hyatt... particularly given Palladium lets you earn at 2x
I'm curious what you think about Bilt cash redemption options? $200 for 3x Bilt points or exchanging $30 for 1,000 are both not great; other options are not that great either (maybe the odd Soulcyle/Barrys). But Bilt cash accumulates fairly quick at 4x and have $500 anyway from the card launch. Maybe March 1 will change it a bit when new redemption options open up
I think a lot of the doom and gloom about Bilt's future (not by you Ben, mostly by comment sections) gets this all wrong.
If you think they won't be around in 2-3 years, then its precisely the WRONG action to sit on the sidelines now. If its a great deal now, yet you doubt the long term viability, you SHOULD be jumping in head first to take advantage while the getting is good! Pretty easy between sign up bonus/rakuten/points accelerator/mortgage earnings to earn close to 200k points in one year with Palladium if you are a medium to high spender. My plan is to churn and burn then drop it.
Worst (best?) case- if they stick around for 2-3 years and I want the card again I'll just have P2 get it
Don't hoard points. Especially do not hoard BILT points. The program is no longer backed by a 'too big to fail' bank like Wells Fargo, as of February 2026. So, if anything happens, it'll be finger-pointing, limited-to-no-notice shutdown. Earn 'em and burn 'em, folks, regardless of a possible transfer bonus. Also, they can lose transfer partners on a whim, too (recall AA used to be one.) If BofA, Chase, etc. pull a Citi and demand AS, UA, or Hyatt be pulled, watch out.
Ben - I’d be interested in an article where you break down how to use Bilt Cash for good value. Like you, I’ve been using it to add 1 point per dollar to my everyday spend (as well as earn points for rent) but I can only do that 5 times before the end of the year. I redeemed $10 for a $10 Walgreens gift card, which was immediately available and fairly easy to figure out. That can be done once per month and provides dollar-for-dollar value. There’s no benefit to hoarding the Bilt cash as I think you can only role over $200/year. Anyways, I’d be interested to see your thoughts on that piece of the Bilt program. It’s an afterthought when compared with the points, but there’s some significant value buried in there. Thanks!
I wouldn’t touch BILT with your 10ft pole. Program has way too many fraud issues. They’ll also debit your account for no reason. And they’ll lose payments you make.
Just started this month playing in the Bilt ecosystem with the Palladium card. Because of the lucrative SUB. As I see it, you can consistently earn 3% on everyday spending. The standard rate is 2%, but by redeeming 200 Bilt cash, you increase that to 3% on $5000 of spending. But you also earn Bilt cash at 4% on spending. So by the time you’ve spent that $5000, all of which earned 3% in Bilt points, you’ve also earned another 200 in Bilt cash, basically replacing the 200 Bilt cash you spent to increase your earnings rate from 2% to 3%. So in other words, you can forego increasing your Bilt cash balance and in exchange rack up 3% instead of 2% in Bilt points on all your spending. Very complicated, but it works.
Got the Paladium card and transferred points to Atmos for RT business class tickets on Condor from JFK to Venice.
Ben, if you actually have the card (and I think you do), and if you've been using it regularly, you likely have a glut of BILT Cash, which, if you aren't using to offset rent/mortgage fees, is kinda hard to actually redeem, after using the 5x Accelerators. Ankur's team has teased these high-value redemptions with Blacklane and Blade, but have waited now 6 months, yet it's still 'Coming Soon.' If you have an inside source, you really should push for more details on that, because if they don't 'go live' with those and other redemptions, a lot of us are gonna have that excess 'CASH' expire... (maybe that was their plan all-along...)
Don't mind my hyper-critical former-self below (was coming from good place... bah!) Some valid points remain. Now, that it's near 8 months later, probably should mention: BILT finally went live with the Blade and Blacklane BILT Cash redemptions, which is helpful, but Accelerators are capped at 5x on Palladium, so, if you have a serious glut, B$ can still hard to use, still. And, the Alaska Summit $50K on rent for 3x (in furtherance of the 100K certificate) 'strategy' works. New transfer partners (like Amtrak) are cool. We'll see how the rest of the year goes...
Hoping to see a solid transfer bonus pop up before the end of the year (skipped speculative transfers to Avios and Mileage Bank earlier when I was still Bilt Gold). Got some Bilt Cash burning a hole and it'd be a better use for me instead of buying a BLADE ride.
I'm expecting to see Amtrak come up for October, which (being West Coast) is pretty much useless.
I recently got the card but will be cancelling it early next year.
I find it overly complicated and too intrusive. I don’t use it to pay mtg/rent because it requires plaid. I have gold status (whatever that means) and about $1K in cash that will expire bc I can’t figure out how to use it. I don’t use Blade and I have Priority Pass through a different card. I’ll attempt to use the $200 hotel credit, transfer my points to World of Hyatt and call it a day.
Also have lotsa BILT cash and can't figure out best way to transfer B$ to an airline. Palladium card here. Called BILT twice and still don't know how. They suggest when paying rent there's some way to convert B$ into points but don't see it. Ben - please - a detailed posting on how best to use BILT cash. Thanks.
