Link: Apply now for the no annual fee Bilt Mastercard®
The Bilt Mastercard® (review) is a valuable no annual fee card that I applied for and hold onto. This allows you to pay your rent by credit card and earn rewards, even if your landlord doesn’t ordinarily allow no-fee credit card payments. For us homeowners, you can potentially even pay your HOA this way.
There are many innovative things about Bilt, including that there’s a Bilt Rent Day promotion on the first day of each month. With a new month being right around the corner, the details of the August 2024 Bilt Rent Day offer have just been revealed. While there’s not a travel partner transfer bonus, there are a couple of travel related promotions.
In this post:
Details of the August Bilt Rent Day promotion
There are a couple of aspects to the Bilt Rent Day promotion, including the ability to earn bonus points (which is the same every month) plus at least one additional promotion.
Note that Bilt Rent Day promotions are generally valid from 12:00AM ET until 11:59PM PT, so technically you have around 27 hours to take advantage of them.
Earn 2-6x Bilt points on Rent Day purchases
Ordinarily the Bilt Mastercard earns 1-3x points per dollar spent, as you earn 3x points on dining, 2x points on travel, and 1x points on all other purchases. On the first day of each month, you earn double those rewards, meaning you earn 6x points on dining, 4x points on travel, and 2x points on all other purchases (except rent, where you earn 1x points).
With this offer, you can earn up to 10,000 bonus points each month. Keep in mind that you need to use your Bilt Mastercard five times each statement period in order to earn these points. It could be worth strategically making some purchases on the first day of each month to maximize this as much as possible.
Attend a Bilt & Blade summer party
Bilt and Blade have a partnership, so for the August 2024 Rent Day promotion, they have an exclusive experience you can attend at the company’s NYC lounges.
The experience kicks off on August 1 at the Blade Lounge West, where you can enjoy a welcome cocktail, before boarding a Blade helicopter flight over the Manhattan skyline, to the Blade Lounge East. Upon landing, you’ll join other Bilt members for a lounge party with a DJ on the helipad, small plates by Tao Group, and unlimited craft cocktails and beverages.
There are three types of tickets available:
- Lounge party tickets can be purchased for $50 or 2,500 Bilt points, and grant you access to the Bilt Lounge East starting at 8PM; members can purchase up to four tickets
- Early access lounge party tickets are available to Platinum and Gold members, and grant you access to the Bilt Lounge East starting at 7PM, and can also be purchased for $50 or 2,500 Bilt points; members can purchase up to four tickets
- Lounge party plus flight tickets can be purchases for $200 or 10,000 Bilt points, and those who buy these tickets must arrive at the Blade Lounge West by 7PM; members can purchase up to two tickets
These tickets will become available on July 29, 2024, starting at 12PM ET for Bilt Platinum members, 12:10PM ET for Bilt Gold members, 12:20PM ET for Bilt Silver members, and 12:30PM ET for Bilt Blue members.
Get a deal on a Virgin Voyages cruise
Bilt is partnering with Virgin Voyages on another Bilt exclusive travel experience, with onboard benefits and the ability to bring an additional guest at no extra cost (100% off a second guest in your statement).
The Bilt exclusive benefits on Virgin Voyage cruises include:
- Unlimited premium Wi-Fi
- Two specialty coffees per day
- $100 bar tab credit
- Complimentary laundry
- Unlimited group workouts
- Essential drinks
- Access to entertainment and events onboard
- Access to an exclusive cocktail event
- Priority boarding at embarkation
- Dedicated support
The window to book will be between 9AM ET on July 26, 2024, and 11:59PM ET on August 1, 2024. All eligible cruises and bookings will be available on a Virgin Voyages webpage accessible from the Bilt app.
In order to be eligible, you must request benefits in the Bilt app after making the Virgin Voyages booking. Members should activate the benefits by entering their name, email, and booking reference number, in the Virgin Voyages Travel Experience tab of the Bilt app.
Bottom line
On the first day of each month, those with the Bilt Mastercard can take advantage of the monthly Rent Day promotion. In addition to earning up to double points for purchases, for August 2024, there are some unique opportunities with Blade and Virgin Voyages.
Bilt will have a Blade party on August 1, which you can buy tickets to. Furthermore, you can get 100% off a Virgin Voyages cruise for a second guest, so that’s a good opportunity to book one of those experiences.
Both of these offers are very niche (and neither appeal to me), but I’m sure some people will appreciate them…
Do you plan on taking advantage of the Bilt Rent Day promotion for August?
It’s a solid deal thanks to some of the bonus perks, but it’s not the greatest promo when you price it out. Current public pricing is 70% off 2nd guest, and valid for a guarantee balcony. The promo, 100% off 2nd guest, isn’t applicable to a guarantee balcony. This forces you an up-charge for essentially the same cabin compared to the public deal
TLDR: I priced out a 5 day voyage and the savings was only $100/per person compared to the public fare
Anyone notice the super small fine print at the bottom of the email? "A note for members with the Bilt Mastercard®, starting on October 1, 2024, the Double Points on Bilt Mastercard offer maximum will be updated to 1,000 points per Rent Day."
That's unfortunate.
@ Jake -- I didn't get that email. Any chance you could forward it to be me at [email protected]?
Kinds of disappointing as only NYC people can take advantage.
Another fairly useless rent day promo… but that’s totally fine. This card honestly doesn’t need any promos. It’s just a nice way to earn Hyatt points on rent. Nothing more, nothing less.
I don't think paying HOA fees is allowed by Bilt's current T&Cs. Its fine to continue doing what you do under the radar, but you shouldn't tell other people to do that because their Bilt accounts may get shut down.
You frequently update posts, but your "Can You Pay Your HOA With The Bilt Mastercard?" is one year old, and doesn't represent the current rules.
@ NateNate -- Nothing has changed since the post I wrote in 2023. That still 100% accurately reflects my experience, and the experiences of many others.
I doubt they’d delete someone’s account for that reason. Plenty of people are using BILT to pay utility charges to avoid credit card processing fees.
“Carlos here with Bilt
Rewards Support. Glad to help!
Yes, homeowner association fees are eligible for point rewards. We allow one payment using our Pay Rent Online feature each month.”
I always enjoy finding out about Rent Day. Most of the stuff doesn't appeal to me, but the surprise is entertaining for a few minutes, if nothing else. I would consider the VV experiences if they lined up with my availability, but as a teacher, they do not. But I hope some other folks have a really nice cruise.
Virgin should offer free cruises to all virgins over the age of 30. I would qualify.
Hahaha - you just won the comments today.