We recently learned about major changes coming to Bilt, including the introduction of three new credit cards, plus a new way to award points for housing spending (read my Bilt credit card review & comparison). The changes haven’t exactly been well received, including due to the complexity of the new system, so Bilt already made changes within days of launch (arguably adding even more complexity, but that’s a different story).
In this post, I’d like to focus on one specific frustration that I have with the new card concept. It won’t impact everyone, but I think for those of us who do value this as a way to generate points, it’s pretty noteworthy.
Bilt won’t award points on credit card tax payments?!
If you look at the terms of Bilt’s three new credit cards — the no annual fee Bilt Blue Card, $95 annual fee Bilt Obsidian Card, and $495 Bilt Palladium Card (Rates & Fees) — you’ll see a section about what constitutes an eligible purchase for the purposes of earning points on credit card spending. Here’s the relevant part:
“Eligible Purchases” or “Purchases” means transactions for goods or services and Bilt Housing Payments made with your Bilt Card, minus returns, refunds, or credits. The following purchases do not qualify as “Eligible Purchases” and do not earn Bilt Points or Bilt Cash: Balance transfers, special transfers, cash advances, cash withdrawals, card check transaction, instant loan, travelers checks, money orders, wire transfers or similar cash-like transactions, prepaid cards, gift cards, person-to-person payments (such as Venmo, PayPal, Cash App, or Zelle), tax payments (except property taxes included as Bilt Housing Payments), cryptocurrency or other digital currency purchases, fees or interest posted to your Card Account (including annual fees, late fees, and returned payment fees), lottery tickets, casino gaming chips, race track wagers or similar betting transactions, and checks that access your Card Account.
What stands out to me the most is that you can’t earn points on the cards on tax payments. For those of us who are self-employed and make our own quarterly tax payments, there are services out there that let us pay taxes by credit card in exchange for a fee of around 2%.
To be clear, this isn’t “gaming,” or anything like that. Literally not a single major card issuer has rules against this, and I’ve used cards from American Express, Capital One, Chase, Citi, etc., toward tax payments.
However, at least based on the terms, Bilt is going to have the first credit cards I know of that specifically carve out an exception for this. I reached out to a Bilt representative a few days ago to confirm that this is in fact the intent, and I never heard back, so I figure it’s time to cover this.
I think this gets at the frustration people have with Bilt
I don’t want to suggest that the tax payment exclusion specifically is what’s wrong with Bilt, but I think these kinds of carve-outs sum up the frustration that many members are feeling with all these Bilt changes.
Bilt isn’t some small, scrappy startup — instead, it has a valuation of over $10 billion. While Bilt executives will claim that the company is way more than a credit card, I think most reasonable people would agree that the thing that made Bilt gain traction was rewarding rent payments without fees.
Many of us said that the initial concept wasn’t sustainable, but Bilt executives insisted the company was already profitable, and suggested it was sustainable… until it wasn’t. Of course now we see some people at Bilt essentially suggesting that those who were earning rent rewards while making five small purchases per billing cycle were “cheating” the system, when in fact, that was the literal value proposition the company promoted.
What does this have to do with the tax payment situation? Well, Bilt now promises that the Bilt Palladium Card will be one of the most rewarding cards for everyday spending, earning the most valuable points currency there is. That caused many people, like me, to get the card, as 2x points on everyday spending is awesome.
But then you start to learn that apparently Bilt doesn’t actually want to offer 2x points across the board, and creates exclusions that you won’t find with any other cards. It contributes to the overall feeling of Bilt basically trying to claim it’s the most rewarding in every way, while carving out exceptions.
If Bilt is getting the typical interchange fees for tax payments, then why does the company feel it can’t reward those payments like any other purchases? Is even that model not sustainable, or how else can one rationalize that?
I’m happy to give the Bilt Palladium Card a try, thanks to the welcome bonus, and in anticipation of learning how Bilt Cash (Each Bilt Cash award expires 12 months after you earn it, on the last day of that month.) will work (since that’s a major unknown as of now). But justifying the $495 annual fee may be difficult:
- An incremental Priority Pass membership gets me very little value
- Up to $400 in hotel credits, each of which is a $200 semi-annual credit requiring a minimum of two nights, is really a chore to use, especially for those of us who already have many cards with many hotel credits
I figured “okay, well maybe my rewards for everyday spending will help me justify the $495 annual fee.” But then you learn about the unusual exclusions, which are just sort of frustrating.
Bottom line
Bilt is launching three new credit cards in partnership with Cardless. While they’re probably not going to be as rewarding as the old card, there’s still potentially merit to picking up one of them. What I’m finding frustrating is how there are quite some “catches” to maximizing value.
Among those is that Bilt’s credit cards reportedly can’t be used for tax payments, for those services that allow tax payments with a fee. There’s not another major credit card with an exclusion like that, so it just strikes me as a bit of a “gotcha,” especially when you’re promoting a card that’s supposed to be unparalleled for everyday spending.
Anyone else frustrated by this tax payment exclusion?
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