How To Earn & Redeem Bilt Cash: A Complicated But Rewarding System

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

Bilt recently rolled out massive changes. This includes a new portfolio of three credit cards — the no annual fee Bilt Blue Card (review), $95 annual fee Bilt Obsidian Card (review), and $495 Bilt Palladium Card (review) — plus a new system for paying rent and mortgages (read my Bilt credit card review & comparison).

Central to the concept of being able to pay rent and mortgages while earning points is Bilt Cash, which is a Bilt currency separate from points. This makes up a key component of the Bilt credit card concept. The idea is that Bilt Cash can be redeemed “dollar-for-dollar” for select redemptions, though with major limitations and restrictions.

In this post, I’d like to go over the full details of how Bilt Cash works. How can it be earned, how can it be redeemed, and what are the best options?

How can members earn Bilt Cash?

There are two main ways that Bilt Cash can be earned, as it’s based on how many total points you rack up, and it’s also based on how much you spend on a Bilt credit card.

The first is that members can earn $50 in Bilt Cash for every 25,000 Bilt points earned. It doesn’t matter how those points are earned, and of course Bilt Cash is in addition to whatever Bilt points you ordinarily rack up.

The second is that Bilt Cash can be earned with all three Bilt credit cards. So not only do the cards earn points, but they also earn Bilt Cash:

• The no annual fee Bilt Blue Card earns 1x points and 4% back in Bilt Cash on everyday purchases, plus a welcome bonus of $100 in Bilt Cash; this is the card that I get least excited about
• The $95 annual fee Bilt Obsidian Card earns 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, 1x points on all other eligible purchases, and 4% back in Bilt Cash on all purchases, plus a welcome bonus of $200 in Bilt Cash; if you can maximize the bonus categories and want to minimize your annual fee, this is a good option
• The $495 annual fee Bilt Palladium Card earns 2x points and 4% back in Bilt Cash on everyday purchases, plus a welcome bonus of $300 in Bilt Cash, plus $200 in Bilt Cash every year on an ongoing basis; this is the most compelling card, as I see it

As you can see, all Bilt credit cards earn 4% back in Bilt Cash on all spending. Bilt Cash is valid through December 31 of the year in which it’s earned, though up to $100 in Bilt Cash can be carried over to the next calendar year.

I should mention that earning Bilt Cash for credit card spending assumes you don’t choose to just automatically be rewarded for housing payments as a multiplier of your spending, under a new system that Bilt has come up with. I know, this is all really straightforward, right? 😉 But I’ll just say that a vast majority of people should choose to earn Bilt Cash, as that’s generally going to be the most rewarding.

How can members redeem Bilt Cash?

How can members redeem their Bilt Cash? You can see your Bilt Cash balance by logging into the Bilt website or app, and going to the “Wallet” section, where you can see how much Bilt Cash you have, and your progress toward earning more Bilt Cash.

With that out of the way, let’s talk about the ways that you can redeem Bilt Cash, ranked roughly in the order that I value the options.

Redeem Bilt Cash for rewards on housing payments

On the most basic level, Bilt Cash is the currency that allows members to earn rewards for their housing payments (rent or mortgage) at no cost. Specifically, every $30 in Bilt Cash can unlock up to 1,000 points on rent or mortgages. As an example:

• If you spent $15,000 on a Bilt card, you’d earn $600 in Bilt Cash (since you earn 4% back in Bilt Cash on all spending on all cards)
• $600 in Bilt Cash would allow you to earn 1x points on $20,000 worth of fee free rent or mortgage payments

Basically, if you want to be able to pay your rent or mortgage while earning rewards, you’ll need to spend an average of 75% as much as your housing payment to rack up sufficient Bilt Cash to cover the cost (this doesn’t include things like Bilt Cash as part of welcome bonuses, or the $50 in Bilt Cash you earn for every 25,000 points earned, so the math is actually more favorable than that).

Redeem Bilt Cash for points accelerator on spending

Exclusively for select Bilt credit card members, Bilt Cash can be redeemed for a points accelerator on everyday spending, which I’d consider to be pretty lucrative.

Cardmembers can enable an extra 1x points on everyday spending for the next $5,000 spent following activation. This is exclusively available to Obsidian and Palladium cardmembers, at the cost of $200 in Bilt Cash, and up to five activations are allowed each calendar year.

This means that the Palladium would earn an incredible 3x points on everyday spending, while the Obsidian would earn 4x points on dining or groceries, 3x points on travel, and 2x points on everyday spending.

Redeem Bilt Cash for bigger Rent Day transfer bonuses

Bilt offers a monthly Rent Day promotion, which often includes transfer bonuses to airline & hotel partners. The size of the transfer bonus that you’re eligible for is often based on your Bilt elite status.

Fortunately you can use Bilt Cash to upgrade your Rent Day transfer bonus to the next status tier, and top tier Platinum members can even receive an additional boost. Pricing and availability vary based on the transfer bonus, and so far we’ve seen $75-135 in Bilt Cash required to unlock a bigger transfer bonus.

If you do unlock a bigger bonus, there’s usually no limit to how many points you can transfer. So there’s a lot of potential upside here, especially if you want to make a big transfer.

Redeem Bilt Cash for BLADE helicopter flights

Starting in the near future, it’ll be possible to redeem Bilt Cash for BLADE airport flights. Specifically, it’ll be possible to use up to $700 per year in Bilt Cash on BLADE, at the rate of up to $350 per seat. While this is somewhat niche, this is an example of a way to redeem Bilt Cash for what’s a “big ticket” purchase.

Redeem Bilt Cash for other travel & lifestyle rewards

Personally I’d consider the above to be the most exciting ways to redeem Bilt Cash, though those are far from the only options. To cover some of the other redemption options, all of which are either in small increments or come with a lot of terms or catches:

• Redeem up to $1,200 per year in Bilt Cash toward Bilt travel portal hotel bookings, with a two-night minimum stay; the limit is up to $50 per month for Blue and Silver members, and up to $100 per month for Gold and Platinum members
• Redeem up to $600 per year in Bilt Cash toward dining experience bookings via Bilt dining experiences, with a credit of up to $50 per month
• Redeem up to $300 per year in Bilt Cash toward restaurant credits at select Bilt Dining partners; use Bilt Cash toward meals at select Bilt partner restaurants via Mobile Dining Checkout, with one visit per month of up to $25, and rollout expanding to thousands of restaurants nationwide
• Redeem up to $150 per year in Bilt Cash toward Blacklane rides; the limit is up to $50 per year for Blue and Silver members, up to $100 per year for Gold members, and up to $150 per year for Platinum members
• Redeem up to $120 per year in Bilt Cash toward Lyft credits, with a $10 credit per month
• Redeem up to $120 per year in Bilt Cash toward Walgreens credits, with up to a $10 credit per month
• Redeem up to $120 per year in Bilt Cash toward grocery or restaurant delivery fulfilled via GrubHub, with a $10 credit each month
• Redeem up to $100 per year in Bilt Cash to cover a Gopuff Fam membership for up to twelve months, for either a monthly or annual membership

My take on the value and best uses of Bilt Cash

You really have to view Bilt Cash as an incremental perk that’s in addition to the standard rewards for credit card spending, so I’d almost view this as “monopoly money,” so to speak. For example, the Bilt Palladium Card offers 2x points on everyday spending, which is already incredibly competitive, so earning an extra 4% Bilt Cash is the icing on the cake.

The most obvious way to redeem Bilt Cash is toward rewards on housing payments, given that this is one of the key selling points of the Bilt ecosystem. Still, if you’re a big credit card spender, you’ll likely have a lot of Bilt Cash left over.

I think the next most exciting thing is the ability to earn an extra point per dollar spent on the Bilt Palladium Card, as you can redeem $200 in Bilt Cash for that, to earn 3x points on up to $5,000 in spending. Just to crunch the numbers on that, $5,000 in spending would unlock $200 in Bilt Cash, and would in turn earn you an extra point per dollar spent, and then you can do that up to five times per year. That’s pretty awesome, as that can get you up to 25,000 additional points annually.

Beyond that, I’d argue that being able to unlock the bigger Rent Day bonuses could also be a good way to redeem Bilt Cash, at least for those of us who are points maximizers.

Personally, I think the new Bilt concept is incredibly complicated, to the point that it will be hard for many people to follow. That being said, I absolutely do think there’s value to be had, and my strategy is to spend on the Bilt Palladium Card, and then primarily redeem my Bilt Cash toward rewards on housing payments, plus the points accelerator option, plus whatever is interesting at a given point. That’s a pretty unbeatable combination for non-bonused spending.

Bottom line

Bilt Cash is a currency that’s separate from Bilt points, and it’s increasingly important in the overall context of how Bilt is evolving with rent and mortgage payments. All new Bilt credit cards earn 4% Bilt Cash on spending (in addition to standard rewards), plus members can earn $50 in Bilt Cash for every 25,000 points earned.

Bilt Cash can be used in a variety of ways, and if you have a credit card, every $30 in Bilt Cash can unlock up to 1,000 points on rent or mortgages. But Bilt Cash can also be redeemed “dollar-for-dollar” toward all kinds of other purchases, ranging from hotels, to Lyft credits.

As you’d expect, there are major catches. We’re talking about being able to redeem for (mostly) small amounts toward purchases, with credits being doled out on a monthly basis. Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t get that excited about a $5 monthly delivery credit, or a $10 monthly Lyft or Walgreens credit.

What I am more excited about is being able to redeem $200 in Bilt Cash in order to earn an extra point per dollar spent, on up to $5,000 of spending, up to five times per year. That’s a potentially great value.

What do you make of the Bilt Cash concept, and the value of redemptions?