In December 2024, Bilt hinted at plans to make changes to its credit card, and to start awarding points for mortgages. The Bilt Mastercard is an incredibly lucrative no annual fee card that lets you earn points for paying rent, though the sustainability of the business model is questionable, given how rewarding it is, with minimal effort.
Along those lines, today Bilt is sending out a survey to all cardholders, to get feedback on potential changes.
In this post:
Bilt surveys major credit card changes
Bilt is asking members for their feedback on three different Bilt Card 2.0 constructs. The company claims that these potential options have been designed based on member feedback. The company wants members to share which option is favored at each price point, and also what members would like to see that isn’t included.
The company emphasizes that these are not locked in options, and aren’t finalized or rigid. Quite to the contrary, the company expects there will be many more changes over the next several months. The idea seems to be to have a no annual fee card, a $95 annual fee card, and a $550 annual fee card.
With that in mind, the company presents two versions of a no annual fee card:
- Both cards would earn 1x points on rent and mortgages
- One version of the card would earn 4x points on Bilt Neighborhood Dining, Walgreens, and Lyft, and 1.5x points on all other purchases
- The other version of the card would earn 3x points on Bilt Neighborhood Dining, Walgreens, and Lyft, 2x points on gas, groceries, and dining, and 1x points on all other purchases
The company also presents concepts for two $95 annual fee cards:
- Both cards would earn 1x points on rent and mortgages, and would offer up to $170 in annual partner credits, including $60 Bilt Fitness credits, $60 Walgreens credits, and $50 Bilt hotel credits
- One version of the card would earn 5x points on Bilt Neighborhood Dining, hotels booked through Bilt, Lyft, and Walgreens, 2x points on dining, groceries, and gas, and 1x points on all other purchases
- The other version of the card would earn 5x points on Bilt Neighborhood Dining and Lyft, 3x points on dining and Walgreens, 2x points on travel, and 1x points on all other purchases
Lastly, the company presents concepts for two $550 annual fee cards:
- Both cards would offer up to $380 in annual partner credits, including $200 in Bilt Travel hotel credits, $120 in Bilt Fitness credits, $60 in Walgreens credits, and a Priority Pass membership
- One version of the card would earn 5x points on hotels booked through Bilt, Bilt Neighborhood Dining, Lyft, and Walgreens, 4x points on direct flight bookings, 2x points on dining, and 1x points on all other purchases, including rent and mortgages
- The other version of the card would earn 5x points on hotels booked through Bilt, Lyft, and Walgreens, 4x points on Bilt Neighborhood Dining, 3x points on direct flight bookings, 2x points on gas and groceries, 1.25x points on rent and mortgages, and 1x points on all other purchases
My take on these proposed Bilt card changes
I don’t necessarily have strong opinions on the above proposed concepts, and which of them is better.
My first reaction is that I’m happy to see that Bilt is committed to keeping around awarding points for paying rent, even on the no annual fee product, and even expanding points earning to mortgages. Now, we could see more restrictions in the future — currently you can earn points on rent as long as you make at least five transactions per billing cycle, and those could be purchases for a dollar each.
I’m more concerned about what the restrictions are for earning points on rent, rather than the exact rewards structure of the cards. But that also gets at the general issue with Bilt in the miles & points space. Bilt is incredibly rewarding and is loved by savvy consumers. Those of us into miles & points enjoy maximizing. Speaking only for myself, and not consumers at large:
- I’m not really interested in more cards with credits that are potentially difficult to use, as I have enough of those already
- None of the card rewards structures are really industry leading, for those of us who use a strategy where we have multiple cards; I earn 2x points on everyday spending, and 5x points on all dining and flights, while some of these bonus categories are very specific
The problem is, Bilt also needs to make money. Wells Fargo is reportedly losing large amounts of money on its agreement with Bilt, because a majority of the spending on the card is rent payments, with the rewards being subsidized by Wells Fargo.
Bilt promised free points for paying rent, as long as five transactions are made per billing cycle. Many people do exactly that, and make five transactions. But that’s also not a great long term business model.
With Wells Fargo reportedly not happy with its Bilt partnership, Bilt will eventually need a new partner to issue the card. I’m curious what that will look like, since I have to imagine any new card wouldn’t be issued with Wells Fargo, unless the company had a reason to believe that economics would be very different.
Yes, Bilt’s business model goes beyond credit card processing fees. I suppose annual fees could help a bit. The company also makes money through its partnerships with landlords, restaurants, etc. But is all of that enough? I don’t know, we don’t have access to that data…
Bottom line
Bilt is surveying some concepts for a Bilt Card 2.0, including cards at three different pricing tiers — one no annual fee card, one $95 annual fee card, and one $550 annual fee card. I don’t think there’s anything revolutionary with these concepts, and if anything, they look like a lot of other products in the market.
Ultimately there’s only so much that can be innovated, so I think any of these products would be fine. The question is how Bilt can actually get people to greatly increase spending on the card in a profitable way, to offset the cost of processing rent payments. I suppose charging an annual fee is a good start, though I’m also not sure the proposed cards are compelling enough, compared to what else is available in the market.
What do you make of these proposed Bilt Card 2.0 concepts?
Goodbye to the MoviePass of credit cards. Was nice to get free perks from Wells Fargo while it lasted. I'll probably start evacuating my points to United every month, because at some point we'll see the last helicopter out of Saigon.
At the end of the day, they spend money paying for points on ACH transaction rent, so any card model will be comparable to cards at that price-point, minus a provision for paying for...
Goodbye to the MoviePass of credit cards. Was nice to get free perks from Wells Fargo while it lasted. I'll probably start evacuating my points to United every month, because at some point we'll see the last helicopter out of Saigon.
At the end of the day, they spend money paying for points on ACH transaction rent, so any card model will be comparable to cards at that price-point, minus a provision for paying for rent points, plus some sort of enforcement to make sure you don't just use it on rent. Not sure a card like that can survive in the open market. The exception would be if they can negotiate deals to be a payment processor to landlords / banks and take some margin, but I doubt it.
Well said, Will.
I detest the coupon model. No don't want to give you money on return for credits at a shop I have no interest in.
Hidden in the details of all this is the travel category, where I make a large amount of points on this card currently. They want to eliminate it entirely on the no annual fee version and move it to one of the paid options. That would be suicide from a marketing perspective IMO, as the card’s rewards and overall proposition is issuing…travel rewards. Bilt is also far more restrictive than Chase Sapphire when it comes...
Hidden in the details of all this is the travel category, where I make a large amount of points on this card currently. They want to eliminate it entirely on the no annual fee version and move it to one of the paid options. That would be suicide from a marketing perspective IMO, as the card’s rewards and overall proposition is issuing…travel rewards. Bilt is also far more restrictive than Chase Sapphire when it comes to what’s defined in the ‘travel’ category. I get that they need to rework their ecosystem, but they need to work on the engagement end of the equation rather than elimination of benefits.
These updates are hilarious. Ankur Jain is clearly annoyed that most of us are doing four tiny purchases per month plus rent. But the solution to that is making an appealing every day spend, not imposing more restrictions.
In regards to possible restrictions, Ankur's email from yesterday stated the following:
"Ensuring this benefit goes to members who genuinely engage with our broader program -- rather than those taking advantage of loopholes"
I'm assuming "loopholes" mean the 4 tiny purchases per month? Time will tell.
Not sure you can outrun bad unit economics on the rent part of the card by matching Chase Freedom Unlimited on the unit economics of the general spend category, or something
I think if they want to make the CC attractive, they should offer, at least, 3-4x for groceries for the mid-tier card. at least 5-6x for the high-end card.
Bilt has a marketing problem. You can't tell people your card is great for rent without expecting people to get your card exclusively to pay rent
Agreed, this is a failure for every card with a hugely desirable feature. US Bank Altitude reserve was supposed to be 3x for mobile purchases only (and redeemable for 1.5x), but they didn't predict it would be used exclusively for that.
It's been cancelled to new applications, naturally.
As mentioned in the post, these proposed changes seem targeted toward people that use this card for every day spend already... i'd be curious how many of those people there actually are. I don't think any of these changes would encourage savvy CC users to upgrade to a paid version of this card.
Well judging by some of the comments on this blog, there's actually quite a few who do just that... including some who seemingly skew their monthly spending habits so that they intentionally eat out on the first of the month.
(unless I'm just doing a terrible job picking up sarcasm, of course...)
I don't think either version of the $550 card is going to get any traction. $200 Bilt travel credit is on hotel stays booked via Bilt, so it's probably worth a lot less than its face value. The version of the $95 card with 3x on dining and 2x on travel is basically the same card as the current no-fee card, with Walgreens and hotel credits to potentially offset some of the annual fee.
Welp, get ready for a comment section full of self-important morons who think their personal spending and lifestyle situations are worth sharing as an anecdote. Get ready for all the morons who will pompously say they don't have any use for the fitness credits. Imagine thinking it's a flex to say you don't go to fitness classes lmao
Wow! You're the first self-important moron to respond!