I’ve written extensively about the Bilt Mastercard® (review), which is an innovative and rewarding credit card. The greatest selling point of the card is that you can earn points for paying your rent.
Bilt has just announced that it’s making some updates to how these payments are processed. Don’t worry, nothing is actually changing about the rewards structure, but most members will have to take a moment to update their account, to be sure that rent payments aren’t interrupted.
In this post:
Bilt tweaks process of paying rent with credit card
Bilt has updated its BillPay by Bilt system, and Bilt members who live in a property outside of the Bilt partner network will have to make an update to their account by April 29, 2025. Let me emphasize once again that this has no effect on the points you earn, their value, or how you can redeem points.
Going forward, members living at a property outside of the Bilt partner network can pay rent in one of two days:
- Pre-authorize the payment in the Bilt app; this includes selecting the rent amount and how you want to pay rent (Bilt Mastercard for 1x points and waived fees, Alaska Visa for 3x miles but with fees, etc.)
- Submit rent payments as usual through the property’s payment portal, making sure to submit the payment within five days of authorizing it in the Bilt app
If you use the former method, you’ll receive new BillPay by Bilt routing and account numbers the first time you do this, and will need to update it in your property’s payment portal. You’ll only need to do this the first time, and it needs to be done by April 29, 2025.
If you live in a building in the Bilt network or pay rent by check, there is no change to how you pay rent today.
Why is Bilt making this payment process change?
So, why is Bilt making this change to its payment process? Here’s how the company describes it:
We recognize this update changes your monthly routine by shifting from post-payment verification to pre-payment authorization. This new approach enhances security by ensuring the system only processes payments you’ve specifically approved through the Bilt app.
This is an essential step as we expand our platform capabilities and scale – paving the way for new payment categories like our upcoming mortgage rewards program and other future bill payments.
We’re committed to continuously investing in the BillPay experience to make it more seamless and secure for you. We’re proud to be the only platform offering rewards on rent payments at any property nationwide. While Bilt partner properties offer our most integrated experience, BillPay ensures all members can earn valuable rewards on housing payments regardless of where they live.
Bottom line
Bilt is making updates to the process by which members pay rent outside of the Bilt network. The changes are minor, as Bilt is just switching from post-payment verification to pre-payment authorization, which seems logical enough. So make sure you log into your Bilt account by April 29, 2025, so that you can keep earning rewards for rent payments.
What do you make of these Bilt updates?
yes, one missed "authorization" with associated late fees will easily wipe a year worth of points.
BILT’s app is the opposite of intuitive, and the reports of problems with their systems fill their Reddit sub. I’ll be shocked if this goes off without a hitch.
Amen. The app is a total disaster layout wise.
As someone who holds the card, it takes way too many hard-to-find taps to pay my monthly statement. Now they want to make paying rent even more complicated. Very shady business practices, to the point where I'm considering forgoing 4,000 points/month
Just pay via wellsfargo.com or their app.
This is really bad. BILT is changing something that was easy, simple, and actually beneficial to its members--this is more complicated, and it is by-design, with the goal of confusing us and denying points for rent, ultimately. Many people are likely going to miss a rent payment in the confusion as well. If it ain't broke, don't fix it--but clearly, the 'fix' is in, and it ain't for our benefit.
"The changes are minor, as Bilt is just switching from post-payment verification to pre-payment authorization, which seems logical enough."
No, not really. Bilt hopes that you'll fail to properly pre-authorize each and every month so that you won't get the points for that month's rent payment that cost them money.
Kinda smart... I don't use Bilt but as I understand it it is super simple to setup and forget about... they are probably hoping that forcing users into the app each month will drive engagement. Curious if it will work.
This definitely makes it more of a hassle as I have to remember to go in manually input my rent within 5 days before the auto pay is authorized. But not too soon because if my rent is due Friday the withdrawal might not actually come out until Monday so that narrows my 5-day window by a lot especially if Monday is also a holiday. And if I forget to preauthorize now, I'm paying ach fees and late fees on my rent when it gets declined.
On Reddit, a Bilt employee is saying there will be an "auto-authorize" option. Why wasn't that mentioned in the email??
Because that alleged employee is lying and it won’t be there. The whole point is to remove the set and forget model and force engagement through the app. This way they will up there app engagement numbers, cross sell or serve ads to those customers and also don’t pay points on those who forget. Win win for business and share holders. But this is what capitalism is, you can’t have cake and eat it too.
Horrible change. This transforms an "automatic" process into a manual one. Bad, bad, bad. Let me expand: until now, rent payment used to be a no brainer, set it once and forget what day of the month it is until you happened to get a text from Bilt to remind you that you've paid. All good and simple, just like every other electric or streaming bill. Now, I have to pay attention to pre-approve WITHIN...
Horrible change. This transforms an "automatic" process into a manual one. Bad, bad, bad. Let me expand: until now, rent payment used to be a no brainer, set it once and forget what day of the month it is until you happened to get a text from Bilt to remind you that you've paid. All good and simple, just like every other electric or streaming bill. Now, I have to pay attention to pre-approve WITHIN 5 DAYS OF PAYING (I highlight it because this is the bad part about it), which means that I now have to remember that rent is due on the 1st and come to pre-approve in Bilt's system an amount late during the month, which is stupid otherwise I guess my rent won't get paid? Why don't just pre-approve a max amount on a certain date 1 time only and .... done? What company things that going backwards, from automatic to manual, means progress regardless what other benefits they're getting from it? Figure it out how to keep it automatic!
This actually kind of sucks. Right now Bilt is hands-off for rent payments. You just give the Bilt ACH/routing number to your landlord (or landlord's portal) and it just flows.
But going forward, I'm going to have to remember to go into the app to authorize a specific payment amount in a limited 5-day period before my landlord tries to charge my rent. And if I don't do this, the ACH pull will fail and...
This actually kind of sucks. Right now Bilt is hands-off for rent payments. You just give the Bilt ACH/routing number to your landlord (or landlord's portal) and it just flows.
But going forward, I'm going to have to remember to go into the app to authorize a specific payment amount in a limited 5-day period before my landlord tries to charge my rent. And if I don't do this, the ACH pull will fail and my rent won't get paid.
And Bilt's chat support (human) agent confirmed we'll get no reminder of any kind to authorize it. Better set a calendar event to authorize rent!
Big step backwards.