Review: The Bilt Mastercard

Who is the Bilt Mastercard® for?

If you rent, the no-annual-fee Bilt Card allows you to earn points without transaction fees on what’s likely your largest monthly bill. But, you need to use the card at least five times a statement period to earn points, and it comes with no shiny welcome bonus offer.

Bilt Mastercard® Quick Facts

Bilt Mastercard® Review

For many of us, housing is our biggest bill. What if there was a way to earn points on your rent--or even save points to put to use for a down payment on a house someday? (You know, when interest rates finally come back to earth.)

Even if you are not a renter, this travel credit card might be worth a look. It’s rare that a no-annual-fee credit card boasts a network of travel partners, but with the Bilt Card you’ll be able to transfer your points at a 1:1 to over a dozen airline and hotel partners. 

Many of these transfer partners overlap with Chase, American Express, or Capital One, so adding the Bilt Card to your wallet could help you earn more points to redeem with your favorite airlines. That said, it’s important to be aware that this card does not offer a welcome bonus to new cardholders. 

Earning Points With the Bilt Mastercard®

 If you meet that threshold, then you can earn: 

• 1X points per dollar on rent (up to 100,000 points each calendar year)
• 2X points per dollar on travel
• 3X points per dollar on dining
• 1X point per dollar on other purchases

On the first of the month, or “Rent Day,” Bilt runs a promotion that allows you to earn double points on all other purchases except rent. So, let’s say you bought a flight ticket on the first of the month: Instead of earning 2X points on that travel purchase, on that day only, you’d earn 4X points per dollar on your flight! You could also time recurring bills, like a streaming platform, for the first of the month to maximize this bonus. 

Bilt also has a Dining Rewards program where you can earn additional Bilt points, when you link your American Express, Mastercard, or Visa credit card in the Bilt app. Then, when you eat at participating restaurants, you can earn up to 10X additional Bilt points on your meal.

Redeeming points with the Bilt Mastercard®

You can redeem your points through the Bilt Travel Portal or by transferring to partners. If you redeem through the portal, points are worth a fixed 1.25 cents. So, if you were eyeing a $400 roundtrip flight, it’d cost you 32,000 points if you bought it with points through the Bilt Travel Portal.

The way to maximize the value of your Bilt points is by transferring them to their network of travel partners. While Amex, Chase, Capital One, and Citi all also boast travel partners, they all require you to hold cards that carry an annual fee in order to transfer points to travel partners. 

Transfer partners include the following airlines:

• Air Canada
• Air France/KLM Flying Blue
• Alaska Airlines
• American Airlines*
• Avianca Lifemiles
• AerLingus AerClub
• British Airways
• Cathay Pacific
• Emirates
• Hawaiian Airlines
• Iberia Airlines
• Turkish Airlines Miles & Smiles
• United Airlines
• Virgin Atlantic

*Bilt Rewards points transfer to American Airlines through June 2024.

You can also transfer Bilt Rewards points to the following hotel chains: World of Hyatt, Marriott Bonvoy, and IHG.

You can also redeem points for Amazon credit, or SoulCycle fitness classes, but that's not going to be the best value. 

You can also save the points to go toward a down payment on a house. When choosing this redemption option, Bilt points are worth 1.5 cents per point. So, if you have 100,000 Bilt points, that could be worth $1,500 toward your down payment. To do so, you’d fill out this form.  

Rewards status with Bilt

Bilt Rewards points are also a bit unusual among travel rewards currencies because it has an elite status program. As of January 2024, Bilt revamped its status program with the following tiers and metrics to reach each.

Status earned between January 1 and June 30, 2024 expires January 31, 2025. Status earned July 1 through December 31, 2024 will remain active until December 31, 2025.

Elite status benefits

The biggest value of earning status is that once you hit the Silver tier or above, you earn interest on your Bilt Rewards points. 

Another perk of having status with Bilt is that on Rent Day, you’ll be able to enjoy a higher transfer bonus with select partners. For example, February’s Rent Day promo offers a one-day transfer bonus to Air Canada Aeroplan. Blue status got a 75% transfer bonus, Silver a 100%, Gold 125%, and Platinum a 150% transfer bonus. 

Finally, once you get to Silver status, you can transfer a minimum of 1,000 points. Blue members must transfer 2,000 points. 

Alternatives to Bilt Card

Capital One Venture Credit Card

Bank of America Travel Rewards Credit Card

If you’re averse to paying an annual fee, but still in the market for a travel rewards credit card, consider the Bank of America Travel Rewards Credit Card. You’ll earn 1.5 points per dollar spent, but there are no travel partners involved: You can redeem the points you earn as statement credit to offset eligible travel purchases.