Deciding what cards should go in your wallet can feel like a daunting task. There are seemingly infinite options: cash back or points, options for different spending habits, specific cards for brands you shop at. The list is endless. One card has been gaining popularity over the past year and has many young people asking: Is the Bilt Mastercard worth it?
Bilt is a newer player on the scene, but is making big waves in the rewards space. Launched in 2021, Bilt Mastercard has been primarily branded as a rewards card that has special features for renters to turn their housing spend into reward points. However, this card has many more features beyond rent payments. Bilt has created what could be one of the best $0 annual fee cards for Gen Z and millennials.
But is this card the right fit for you? Is this card “too good to be true”? (I was surely asked that several times when I told my partner I was getting this card). We’ll unpack everything you need to know before you make your decision on if the Bilt Mastercard is worth it for you.
Bilt Rewards Credit Card: Overview & Features
In a market saturated with almost any credit card you can think of, why would you consider the Bilt Mastercard? I think the Bilt Mastercard is the perfect card for any renter in a major US city that values travel to add to their wallet. Even if you have another credit card that specializes in travel (I pair mine with my Chase Sapphire Preferred), the Bilt Mastercard has several perks that you should consider. Let’s get into it.
The Credit Card to Pay Rent With
Let’s dive into the biggest reason to get the Bilt Mastercard: the ability to pay rent and earn points. This was the main reason that I added the card to my wallet.
I live in the Bay Area, which if you’re unfamiliar, has one of the most expensive rental markets in the US. Although I would love to buy a house in the future, this goal seems quite far away. The median price homes are sold for in Oakland, CA is $920K, which is significantly higher than the US average. Needless to say, I unfortunately will be renting for the foreseeable future.
Rent is easily one of my largest spend categories as well. I currently live with roommates in a 3BR 2BA apartment, and we’ve worked it out so I pay the rent for our apartment. This is $3.1K per month that I used to pay via direct deposit, and I wasn’t seeing any additional value come from this spending.
I’ll share the full rewards structure breakdown later in the article, but with the Bilt Mastercard you can earn 1 point per dollar on rent. Although this isn’t a huge point multiplier, this is still better than not earning points.
I’m sure you’re wondering how this works. A lot of larger property management companies that utilize rent payment portals already offer pay by credit card for rent, including my own. However, my property management company adds a 2.99% processing fee for all credit card transactions, which would significantly raise the cost.
Bilt handles rent payments in a different way, and eliminates this added fee. There are a few routes of paying rent with Bilt:
- Bilt Rewards Alliance
- Paying Rent with Routing and Account Number
- Paying Rent with Check
Bilt Reward Alliance is a collection of partnerships between property management companies and Bilt to allow payment with the Bilt Mastercard easy. Most property managers should indicate they are participating in this program during leasing, but you can also find this out when setting up rent payment with Bilt directly.
Paying rent with routing and account numbers is also an easy method to earn Bilt points, and is the way that I pay my rent. Bilt gives you a routing and account number that you can enter directly on your rent portal. You can only use this method once every 30 days, similar to the rest of the methods. I found this option frictionless compared to what I was doing before, and it earns me points each month without adding the extra credit card processing fees.
Paying with a check is another option, and is great for renters who might be renting from a smaller property manager who doesn’t have the backend infrastructure to support a portal. You can easily add the amount, payment information, address, and more to the Bilt portal, and they will mail a check to your landlord each month.
Bilt Credit Card Requirements
Bilt Credit Card Sign Up Bonus
Unlike cards from Chase, American Express, and Capital One, you might be surprised to find that Bilt doesn’t offer a sign up bonus on the Bilt Mastercard.
However, Bilt offers what some consider an unofficial sign up bonus. Once approved for the card, many folks report getting an email from Bilt offering 5x points on all spend up to $10,000 (50K points) during the first 5 days of receiving the card. Personally, I didn’t receive this email, but I likely wouldn’t have taken advantage of this anyway.
Members that did receive this email with the bonus offer reported the subject line reads “Your new Bilt Mastercard has arrived!”. Be on the lookout for this; it likely will be buried in all of the on-boarding emails for the card (there’s a lot).
Bilt Mastercard Credit Score
You might be wondering if you are in the credit score range to qualify for the Bilt Mastercard. On average, you should have between a 670-850 credit score to qualify.
Bilt Rewards Review
After rent payment features, the Bilt Rewards program is the next top feature of this card. There are a lot of incredible perks for a $0 annual fee card.
The reasons I love the Bilt Rewards Program include:
- Solid spending multipliers
- Great travel partners to transfer points to
- Rent day reward specials and experiences
One important thing to note with this is you need to make 5 purchases each month to qualify for Bilt points.
Let’s dive into each of these categories.
Bilt Rewards Spending Multipliers
Although rent payments with Bilt are only 1x points per dollar, Bilt offers lots of other spending multipliers across different categories:
- 1x on all spending
- 1x on rent (up to 100K points per year)
- 2x on travel (booked both with travel partners directly and through Bilt’s travel portal)
- 3x on dining
- (up to) 5x on Lyft rides.
This is pretty standard for intermediate to advanced credit cards, but is amazing for a $0 annual fee card.
Bilt Rewards Travel Partners
One of my favorite cards (and the one that got me interested in credit card points) is the Chase Sapphire Preferred card. I love this card for many reasons, but the biggest is that with the CSP you can transfer your Chase Ultimate Reward points to a ton of different travel transfer partners. The unfortunate thing with Chase’s cards is that even if you are earning Ultimate Rewards points with $0 annual fee cards (i.e. Chase Freedom Flex, Chase Freedom Unlimited) you still will need either the Sapphire Preferred or the Sapphire Reserve to unlock the ability to transfer points to partners.
But with the Bilt Mastercard, you get to transfer points to partners without paying a high annual fee. This is one of the biggest perks of this card, and makes it a great addition to your setup if you already are earning Chase Ultimate Rewards points, American Express Membership Rewards points, or other transferable points currencies.
Bilt offers a wide variety of both airlines and hotel transfer partners. Here’s a breakdown of where Bilt allows you to transfer your points to:
- Airlinessome text
- Aer Lingus (AerClub)
- Air Canada (Aero Plan) — Star Alliance
- Air France/KLM (FlyingBlue) — SkyTeam Alliance
- Alaska Airlines (Mileage Plan) — OneWorld Alliance
- American Airlines (AAdvantage) — OneWorld Alliance
- Avianca (LifeMiles) — Star Alliance
- British Airways (Avios) — OneWorld Alliance
- Cathay Pacific (Asia Miles) — OneWorld Alliance
- Emirates (Skywards) — Star Alliance (sort of…)
- Iberia (Avios) — OneWorld Alliance
- Turkish Airlines (Miles & Smiles) — Star Alliance
- United Airlines (Mileage Plus) — Star Alliance
- Virgin Atlantic (Flying Club) — SkyTeam Alliance
- Hotelssome text
- Hyatt (World of Hyatt)
- IHG Hotels & Resorts
- Marriott (Marriott Bonvoy)
I’d recommend checking out Seat.Aero to identify the best way to transfer your points to ensure you’re getting the maximum return, or are able to use points to fly with a different airline inside of the alliance. (i.e. you can find Lufthansa flights on United since they’re Star Alliance, etc.)
We also recommend waiting until Rent Day to see if there are special transfer bonuses for your selected partners.
What is Rent Day, you ask?
Bilt Rewards Rent Day
There’s never been a time where I’ve thought “Wow I’m excited for rent day!” That is, until the Bilt Mastercard.
As Bilt defines it, Rent Day Falls on the first of each month, and the Bilt Mastercard unlocks a variety of exclusive perks and opportunities to maximize rewards. The perks range from trivia games where you can earn additional Bilt Rewards points, to transfer bonuses, to free Soulcycle classes.
The biggest perk of Rent Day is 2x point multipliers across categories excluding rent. This means you will earn 6x points on dining, 4x points on travel, and 2x on all other purchases. This does exclude rent, but usually means I use my Bilt card the most on the 1st of each month.
Another standard piece of Rent Day includes Bilt’s games:
- Points Quest, a trivia game that earns you points for correct answers
- Rent Free, a virtual game show that usually features an influencer where you can win free rent
The rest of Rent Day changes usually month to month. Some of the perks they have offered in the past have been:
- Free Hyatt Status for 3 months
- 2x point transfers to KLM/Air France Flying Blue, Hawaiian Airlines, and Virgin Atlantic
- Lyft credits
Bilt Credit Card Review: Should You Get It?
The Bilt Mastercard has a unique value proposition compared to many other $0 annual fee cards: it’s a great card to make the most out of paying rent, and gives you lots of other lifestyle opportunities along the way.
I would definitely recommend this card to anyone living in a major metro region that is spending over $1,000 each month on rent. It helps you earn the most out of a consistently high spend category each month, and allows you to transfer points to some of the best travel partners in the US.
However, I don’t necessarily view this as my catch-all card in my wallet for a few reasons. In general, I primarily use my Bilt card for a rent card. In general, I do still find my Sapphire Preferred and other cards that earn Chase Ultimate Reward points a much better fit for my redemption and spending habits. However, I value the Bilt Mastercard for its inventive ways to help me maximize my value as a renter.
Did you enjoy this article? Does the Bilt Mastercard sound like a good addition to your wallet? Feel free to support idk about you by using our referral link for the Bilt Mastercard.
