Overview
Renters and fee-averse travelers will appreciate the special rewards features of the Bilt Mastercard®. One of the card’s unique benefits is that rent payments earn 1X points without incurring any transaction or processing costs. Try paying your rent with any other credit card, and you’ll usually end up paying extra fees that cancel out whatever points you might have been trying to earn.
The card offers numerous redemption choices, such as travel, fitness, or upcoming rent payments, and it also earns bonus rewards on dining and travel. If you are frequently struggling to save for a down payment, the ability to use your Bilt points as a down payment is a wonderful option.
The Bilt card offers a few extra advantages that enable it to compete with the finest rewards cards. With more points earned, more benefits, such as the opportunity to earn interest on unused points, become available when you reach elite rank. You have greater flexibility to take a luxurious vacation or just reduce your travel expenses with the ability to transfer your points to a selection of airline and hotel partners. There aren’t many travel cards available that don’t have an annual cost, so this is a unique benefit.
No other credit card available today combines the benefit of fee-free rent payments with the practicality of accumulating points that can accrue interest. But not everyone will be a good fit for the Bilt Mastercard, especially those who don’t pay rent.
Other cards might offer better value and accelerate the earning of points. People with fair credit, low credit, or no credit, who would gain the most from earning incentives and growing credit as they pay rent, would be disappointed by the Bilt card’s requirement for good or excellent credit.
Continue reading to find out if the Bilt Mastercard can be a useful component of a plan to maximize your credit card rewards or to learn about potential substitutes.
Card Benefits
The ability to pay rent with a credit card without incurring any fees and earn rewards is by far the Bilt card’s greatest advantage.
How is this advantageous when I can already use my credit card to pay my rent, you might be asking.
Usually, there is an additional 2% to 3% charge when paying rent with a credit card. This cost will increase your bill by $30 to $45 on a $1,500 rent payment.
You can still receive credit card rewards with the Bilt card without having to pay any kind of fee.
Is your landlord or apartment complex not a member of the Bilt Rewards Alliance network? No issue! Everyone can gain points on rent with the Bilt card since Bilt Rewards will send a cheque to the landlord when rent is paid via the app.
Sign-up Bonus
The Bilt card currently lacks a welcome bonus, which makes it inferior to numerous other rewards cards. Sign-up bonuses are a fantastic reward that could help you quickly accrue large rewards, yet they are not the only characteristic to seek for when choosing a rewards card. They are now a common feature on many cards, particularly for those with good credit who can frequently find deals for $200 or more, even on no annual fee cards.
How to Earn Rewards
Cardholders receive 3X points for eating, 2X points for travel, 1X points for paying rent (up to 50,000 points annually), and 1X points for other qualifying expenditures. Anyone who pays $4,166 or less per month won’t be impacted by the 50,000 point limit on annual rent spending. Based on the Zillow Observed Rent Index, that sum is higher than both the $2,031 national average rent and the typical rates paid by many residents in the most costly metro areas (ZORI).
The main benefit of using the Bilt card is the possibility to earn 1X points on rent while avoiding a transaction fee because it is currently difficult to locate another card with a comparable offer. In comparison to other no-annual-fee rewards cards, the Bilt card doesn’t give as many rewards on travel or other bonus categories to help you earn rewards more rapidly. However, the 3X points on eating is a fine rate found with many rewards cards.
How to Redeem Rewards
You need to use the Bilt app to use your Bilt rewards. When you get there, you can choose from a variety of redemption alternatives. You may reserve flights, accommodations, rental cars, and more through the Bilt Travel website. Alternately, you can transfer your points to one of Bilt’s 12 transfer partners, a benefit that is typically only available with annual fee-based travel credit cards.
If you don’t travel frequently, the Bilt card gives you a lot of other possibilities. The Bilt rewards program offers special benefits not often available with credit card rewards programs, such as the ability to utilize your earnings to pay rent or save money for a down payment on a home. Additionally, you may use your points to purchase products from Amazon or curated pieces of art, clothing, and home decor from the Bilt Collection. Another choice is to enroll in fitness courses, with prices at establishments like SoulCycle, Y7 Studio, and [solidcore] starting at 3,000 points or more.
Additional Travel Benefits
Trip cancellation and interruption protection: When you use your card to make a nonrefundable travel reservation and the trip is canceled or interrupted for a covered cause, you are eligible for a $5,000 reimbursement.
Trip delay reimbursement: You may be entitled to reimbursement for out-of-pocket costs if a delay of more than six hours results from things like bad weather, mechanical problems, or air traffic control delays.
Any card-specific features
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World Elite Mastercard Concierge:The benefits of the World Elite Mastercard Concierge are available to cardholders, who can use it to make last-minute purchases, dinner and hotel reservations, and more.
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No foreign currency conversion fees: You won’t be charged a foreign transaction fee when using your Bilt Mastercard® to make purchases abroad that are converted to U.S. dollars. When you travel abroad, this could wind up saving you a lot of money.
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Lyft and DoorDash credits: Holders of the Bilt Mastercard® will get a $5 Lyft credit after three rides within a month. A complimentary three-month DashPass membership is also included; this subscription entitles you to free delivery on DoorDash orders over $12. Every month, both new and current members will get $5 off their first order.
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Auto rental collision damage waiver: When paying for the entire rental with your Bilt Mastercard®, cardholders can receive primary automobile rental insurance coverage against damages from collision or theft.
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Cellphone protection: When you use your card to pay your monthly bill, you’ll receive up to $800 in smartphone protection (with a $25 deductible). This safeguards your phone against covered theft and damages.
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Theft and damage protection: When you use your Bilt Mastercard®, you can receive coverage for up to $10,000 per claim for theft and damage for up to 90 days after the date of purchase.
Additional Information
Rent and other expenses that you incur as a Bilt Mastercard cardholder will automatically earn you points for joining the loyalty program Bilt Rewards. However, you can join the program without having a credit card for free, and you can get 250 points for each rent payment. In our Bilt Rewards review, you can read more about the rewards scheme.
Remember that non-cardholders can only receive Bilt Rewards points on rent if their flat is part of the Alliance for Bilt Rewards. Whether or not they are members of the Bilt Rewards Alliance, cardholders can accumulate points on their rent payments. More than 2 million apartments are part of the Bilt Rewards Alliance, which is managed by well-known firms including Windsor Communities, Morgan Properties, and Starwood Capital Group. Using the Bilt app, you can determine if your apartment is part of the network.
Your ability to earn with Bilt Rewards is increased if you have the Bilt Mastercard. You can earn 1X points on every of your rent payments made with the Bilt Mastercard, with a yearly cap of 50,000 points. You can only earn a maximum of 250 points per month without this card, or 3,000 points annually.
Fees
Since the Bilt card has no annual charge, you may easily start using it and earning points right away and start making money. Additionally, there are no unnecessary foreign transaction costs.
The initial balance transfer cost is 3 percent; it lasts for 120 days after the account is opened and then increases to 5 percent. A balance transfer card with a lengthy 0% intro APR offer is a better choice if you have debt that has to be paid off because it can help you save quite a lot of money on interest fees. These cards might also offer introductory APR rates, which would give you more time to pay off items without incurring interest fees.
The variable APR on the card is (See Terms), which is about average for reward cards. It is typically a good idea to settle your amount in full each month in order to maximize your rewards and lower your risk of going into debt. If you are unable to, a low-interest credit card might be more practical. There are credit union cards available with rates even lower than 14.24 percent on some of the top rewards cards, which may save you a significant amount of money over the period of paying off huge balances.
Other common credit card fees on the card to look out for involve late payment fees and cash advance fees, both of which should be avoided if at all possible.
Required Credit Rating
That usually entails a FICO score between 670 and 850. Many of the finest rewards credit cards with comparable purchase reward potential and card features have similar scoring standards.
Is this the right card for you?
The Bilt Rewards credit card can be a good choice for people who want to receive points on their rent expenditure but don’t want to hassle with using numerous credit cards. For a card with no annual charge, the variety of travel transfer partners is impressive. Because each person’s position will differ depending on how much is spent on rent, other expenses, and other desired perks, it is important to consider if the rewards offered by the Bilt card will be bigger than those offered by alternative options.
