How Does the Bilt Credit Card Work? Can You Really Earn Points for Paying Rent?
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Rent is the biggest monthly expense for most people, including myself, and typically, our only payment option is writing a check or making an automatic payment out of our checking account since most landlords do not accept credit cards. Even in the rare case a credit card is accepted, a hefty processing fee is charged, which will typically outweigh the benefit of any credit card points earned.
A few months ago, I finally got around to applying for the Bilt Mastercard. Bilt is a credit card that lets you earn points for paying rent. Yes, you as a renter can earn points for paying rent.
I had been procrastinating on applying for a while since I thought it would be difficult to set up but it could not have been any easier. I also incorrectly assumed that my apartment building had to be part of the Bilt Rewards Alliance—a collection of rental homes across the country—to qualify but that was simply not true. There are some features available only to people in a Bilt Rewards Alliance building but if you do not live in one of these buildings (I did not!), you can still apply for the Bilt Mastercard and earn points on rent.
The card earns 1x points for rent payments (up to 50,000 points each calendar year), 2x points for travel when booked directly with airlines, hotels, and car rental agencies, 3x points for dining, and 1x points for other transactions. Bilt also offers double points on purchases made on Rent Day, the 1st of each month, so that is 4x on travel, 6x on dining, and 2x on other purchases (excluding rent). There is no annual fee and no foreign transaction fees. As an example, if you pay $2,000 each month in rent, you can earn 24,000 Bilt points each calendar year.
Remember, the recommended best practice is to pay off your full statement balance every month to avoid paying any interest/fees.
How does the Bilt card work?
Once you are approved for the card, you need to set up your account to pay rent directly from the Bilt app or website. Bilt gives you an account number and routing number similar to what you have with your checking account. I updated this information on the rent portal my landlord uses and voila, free points! Note that in order to avoid paying a fee, you do not want to use the Bilt credit card number to pay rent. If you pay by check, you can also set up check payments through Bilt.
If charging rent to your credit card seems concerning to you, no need to worry! Bilt has an option called BiltProtect where Bilt will pull the funds directly from your checking account rather than charging your credit card and you will still get the points.
Are there any catches?
You do have to use the card at least 5 times every statement cycle in order to earn points for any rent payments.
How can you use your Bilt points?
You can use the points as follows:
Towards your next rent payment (at 0.55 cents per point)
Towards a future home down payment (at 1.5 cents per point)
Transfer the points on a 1:1 basis to a bunch of airline and hotel partners, like United Airlines, British Airways, and Hyatt, among many others
Redeem for Amazon purchases, fitness classes, or travel through the Bilt Travel Portal
Personally, I plan to transfer my Bilt points to Hyatt and book one of their all-inclusive hotels for my next vacation!
If you are interested, you can sign up for a Bilt Mastercard here.
Opinions expressed here are the author's alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, hotel, airline, or other entity. This content has not been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by any of the entities included in the post.