💳 The Bilt Mastercard®

Advertiser Disclosure

The Bilt Mastercard® is a must-have if you pay rent, but even as a homeowner, I still find so much value in this no annual fee and no transaction fee card (more on rates and fees here). Bilt Points can be incredibly valuable, especially if you’re strategic about how and when you use them.

Here's what the card currently earns:

• 1x points on purchases, including rent (up to 100,000 points each calendar year)
• 2x points on travel when booked directly with airlines, hotels, car rental agencies, cruise lines, or through the Bilt Travel Portal
• 5x on Bilt Neighborhood Dining Partners
• 3x points on other dining
• 5x points on Lyft rideshare once you’ve linked your Bilt and Lyft accounts and pay with the Bilt Mastercard

🏘 Rent Day: Transfer Bonuses & Double Points 

What makes this card really interesting is the Rent Day promos, where Bilt rolls out exclusive deals for cardholders on the first of every month. You can earn double points, up to 1,000 bonus points per month, on non-rent purchases. This increases the earning rate to 6x on dining and 4x on travel. Rent payments still earn 1x on Rent Day and remember you need five non-rent purchases per month to earn points on rent (which is not a difficult task IMO). 

If you have Bilt status, Rent Day offers often include amazing transfer bonuses, sometimes as high as 200%, to a wide range of transfer partners like Air France Flying Blue, Air Canada Aeroplan, Avianca LifeMiles, British Airways Avios, Hyatt, Hilton, and so much more. I personally use most of these programs, and being able to double the value of my points with transfer bonuses means I can effectively redeem my Bilt points at 1.5x to 2x their base value. 

🤩 Other Key Rewards & Benefits

The Bilt Mastercard® offers valuable benefits beyond just rent payments and Rent Day promotions. You can learn more about Bilt Rewards & Benefits here but here are some perks that are worth highlighting.  

• Walgreens Benefits: Bilt offers "Neighborhood Pharmacy" benefits at Walgreens. This includes earning 1x points on all spend and 2x on Walgreens branded products, plus 100 points for every prescription filled. Members can also seamlessly apply FSA/HSA savings when shopping at Walgreens using any linked card.
• Fitness Perks: Bilt partners with over 9 national fitness brands at 1,200+ locations. You can earn up to 3x Bilt points on classes booked through the Bilt app or website. Additionally, these partners offer complimentary amenities like mat, glove, and shoe rentals, plus free refreshments like bottled water or recovery shakes when booking via the Bilt app.
• Credit Building: Bilt offers free rent reporting to all three major credit bureaus (Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax), helping you build your credit history with on-time rent payments.
• Flexible Redemptions: Beyond travel partners, you can redeem points for future rent payments, a down payment on a home (a unique feature), student loan payments, Amazon.com purchases, or gift cards from over 120 merchants.
• Protections: Include Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver for covered damage or theft of rental vehicles and Purchase Security which can reimburse you for eligible items that are damaged or stolen within 90 days of purchase. In terms of travel, there's Trip Cancellation and Interruption Protection for nonrefundable common carrier tickets if your trip is canceled or interrupted for a covered reason in addition to the Trip Delay Reimbursement for eligible expenses due to covered trip delays. And also, Cellular Telephone Protection if you pay your monthly bill with the card. 

🙌 My Takeaway

I wish I had gotten this card sooner than I did. If I could convert all my other rewards currencies into Bilt points, I’d do it in a heartbeat. And with Bilt Platinum status unlocking even more lucrative Rent Day perks, I’m more than happy to continue keeping this card in my wallet and put some strategic spend on it each month to maintain that status.