The 2024 complete guide to Bilt Rewards
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BLUEPRINT
Updated 2:55 p.m. UTC July 16, 2024
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Bilt Rewards made a big splash when it came on the loyalty program scene in 2021. The Bilt credit card positioned itself as a competitor to the much-loved Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card, offering similar earn rates and transfer partners. But what made (and continues to make) Bilt Rewards unique is that members can use it to earn points on rent payments while avoiding the transaction fee that often accompanies paying rent by credit card.
In fact, the Bilt World Elite Mastercard® earns 1 point per $1 on rent payments without a transaction fee (on up to 100,000 points each year), 2 points per $1 on travel (when booked through the Bilt Travel Portal or directly with an airline, hotel, car rental or cruise company), 3 points per $1 on dining and 1 point per $1 on other purchases. At least five transactions must be made per statement period to earn these rewards. With rent being such a substantial expense for most Americans, the card is a must-have for tenants looking to maximize their travel rewards.
Bilt Rewards isn’t restricted to renters or those with the Bilt World Elite Mastercard®. Anyone can join the Bilt Rewards program and there is a lot of value to be found. Plus, Bilt rewards members with elite status perks, having recently revamped its status tiers and introducing more substantial rewards for attaining status.
So how can you earn, burn and maximize Bilt Points? Here’s a look at everything you need to know about the Bilt Rewards program:
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Bilt World Elite Mastercard®
How Bilt Rewards points work
Bilt Rewards is a fairly straightforward program. You can earn points through using the Bilt credit card for rent payments and other purchases.
When it comes to redeeming points, you have tons of flexibility. You can redeem them at 1.25 cents each toward travel bookings or transfer them 1:1 to several different airline and hotel loyalty programs. You can also redeem points toward rent payments or a down payment towards a future home.
While using the Wells Fargo-issued Bilt World Elite Mastercard® will help you accrue points faster than you otherwise would, you don’t need to own the card to earn Bilt Rewards. Anyone can join Bilt Rewards and earn points on rent payments, though you’ll earn higher rewards if you are a cardmember — and as a cardmember you’ll have more point-earning opportunities.
Regardless of whether you have the credit card or not, you can refer people to it and earn rewards when they’re approved.
How to earn Bilt Rewards points
There are several ways to earn Bilt Points:
- Paying rent through Bilt.
- Making purchases with the Bilt Mastercard.
- Booking travel through the Bilt Travel portal.
- Dining at restaurants in the Bilt Dining network.
- Connecting your Lyft account to Bilt.
- Booking SoulCycle classes in the Bilt app.
- Referring friends to the Bilt Mastercard.
We’ll break down how each way works to earn Bilt Rewards below.
Earning Bilt Rewards on rent
Bilt members without the Bilt Mastercard can still earn 250 points on rent payments within the Bilt Alliance network. You can ask your property manager if your building is part of the network.
If your landlord is outside of this network, you can still earn points on rent, but only by applying for a Bilt Mastercard, and if approved, using that card to pay rent your apartment (and/or on any property) and earn points, without incurring transaction fees.
If you sign a new lease or renew an existing one, you can receive up to 50% bonus points on rent payments. The exact number will depend on your status level and the property must be within the Bilt Alliance network.
- Silver elite: 10% bonus.
- Gold elite: 25% bonus.
- Platinum elite: 50% bonus.
Earning Bilt points with the Bilt Mastercard
The Bilt Mastercard doesn’t offer a welcome bonus, but it does earn 1 point per $1 on rent payments without a transaction fee (on up to 100,000 points each year), 2 points per $1 on travel (when booked through the Bilt Travel Portal or directly with an airline, hotel, car rental or cruise company), 3 points per $1 on dining and 1 point per $1 on other purchases. At least five transactions must be made per statement period to earn these rewards.
Note that the Bilt Mastercard is the only credit card that offers rent payments as a specific rewards category. Plus, on the first day of every month (dubbed “Rent Day”), cardholders earn double points on spending in all rewards categories except rent (up to 10,000 points per month).
The Bilt Mastercard has no annual fee and you must complete at least five transactions per month to earn points.
Earning easy Bilt points
Bilt offers several easy ways to earn points. The first is by linking your eligible loyalty accounts. You’ll earn 100 points per account and Bilt has 16 airline and hotel transfer partners, so you could earn 1,600 points just by doing this.
Another quick way to earn Bilt points is by adding credit cards to your Bilt Wallet. You’ll earn 100 Bilt points per card added, up to three times. Doing this takes just a couple of minutes and is well worth the points you’ll earn.
Earning Bilt points with the Bilt travel portal
The Bilt travel portal is powered by Expedia and allows you to earn points for spending on flights, hotels, rental cars and activities.
When paying for bookings in the Bilt travel portal, you have the option to use your Bilt Mastercard or a different credit card. The Bilt card will earn its regular rate for travel purchases on such bookings, while you’ll earn 1 Bilt point per $1 spent if paying with another card — with that last being in addition to any earnings on your other card if using a non-Bilt rewards credit card.
Looking to power your next vacation through credit card rewards? Check out our list of the best travel rewards credit cards.
Earning Bilt points through Bilt Dining
The Bilt Dining rewards program consists of restaurants in 22 cities, where members can earn between 2 and 10 extra points per $1 spent. Cities with eligible restaurants include:
- Atlanta
- Austin
- Boston
- Charlotte
- Chicago
- Dallas
- Denver
- Houston
- Las Vegas
- Los Angeles
- Miami
- Nashville
- New York
- Philadelphia
- Phoenix
- Portland
- Salt Lake City
- San Antonio
- San Diego
- San Francisco
- Seattle
- Washington, D.C.
All you have to do to earn points through Bilt Dining is eat at a participating restaurant (which are all displayed in the Bilt app) and pay with a credit card in your Bilt Wallet. You’ll automatically earn Bilt points on what you spend — in addition to any rewards from your credit card.
You can add any American Express, Mastercard and Visa card to your Bilt Wallet. To maximize your rewards, use a card that earns points on dining, like the Bilt Mastercard, the American Express® Gold Card (terms apply) or the Capital One SavorOne Cash Rewards Credit Card * The information for the Capital One SavorOne Cash Rewards Credit Card has been collected independently by Blueprint. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer. .
Earning Bilt points through Lyft and SoulCycle
Bilt members can earn up to 5 points per $1 spent on Lyft rides in the U.S. All you have to do is link your accounts and you’ll automatically earn points on qualifying rides.
Those who link their Lyft account in the Bilt app and pay with the Bilt Mastercard will earn a combined total 5 points per $1 spent. If you’ve linked your Bilt and Lyft accounts but pay with a non-Bilt card, you’ll earn 2 Bilt points per $1 spent on Lyft.
Another type of ride that earns Bilt points is SoulCycle, which allows members to earn 10 points per $1 spent on spin classes. Simply book your classes through the Bilt app and reap the extra rewards.
Earning Bilt points by referring a friend
Regardless of whether you’re a cardholder or not, you can refer friends to the Bilt Mastercard and earn bonus points. You’ll earn 2,500 points per successful referral — plus, for every fifth successful referral, you’ll earn an additional 10,000 points — up to 50 total successful referrals. You can access your referral link by going to the “Earn Points” tab in the Bilt app and clicking on the “Invite” icon.
Using your Bilt Rewards points
Bilt provides a lot of flexibility in how you can redeem points. You can redeem Bilt points for travel purchases, merchandise or rent payments, which will generally be worth between 0.55 to 1.25 cents per point. Here are how some of the most typical redemptions break down:
- Statement credits: 0.55 cents per point.
- Rent payments: 0.55 cents per point.
- Amazon purchases: 0.7 cents per point.
- Bilt collection: Under 1 cent per point.
- SoulCycle: Around 1 cent per point.
- Bilt travel portal: 1.25 cents per point.
- Towards a down payment on a future home: 1.5 cents per point.
Arguably the best way to get high value from your Bilt points is by transferring them. Bilt has 16 airline and hotel transfer partners. Transfers are 1:1 and you can transfer when you reach a minimum of 2,000 points.
Bilt’s transfer partners include:
- Aer Lingus AerClub
- Air Canada Aeroplan
- Air France-KLM Flying Blue
- Alaska Airlines
- Avianca LifeMiles
- British Airways Executive Club
- Cathay Pacific Asia Miles
- Emirates Skywards
- Hilton Honors
- Iberia Plus
- IHG One Rewards
- Marriott Bonvoy
- Turkish Airlines Miles & Smiles
- United MileagePlus
- Virgin Atlantic Flying Club
- World of Hyatt
Bilt makes it easy to see what award travel options are available with partners by offering a point.me search in the Bilt mobile app. Normally, you’d have to pay $129 per year or $12 per month for a point.me membership, so this is a stellar feature for anyone interested in maximizing the value of their travel rewards.
Popular redemption options include business class tickets through Aeroplan and Flying Blue. If you’re more of a budget traveler, you could for example transfer points to Virgin Atlantic and book a one-way economy class ticket to the U.K. for as little as 10,000 miles each way.
What is Bilt Rewards elite status?
Bilt Rewards has three elite status tiers beyond entry-level Blue membership. You can reach Silver elite status after earning 50,000 points via rent payments, eligible credit card spending, SoulCycle classes booked through the Bilt app, Bilt Dining, Lyft rides (when Bilt is set as your rewards partner) and the Bilt travel portal.
You can earn Bilt elite status starting at 50,000 points or $10,000 in non-rent spending. You’ll need to meet this requirement each calendar year to qualify.
- Blue: Granted to any new member.
- Silver: 50,000 points earned or $10,000 in non-rent spending.
- Gold: 125,000 points earned or $25,000 in non-rent spending.
- Platinum: 200,000 points earned $50,000 in non-rent spending.
Earning elite status through non-rent spending will probably be easiest for customers who charge roughly $834 or more per month on non-rent expenses to the Bilt Mastercfard. That would get them to Silver elite status by the end of the year.
Meanwhile, earning Silver status via point earning alone could take anywhere from $16,667 to $50,000 in spending (based on the Bilt Mastercard’s regular rewards rates). Though if you take advantage of Bilt’s elevated earnings offered on Bilt Dining and Soul Cycle spending, you could potentially get this number down to as low as $5,000 to $10,000 spent and earn the requisite number of points for status.
Once you’ve earned Bilt elite status, you’ll get access to valuable benefits, depending on your status tier. Additionally, members receive a special reward for every 25,000 points earned.
Silver perks include:
- 10% bonus points on new leases and renewals.
- Interest earned on points (based on FDIC national savings rate).
Gold perks include:
- 25% bonus points on new leases and renewals.
- Homeownership Concierge.
Platinum perks include:
- 50% bonus points on new leases and renewals.
- Bilt Collection gift, consisting of home decor and art.
Tips for maximizing your Bilt Rewards
A great way to maximize your Bilt Rewards is to take advantage of Rent Day offers. Rent Day is a promotion that occurs on the first of every month, when members get access to exclusive perks and double points on credit card purchases (except for rent payments), up to 10,000 points per month, along with other perks. In May 2023, Bilt offered a 100% bonus on point transfers to Air France/KLM’s Flying Blue program (no longer available). Promotions like these are a great way to not only earn more Bilt points but get maximum value out of them.
Another way to get more value from your Bilt points is by transferring them to a partner airline and hotel programs for premium award redemptions. For example, the World of Hyatt program is a popular transfer option because Hyatt free nights can be booked for as little as 3,500 points. Hyatt also has all-inclusive hotels you can book for as few as 12,000 points per night.
Frequently asked questions (FAQs)
Bilt points are worth 1.25 cents each toward travel purchases when booking in the Bilt portal. You can also redeem Bilt points toward a down payment on a future home at 1.5 cents apiece or transfer them to 12 airlines and four hotel loyalty programs for potentially even greater value.
You can use your Bilt Rewards towards a down payment on a future home at 1.5 cents each. In other words, every 1,000 points is worth $15 towards a down payment. To redeem your points, you’ll need to email Bilt with proof of purchase and specify how many points you want to redeem towards the down payment.
Bilt Rewards points don’t expire as long as your account remains open and active. An account is deemed “inactive” after you stop earning or redeeming points for 18 months.
*The information for the Capital One SavorOne Cash Rewards Credit Card has been collected independently by Blueprint. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.
Blueprint is an independent publisher and comparison service, not an investment advisor. The information provided is for educational purposes only and we encourage you to seek personalized advice from qualified professionals regarding specific financial decisions. Past performance is not indicative of future results.
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