Bilt 2.0: Should I Stay, or Should I Go?

I’ve been in Bilt 2.0 overload the past few days. As you probably heard, Bilt just officially launched 3 new credit cards that replace the old Bilt 1.0 Wells Fargo credit card.

And if you’re a newbie who’s totally confused about what Bilt even is, here’s a brief recap:

• Bilt was originally a loyalty program that awarded points for paying rent (the first of its kind)
• Rent Day (1st of every month) promotions included earning double points on spending categories plus lucrative one-day transfer bonuses that changed every month
• Bilt 1.0 no-annual-fee credit card with Wells Fargo wasn’t profitable, hence the switch to Cardless and 3 tiers of credit cards
• Bilt has arguably the best set of transfer partners, including Hyatt, Alaska Airlines and United Airlines, making Bilt points a valuable currency

Major Changes with Bilt 2.0

There is a lot of info to digest with this rollout. I recommend this post by Travel On Points for all the details. Here is a recap of some major changes:

• Instead of one no-annual-fee credit card, there are now 3 cards ($0 fee, $95 fee, and $495 fee)
• You can now pay your mortgage through Bilt (as well as rent)
• Mortgage/rent payments are now done through ACH and not the credit card itself
• Each card earns Bilt points (amount varies by card) plus 4% Bilt Cash
• You don’t automatically earn points on rent/mortgage; you have to use Bilt Cash to offset a 3% fee in order to earn points on rent/mortgage
• Rent Day earning promotions will be different (not the standard double points on all spending)

In a nutshell, in order to earn points on rent and mortgage payments, you must put a considerable amount of monthly spend on the card. And of course, that’s Bilt’s goal.

My Issues with Bilt 2.0

My biggest complaint about this Bilt 2.0 launch is that there are a lot of unanswered questions. Richard Kerr from Bilt had an AMA (Ask Me Anything) on reddit, but several answers were vague or TBD.

For example:

Question: “How does the Bilt Cash for Lyft redemption work? Are there any restrictions (set amount per month, ride, etc), or can you use bilt cash 1:1 to pay for an entire ride with no minimum or maximums?”

Answer: “There will be monthly credits you can choose to redeem Bilt Cash for at a dollar for dollar value, but honestly we are still working on what we think these should be and what precedent we want to set.”

Question: “Will there still be rent day multipliers on spend?”

Answer: “There will be, but it likely won’t look like it does today. This is something we have a lot of ideas for and now with the core launch over, the kind of stuff I get excited about. We can go play mad scientist on the white board and come up with really creative and rewarding promos.”

So, why should we apply for a new card (and potentially pay a $495 annual fee!) if we don’t yet know how we can spend those Bilt Cash dollars?

I also take issue that Bilt Cash expires at the end of each calendar year, and you can only carry over $100 to the next year. So essentially all the Bilt Cash you earn during the high-spend months of November and December must be used immediately? And there are potentially caps of how they can be used?

Finally, I think readers should be aware that Bilt paid for dozens of influencers in the miles and points world (including bloggers, YouTubers, etc.) to fly to NYC for the Bilt 2.0 launch. According to the reddit comments, some of these influencers who were not initially impressed with the changes have completely changed their minds after being wined and dined by Bilt. Money talks.

What to do?

My husband currently has the Wells Fargo Bilt credit card, so we have to decide by January 30 if we will convert it to one of these new cards. My initial reaction was to drop Bilt like a hot potato. I don’t want to have to do math every month on a credit card, plus it sounds like the Bilt Cash redemptions are still a work in process and they could be bad.

However, the Bilt Palladium Card has a 50,000-point sign-up bonus along with $500 in Bilt Cash (for the first year), which is nothing to sneeze at. I absolutely do not need another card with coupon-book hotel credits that require a 2-night stay. But, for the first year, the Bilt Cash could potentially offset the $495 annual fee.

Since we still have a few weeks before the January 30 deadline, my plan is to wait a bit and see if more information comes out about the rules with using Bilt Cash. Leana also gave her thoughts on our Facebook page.

Readers, what do you think of Bilt 2.0? Are you going to apply for any of these cards?