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?
Author: Nancy
Nancy lives near Dallas, Texas, with her husband and three kids. Her favorite vacations include the beach, cruising and everything Disney.
Lolol yeah already a 2.1 update this am
I pay mine with my Alaska card for 3x points, more than offsets the processing fee & will still be allowed.
Just the 50k Hyatt/Alaska Airlines points more than offsets the 2.0 annual fee. Jankur has played fair in the past with 1.0 so yes I went for the conversion, with a $14k higher credit line extended! I have always appreciated Bilt’s sense of fun & definite value with their promos, bonuses, & offerings, I look forward to learning how to best spend $500 of Bilt Cash right out of the gate.
Just the 50k Hyatt/Alaska Airlines points more than offsets the 2.0 annual fee. Jankur has played fair in the past with 1.0 so yes I went for the conversion, with a $14k higher credit line extended! I have always appreciated Bilt’s sense of fun & definite value with their promos, bonuses, & offerings, I look forward to learning how to best spend $500 of Bilt Cash right out of the gate.
@Pam Sounds like a good fit for you!
I think the backlash is a little overblown. I don’t find the fundamental proposition that confusing: Pay rent with the card; pay a fee with Bilt Cash if you want points on it.
I do find it kind of weird that they’re launching without telling us (or knowing?!) what else we can spend Bilt Cash on, but the way I see it, any value above points on rent (like reimbursing Lyft rides, maybe, hopefully) is a bonus.
I’m personally more than happy to sock-drawer the Venture X for a year, and try the Bilt card for non-bonused spend. Bilt points are really head-and-shoulders above CapitalOne points for me, and with rent payment it’s earning more points per month than the VX can. Plus the VX pays for itself in my personal spreadsheet with the travel credit and annual miles, so I don’t feel bad keeping it around if Bilt doesn’t work out.
@Peter I still find it confusing. 🙂 With Bilt 1.0, it was just simply “earn points with rent as long as you make 5 purchases a month”. No math. Now,there are two different ways to earn points with rent and you can change your method every month. I’m probably going to give the card a try and see how things go, but I’d still like to see more info.
I think I have taken an entire day figuring this out for my situation. Gadzooks
Ok. My family needs Hyatt points. We have gone to Hawaii twice and stayed at the Hyatt regency Kauai and Hyatt Mauai on chase points but it’s gonna be a while until we can get another Chase credit card bonus. But I want us to go to Hawaii this summer and stay at the Hyatt Regency on Kauai.
So the Bilt Palladium might really make a difference. If you feel like telling me if this makes sense I would appreciate it! I keep getting mixed up.
First of all we will get $500 dollars in Bilt Cash as a signup bonus. I have three mortgages I need to pay. I can pay all three twice and the 500 bonus will cover the transaction fee. So if I do that I will get 10,000 points each month from the mortgage payments. So that makes 50k bonus up to 70k. The following month let’s say I pay just one of those mortgages, the largest one, via Bilt. I will need to spend 3075.00 dollars to get the $123.00 Bilt Cash I need to cover the transaction fee. In this scenario I will get 6150 points from the daily spend and 4100 from the mortgage payments that’s a total of 10,250 points a month. In theory I could do this monthly depending on what exclusions there are for the monthly spend. That would be about 123000 points per year.
Now, does this shake out when you put it all together and add in the 500 annual fee? I think it does but I am not 100 percent sure. My husband got approved for the card so we r gonna try it. I just don’t know if I can keep the math straight!
I love the blog, thank you for doing it
Madss
@Madeleine Your math makes sense. Just FYI–Bilt released another new way to earn points on rent/mortgage (https://travel-on-points.com/bilt-is-making-changes/? ) I would only caution you that Bilt can add/delete transfer partners at any time, so it’s entirely possible that Hyatt won’t be a partner in the future. Also, in my experience, those Hyatt hotels in Hawaii are notoriously hard to find award space. Have you looked at your dates yet to see if there is availability? I hope it all works out! 🙂
Will I earn points if I use Bilt to pay HOA fees?
@Donald My understanding is that you will only earn points on HOA fees if you pay the 3% with Bilt Cash.
Like you said, Blit is all about paying the bloggers and not putting that money into their product/customers, so that has made most people that i know and myself say to drop them like a hot potato. It also has made me realize that TPG, FM, and all of the other bloggers posting 20ndofferent articles each about Blit are on their payroll and not truly interested in helping out readers no matter how much that they promise that they are. That’s why all of my credit card apps from this point forward will be from your links only!
@Jennie Thanks for your support. Bilt is a really hot topic right now so I do understand why there are so many articles about it. There’s a lot to digest.