Bilt: Guide to Cards + Earning on Mortgage and Rent Payments

Earning points on mortgage and rent payments sounds great, and the Bilt system can work well for some people, but there are many factors to consider when deciding if a card is right for you. This guide breaks down the Bilt credit cards, how to earn points on rent and mortgage payments, and the costs involved.

Bilt cards will be a great fit for some, but they won’t be a no-brainer for everybody. Our goal is to give you the tools and resources to help you make a decision that works for your situation.

And if this seems confusing to you, you’re not alone! The Bilt system is confusing, even to those with years of experience in the points and miles world. Thankfully, not everything in the points and miles world is this complicated.

Updates October 2026

Bilt has announced several changes to its rewards program coming in 2027. Here’s a highlight of the changes:

• Bilt cash now expires one year from when it’s earned (this is effective now).
• Hotel credits on the Obsidian and Palladium cards will be issued as Bilt cash — this might be seen as a positive for some people and negative for others. 
• Cardholders now have the option to upgrade and downgrade cards within the Bilt family but terms are very unclear and may not be favorable (may allow Bilt to take away the welcome offer you received when you opened the card the year before!)

Negative changes starting in 2027:

• Bilt will no longer transfer 1:1 to Hyatt starting January 1, 2027. The ratio will be 4:3.
• Bilt cash will be awarded on cardmember anniversary instead of on January 1.
• Currently, Bilt cash can be used towards Hotel reservations in Bilt Travel once per month. Starting 1/1/27, Bilt members will only be able to redeem Bilt cash for Hotel stays twice per year.
• The option to earn 4% Bilt cash on everyday spend is ending on 12/31/26 for new cardholders. Cardholders who apply before 12/31/26 can opt out of the changes to keep this option.

Minor upgrades:

• In 2027, Bilt Gold, Silver, and Platinum members will be eligible for a status match with Sixt and Hertz.
• Daily Rewards are coming: earn rewards for paying housing payments on time and completing activity with select Bilt neighborhood partners. Daily Rewards can be redeemed for instant prizes or used to enter a drawing for a bigger prize.

Quick Hits

• Bilt has three credit cards — annual fees range from $0 to $495
• You can’t earn points on a housing payment (mortgage or rent) unless you open one of the Bilt credit cards
• To earn points on mortgage or rent payments, you’ll need to put a lot of regular spending on a Bilt credit card (or pay a fee)

Bilt Credit Cards

Bilt has three credit cards to choose from. If you want to earn points on housing payments, you need to have at least one of them. All of the cards earn the same amount of points on housing payments, but they differ in the points you can earn for other purchases.

Remember that you don’t need to have a card to be a part of the Bilt Rewards program.

You can only hold one Bilt credit card at a time. You can be an authorized user on more than one card.

Spend Towards Status

All three Bilt cards allow you to earn Bilt status by putting eligible spend on the card. Rent and mortgage payments do not count as eligible spend. Here’s the level of status you can earn at the different spend levels:

• Silver: $10,000
• Gold: $25,000
• Platinum: $50,000

Bilt status is helpful for two key reasons: transfer bonuses and Rakuten.

Bilt regularly offers elevated transfer bonuses, and the higher status you have, the better the transfer ratio.

If you’ve opted into earning Bilt points through Rakuten, members who have Silver status or higher get a 1:1 ratio. $1.00 cashback from Rakuten becomes 100 Bilt points. 

If you don’t hold any status with Bilt, points transfer from Rakuten to Bilt at a 2:1 ratio. That means your points are worth half as much ($2.00 in cashback becomes 100 Bilt points).  

Bilt Transfer Partners

Bilt has some good transfer partners, like Atmos Rewards, Southwest Airlines, and Japan Airlines Mileage Bank. Here are all the places where you can transfer your Bilt points:

General Words of Caution

Some of the Worst Travel Protections

One of the biggest reasons I don’t think Bilt cards can be the only cards in your wallet is their pitiful travel protections. I don’t recommend purchasing flights or hotels with your Bilt cards, as their travel protections are very limited and max out at $2,000 per trip.

Confusing Rules Around Product Changes

Bilt has some vague and confusing terms around product changes. Upgrading or downgrading a card is technically possible, but the language implies that any welcome offers  or bonuses you earned (points or Bilt cash) may be taken back if you cancel the card within 30 days of your annual fee posting. It’s unclear if this means 30 days from when you first opened the card, or 30 days from when your renewal annual fee posts. This might mean that if you opened a Palladium, and then one year later downgrade to an Obsidian, that your full welcome offer will be revoked and any card benefit credits you used in the previous 2 months would be revoked. 

Official terms are here: 

Clawbacks and Negative Balances: If you Downgrade within 30 days after an Annual Fee posts, or if you complete a refund-and-revert, Bilt may reverse the rewards associated with the product you are leaving. This means: (a) Upgrade Bonus or Welcome Bonus Bilt Points may be subtracted from your Bilt Rewards Account, and your Bilt Points balance may become negative; (b) Upgrade Bonus or Welcome Bonus Bilt Cash may be reversed and your Bilt Cash balance may become negative; (c) the value of any annual credit you have already redeemed (including any hotel credit) may be revoked from your credit balance or charged to your Card Account, and Bilt may apply a two-benefit-period lookback where applicable; and (d) Bilt Gold Elite Status earned by meeting the $4,000 Bilt Palladium spending threshold may be revoked, while any status you earned independently through qualifying activity is preserved.

Taxes are not an “Eligible Expense”

Only eligible expenses earn Bilt points and Bilt cash. This is pretty standard in theory—most credit cards exclude certain expenses from earning points. For example, money orders and person-to-person payments through sites like Venmo and PayPal are typically excluded.

Bilt has an additional restriction for Tax Payments.

Here’s the fine print directly from Bilt:

“Eligible Purchases” or “Purchases” means transactions for goods or services and Bilt Housing Payments made with your Bilt Card, minus returns, refunds, or credits. The following purchases do not qualify as “Eligible Purchases” and do not earn Bilt Points or Bilt Cash: Balance transfers, special transfers, cash advances, cash withdrawals, card check transaction, instant loan, travelers checks, money orders, wire transfers or similar cash-like transactions, prepaid cards, gift cards, person-to-person payments (such as Venmo, PayPal, Cash App, or Zelle), tax payments (except property taxes included as Bilt Housing Payments), cryptocurrency or other digital currency purchases, fees or interest posted to your Card Account (including annual fees, late fees, and returned payment fees), lottery tickets, casino gaming chips, race track wagers or similar betting transactions, and checks that access your Card Account.

Bilt Blue

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Bilt Blue Card

Earns Bilt Points Counts Toward 5/24

Annual Fee $0

Welcome Offer

Katie's Take

Why this card might (or might not) be right for you.

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Not a very compelling card, even with no annual fee.

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Highlights

The key benefits and earning rates at a glance.

Terms Apply

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• Earn Points on Rent and Mortgage Payments Earn points on rent and mortgage payments (1x when you redeem Bilt Cash with the Bilt Cash earning option).
• Transfer Points to Airline and Hotel Partners Bilt points transfer to airline and hotel partners.

Offer History

See past welcome bonuses to gauge whether the current offer is elevated.

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Offer	Spend Req.	Date
$100 Bilt Cash	No spend requirement	Standard

My Take: With only earning 1 point per dollar on all purchases, this card just doesn’t measure up to other no-annual fee cards. You could just get a card like a Chase Freedom Unlimited® which earns 1.5x on every purchase.

Bilt Obsidian

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Bilt Obsidian Card

Earns Bilt Points Counts Toward 5/24

Annual Fee $95

Welcome Offer

Katie's Take

Why this card might (or might not) be right for you.

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I think Bilt tried to make a card here to battle with our perennial favorite: the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card®. But frankly, they failed. Still ok if you want to jump through the Bilt hoops to earn on mortgages or rent payments.

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Highlights

The key benefits and earning rates at a glance.

Terms Apply

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• Up to $100/year Bilt Travel Hotel Credit Up to $100 a year in Bilt Travel hotel credits ($50 per 6 months, two-night minimum).
• Choose 3x on Dining or Grocery Pick one — 3x on dining OR groceries (grocery is capped at $25K/year). Defaults to dining; switch within 30 days of approval if you want groceries.

Offer History

See past welcome bonuses to gauge whether the current offer is elevated.

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Offer	Spend Req.	Date
$200 Bilt Cash	No spend requirement	Standard

My Take: I think Bilt tried to make a card here to battle with our perennial favorite: the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card®. But frankly, they failed.

Best feature: 3x on dining or groceries (up to $25,000 per year)

You have to choose whether you want to receive 3x points on dining OR grocery. The selection defaults automatically to 3x on dining, but you have 30 days after approval to change the selection to grocery if you wish. You make the designation in your Bilt wallet.

You can change the designation once a year, in January. This is the same for everybody, regardless of when you actually open the card.

Sounds better than it is: $100 hotel credit

The advertised $100 hotel credit seems nice. Until you reason it is broken into two $50 credits, requires a two-night stay, and must be booked via Bilt Travel. In comparison, the $100 annual hotel credit on the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card® can be used all at once, even on a 1 night stay.

Starting January 1, 2027 — this will be a $100 Bilt Cash credit instead. 

Pro Tip: Don’t book travel on this card

Even though it earns 2x on travel, I highly discourage you from putting any airline or hotel spend on this card — the travel protections it provides are horrible. They only kick in if you pay the full amount to the card and max out at $2,000 per trip. This pales in comparison to Sapphire coverage — $10,000 per trip and kicks in with just paying your taxes on your card.

Possible Strategy: $1000 groceries/month to 48,000 points/year

You could move all your grocery spending to this card. If you spend $1,000/month on groceries, you’d earn 3000 points per month that way.

Then you could use the BILT cash you’d earn to get the Points Accelerator for an additional 1x. You need $200 Bilt cash to unlock this the first time and it will give you that additional 1x for the next $5,000. If you’re earning 4% Bilt cash, on the way to spending $5000 you’ll earn another $200 Bilt cash and could gets Points Accelerator again.  

You’d effectively be earning 4x on grocery spend and would earn 48,000 points a year. 

Bilt Palladium

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Bilt Palladium Card

Earns Bilt Points Counts Toward 5/24

Annual Fee $495

Welcome Offer

Katie's Take

Why this card might (or might not) be right for you.

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This card has some earning potential....if you're willing to put in some mental energy and work.

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Highlights

The key benefits and earning rates at a glance.

Terms Apply

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• $200 Bilt Cash Each Calendar Year $200 in Bilt Cash deposited to your Bilt wallet each calendar year — usable on rent payments, transfers, and select redemptions.
• Up to $400 Bilt Travel Hotel Credit ($200 per 6 months) Up to $400 a year in Bilt Travel hotel credits — $200 each six-month period, with a two-night minimum stay required.
• Priority Pass Lounge Access (Excludes Restaurants) Priority Pass lounge access (lounges only — restaurants not included).

Offer History

See past welcome bonuses to gauge whether the current offer is elevated.

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Offer	Spend Req.	Date
50,000 Points + $300 Bilt Cash + Gold Status	$4,000 non-housing spend in 3 months	Standard

Pro: lots of Bilt Cash upfront, enough to earn on $22,000 of housing

As an ongoing benefit, this card gives you $200 in Bilt cash each calendar year, plus you get $300 from opening the card.

After you do the $4,000 required spending on this, you’d have another $160 Bilt cash. So that’s a total of $660 Bilt cash as soon as you have met your $4000 required spend.

That’s enough to earn 22,000 points on $22,000 of housing payments. But keep in mind that you’d need to make sure you were able to pay that much in housing payments before your Bilt cash expires (all Bilt cash expires one year from when it’s earned).

Even so, the welcome offer is still just average

You get 50,000 points after you spend $4,000 in 3 months, which is very low compared to other cards. You’d also have earned 8,000 points from that spending. Then you can leverage your Bilt cash to earn 22,000 points on $22,000 of housing. That’s a total of 80,000 points…but you paid $495 and had to jump through a bunch of hoops. So that’s just about average return, but for more effort than many cards.

You could also use your Bilt Cash to buy the Points Accelerator for 200 Bilt Cash. This gives you another 1x on the next $5,000 you spend. 

With the welcome offer, you do get Bilt Gold status right off the bat, which gives you a 1:1 ratio with Rakuten and possibly some transfer bonuses on Bilt day, which could be worth more to some people.

Other benefits are fine, what you’d expect from a high annual fee card

The hotel credits are okay — you get two, $200 hotel credits per year for hotel stays of 2 nights or more. This does have to be booked via Bilt Travel. These could be useful for quick trips or sports tournaments.

This is changing to Bilt cash credits in 2027. 

Priority Pass™ access includes 2 guests, but only for lounges, not for other experiences like spas, Gameway, or restaurants. It’s limited, but if you or a partner have another card with Priority Pass™ that doesn’t quite cover everyone in your household, this might bridge the gap.

Do not book travel on this card

Remember that the travel protections aren’t great; I really can’t recommend booking travel with this card. It has the same $2,000 per trip limitation as the Obsidian card. And requires you to book the full ticket with this card to get coverage.

Other purchase protections are a mixed bag

The extended warranty will be better for some purchases and not others. That’s because it doubles a warranty period — up to 2 years. So for items with a 2 year warranty it gives you an extra 2 years. But for items with a shorter warranty, it only doubles it. So if you buy an item with a 30 day warranty, it only gives you 60 days total.

Because of that and because I like to keep it easy, I’m not sure I would default to making purchases on this card. I’d personally rather know I’m always getting a full year extension, since a lot of items have warranties of a year or less.

This does have one great benefit which is Price Drop protection for 90 days. This is a benefit I haven’t seen in a while on a card! With this, if you buy something and it drops in price, you can file a claim for the difference for 90 days.

Bilt Referrals

If you have a Bilt credit card, you can earn bonus points when you refer a friend or family member and they open their own Bilt card.

The standard referral rate is 2,500 points per card, with a 50 card maximum.

We’ve seen the referral rate elevated to 5,000 for a limited time. You can find your referral link and see if there are any elevated referral offers in your Bilt wallet.

Bilt Points vs Bilt Cash

Bilt cash is a unique currency to use through Bilt. All three of the Bilt cards earn both Bilt points and Bilt cash.

Bilt Points

Bilt points can be earned and redeemed in a variety of ways. We have a full guide to Bilt Rewards that gives you more information on how to earn and redeem Bilt points.

Bilt has some unique transfer partners (like Japan Airlines and Atmos) that can provide excellent value. Whether you have a Bilt credit card or not, earning and using Bilt points is a fantastic way to help you save money on travel.

All of the Bilt cards earn Bilt points at varying levels.

Bilt Cash

Bilt cash is different from points. It can only be used in the Bilt ecosystem, and information on what exactly it can be used for, how much you can use at a time, and how to redeem it (beyond using it to offset transaction fees when paying rent/mortgage bills) is vague at best.

• Bilt cash has a variety of complicated and mostly sub-par uses. But the primary one we will discuss is the use of Bilt cash to enable you to earn Bilt rewards points on your housing costs.
• If you’ve chosen Bilt cash as your housing rewards method (more on this below), you earn Bilt cash by putting spend on a Bilt credit card at a rate of 4%. So for every $100 you spend on a Bilt card, you earn 4 dollars of Bilt cash. Again, this isn’t straight cash back and can’t be easily redeemed.
• You can also earn Bilt cash through their new credit card welcome offers.

According to their website, you can earn Bilt cash in other ways as well, but information is limited. The website says: “Earn $50 of Bilt Cash for every 25,000 Bilt Points you earn toward your status across the Bilt ecosystem”. Most normal people probably aren’t earning tens of thousands of points towards Bilt status, so this may not be that helpful.

Bilt cash expires one year from when it’s earned. 

How to Use Bilt Cash

The main way we will discuss using Bilt cash is to redeem it when you pay mortgage or rent payments to offset the transaction fee or Points Accelerator.

You can also use Bilt cash to cover certain limited expenses in Bilt travel, fitness classes through Bilt neighborhood, dining purchases at select restaurants, and more.

You can see the full list of Bilt Cash redemptions here. You’ll see that most of them are very limited in usage.

Points Accelerator

A lot of people seem to really like this option but keep in mind this is just allows you to earn a maximum of 25,000 extra points in a year, and you’d have to put $25,000 of spend on your Bilt card for that. 

This is for the Obsidian and Palladium only. 

This costs $200 in Bilt Cash per activation. 

When you do this, it enables +1X bonus points on all everyday spend for the next $5,000 following activation. You can do this 5x annually. Be careful when you activate as it xpires after $5,000 everyday spend or calendar year-end.

• Obsidian earnings when enabled: 4X dining or grocery, 3X travel, 2X everyday spend
• Palladium earnings when enabled: 3X everyday spend

Two Options for Paying Rent and Mortgage Payments

There are two ways to earn points on housing payments. You need to pick one of these, but could change between the methods in different months.

Tiered Earning Based on Spend (No Bilt Cash)

If you select this option, you won’t earn any Bilt cash on your spending on your Bilt card.

You can pay rent or mortgage via Bilt and earn points on the payment. But the points that you earn will be tied to how much you’ve spent on your Bilt card, relative to your housing payment. Your tier can change every month.

If you don’t meet any tier, you will earn 250 points just for running a housing payment through Bilt.

Strategy Tips: This method is best for someone who plans to use their Bilt card as their primary credit card and whose spending will be at least 75% of their housing payment. This method only works if you are spending every single month on this card.

Most people should start with the Bilt Cash option until they have used their Bilt Cash from welcome offers. Even if you don’t want to spend on your Bilt card regularly, you could choose this option after you’ve used your Bilt Cash. If you run your housing payment through Bilt, you’ll at least earn 250 points per month, even without any spending on the card. That’s a modest return (3000 points per year) but better than nothing.

Bilt Cash Option:

This option is being discontinued on January 1, 2027. If you hold a card by December 31, 2026, you can opt into this to lock in this option. 

With this system, you earn 4% Bilt Cash on eligible purchases made with your Bilt card. Note that if you plan to pay taxes with this card, taxes are not an eligible expense and you won’t earn Bilt Cash on them.

Then when you go to pay your housing payment through your Bilt account, you can use Bilt Cash to earn points on that payment. Every $30 of Bilt Cash you redeem gives you 1000 points. The maximum you can redeem each month is up to the same number of points as the cost of your housing payment. So if your housing payment is $3000, you could earn a maximum of 3000 points and would have to redeem $90 Bilt cash to do so.

If you don’t have enough Bilt cash to earn points for your whole housing payment, you can use whatever Bilt cash you have to earn points.

If you only have $30 in Bilt cash and a $3000 mortgage, you could still use the Bilt cash to earn 1,000 points.

Strategy Tips: When you sign up for a new card, almost everyone should start with this method until they have used up all their Bilt cash.

After that, this method is best for anyone who prefers to make a few bigger purchases per year on their Bilt card in order to earn the cash they need to earn points on their housing. You might choose to bundle big purchases like car insurance, tuition, daycare, etc. Just keep in mind that Bilt cash expires one year from when it’s earned, so make sure you’re using it before it expires!

Bilt 2.0 Calculator

 Opportunity Cost

Like with anything, there’s an opportunity cost to putting a lot of spend on a Bilt credit card.

If you’re putting significant spend on a Bilt card to earn points on your housing payments, you could be missing out on the opportunity to open new cards and earn welcome offers.

For example, if your monthly housing payment is $3,000, you would need to put $2,500 on a Bilt card every month in order to fully offset the fee with Bilt Cash, or to earn 1x points using the tiered system.

If you’re a normal person with a normal budget, putting that much monthly spend on your Bilt card means you probably won’t have enough additional expenses to be able to open new credit cards as often.

Opening a new credit card to earn the welcome offer is the quickest way to earn a lot of points. If you’re not able to do that because you’re putting all your regular spend on a Bilt card, you’ll earn far fewer points in the long run.

Alternative for Earning Points on Rent

Pay Rent with an Atmos Card

Bilt has a partnership with Atmos where you can earn 3x points on rent by paying through Bilt with your Atmos card. If you hold the Atmos™ Rewards Ascent Visa Signature® credit card or the Atmos™ Rewards Summit Visa Infinite^® Credit Card, you can use those to pay rent through Bilt and earn 3x points per dollar.

Pay Rent with a Qatar Airways Card

You can use either of the Qatar Airways co-branded cards to pay rent with Bilt and earn 3x Avios points per dollar spent. 

Holding a Qatar Airways credit card can make it a lot easier to book award flights for other people, since Qatar introduced restrictions when booking award tickets for anyone besides yourself.

Fees for Paying Rent with a non-Bilt credit card

When you use one of those cards to pay your rent through Bilt, you’ll be charged a 3% transaction fee. There’s no way to offset that fee with Bilt Cash or anything else.

Since you’re paying 3% and earning 3x points, it’s essentially like buying Atmos or Avios points at 1 cent per point. If you value Bilt points and are able to get consistently good value from them, this can be a good alternative option to earning points on rent.

This only works for rent payments, not mortgages.

Other Things to Know about Paying Your Mortgage Through Bilt

Housing Payments Come from Your Bank Account, Not Your Credit Balance

Housing payments are paid by ACH draft directly from your bank account (even if you use your Bilt card to pay for it), so you have to pay the entire amount all at once.

Since it comes directly from your bank account, the charge doesn’t use your credit balance.

No Cap on Rent/Mortgage Payments

There is no limit to the number of Bilt points you can earn through mortgage and rent payments.

This could be theoretically valuable for people who own multiple properties. You could use a Bilt card to make payments on all of them and still earn points. But this would require a very large amount of spending to do so.

FAQs

What Rent and Mortgage Payments are Eligible?

According to Bilt, any personal mortgage or rent payment is eligible to be paid on a Bilt card and earn points through the program terms.

Commercial rent or mortgages are not eligible.

Does Bilt offer a business card?

No. Currently, Bilt only offers personal credit cards.

Is it worth getting a Bilt card if I don’t want to use it for rent or mortgage payments?

Possibly. You can use a Bilt card to earn Bilt points even if you don’t put rent or mortgage payments on the card. Since those points are so flexible, it could make sense for you to hold the card even if you don’t want to use it to pay a mortgage or rent. But for most people, they would want to start with other cards that have more well-rounded benefits and bigger welcome offers.

Should I use my Bilt card to make mortgage or rent payments if I don’t want to deal with Bilt cash?

If you don’t want to deal with Bilt cash, you can choose the tiered option. Rent/mortgage payments will be fee-free, and you will earn a tiered amount of points based on how much you spend on your Bilt card each month. If you don’t spend anything on your credit card, you will earn a minimum of 250 points.

When going through Bilt to make payments, Bilt functions as a middleman. It can make sense to use a middleman when you’re earning points or getting other benefits, but there can also be some hassles involved. You have to decide if that is worth whatever points you’d earn.

If I open a Bilt card, can I change to a different card later?

It’s common to upgrade or downgrade cards in the same card family to get different benefits or avoid paying an annual fee. For example, you might start with the no annual fee Blue card and decide later that you want to upgrade to the Palladium card (or vice versa).

Changing to a different card product is available with Bilt, but the terms around it are unclear. You may need to keep a card for a seecond year to avoid having your bonus points clawed back.