Bilt Rewards Explained (Earn Points Even Without the Credit Card)

Bilt is a program with a lot of value, especially for those who pay rent, but you don’t have to be a renter to earn Bilt Rewards.

You don’t have to have the Bilt credit card to benefit from the program either. Just by signing up and becoming a member, you can earn points for things like dining, prescriptions, Lyft rides, and more.

On the first of each month, Bilt also has “Rent Day” where they offer deals like status matches and transfer bonuses that can be incredibly valuable. In this post, I’ll show you how you can benefit from the Bilt program, with or without the Bilt credit card!

How to Earn Bilt Points

Anyone can sign up for Bilt Rewards and start earning points right away. Sign up online at Biltrewards.com or download the Bilt app and sign up there. It’s free to sign up and no Bilt card is required!

It will try to encourage you to sign up for the credit card when you sign up for Bilt Rewards — so make sure you’re only signing up for the credit card if it first your overall strategy. 

Add a Card to Your Bilt Wallet

While you don’t need the Bilt Mastercard to start earning points, you will want to add a credit card (or a few) to your Bilt wallet. This can be any credit card. It doesn’t have to be the Bilt Mastercard.

Using a card linked to your Bilt wallet is the main way to earn points with Bilt (if you don’t have the Bilt credit card.)

Neighborhood

Visit the “neighborhood” section on the website or app to see where you can start earning points.

Under neighborhood, you’ll see things like dining, fitness, pharmacy, and rideshare.

Dining

You’ll automatically earn Bilt points when you use a credit card in your Bilt wallet to pay at a participating restaurant. This is in addition to any points you earn by spending on your credit card.

For example, say you use a card like the Chase Sapphire Preferred® that earns 3x on dining. In that case, you’ll earn the 3x points in your Chase account for the dining purchase PLUS whatever points Bilt is offering for that particular restaurant (usually 2x or 3x points) in your Bilt account.

You can see the full list of participating restaurants on the Bilt website and app. The restaurants are limited, but hundreds are included, including some chain restaurants and many local spots, too.

As an added perk, Bilt members can get a complimentary item from the kitchen at certain restaurants.

Pharmacy

Earn Bilt rewards when you shop at Walgreens and use any card linked in your Bilt wallet to pay.

You get 2x points for Walgreens branded products and 1x points for all other purchases. Additionally, members can earn 100 Bilt points for each prescription filled at Walgreens. This is a great way to earn extra points on everyday purchases you have to make anyway.

Rideshare

When you link your Lyft account with Bilt, you can earn points for every ride you take.

Spend on the Bilt Credit Card (including fee-free rent payments)

While there are plenty of other ways to earn points with Bilt, one of the easiest ways to earn a lot of points with the program is to sign up for the Bilt Mastercard® and use it when making everyday purchases.

This is especially true for those who pay rent. Putting Rent payments on the Bilt Mastercard is a great way to earn points on an expense that you might not be able to earn points on otherwise.

When you pay rent with the Bilt Mastercard, there are no transaction fees. Even if your location doesn’t accept credit card payments, Bilt will send a check for you with no additional fees.

Bilt Rent Day

Besides earning points on everyday purchases like dining and prescriptions, or putting spend on the Bilt credit card, one of the best ways to get a lot of value out of the Bilt Rewards program is with Rent Day.

“Rent Day” happens on the first of every month and includes special deals and promotions that are typically valid for one day only. Rent Day is for all Bilt Rewards members, whether you hold their credit card or not.

Earn More Points

For Bilt cardholders, earning rates are doubled on rent day (except for rent and tax payments which always earn 1x points).

On the first of every month, you earn 6x points on dining (instead of the usual 3x) and 4x points on travel (instead of 2x) with the Bilt Mastercard. You can earn up to 1,000 bonus points per month.

It’s important to note that to earn points on the Bilt Mastercard, you must put at least five transactions on the card each month. Cardholders can plan to make those five purchases on rent day to take advantage of the extra points.

Status Matches

Rent Day promotions vary from month to month, but occasionally they will offer free status matches that can be very valuable.

There have been status matches for both hotel and airline programs including Hyatt, Accor, Delta, and others.

It can be hard to earn high-level status with a hotel or airline program, even with brands you use regularly, so these status matches can really come in handy!

Often the status will be free for a set period. This could be a short time, such as 3-4 months, or it could be for a whole year. There is often a path to extend the status by meeting certain benchmarks, such as staying a minimum number of nights with a hotel program, or by earning a certain amount of points with an airline.

Once you have the status, you’ll be able to take full advantage of all the perks that status offers like early or late checkout, free upgrades,  free seat selection and carry-on baggage, higher earning rates, etc.

We’ve been able to use Bilt status matches in the past to get free Economy Plus seats on United or free breakfast at Tabacon Resort in Costa Rica (with Hilton Gold status).

Transfer Bonuses

Sometimes for Rent Day, Bilt offers transfer bonuses. The amount of extra points you get usually depends on what level of status you have with Bilt. The higher the status, the better the transfer bonus.

But even members with the lowest status level (Blue) that you get just by signing up for Bilt Rewards, can participate in the transfer bonus.

Here’s an example of a previous Rent Day offer for points transferred to Air Canada Aeroplan.

• Blue status – 75% bonus (transfer 1,000 points, get 1,750 points)
• Silver status – 100% bonus (transfer 1,000 points, get 1,750 points)
• Gold status – 125% bonus (transfer 1,000 points, get 2,250 points)
• Platinum status – 150% bonus (transfer 1,000 points, get 2,500 points)

Taking advantage of transfer bonuses like this one is a great way to stretch your points further. Even if you’re just signing up for Bilt and have the lowest status level, a 75% transfer bonus is still a really great deal.

To give you a point of comparison, banks regularly offer transfer bonuses, but for airline programs like Flying Blue and Aeroplan, these are often in the 15-20% range. Transfer bonuses to British Airways and Virgin Atlantic have been as high as 30-40%. For hotel programs like Hilton, Marriott, and IHG, we occasionally see bonuses in the 75%-100% range.

To see a transfer bonus to an airline above 50% is an incredible deal!

Other Rent Day Perks

• Enter the “Rent Free” contest to have your rent paid by Bilt for one month.
• Bilt Rewards members can get a free ride at SoulCycle every Rent Day. Bikes are limited and these often sell out early.
• Other Rent Day promotions have included things like free Lyft credits, two-for-one Virgin cruises, and more.

What to Do with Bilt Points

Like with other credit card programs, there are several ways to use your Bilt points.

Transfer Partners

Transferring points to travel partners is often a good way to get outsized value from your points. Especially if you can take advantage of a transfer bonus!

Here is a list of all of the Bilt transfer partners available and the normal ratio for transferring points. With Bilt, you must transfer a minimum of 2,000 points at any given time. If the program has a 1:1 ratio, that means for every 1,000 points you transfer you’ll get 1,000 points in the program you’re transferring to.

The most notable transfer partners are Hyatt (Because the only other way to transfer to Hyatt is via Chase Ultimate Rewards®) and Alaska Airlines. The other transfer partners have more overlap with credit card programs but a lot of potential value. 

Airlines:

• Alaska Airlines – 1:1
• Avianca Lifemiles – 1:1
• United MileagePlus® – 1:1
• Air France/KLM Flying Blue® – 1:1
• Virgin Red® – 1:1
• Emirates Skywards® – 1:1
• British Airways Executive Club – 1:1
• Cathay Pacific – 1:1
• Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles – 1:1
• Aer Lingus AerClub – 1:1
• Iberia Plus – 1:1
• Air Canada Aeroplan® – 1:1
• TAP Miles&Go – 1:1

Hotels:

• Hilton Honors – 1:1
• Marriott Bonvoy™ – 1:1
• World of Hyatt® – 1:1
• IHG® One Rewards – 1:1
• Accor Live Limitless – 3:2

Book in the Bilt Travel Portal

You can use the Bilt Travel Portal to book hotels, airfare, and other travel expenses with your points. Even if you don’t have very many Bilt points, you can use the points + cash feature to book with the points you do have.

Points are worth 1.25 cents per point this way. So if you have 10,000 points, you can book $125 of travel. Their travel portal is powered by Expedia so prices should be competitive.

Get a Discount on Rent

You can apply your Bilt points towards your rent payments under the “Rent” tab of the Bilt app or website. The rate for this seems to be about .55 cents per point. That means if you have 10,000 points, you’d get $55 towards rent. 

More Ways to Redeem Points

Additionally, you can redeem points for gift cards, book fitness classes, and shop with points for merchandise on the Bilt site or app.

Is the Bilt Credit Card Worth It?

The answer is going to be different for each person. The card doesn’t have an annual fee-but it also doesn’t come with a welcome offer.

The card is a great way to earn points on rent, which is a big expense that you might not otherwise be able to earn points on. Even if you don’t pay rent, you can still earn a lot of points with the card, especially on Rent Day. But, the card will count towards your 5/24 count with Chase, which could make it harder to open other cards.

Here are more details about the Bilt Mastercard to help you decide if the card is right for you.

• $0 annual fee.
• Earn up to 100,000 points on rent each calendar year.
• 1x points on rent
• 3x points on dining
• 2x points on travel
• 1x points on everything else
• Must use the card at least 5 times each billing period to earn points.
• No welcome offer
• Counts towards 5/24 status

Paying Mortgage Payments with a Bilt Credit Card

Bilt has announced that coming in 2025, the company plans to “venture into mortgage payment rewards.”

We don’t know exactly what this will look like, but earning points on mortgage payments could be a game-changer. A mortgage payment is often the highest monthly expense for a family and the ability to pay that expense with a credit card could help you rack up significantly more points per year, without opening multiple credit cards.

There currently are no options to earn credit card points from mortgage payments- unless you go through a third party and pay fees. The fees to do that often outweigh the points earned so it doesn’t make sense for many families.

It would certainly be exciting to earn points on mortgage payments without paying excessive fees!

Bilt hasn’t announced anything specific yet, so we don’t know exactly what’s coming. There could be a new Bilt credit card, or maybe it will be something else.

As news comes out, we’ll be sure to keep you updated. Subscribing to our weekly newsletter is one of the best ways to make sure you don’t miss any updates!