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Rent is often among people’s biggest monthly expenses, if not the biggest. Now, upstart Bilt Rewards is touting a credit card that will let people earn one point for every dollar they spend on rent in a month.
While Bilt has been the subject of particular chatter in recent months, the company has actually been around for a few years. Billionaire entrepreneur and investor Ankur Jain founded Bilt Rewards in 2018 and launched it in June 2021. After completing a $200 million fundraising round in January, the company was valued at $3.1 billion.
How does it work?
With Bilt Rewards, renters can earn one point for every dollar they spend on rent using the Bilt Mastercard, up to 100,000 points a year. The company has waived transaction fees that are usually tacked on when paying rent with a credit card (that normally come in at 2-3%), and there are no annual fees on the card itself — so it’s basically a free way to earn points if you’re already paying rent.
The card also gives customers two points for every dollar spent on travel, and three points per dollar on dining. Those figures are doubled on rent day. The Points Guy valued Bilt points at 2.05 cents each as of June.
Even if a building only accepts checks, renters can still pay with their card through the app and Bilt will mail the landlord a physical check on their behalf.
Points can be put towards rent or a down payment, converted to $0.015 per point. That means that 100,000 Bilt Points would become $1,500 towards a down payment.
And if a building is part of Bilt Rewards Alliance, renters can earn 250 points per monthly payment, or up to 3,000 points per year, by paying through the Bilt app — without even needing a Bilt card.
The only catch? Cardholders need to make make at least five purchases each month to earn points.
Big partnerships
From travel to fitness to helicopter rentals, Bilt is partnering with companies to give its customers a number of perks and benefits.
In May, Bilt Rewards named Hilton Honors as its newest transfer partner, joining World of Hyatt, IHG One Rewards, and Marriott Bonvoy as hotel loyalty partners with a 1:1 transfer ratio.
Bilt also has a dozen airline partners that allow users to transfer their Bilt points at a 1:1 ratio with their own points programs. These are the airlines that have partnered with Bilt:
- Alaska Airlines
- Avianca Lifemiles
- United MileagePlus
- Air France/KLM Flying Blue
- Virgin Red
- Emirates Skywards
- British Airways Executive Club
- Cathay Pacific
- Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles
- Aer Lingus AerClub
- Iberia Plus
- Air Canada Aeroplan
Other transportation platforms, like aviation company BLADE and ride-sharing app Lyft, have partnered with Bilt. Customers can also use points to book workout classes, like SoulCycle, and their add-ons, like free bottles of water, towels, or equipment.
Wells Fargo’s gamble
Last month, The Wall Street Journal, citing current and former Wells Fargo employees, reported that the Bilt card is losing the bank as much as $10 million per month. Sources told The Journal that Wells expected higher revenue coming from interchange fees and interest income than it’s been seeing.
As a result, The Journal reported that Wells Fargo isn’t likely to renew its contract with Bilt when it expires in 2029. Both Wells and Bilt have pushed back against the report, with a Bilt spokesperson calling the story an “inaccurate representation” of its deal with the bank.
CEO Jain took to X, formerly Twitter, to set the record straight on some of the details and early results of the partnership. Here they are, by the digits.
70%: the share of Bilt cardholders that are new Wells customers, according to Jain.
31: average customer age of Bilt-Wells cobrand card holders.
760: average FICO score of Bilt customers.
18 months: how long the cobrand has existed. A Wells spokesperson has said it could take “multiple years for the initial launch to pay off.”