There's an official Bilt account on reddit. Here's their post from 3 months ago:

"We allow one payment using the Rent Rewards Account each month and the Rent Rewards Account can only be used for rent payments in an online portal when paying with a credit card or debit card other than the Bilt Mastercard®. If you're using the Bilt Mastercard®, potential charges billed by landlords can include Rent, Security Deposit, Electric / Gas Bill, HOA Fees, Application Fee, College Living (not tuition), Internet, etc. Please note that if you submit more than one payment per month and/or for charges Bilt's team classifies as non-rent, your payment may be rejected."

https://www.reddit.com/r/biltrewards...mklv/hoa_dues/

My HOA fees are assessed monthly, and there is a $2.95 fee to pull an ACH payment. This means that there are two transactions if I have my property management company pull the payment. I like to prepay the HOA assessment to amortize the ACH fee across multiple months, and Bilt hasn't had an issue with this so far. (I've done 3 such payments.)

I've had success making HOA fees payments via ACH twice a year. I read the stipulation as "at most once a month", not that it has to be paid every month.

I, too, don't have a rent payment. I have 2 main reasons for keeping and using the Bilt card -
- it's my only way of getting 2x points on a transferrable currency that transfers to Hyatt (albeit only on the first of the month, and on up to $10K spend - I can plan these expenses)
- they have had some great transfer bonuses

My apologies if I’m incorrectly reading between the lines, this post infers (to me) that you’ve “pushed” (sent) ACH payments (3 times) via Bilt. I’m familiar with having my HOA fees paid via Bilt by having my property management company “pull” (withdraw) an ACH payment from Bilt/WF each month, just as they used to do from a traditional checking account, originally initiated by providing the property management company with my Bilt Rent Account routing and account numbers. I’m completely unfamiliar with how to push/send an ACH payment from my Bilt Rent Account. (I’m also familiar with more traditional bank website/app Bill Pay functions whereby ACH payments can be scheduled to be sent to any of many different “biller”s which have been entered to one’s account.)

Please educate, do you send a Bilt ACH payment via the Bilt website or app OR via WF website or app? Anything unique about doing it via Bilt? Ever try it for anything other than rent/HOA fees? Ever try it more than once a month? Thank you.

Have these payments been initiated by your property management company withdrawing an ACH payment from Bilt/WF OR by having Bilt/WF send an ACH payment. If the latter, perhaps you would be kind enough to reply to the questions above (in this post). Thank you.

I have the property management company withdraw a payment from Bilt's ACH account. This incurs a $2.95 fixed fee, so I have the property management company pull a payment that pays 6 months of HOA fees per payment. I could avoid the fee by having Bilt send the payment, but I've read data points of the proverbial checking being lost in the mail. For me, a $2.95 fee every 6 months is worth the peace of mind. I got the Bilt card about a year ago, so I've done an ACH payment (that the property management company has initiated) 3 times. The $2.95 fee posts as a separate transaction from the HOA fees transaction, but I haven't had problems getting points for both transactions. This was a concern of mine too because the $2.95 fee has always posted with a transaction date one day before the larger HOA fee payment.

As for the last two questions, the answer is yes, by accident. One of my utilities requires that account holders designate a checking account as the default payment method in order to receive discounts. However, one can make a manual payment with a credit card without any fees. I therefore have the Bilt ACH account as the placeholder account but manually initiate a credit card payment each month to bring my balance to $0. In January, I mistakenly submitted a payment using the ACH account information from Bilt, and I was concerned because I had already done my HOA 6-month prepayment (plus the $2.95 ACH fee as a separate transaction) earlier in the billing cycle. However, all 3 transactions posted successfully, and I received 1x points for all 3 transactions.

I don't know if there is a threshold of ACH transactions, such as 12 per year, or other manual review. However, I wouldn't be surprised if there was additional scrutiny of transactions that use the ACH account that Bilt provides. I'll report back if there are any issues with continuing the 6-month cadence paying my HOA fees.

The former - payment initiated by my HOA withdrawing from my Bilt account.

Interesting situation. I had the card when it was issued by Evolve. Somehow there were some fraudulent charges ten days ago, card cancelled and new one sent. I just got the new one, and I got the email for "5X points for 5 days" which I thought was odd.

Checked my credit report and my Bilt account is showing as closed. I notice on the 5X points email that it says Bilt | Wells Fargo. I suspect my card had to be moved from Evolve to Wells Fargo as part of this process. I have a bad feeling that this new card is going to show up as a brand new account on my report, which sucks for 5/24 and age of accounts.

I never use this card anywhere physically so I don't know how it was successfully attacked, but if you do have an old Evolve card, be warned that if it needs to be replaced it seems you're going to be moved to WF.

On the flip side, great way to get another 5x for 5 days if you have an Evolve version!

Well, I didn't KNOW that was gonna happen so I hadn't lined up any spend. Now I've gotta come up with something! Probably gonna pay my car lease for the month and upcoming registration renewal at least.

Also, I don't really trust it so I did a bunch of transactions to hit the 5 I need, and I need to make sure they actually get 5X points before I put any big spend on.

Buy some gift cards for your grocery store? Shouldn't be a charge to do so and you're just front-loading the spend a bit. That's what I often do in these situations.

Also maybe car insurance and utility/cellphone bills?

I can already 4 or 5X a lot of things via gift cards cuz of Chase Ink Cash, so Bilt is kind of meh for that.

Maybe there are other data points about the credit impact when cards moved from one issuer to another. E.g., Costco (Amex -> Citi).

Pretty sure estimated tax payments can be paid at any time.

Bilt is notorious for not awarding the rent day 2X for tax payments, claiming they are ineligible. Any recent DPs that the 5X works for them?

I thought it was sent after I validated my card but must be when the the card arrives. My card arrived 4/22 but the 5x bonus lasted till 4/28.

Link in the Wiki: Personally, in September 2023 I met the 5 day quasi-SUB with IRS payment of $6k and NYS payment of $4k (fees additional) then another NYS payment of $2.5k after reading the quote above.

PointQuest answers May 2024 (curated from r/biltrewards)

Honey: Food doesn't go bad

Memorial day: was not public holiday earlier

May Pole: European festival where they dance around what ?

Ottawa: Capital of Canada

Costume Department: New york Metropolitan museum

Kentucky Derby: Fastest two minutes in sports held every May

Q: The only letter that doesn’t appear in a US state

Vine: Lele Pons was the most followed woman on this app

The Office was not based in New York

Hummingbird is the only bird that can fly backwards

K represents Potassium

Unicorn: The national animal of Scotland

May the 4th be with you: Star Wars

Ryan gosling SNL skit: Papyrus

Taylor swift TTPD: Post Malone

Titanic Rose’s necklace: heart of ocean

I went ahead and applied for this card. The transfers to Hyatt, Alaska, and FlyingBlue in addition to the 2x rent day bonus were enough to push me over the edge. Seems like a great complement to my Chase setup. I was approved; $30k limit, hard pull on EX. The card arrives on Saturday and I have some charges planned in the (hopefully likely?) event I get the 5x offer.

Adding the card to Apple Pay worked fine, although I was only able to add it to my phone. It won't add to my watch. I'm going to guess that's because the card's actual CVV doesn't match the temporary one that's in the app.

We are homeowners so the rent feature is sort of useless unless or until mortgage payments become a thing with Bilt. I plan on paying our water bill through the ACH system until then.

Interesting decision regarding Bilt, rent/condo payments and manufactured spend.

Just notified of a new assessment, $15,717 one-time (affordable) check only payment OR $308.22 added to monthly Bilt ACH payment for 60 months (total $18,493, ~18%). I’ll do all I can to have them do one-time payment by Bilt ACH but don’t expect success.

Much as I covet and adore miles and points, even with Bilt rent points being “free” (of additional fees) $2776 (over 5 years) seems like a high extra amount for an additional 18,493 Bilt points, ~$0.15 per point.

Wondering how others look at it. Thank you.

I'd try pushing that through Bilt as a one-time expense. Worst case, I guess, they close you down. But more likely, they'd just not give you points for that expense.

That's a 6.6% interest rate for the loan. In addition to the points, take into account what you might earn with the money over five years.

A bit of clarification, please
 

Last month I posted a question about paying HOA frees on these forums and Dr Jabadski kindly directed me to this thread. I have now read through all this (a bit bleary eyed...). I have not yet applied for the Bilt MC since my husband might be getting new hearing aids (~$5K) so would like to time it with that JIC I get the quasi-SUB offer.

I tried doing a multi-quote but not sure if it will show up when I post this. So I am referencing the relevant posts here:

In post #492, Dr J indicates he provided the Bilt account # and routing # to his managing agent and they pulled the ACH payment.
In post #409, there is a link to an article explaining how to use eCheck from a portal.
Post #761 is a reddit post from Bilt Rewards regarding HOA payments.

Our HOA fee is $800 and our new assessment is an additional $600 for total $1400. Our management company allows payment in a variety of ways:
1. Pay by mailing check with coupons. 2 coupons - one for each part of the payment. Checks addressed to " <Condo Name> HOA"
2. Bank Bill Pay with one payment totaling $1400. Currently I pay my HOA fee from my Chase checking account's bill pay, where it is sent as "1 business day electronic" payment. New assessment hit May 1, so I paid this way this month.
3. ACH/Direct Debit - which would be for the full $1400. Just need to provide info to management company.
4. NEW option - by credit card and eCheck via a portal for our management company from cincwebaxis.com. The CC payment carries a 3.25% fee and the eCheck fee is $1.99.. Can set this up online.

So options 3 or 4 via eCheck would be best. My concern is that these payments are listed as <Condo Name> HOA, which I suppose mgt company might use in option 3. Just don't want any problems, or want to waste a 5/24 slot, have another hard pull, etc.

Valid or unwarranted concern? Would option 4 be better ("safer") than option 3, despite the fee? TIA

I would say that option 3 is ok. As long as you keep it to one ACH transaction monthly, I don't think there should be any problem. In fact, $1400/month might seem more like an amount for rent payment than an HOA assessment.

I wouldn't have Bilt send the payment since we've read about issues there where the landlord doesn't receive the check. That is to say, I wouldn't do option 2 if it were Bilt instead of Chase.

I don’t understand, seems that rent and HOA amounts can both be of any dollar amount.

You sure it was “kindly”? Maybe abruptly or curtly ;)? Regardless, thank you for the compliment :tu:.

Reads as though you’ve done more than your due diligence, good on you.

If I’m understanding correctly, I do #3, as do the majority of people who post about Bilt. Many of us had “HOA” and/or “condo” in the line item description of the charge when using previous payments methods, Bilt simply lists it as (on Wells Fargo credit card activity) “05/01/24 BPS*BILT REWARDS B NEW YORK NY #12345678ABCDEFGH $1,XXX.XX Billing location: NEW YORK, NY Phone: 1234567899 Purchase Mode: MANUALLY ENTERED” and (on Bilt Rewards website) “BPS*BILT REWARDS B NEW YORK NY 05/01/24 $1,XXX.XX Transaction date May 01, 2024 Posting date May 01, 2024”.

There are many Reddit posts from “biltrewards” in this regard, I’ve copied some below. (Although on those Reddit threads "biltrewards" is essentially accepted as "official", I cannot confirm nor verify that “biltrewards” is an official representative of the company.)

Your concern, which is identical to mine until I received and transferred my first Bilt points, is indeed unwarranted. As with Majuki, I agree with option #3.
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...efc242c336.jpg

Thanks. Now will just try to strategically time my application. Probably end of next week.

I was saying that $1,400 is more believable for a rent amount than $300.

I wouldn't worry about the name either. For all Bilt knows, the HOA has some units in the building available for rent. This was the case at an apartment complex where I lived 15 years ago. They were built as condos yet had been rented out like they were apartments.

Hello! I am very new to Bilt and just had a quick question. I can now use the Bilt platform to pay my building's monthly maintenance. Is there a benefit to using the Bilt CC over another credit card via the platform? I would likely transfer any points earned to Alaska Airlines or Marriott.

-J.

If you use another linked card for rent or "rent", there will be a fee. The other use cases I can think of for linking cards are:

1) Initial bonus points for linking some cards
2) Lyft bonus on a linked card (which gets bonus Bilt points)
1) Bilt Dining (if you use an Amex Gold which would get 4x MR vs 3x Bilt points)

Thanks! I've already linked Lyft (which earns two points per dollar that I can forget transfer to Alaska, instead of one Alaska point per dollar). I typically use CSR for dining (2 ppd which are worth a net off 3 cents) so I'll have to do the math to see if it's worth getting the actual CC. I imagine it is if it gets me out of the fee for paying for my building.

-J.

Paying rent/HOA monthly charges without fees is far and away the #1 benefit and attraction of Bilt.

Other than the initial bonus for linking, I’ve not earned any Bilt points or seen any other benefit of linking a credit card.

Datapoint: My monthly Bilt HOA fee ACH is invariably processed and posts on the 1st of the month. Of course, Bilt has zero telephone customer service. I did “Chat” with Bilt, likely robo customer service, asking about ramifications and trying to get “one-time exception approval” of a second payment in the same month, kept being told only 1 payment allowed per month.

Asked the management company if they could add the assessment to June 1st ACH, they said no, they need payment by the date the loan starts (May 20). On Friday morning May 17, I told them it might not be processed but please the to do the full assessment as a one-time ACH pull and to let me know of any problems. Later that day I saw a pending charge for $15,717.XX on my WF Bilt MC activity, did not hear back from management company.

Previous Bilt balance ~1,600, charge was pending all weekend, this (Monday) morning, charge indicated posted. Bilt Rewards balance ~17,XXX, immediately initiated 17k transfer to partner, confirmed on partner website 5 minutes later, partner website balance 17k higher, Bilt Rewards balance = XXX. (I remain skeptical of Bilt's long term viability in general and after this experience specifically for me personally, still maintaining a minimal Bilt balance via monthly partner transfers as soon as HOA Bilt points post.)

I’ll post again if/when the transfer is clawed back and/or if/when I receive notification of Bilt shutdown.

Perfect example of what I was thinking about all along this process: "It's easier to ask forgiveness than it is to get permission." (retired Rear Adm. Grace M. Hopper)

Go big or go home. If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen. No guts, no glory. Luck is often on the side of those who take risks. Successful people are often willing to take risks. Etc., etc., etc. ;) ;) ;)

Interesting, thanks for the data point. - Kerr, Bilt

Referred someone recently who definitely used my link, and I didn't get referral credit.

All previous referrals credited instantly. This has now been two weeks.

Anyone get a referral credit recently?

June 1 rent day “promo”:

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...344b9d078.jpeg
https://frequentmiler.com/another-sa...g-on-june-1st/

Very weak offering.

Still haven't gotten my referral.

Are times changing at the generous Bilt?

Is one able to track confirmed referrals somewhere on the Bilt app?

You just see them in your Points Activity.

Just got the card and was lucky get the 5x offer. Unfortunately, I only got a $10k credit limit. I put a charge on the card on the first day of the promo and paid it as soon as the charge posted but my credit limit didn't reset in time to get the last bonus points. Not a huge deal, but a little disappointing.

We are moving at the end of the month and I just set up the new apartment info with Bilt. If I recall, when I did it for our current apartment, I had to use a routing number and account number that Bilt gave me so that I could use the 'rent protect' feature. I didn't see this feature for the new place, but it does have the 'protect' feature when I go to the payment screen and it lists the bank account I want them to use. Does that mean I don't need the Bilt provided routing and account numbers?

The new apartment is part of the Bilt alliance (our current one is not), so maybe that's the difference in setting it up.

Captain*, I’m not familiar with “rent protect”, I did just find the following quotes on the Bilt website.

Based on my understanding of reading the 2 quotes below, the answer to your question is “yes”, if using BiltProtect the money (for rent) will be directly debited from your linked/inputted bank account and will not appear as a Bilt MC charge and will earn points.

Might be advantageous for people who are near their Bilt credit limit or for whom rent payment amount is a large % of their credit limit, not sure of other advantages. Personally I prefer my rent (condo fees) to be debited by the management company, seems that troubleshooting (management company vs WF) would be easier and also allowed me to relatively easily pay a significant assessment (and earn points) by asking the management company to do so. (Full disclosure, I’m still in good part expecting a Bilt shutdown letter.)

(Wiki updated to include link to this post, first I recall discussing BiltProtect.)

(* based on your Public Profile “B737 CA”, personally would prefer to use your Navy rank but that’s unknown, maybe also Captain)

(LOL, LT when I left the navy.)
Actually, it all works the way you posted but the only difference is in my current set up, I had to input a (Bilt given) routing and account number in my landlord site. Those numbers don't show up now so I'm just checking if I actually need them.