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Old Oct 7, 2023, 1:25 pm
FlyerTalk Forums Expert How-Tos and Guides
Last edit by: Dr Jabadski
Bilt Rewards Mastercard WikiPost

(10/7/23 Original author (Dr Jabadski) note: As I posted here on 9/9/23 Considering Ive been salivating about simple no-cost points-etizing (like monetizing) my condo payments for about 25 years, I see Bilt as a game changer. I should have added almost a Holy Grail (a thing that is eagerly pursued or sought after). I successfully applied for a Bilt Mastercard 1 month ago thus Im far from an expert. Both before and after approval I posted multiple questions many times on this thread and several other FTers were highly gracious and informative. Thought a WikiPost might save some others a good deal of time, effort and aggravation, at least in not repeating my questions and searching for the answers. I certainly hope the experts will edit and update this WikiPost as necessary. Im also exercising Writer's Prerogative to officially coin the term pointsetize, like monetize convert into or express in the form of currency, to earn points from payments which otherwise would not earn points.)

Bilt Rewards Mastercard (Bilt MC) was first launched in mid-2021, in good part as a no fee way to charge and pointsetize rent payments. (Perhaps the only no fee way to pointsetize rent payments.) There are multiple reports of earning Bilt points for paying condominium monthly maintenance/common charges, sometimes even when the word condo or condominium is in the transaction description.

Bilt MC is a personal credit card, WF reports credit card information to the various credit bureaus and Bilt MC will count toward Chase 5/24.

This post and this post (both from 9/7/23) describe shutdown reports perhaps related to micro transactions, fluctuating rent payment amounts or multiple rent payments. This 10/11/23 post includes several references to Reddit user quotes about shutdowns and several Reddit Bilt quotes in response.

Links to Bilt Rewards Terms of Use and Evolve Bank & Trust (Bilt Technologies) Customer Account Agreement. The Terms state Bilt may make available to you a Bilt Rent Account (Account), which is a transaction bank account that can be used by you solely to make rent payments. The Agreement states: For the avoidance of doubt, the Account is a transaction bank account that can be used by you solely to make rent payments. For the avoidance of doubt, this is not an account that you may use to deposit or withdraw funds for any other purposes outside of rent payments.

Bilt MC is a metal card weighing ~16 grams (comparisons: AmEx biz plat 18.5 gm, AmEx Gold 15 gm, Chase Sapphire Reserve 13 gm, traditional plastic card 5 gm).

Bilt Mastercard is issued and managed by Wells Fargo. Bilt Rewards is a separate website and app (which contains some credit card information but not as much as WF website).

Most reports are of instant approvals, Wells Fargo reconsideration phone number and experiences are not well documented. Reported initial Credit Limits vary $4,000 - $30,000 with higher limits more commonly reported. This post (9/1/23) describes one instance of a Something went wrong message upon application and the steps toward approval several days later.

In March/April 2025 Bilt initiated a new and different process for paying rent and HOA fees which requires preauthorization and/or "auto-pre-authorization" within 5 days of payment. Rent payments can be made in multiple different ways. Bilt will provide a (bank) routing number and account number. ACH rent payments can be sent (deposited) by Bilt or withdrawn by a managing company.

Bilt MC is shipped via trackable no-signature-required First Class mail in a small (4.5 x 6.5) white box with unique packaging inside as pictured at the bottom of this post. As of Feb 2024 no reports of expedited shipping.

Reports on this thread starting in late November 2023 indicate this "quasi-SUB" may be offered randomly and/or only to some people, selection criteria unknown. This post may be the only report of being offered the quasi-SUB prior to Bilt Mastercard application, based on existing Bilt Rewards account. Bilt's quasi-SUB" is offered via an email and a text message notification the same day as card receipt informing of 5x/5 days/max 50K (email quoted verbatim in this post). (Quasi* due to very short duration in contrast to many traditional SUBs of 3 month duration.) Please note this quasi-SUB maxs out at $12,500 (not $10,000) and tax payments will count. No reports yet of returns and their effect on quasi-SUB. (* quasi- a combining form meaning resembling, having some, but not all of the features of, used in the formation of compound words: quasi-definition; quasi-monopoly; quasi-official; quasi-scientific.)

Newly earned Bilt points will display as pending until 5 transactions per statement cycle. After 5 transactions, points will post and become available shortly after a transaction, before statement date. The Bilt Rewards website has a transaction counter which disappears upon reaching 5.

Bilt points for linking partner programs (100 points each) and for adding a credit card to Bilt Wallet (100 points each for first 3) post immediately. Original author received 500 point bonus for first rent payment.

Bilt Rewards points are transferable at 1:1 usually within a few minutes to multiple different airline and hotel programs.

Theres discussion of the long term viability of Bilt with some of those posts linked at the bottom of this post after BREAK.

Bilt Status Tiers: Blue - anyone enrolled in Bilt Rewards with under 25,000 points, Silver - 25,000 points earned, Gold - 50,000 points earned, Platinum - 100,000 points earned. Tier status earned at any point in a year remains active through the end of the following year. Earn Interest on Points (Silver, Gold, Platinum Tiers) is minimal, discussed on this post and this post.

Bilt Points Quest Trivia was discontinued as of July 2024. Bilt Points Quest Trivia on the first of each month offers up to 250 points for correctly answering, within 10 seconds, 6 (out of 15-20) questions. Must get first 5 questions (10, 20, 30, 40, 50 points) correct to see the 6th bonus 100 point question. Theres often a Reddit thread with the Q & A. (Point Quest - October 2023 Answers) The lower half of this post has comments from a highly experienced test taker regarding memory, recall and studying for Points Quest Trivia.

Bilt Rent Free may also have been discontinued in 2024 or 2025. Bilt also has various RentFree games, available a few days prior to and/or on the 1st of the month, different people get different games. Could be a Family Feud style question with enough time to Google answers or a Where's Wally? (Bilt Brick) type of game or something else. Successful completion enters to be one of 3 people for whom Bilt pays their monthly rent (up to $2500).

List of Bilts Rent Day promotions going back to October 2022 at the bottom of the page here: DEALSPOINTS.

June 2024: Bottom of this post describes one persons experience paying a significant assessment (and earning points) with Bilt MC, at this time (only 3 weeks later) no report of clawback or shutdown (based on using Bilt to pay rent more than once a month and/or for something other than rent/condo fees).

June 2024: Bottom of this post contains Bilt quotes regarding Bilt BiltProtect.

June 2024: Important post (and link) stating that WF is losing money every month on Bilt.
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Old Jul 1, 2024 | 7:46 pm
  #856  
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Originally Posted by CApreppie
Have to say that the Bilt card is one of the most finicky when it comes to rejecting transactions where I have to resort to other CC in my wallet to complete. It is very aggressive at not approving.
Originally Posted by josephstern
I've actually never had that happen even once.
I have the same issues with rejected transactions and if you google it, it's not unique. I just tried to buy tickets for teamLAB Borderless and it got declined, then I got the automated fraud prevention call, I selected that the charge was authorized and it said to re-attempt, so I tried again, failed, and another call, etc. Just gave up and used another card. Something is very busted in their fraud detection and also their handling of 3D Secure transactions.

Maybe if WF wants this card to be profitable they should let me actually spend on it
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Old Jul 1, 2024 | 8:21 pm
  #857  
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Originally Posted by nexusCFX
I have the same issues with rejected transactions and if you google it, it's not unique.
I've had similar issues. The cynical side of me thinks it's because Bilt doesn't want cardholders to use the card only on Rent Day.
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Old Jul 1, 2024 | 8:33 pm
  #858  
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Aren't these issues common to all WF cards? I heard some people complaining about it, but this is the only WF card I have...
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Old Jul 1, 2024 | 9:43 pm
  #859  
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Originally Posted by gudugan
Aren't these issues common to all WF cards? I heard some people complaining about it, but this is the only WF card I have...
This is also the only Wells Fargo card I have, so I can't comment on other Wells Fargo cards.
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Old Jul 2, 2024 | 3:41 am
  #860  
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Originally Posted by gudugan
Aren't these issues common to all WF cards? I heard some people complaining about it, but this is the only WF card I have...
My card was an OG Evolve card and had the same issues.
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Old Jul 2, 2024 | 5:51 am
  #861  
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Originally Posted by yugi
more than 7 hours passed since my transfer, still nothing in my Alaska account. Bilt ran out of money buying miles from points.com?
Miles posted, when I checked this morning. Came from points.com
Will those miles reset my expiration date?
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Old Jul 2, 2024 | 5:43 pm
  #862  
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Originally Posted by progapanda
My points posted into my AS account after about 9 hours, FYI.
Mine posted after ~16 hours, in the middle of the night.
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Old Jul 3, 2024 | 12:31 am
  #863  
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Originally Posted by yugi
Will those miles reset my expiration date?
AS miles sort-of don’t expire.

Clarification:

This used to be my understanding:

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/35085851-post805.html

But the T&C seem to have been revised, and I don’t see anything about account locking anymore. Instead:

Account and mileage expiration

Mileage Plan miles do not have an expiration date and may remain in an active account indefinitely, provided that the Mileage Plan program has not been terminated pursuant to these conditions of membership. Activity in an account includes redeeming a Mileage Plan award or accruing mileage in the Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan program.

Last edited by notquiteaff; Jul 3, 2024 at 1:24 am
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Old Jul 3, 2024 | 4:06 pm
  #864  
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Transfered 100k+ Bilt points to Avios leaving approx 50K in Bilt account ( on the assumption that 50K is now the max amount that will receive a bonus if there is another airline rent day promo) and they posted to BA account in 16 minutes.
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Old Jul 3, 2024 | 4:14 pm
  #865  
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Originally Posted by notquiteaff
AS miles sort-of dont expire.

Clarification:

This used to be my understanding:

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/35085851-post805.html

But the T&C seem to have been revised, and I dont see anything about account locking anymore. Instead:
But it does say "active account".
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Old Jul 3, 2024 | 5:26 pm
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I put about $30k worth of appliance purchases on my Bilt card yesterday (from Best Buy) for a construction project... card got locked almost immediately. Thankfully, a call into CS and got that resolved quickly and all good now. Time to hit Plat status.
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Old Jul 3, 2024 | 7:17 pm
  #867  
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Originally Posted by rajuabju
Time to hit Plat status.
Is this better than Hyatt Business, Delta Reserve, AA cards? Or do you have all of those already?
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Old Jul 3, 2024 | 7:46 pm
  #868  
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Originally Posted by gudugan
Is this better than Hyatt Business, Delta Reserve, AA cards? Or do you have all of those already?
Im Hyatt Globalist and AA Plat Pro. I dont fly Delta enough to warrant spending for status.

most major construction spend I do goes on Amex Biz Plat but Im throwing 50k on Bilt for its status benefits this year to see if it makes sense for me

better is too subjective to really answer, just depends on your travel patterns and goals
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Old Jul 4, 2024 | 3:27 am
  #869  
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Originally Posted by yugi
But it does say "active account".

Correct, and I posted about that in the AS forum yesterday in this thread:

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/alas...need-help.html

Its unclear (to me) what their definition of active account is.
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Old Jul 5, 2024 | 7:08 pm
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Does anyone know how to set up "autopay" that allows you to pay the "entire credit statement balance" when it is due? I didn't see that option.
Thanks.
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