IIRC they don't require the property to participate with their portal, you can have them issue a virtual routing/checking number to pay rent. The other main advantage of this card that I can tell is that its a no annual fee World Elite Mastercard, so has those benefits. It includes cell phone insurance. And it also has primary rental car coverage. AMEX also offers primary rental car coverage, but you have to pay a fee every time you use it. In Bilt's case, this appears to be included with the card.

The main downsides as I've seen is the way they structure customer service. Anything related to financial services is handled by Wells Fargo customer service, anything related to the rewards program is handle by Bilt's own customer service. Bilt does not appear to have a phone number you can call - you have to chat them on the site/app or email them. I've found they often aren't familiar with their own programs. WF cs has been more or less fine. The two support options aren't integrated so I've on occasion gotten shuttled back and forth between the two trying to get a question answered which was weird.

It’s primary unless you are a New York resident. I thought I would point that out for completeness since Bilt probably has a ton of NY renters as members. Then again, those same members may not have their own car insurance due to lack of personal vehicle, maybe it doesn’t matter.

I currently have two Chase cards with primary coverage. They do have an annual fee.

If I don't have collision coverage on my personal car insurance, can I then use any card with secondary insurance to rent a car and be covered?
How do they even know if I have insurance at all?

If you have no personal policy, or if your policy does not cover the rental car, you would be covered by a "secondary" policy. However, bear in mind that credit card CDW only covers damage to the rental car, nothing else. Any damage done to another car, other property, or any person is not covered by a CDW policy.

Yes, that’s basically why cards with “secondary” domestic coverage have primary coverage outside the US - most domestic personal automobile insurance plans don’t offer rental car coverage outside the US, so the card is the only coverage and hence primary.

How do they know if you have insurance at all? No personal experience (never had a rental car claim) , but I assume the card insurance carrier will simply ask you what other insurance you have. And if you lie about it, that’s presumably insurance fraud or perjury or some other undesirable legal problem….

Yes, liability coverage is often ignored or forgotten and could get very expensive. Since minimal liability insurance in the US is mandatory for registering cars in all (most?) states, I don’t know car rental companies would still have a $20/$25k liability insurance on the vehicle for renters without personal insurance (or from abroad) or if they truly then let vehicles go out the rental garage with zero coverage for damage to 3rd parties. My personal automobile insurance has very high liability coverage, so I never looked into that.

I hope you use it for (the required) 4 or 5 other transactions per month so you’ll earn points for all transactions.

Personally, I use it for 2 or 3 swipes each (per month) at self-service grocery or gasoline check-out. For me it’s usually 2 apples - swipe (insert or tap) Bilt MC, bag of lettuce - swipe Bilt MC, rest of groceries – swipe whichever card I want to put grocery spend on. Then (at gas station) insert Bilt MC - 1 gallon or $2-3, insert Bilt MC again - 1 more gallon or another $2-3, insert whichever card I want to put gasoline on - fill it up. Occasionally I’ll charge a few more dollars to Bilt MC just to get to a 1000 increment so I can transfer points out ASAP because I’m one of those who believe Bilt may implode (soon) so my point balance is usually close to 0.

I do have property damage to third party on my policy.

Exactly, they never ask if you have your own liability and property damage. So they won't ever know if I have it, and if I'm abroad, then they are out of luck.

If you've ever requested a consumer disclosure report from NexusLexus you know that these online data brokers have records reported from the insurance companies just like the credit reporting bureaus have records reported from the credit card companies. Most likely it would be trivial for them to check the status of your insurance coverage.

You can request your own report here: https://consumer.risk.lexisnexis.com/

Bit more background from CFPB: https://www.consumerfinance.gov/cons...ting-exchange/

Bilt is adding Accor and Tap to their transfer partners...

https://thepointsguy.com/news/bilt-r...-air-portugal/

I think CapOne is another TAP transfer partner, but I don't have a CapOne card and am not really in the market for yet transferable currency program one at the moment. Does TAP have any good long haul sweetspots? I have only ever flown them shorthaul in Europe and used UA awards or credited to UA.

Accor = meh, I think.

Ugh, I have read and read, and am still unsure. Can someone explain like I am a moron... :)

I am going to send my info to the accounting clerk for our HOA for HOD payments. Am sending the routing and account number, I have all that and the bank name etc figured out. What I am not clear on, does it then come out of my regular everyday checking account with my regular bank, or can I choose to have it draw from charged to one of my credit cards? Looking at My Wallet in Bilt it shows the option to earn points on my Chase credit card. Am pretty sure it is the former, directly from my checking account, but if I can double dip, haha.

Thank you for the reminder. I am just now setting it up after having it for 2 years sitting here collecting dust. I would totally have forgotten this requirement.

if you have Bilt Protect on it comes directly from checking account and skips your Bilt credit card balance completely. You get 1x points

you can pay with a different card but you will pay a 3% fee and earn some points. Not worth it to me