Does this card require a credit pull when applying for it?

Yes, for sure.

-Probability? I'd say pretty high
-Recon? Not sure but here and Reddit have some data points
-Def personal and will affect 5/24
-Very, very likely. I do HOA. No problems.
-Def 1x. But note that you need 5 transactions per month to get points at all, so expect to charge other small things (restaurants?).
-The 2x on Rent Day is great (save insurance, tax bills, etc. - best way to build Hyatt points for me) and they also have some amazing promos on Rent Day.

Terrific reminder, I wasn't familiar with that, thank you. Probably be a few dollars of groceries or gasoline (x 4) for me.

or a few minimal Amazon credit balance reloads from the comfort of your couch? :)

Approximate timeframe between application and approval, are any instant? Approximate timeframe between approval and receipt of card?

With a Bilt approval, can one choose their own Bilt statement closing date (or payment due date)?

As I wrote, my automatic ACH transfer each month appears as “AbcdeStone Condo Rent”, when I initiate the payment the payee (and presumably my potential Bilt payee) is “AbcdeStone Condominium”. Is the word “condominium” (or “condo”) a likely reason for Bilt to decline either sending monthly payments or earning points?

Thanks again.

Who you calling a couch potato :D:D?

I applied for the card on Friday 8/4 with instant approval. Haven't gotten the physical card yet.

No. My condo fees are paid to Mediate Management, and that as far as I'm concerned could be anything - but Bilt somehow appears to know that it's my HOA fees and it works. As long as you only do one transaction a month, you shouldn't run into any issues.

How can you tell that Bilt knows it’s for HOA?

Mine has the word "Homeowners" in it and it seems to be fine, albeit not a huge number.

My wife does one for our water bill that can only be paid via ACH, and it has "water" in it and it's also fine.

Card arrived today (8/10), 6 days after approval.

Does this imply you are only allowed 1 charges per month? Rent or HOA?

Are you not allowed to have multiple charges?

I'm pretty sure that that's their rule now. Some in the past had made multiple payments work and may have that ability grandfathered in, but I believe any new account gets one ACH payment in the specific categories to be counted as points-generating.

T&Cs have specified only one rent payment as long as I can remember. Anything more/different that slips through is a bonus.

For the bonus on the first 5 days after account opening, does every type of charge count? (ie. estimated tax payments)

Estimated taxes worked for me.

Same for me.

Yes it's always been that way. The idea is that you don't pay multiple rents at the same time... You either rent a place and play rent, or you own a place and pay HOA fees. Similarly you also can't add phone bills, but if it's the only bill you put on Bilt, it might just slip through.

I guess if I want to do more than 1 I would just have to pay multiple months in advance? ...or they would catch it since it's not the same house?

Do you have a partner who could apply for another card and pay the second fee with that? Seems easier than breaking T&C's.

I don't know if they'd notice or care if you switch the ACH payee every other month, but you have given me an interesting idea to consider.

I'll look into that. It's not easy to convince someone else to apply a card and it also takes a 5/24 slot from Chase.

Pay 12 months in advance and swipe 5 transactions in that month and then be done with it?

That's a bit agressive, IMHO...I'm paying rent in two locations, so thinking paying 2-mos at a time and simply updating the payment info every 60 days.

But you also get another shot at the 5x for 5 days up to 50K bonus points - pretty excellent deal, to me.

I wasn’t previously aware of that bonus, searched and found:

“If you apply and are approved for the Bilt Mastercard, you will receive an email with the bonus offer on the same day that the card is delivered. The offer states that you will earn a total of 5x points on all eligible purchases for the first five days, up to a maximum of 50,000 bonus points. This promotional offer is only valid for 5 days from the date you receive this email, so it’s best to time your application well. Maybe you can make a tax payment for example.”

Is that email automatic for all approvals? How does Bilt know “the same day that the card is delivered”, is it sent by a trackable method?

Are there any reports of or datapoints for Bilt recon calls?

Thank you.

It was basically common in practice, but I believe that recently Bilt went on record saying that all new signups get it. And yes, the card delivery is tracked by them - it's not about activation of the physical card, it's the day it arrives at your house that the 5 day period begins.

I haven't seen info about recon, but I think their standards for approval are pretty lenient, it's just that your credit line might be severely restricted if your credit factors aren't especially strong.

Other than paying for taxes it's probably difficult to maximize that (so that would need to wait till November when the property taxes come along with estimated taxes.

Apparently that was either not intended or there was some communication issue. In any case, now they went on record saying that it is targeted.

https://frequentmiler.com/no-officia...fer-after-all/

I don’t pay rent, but had considered getting the card because of the welcome offer and use it to pay property taxes in November, and then use it for dining and hold it for Hyatt transfers or hypothetical future rent day promos. Back to the drawing board.

Saw that. So interesting that they don't want to go on record with the 5x deal. I wonder what the decision process is there on who gets it and who doesn't.

Maybe everyone does get the offer, but they want to create some ambiguity to discourage applications from people who are primarily in it for the introductory offer.

If it is a “maybe you get an SUB” situation, I wonder who they think they will attract with that.

And what is their business model anyway?

People who want to earn rewards on their rent payments.

Establish a relationship with landlords and renters in order to cross market other services. Bilt Rewards is only a portion of the enterprise. Read here: https://www.pruvencap.com/post/why-w...n-bilt-rewards

I expect that Wells Fargo is in it for the mortgage lending prospects.

“The Bilt World Elite Mastercard® is issued and administered by Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. pursuant to a license from Mastercard International Incorporated.”

Thanks for the reminder that Bilt is issued by Wells Fargo, which is a significant demotivating factor.

“The Wells Fargo cross-selling scandal (~2011 – 2016) is the creation of millions of fraudulent savings and checking accounts on behalf of Wells Fargo clients without their consent. Cross-selling, the practice underpinning the fraud, is the concept of attempting to sell multiple products to consumers. For instance, a customer with a checking account might be encouraged to take out a mortgage, or set up credit card or online banking account.”

“(8/4/23) Phony bank accounts resurface at Wells Fargo, with a twist. ... consumers have reported mysterious accounts opened in their names.”

I also think they like the idea of financing rent payments. There's a lot of interest to be made there potentially.

Thank you all for replies to my questions above. It’s Sept 1st, tax payment(s) due in 15 days.

Just applied for a Bilt MC. First questions were email address and password, then a typical credit card application. Upon clicking “Submit” (on Chrome), I saw a “Something went wrong” message (as below). Opened Edge to apply again, clicked on “Apply”, saw my account information (as below). Clicking on the 3 dot menu (upper right corner) of account page and then “Bilt Mastercard” takes me to the application landing page, clicking on “Apply” again (in both Chrome and Edge) briefly appears to be loading the application but stops at the same “Something went wrong” message.

Of course the only “contact us” method is online ticket submission which I completed but my expectations (for a timely reply) are minimal, prefer a recon call.

Does the account information imply that my credit card application was approved? Or only that I have a Bilt account? Is it possible to have a Bilt account without having a Bilt credit card? Is the only way I’ll know is to wait a week and see if I receive a card? (Seems that I do have a Bilt Rewards account, cannot find any Bilt credit card information.) Anyone have a customer service Bilt phone number?

Thanks again.

Addendum: 20 minutes after application I received an email which I saw an hour after application: Subject: “Finish your application and make rent rewarding”, email included “Next up: finish up your card application” and a link to “Complete application”. Clicking on that link takes me to the same account page as the image below and the same results when clicking on the various links on that page. Very frustrating, not a good first impression.

Addendum 2: Two hours later called (Googles searched) customer service, was told to submit a ticket. Tried to apply again via incognito window, requires login to Bilt account, clicking on Mastercard link results in same "Something went wrong" message.

(So far I’m unimpressed with WF. They open millions of illegitimate accounts without telling those customers and at the same time make it impossible for a highly motivated customer to open a legitimate account.)

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...dc72ad600e.jpg

Addendum 3, 9/5/23: (4 days ago, online “contact us” submission): “Just applied for a Bilt MC. Upon clicking “Submit” (on Chrome), I saw a “Something went wrong” message (as attached). Opened Edge to apply again, clicked on “Apply”, saw my account information (as attached). Please tell me the status of my CREDIT CARD application. Thank you.”

(4 days ago, their email reply): “Thanks for reaching out! I'll have to escalate this to our specialist team for further review. Hang tight while we look into this for you. I'll follow up with you again as soon as I have an update.”

(2 days ago, my email): “Thank you. It’s now 2 days later and I received an email this morning stating” STILL THINKING IT OVER? You’re just a few clicks away from being able to earn points by paying rent.1 FINISH APPLYING” (with “FINISH APPLYING” being a clickable link). Upon clicking, I’m brought to my Bilt account info page with no way to finish applying or reapply for a Bilt Mastercard. Please advise.”

(today, their email reply): “Your credit card application has been successfully reset, and you can now try applying again at your convenience. In order to do so please log into your account go to the 'Wallet' tab and then hit apply now.”

Logged in, applied, instant approval, $xx,xxx (20K-40K) credit limit.

Thanks again for all the replies on this thread.

Sadly no. I didn't get the offer, nor did my friend who signed up several months after I did.

Bummer. After all I went through to get this card AT THIS SPECIFIC TIME (10 - 14 days prior to estimated tax payment due date), it would add salt to the wound to NOT get the offer.

I called yesterday late afternoon after my early morning approval. I was told the card is not sent by a trackable method and will arrive in 7-10 days. I certainly hope (as is often the case) that information here at FT (quote above) is correct and the customer service representative’s information is incorrect.

There are a couple of posts above referring to tax payments with this card, do we think that (estimated) tax payments will earn points and count toward whatever quasi-SUB (5x/5 days/max 50K) might be offered?

I probably made a mistake on my application for this card where I checked “Own” for housing status, probably should have put “rent”. I paid off my condominium mortgage a year ago, almost put “$0.00” for monthly payment on the Bilt MC application, but ended up putting “$x,xxx.xx” (monthly condo common charges).

From a brief perusal of the Bilt-pay-rent-by-check set-up procedures it appears it must be done on the mobile app and cannot be done on the full PC website. Is that correct? Thanks again.

I haven't used their service that pushes a check payment, but you can get the checking account/routing number from the website. This is what I used to pull an ACH payment from my HOA's property management company. The transaction did earn points.

(Light bulb turning on, elevator getting to the top floor, 6th can added to make it a 6 pack, all 52 cards collected making it a full deck …) As the expression goes, please “explain it to me like I’m a 6 year old”. :) :) :)

My condo management company can and does, only for the past few years, at my request, initiate an automatic ACH transfer withdrawal from a bank account (instead of my mailing a check or initiating it via a Bill Pay process which results in the bank mailing a check as the condo management company is not an existing ACH transfer partner).

And I’ve been of the (perhaps erroneous) thought that only rent payments, ACH or mailed checks, initiated by Bilt would earn points.

Does “to pull an ACH payment from my HOA's property management company” mean that the ACH payment is initiated by your condo management company to withdraw the payment from your Bilt account (rather than Bilt initiating the payment to deposit the payment to your condo management account)?

Does the quote above accurately imply that an ACH transfer initiated by my condo management company, from my Bilt account using the routing and account numbers as provided on the website, will earn Bilt Rewards points? Thank you very much.

Yes, that's right. I have the condo management company take the payment from the Bilt account (for which Bilt provides an account number and routing number that resembles a regular checking account).

I only have one data point so far for this, but, yes, I earned points last month when I had the condo management company pull the payment. I was a bit worried at first because the condo management company charges a small, fixed fee for such a payment, and the fee registers separately from the main HOA payment. The $2.95 fee posted first, but I earned points on both transactions. I pay multiple months at a time to amortize the fee, so I won't have another data point until next year. I could avoid the fee by having Bilt initiate the payment and mailing a check, but a purely electronic way is less prone to a lost or misplaced mailed payment.