Bilt Mastercard
 

I was surprised to see that nobody made a thread about this card thus far.

As a reminder, this is a $0 AF, no FTF metal card with transferrable points (AA, Hyatt, Turkish, IHG, FB, Virgin Atlantic, Aeroplan, Emirates, Hawaiian).

The first iteration wasn't all that interesting, but it appears they move fast and have already updated the rewards structure to:

• 1X general spend and rent
• 2X travel (air, hotel, car, cruise)
• 3X dining

The card also features quite a few benefits/coverages that we rarely see in $0 AF cards these day, like: $800 cellphone protection, purchase protection, 6-hour flight delay coverage, etc.

This could be a very interesting card for the AF-averse crowd, as it is exceedingly rare to find a $0 AF card with no FTF that offers transfer partners (and good ones, at that!).

The 3x on dining is appealing (arguably better than 4¢ with the Altitude Go - I could probably get 1.33¢/pt of value from Hyatt easily,) as is the 1x on rent. 2x on travel is decent, though I get 3.4¢/dollar with my PenFed Pathfinder (also no annual fee) so 2x Hyatt (what I'd consider most valuable) might not win out there unless the protections are significantly better. Right now the rent would be a backup to PayPal Key for my use case unless the property management company my apartment uses starts incentivizing Bilt usage - I think my property management company charges a $5 fee for checks (ACH is free) but only $3.95 for debit cards, which PayPal Key is classified as in their system. $5 for 1300ish Hyatt points each month isn't bad, but not as good as the flexibility of PayPal Key.

Yeah, I'd say Hyatt, Turkish, and AA are the gems here. I've consistently pulled off 2cpp+ on my Hyatt redemptions, even above 3cpp at times. AA can get outsized value with the web promos. Turkish has their 45-47K biz redemption to Europe and the Middle East.

Do we know:

1. Card issuer?
2. Any new account bonus?
3. Available to anyone, or only to verified renters?

1) Evolve Bank & Trust
2) 2X on all purchases in the first month and some bonus on your first rent payment
3) Open to all!

https://www.biltrewards.com/card

There does seem to be some potential value here. Has anyone been able to find the list of rental companies they partner with? All I can see is 10-11 that scroll by on the website but not sure if that is it. Seems like an important detail if someone were considering getting the card for the rental 1x.

With the rewards changes it’s not a bad card even for those who don’t pay rent. Compare to a $95 Sapphire Preferred… It’s getting to be that there are so many cards with such marginal differences it’s hard to determine where to put your spend.

See here: https://www.cnbc.com/select/bilt-rew...s-paying-rent/

No new account bonus other than 2X at least on all first 30 days
No restriction as to verified renter

Card Issuer Haven't got the card yet

We're proud of the product we've created. Happy to take any and all feedback on Bilt Rewards as we continue to refine the program. - Richard Kerr, Bilt Rewards

Figure out how to get us home owners a way to pay our mortgage for 1x and you’ll have lots of takers :D

Absolutely!

What's the ETA on go live for Turkish, Aeroplan and Virgin transfers? The fact that they're still a WIP really should have been made clear...

And thoughts on Capital One going full 2X (1:1) on nearly every partner?

Your apartment does NOT have to be part of the Bilt program to earn points that are transferable. Bilt will mail a check to your landlord and you'll still earn points. I had mine sent 2 weeks early just to be sure it would get there on time and it did. I earned my points. And Bilt has assured me they will have automatic reoccurring check mailing set up soon. This card is a winner for renters

FYI to all that Turkish Airlines has been fully enabled and points can now be transferred.

Virgin Atlantic and Aeroplan are still "coming soon."

Has anyone experienced issues with their rent check not making it to the landlord? I initiated my rent payment on 10/20 and as of EOD 10/29, my property manager said she still hasn't received it. Check was mailed from SFO 10/20 according to the app and arrived in NYC USPS on 10/22.

Obviously a major concern for anyone contemplating this card. Any update to this datapoint?

BREAK

From Chase’s viewpoint, is Bilt Mastercard a personal card or a business card, will it count toward 5/24?

My condo monthly common charges (paid by automatic ACH transfer initiated by the management company at my request) post to my checking account as “ABC condo rent”, would Bilt see condo monthly common charges as “rent payment”?

Thank you.

I think what we really need to know is if Evolve Bank reports the account to credit bureaus. Early applicants might be able to see the account on their credit reports by now.

Renters using Bilt to pay rent can have their rent payment history reported to the credit bureaus without a cost. That is to help the renting customers to develop stronger credit reports over time. Assuming Bilt wants it customers to develop stronger credit reports, I would hope they report the MC accounts to the credit bureaus.

Yes, I can confirm that the account and balance are reported just like any other card.

if they offered 5x on categories and a signup bonus I would consider it despite the fact I do not rent . They are using the usual marketing tricks to make it rare and valuable like a nightclub with a line but no one at the club . It has no annual fee which is positive but unless you don't have access to Hyatt,aa and other partners this is for you .Despite the useless crap 1 portal for hertz, same day purchases, lack of accurate j and f pricing its a card is worth a lot . 5 priority passes so 15 get people access to lounges, dining,spa credits and the great crap 1 lounge. Despite it being a predatory sub prime lender that takes advantage of the poor as long as you pay your balance and spend bonus spend on other cards you will bankrupt capital one. Good news is capital one can afford this loss leader as they make their money on usury fees and sueing the less fortunate .

This card is not issued or serviced by Capital One.

How does Bilt classify it as rent when its not thru a big company? What if I'm renting from a friend off the books will they mail him a check?

Option to Pay Rent with Bank Account/Routing Number
 

This make more interesting play. Has anyone used this feature and I'm sitting on the fence as whether Bilt MasterCard would be worth a slot in 5/23 Chase slot.

I've used Plastiq on the BBP because when they were raising the fee from 2.5% to 2.85%, I locked in payments as far in the future as I could.

But I've had issues with Plastiq sometimes, or more specifically with USPS. Feels like USPS has gone downhill in the past couple years, much higher incidence of not receiving personal mail (like health insurance reimbursement checks that I know were mailed), and I'd say 5-15% of Plastiq checks never arrive at my leasing office and then I had to have Plastiq void it and stress to the office to please not deposit any check that might arrive because it was voided.

Anyway, today my property company joined Bilt so I was able to apply for the card and it seems worth to earn 1x for no fee vs 2x AMEX MR at 2.5%. The points aren't as versatile so I have a less constant stream of ANA miles, but it also gives me a way to generate AA miles which I haven't had in the past, as well as Hyatt points. Most importantly is that the payment just posts immediately on my resident portal so I'm not going to have payments get lost.

Honestly thinking I'm going to downgrade my CSP now. Seems completely replaced for me by this Bilt card. I was really surprised to see that they have Hyatt and AA on the partner list. I was also impressed that it has no FTF despite the 2x travel and no AF. I had assumed it must have a FTF.

By the way, some earlier posts in this thread mentioned partners not being available yet. I set the ones I care about up in the Bilt app and it looks like they're all functional now, including Aeroplan, Hyatt, AA.

An important note that I didn't realize before getting the card is that as a "basic" member you can only transfer points in 5000:5000 increments. Once you level up by spending 25K, you can transfer at 1000:1000. Since I live in hell the Bay Area, 25K spend will be no problem with rent.

It also looks like you need to make 5 purchases per period to be eligible for points earn. I am not sure if the rent payment is counted in that, and if so, if you can just make 5 partial rent payments. Online people have reported it as "five non-rent payments" so I'm going to assume I need to make five payments outside rent per statement period which is no big deal. The way the T&C is written would seem to allow just making five partial rent payments but I'll let someone else be the guinea pig for that.

Just in case anyone missed the news:

They recently added United and Cathay Pacific (Asia Miles) as transfer partners.

Also, an email was sent out about a party in NYC on March 28 and the intent to "announce some very exciting news about Bilt Rewards."

How do they add good transfer partners so easily? AFAIK nobody transfers to AA and only Chase transfers to UA.

I do not see any reference to Bilt on the AAdvantage website. Have I overlooked it? I speculate that Bilt is implementing transfers through a third-party and doesn't have a direct contract with the airlines, but if anyone has made a transfer (to any airline) it would be interesting to know how the transaction is described by the frequent flyer program.

I'll send some to Aeroplan and report back here with how long it took and how it posted.

By the way, they appear to have lowered the required ratio from 5000:5000 to 2000:2000 for blue members. A lot less troublesome for folks who won't put 25K of spend annually on the card to get silver status.

Update: It was "instant". It took maybe a couple minutes, but that might have just been Air Canada website cache issues. And on the topic of Air Canada's amazing IT, there is no activity entry for it yet so I'll update again with that.

Update 2: The activity feed suggests there is some understanding on the partner side that it's from Bilt.

"
BILT Rewards
BILT POINTS CONVERSION
"

I just transferred 2K to Hyatt and it does indeed say "Bilt Rewards" in the activity list.

Thank you nexusCFX, moe8555 for the reports. I suppose the airline and hotel programs see Bilt Rewards as a "rent payment" program, which happens to have an affiliated credit card.

I wonder if any interesting news will follow tomorrow's NYC party (as hinted in the email).

This minimum transfer reduction to 2K from 5K seemed to be a silent rollout (and much welcomed).

Has Bilt ever offered a SUB?

maybe now that Wells issues it there may be something coming down the pike.

It just hit me that OMAAT hasnt uttered a single word about BILT... anyone know why? It's not like he exclusively talks about CC's as he's spoken about Bask Bank before.. with whom I assume he has a business relationship with maybe?

Anyways.. its just weird that he hasn't said a word about it when it's clearly competing...

I have a mortgage so Bilt doesn’t appeal to me. But, my mom lives in an age restrictive apartment. Her complex is not within the Bilt alliance properties, so applied and approved for the Bilt card. Let’s see how this goes…

Possible to use this Card pay for home mortgage ach?

I'm in same boat and already paid April rent. I will find out soon. BTW does Bilt allow only one rent payment? I have second rent payment I want to use for my kid's college APT rent.

Just paid my mom's April rent. My guess is only one rent payment, or more specifically payment for one address, based on the app. In the app, there's the Pay Rent tab with address of "Your Home" listed. Not sure how to add a second payee.

Richard here from Bilt - yes, only one address can be paid per month.

It's not, we have rails set up to only allow rent.