The issue is there is currently language on their site that says all Bilt Cash earned during 2026 will expire after 12/31/26, with the exception of up to $100 that will be rolled over.

So I can sort of see how they can be generous since there’s likely to be a lot of breakage

Yeah there has to be some limitation/restriction on bilt cash or their ACH rent transaction fee is going to be lower then expected

Because thinking it further, why wouldn't you just run your rent though as a credit card through whatever portal instead of Bilt's ACH processing?
transaction fee + 4% bilt cash + 1x bilt points for the former
still transaction fee (but with option to cover with bilt cash) + 1x bilt points for the latter

So further emphasis on the "ignore the rent/mortgage part entirely"

Reading the full blog article (as updated) https://www.doctorofcredit.com/rumor...ng-bilt-cards/ it turns out that not only are these details unverified, but the source document includes two alternate sets of product details.

The source code does contain 2 alternate sets of products but 1) there's more references in the code to the original set, which makes it more likely those are the actual ones and 2) neither of those other sets really make sense. One of those (minimum transactions) would just end up as another flavor of rent + 4 bananas that they were looking to stop and the other one actually has minimum spend thresholds that INCREASE with the annual fee, which doesn't make much sense even accepting that the rent/mortgage multiplier increase with the AF and would probably cause anyone outside of a VHCOL area to drop the card.

I think the biggest tell that the leak is accurate or at least close enough is the fact that Bilt has been completely silent even though their own subreddit, which they are the exclusive moderator for, is overrun with these posts. They came out and somewhat denied the previous leak from the supposed former Bilt investor. If the leak was materially incorrect, Bilt would have come out and said something before all the relevant subreddits and credit card bloggers ran with it. My guess is that it's closer to true than not true.

I've also looked into Bilt Cash more and am now thinking it's going to be far less useful to me than I thought. I think being able to use Bilt Cash at a neighborhood restaurant hinges on them being part of Bilt's mobile checkout program. In the Bay Area there's a grand total of 3 restaurants participating. There's a few dozen in NYC, but outside of NYC it doesn't feel like there's many options. If you can simply transfer the cash to Lyft as a credit it might have some use (though I certainly wouldn't value Lyft 1 to 1 with cash since Uber tends to be cheaper and Lyft/Uber gift cards frequently sell for 20% off), but I doubt it'll be that easy.

Looks like Bill already rolled out an update to their app that previews how things are going to work:

https://www.reddit.com/r/biltrewards..._rent_payment/

It corresponds with the leaks- there will be a transaction fee (still not disclosed) to pay rent, and you can use Bilt Cash to offset the fee. Points can be earned for multiple residences, for either rent or mortgage, via this method.

If you don't have enough Bilt Cash to offset the fee, you can choose to have the balance be paid via ACH, but you won't earn points on that portion.

If details are accurate, the fee-free rent payment value proposition is totally nuked (ironically the original selling point of the card), as now it must be offset with a fungible currency which I can liquidate via Lyft and, likely, a few restaurants I frequent already.

The 3x dining bonus is critical. As long as that remains, I will probably keep the $95 card a couple of years at least, as the initial cash bonus will offset the annual fee twice. I will continue to build points to be liquidated when there is a meaningful bonus for Atmos points (or, dreaming, Hyatt). To the extent Atmos devalues sweet spot awards on AA and OW partners, the utility of the card could change dramatically for me and push me back to Chase Sapphire for dining spend.

I know they don't exactly WANT to stay in the no AF card game, which is why all potential leaked iterations of that card have been so bad, but it is amusing to me that the current cardholders are just going to get a superior no AF card from WF for free, and keep their history, 5/24 status, etc. Yes, WFs points are not as good as BILT points, but just from a pure earnings standpoint and considering the likely addition of the transaction fee on rent/mortgage, I just don't see how the potential no AF BILT cards are -at all- competitive to the WF Autograph.

One of my additional concerns, if these rumors are true... its just TOO COMPLICATED. Spend money to earn "Bilt Cash" to then off-set fees... it sounds like a pain in the ... (and thus, more trouble than it will be worth) to keep track of. Even if Bilt tries to automate the process.. everyone's spending is different each month. So some months I might earn enough Bilt Cash to off-set all fees, and some months I wont, and maybe it rollsover but not into the next year, and so and so forth.

This sounds like a disaster waiting to happen.

That's the point. The more complicated, the more breakage, the more profit for Bilt.

Except that the easiest way is for people to just....... not use the system at all and not get the card if the value proposition isn't there.

If you use Bilt Cash to offset the 3% transaction fee on rent/mortgage payments, it means that you'd be paying 3 cents for each Bilt point. For the simplicity of math, let's assume the value each Bilt point is 1.5c, then it means you'd be paying twice as much for the value of each Bilt point. In other words, Bilt Cash is only worth half of its face value. Some may argue that each Bilt point is worth more than 1.5c (but would you pay more than 1.5c to buy each Bilt point?). Even so, the value proposition for using Bilt Cash this way is still terrible.

If not used for offsetting transaction fees on rent/mortgage payments, what else is Bilt Cash good for? Few restaurants offer Bilt mobile checkout as an option, so they can't really be relied upon to cash out Bilt Cash. That leaves Lyft as the only potentially valuable option to cash out, assuming there won't be restrictions (a big "if"). Since Lyft gift card can often be bought at 20% discount with no expiration date, Bilt Cash, with its expiration date, is, at best, worth 80% of its face value, even without restrictions on cashout.

I would value Bilt Cash cashback at 3% instead of 4%, since their portal is overpriced by 5-20% compared to others, if you can use the cash earned by using a card to buy something on their portal, which is not clear yet.

My head hurts trying to figure out 2.0. Will the current pay rent earn 1x no fees with Bilt card be an option?

But if Bilt cash isn't worth as much, that makes paying for the transaction fee a better proposition. E.g. if you value a Bilt point at 1.5 cents, and a Bilt cash cent at 0.5 cents, then 3 bilt cents for 1 bilt point is neutral.

The more valuable Bilt cash is, the less it makes sense to pay the fee. And vice versa.

I think they're trying to find the equilibrium between attracting big spenders with no rent/mortgage payment and small spenders with rent/mortgage.

Assuming Palladium, my rationale is that big spenders (especially those without rent/mortgage) will earn their 2X base points and meaningful quantities of 4% Bilt Cash. The Bilt Cash can be used to cover hotels or whatever else they offer, and big spenders will quickly reach accrued amounts big enough to cover entire stays or dinners or whatever else they may use it on. Small spenders/renters won't be able to accrue a meaningful amount over the course of a year and the logical use would be to put it towards extra points from paying rent.

This behavior could be further "enforced/encouraged" by adding certain conditions, like requiring enough Bilt Cash to cover the entire amount of a hotel booking, which the small spenders will be unable to fulfill. We know from the leaked screenshot that there is no such minimum when using the cash to earn rent points, so that would make sense.

I don't expect you'll be required to have sufficient Bilt Cash to cover the entire amount in any of the categories that you'll be able to use Bilt Cash for. It's more likely that Bilt Cash can only be used along with cash copay in some of these categories (e.g. Bilt Cash can only be used to cover x% of a Lyft ride, etc.)

The value of Bilt Cash, which is highly dependent on how it can be used, will decide the fate of Bilt 2.0, IMO.