Bilt Devalues Double Points on Rent Day
The Bilt Mastercard is the best credit card for renters as it allows you to earn points by paying your rent with no fee. It’s also a great card for everyday spending as it gets 3x points on dining, 2x on travel, and 1x on everything else. One of their great perks was that you earned double points on all purchases (not rent) on the first of every month up up to 10,000 bonus points. Well this was too good to be true as Bilt will be slashing the number of double points you can earn on Rent Day.
Even with these changes, the Bilt Mastercard is still a no brainer if you’re a renter.
The Bilt Mastercard
Double Rent Day Points Capped to 1,000 Bonus Points
Tucked in the fine print of Bilt’s recent email announcing their new Rent Day promotion was an update to the number of points you can earn on Rent Day. Previously you could earn double points on the first of every month up to 10,000 points. Starting on October 1st, 2024 you’ll now only be able to earn up to 1,000 bonus points on the first of the month.
Bilt’s Email to Members
This was extremely lucrative as you could earn 6x points on dining and 4x points on travel purchases on the first of the month up to 10,000 points. This meant that if you spent $1,667 on dining, $2,500 on travel, or $5,000 on all other purchases you could maximize this bonus. On the first of the month this card transformed into the best card for dining and travel purchases. Well, outside of airfare as the American Express Platinum’s 5x points on airfare still has the crown.
Now those numbers are drastically lower. As of October 1st, to maximize the bonus you can only spend $333 on dining, $500 on travel, or $1,000 on all other purchases.
Hopefully you weren’t spending that much on dining but I know a lot of people waited until the first of the month to make large travel purchases in order to maximize this promotion.
I’d bet a lot of money (or points), that Bilt sees a huge uptick in people maximizing their double points on Rent Day from now until the changes take place.
Bilt’s Rationale for the Changes
Bilt’s VP of Travel, Richard Kerr replied to some users on X recently explaining the change which sheds a little light on things.
Richard Kerr on X.com @KerrPoints
As he mentions, less than 2% of members earn more than 1,000 bonus points on Rent Day. He says this will allow them to invest in better transfer bonuses and Rent Day experiences.
This comes on the heels of a Wall Street Journal article last month on how much money Wells Fargo is losing every month underwriting the Bilt Mastercard.
We haven’t seen a great Bilt Rent Day promotion since February’s 150% transfer bonus to Air Canada which is why I haven’t covered many of them since then. Hopefully this means we’ll see another great bonus in the future.
Will We See Another Great Bilt Transfer Bonus?
Wrapping Up
Bilt quietly announced a devaluation of the number of bonus points you can earn on Rent Day from 10,000 points down to 1,000. While this only impacts less than 2% of cardholders, it certainly isn’t a good change. At the end of the day, the Bilt Mastercard is still the best credit card for renters and best of all, there’s no annual fee.
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