Review: Bilt Mastercard. Best Card for Renters
There hasn’t been many good ways to pay your rent with a credit card to earn points until now. If you are a renter, the Bilt Mastercard is a no brainer. This no annual fee card allows you to pay rent with your credit card and they will send your payment to your landlord for free, even if they don’t accept credit cards (or do and charge a fee for it) or online payments via ACH. And best of all, you earn points for doing so.
Don’t rent? There does seem to be a way to pay your HOA dues with this card as well.
Quick Facts
Signup Bonus: There is no official signup bonus however, check your email after you are approved as there are many people who receive emails once they get the card for a bonus of 5x points in the first 5 days on up to $50,000 of spending
Points Earned: Bilt points are extremely valuable as they have 15 transfer partners. Bilt is also the only credit card that allows you to transfer points to American Airlines.
Earnings Structure:
3x points on Dining
2x points on Travel
1x points on Rent payments without any transaction fees up to 100,000 points per year
1x points on everything else
Foreign Transaction Fees: None
Annual Fee: $0
The Bilt Mastercard is an incredible card for those of you who rent. The ability to earn points on your rent payment for no fee is unrivaled.
Pay Rent, Earn Points
The best thing about this card is the ability to earn points for your rent payment every month. You earn 1 point per dollar on rent up to 100,000 points. That’s the equivalent to $8,333 a month. There are other services out there, like Plastiq which will allow you to use your credit card and send a check on your behalf but they charge hefty fees to do so, which negates the points you earn.
Even if your landlord doesn’t accept credit cards, or does for a fee, you can still use your Bilt card to pay rent. They’ll send a check to your landlord for no fee. Bilt is working with many property management companies around the country to get them on board so your landlord might already be on Bilt’s platform. But if not, they’ll still send a check off for you. You don’t even have to remember each month as you can set up an automatic payment. All you have to do is go into the Bilt app or their website and set up where to send the rent payment to.
The one small hoop you have to jump through to earn points on rent payments is that you have to use your card at least 5 times per month to actually earn those points from rent. This shouldn’t be too difficult especially considering you earn double points on the first of every month during Bilt’s Rent Day.
Transfer Bilt Points to Emirates and Take a Shower at 38,000 Feet!
Bilt Rent Day
On the first day of each month, Bilt has a promotion where you earn double points on all purchases with the exception of your rent. So this means you will earn 6x points on dining, 4x points on travel, and 2x points on all other purchases. You will only earn up to 1,000 with the double points benefit.
Additionally, they also run various promotions where there have things like huge transfer bonuses to airline partners, Lyft credits, bonus points, status challenges with airline and hotel partners, etc.
How to Redeem Bilt Points
Bilt points are so valuable because they can be transferred to 15 different airline and hotel partners at a 1:1 rate. These partners include:
Aer Lingus AerClub
Air Canada Aeroplan
Air France-KLM Flying Blue
Alaska Airlines
British Airways Executive Club
Cathay Pacific Asia Miles
Emirates Skywards
Hawaiian Airlines HawaiianMiles
Iberia Plus
IHG One Rewards
Marriott Bonvoy (If you transfer 20k points, you’ll receive 25k Marriott Bonvoy points)
Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles
United MileagePlus
Virgin Atlantic Flying Club
World of Hyatt- Chase is the only other card you can transfer to Hyatt
Transfer Bilt Points to Hyatt for the Park Hyatt St. Kitts
Bilt Mastercard Additional Benefits
In addition to offering great points earnings, the Bilt Mastercard also gives you great perks for having the card.
Cell Phone Insurance- pay your cell phone bill with your Bilt Mastercard and you are covered for up to $800 for damage or theft with only a $25 deductible.
Primary Rental Car Insurance- pay for your rental car with your Bilt Mastercard (also earn 2x points) and you get primary rental car insurance if you are in an accident. This is a great perk as it avoids your personal car insurance.
Trip Delay Insurance- Reimbursement of trip delay expenses incurred after a delay of 6 hours, up to $200 per day per covered traveler and up to a maximum amount of $1,800 for all covered travelers per trip, when a trip delay is caused by an eligible reason.
Trip Cancellation Insurance- Receive up to $5,000 for non-refundable fares when your trip is cancelled or interrupted.
Paying Your HOA Dues
For those that own their own home and have an HOA, there seems to be reports that Bilt cardholders are able to pay their HOA fees with their card and earn points for it. This isn’t explicitly allowed in Bilt’s terms and conditions but it seems to work so far.
Is it Worth It?
Rent is typically the single largest expense each month so the ability to earn points for it is pretty incredible. If you are a renter, this is hands down the next card you need to get.
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