For those who need a little extra help paying for housing, the new Bilt Rewards Card gives you the chance to save money and get points towards rewards.
You might or might not have heard about Bilt Rewards Mastercard, but everyone is talking about it for all the good reasons. Now, if you’re wondering whether what it is and how it works, we are here with the ultimate Bilt Rewards review to help you find out.
So let’s get started!
What is a Bilt Mastercard?
A credit card that earns rewards for renting? That’s a new one!
You might have seen a lot of cards that offer rewards for things like gas station visits, supermarket shopping, and restaurant dining, but not rentals. And if they do offer rental rewards, they usually require an annual fee to access them.
With the Bilt MasterCard®, applicants get 1 point per dollar for renting any property (like a house, apartment, condo, townhouse, or vacation home) as long as they pay rent with the card. Plus, there’s no annual fee, so you won’t have to worry about getting hit with steep charges after you’ve had the card for 24 months.
How does the Bilt Rewards card work?
You can use the card to pay your rent to any landlord, anywhere, with no fees. But that is not the only perk of using Bilt Mastercard. You also earn points for making purchases or paying for services other than rent.
Here’s how the card point system works:
- 1 Point per $ on rents paid with the card on up to $50,000 rent per year.
- 2 Points per $ on travel booked directly with Airlines, Hotels, Car Rentals, Cruise Lines or Food Delivery Services
- 3 Points per $ on dining purchases, including Uber Eats and Grubb Hub.
- 1 Point per $ on all other purchases.
To make things clear, the card’s main selling point isn’t the reward system but the fact that you can make payments with absolutely zero annual fees and no foreign transaction fee. However, more than just a few benefits make the Bilt Mastercard a popular choice.
5 ways you can use Bilt Rewards and other benefits
You can use these constantly accumulating points from paying your rent and making other purchases to avail a range of services as a reward. So let’s find out where you can use your rewards with Bilt Mastercard!
1. Transfer points at airlines and hotels
In case you don’t have another way to use Bilt Rewards, you can also transfer your Bilt points into loyalty points for airlines and hotels to use their services. The Bilt Mastercard offers this transfer system with some well-established partners, like:
- Emirates Skywards
- United Airlines
- World of Hyatt
- Air Canada Aeroplan
- IHG Rewards club
2. Pay for fitness classes
Like other partners, Bilt Rewards partners with several fitness clubs like Soul Cycle, Rumble, and Y7, where you can redeem points for group classes or subscriptions. You can continue paying for your classes using rewards if you have enough reward points on your card.
3. Get discounts on rent.
If earning rewards isn’t enough, you can also use the reward points to get discounts on your rent. It will help you reduce your monthly expenses and save money. However, you can only receive a value of 0.55 cents per point, which can take longer to accumulate.
4. Redeem Bilt points for merchandise
While you get points for making general purchases with the card, you can not usually use them to buy merchandise or decor items. The Bilt Rewards points can also get home decor, art, and other exclusive items through their Bilt collection.
5. Make a down payment for a mortgage.
This may be the most useful option to utilize your reward points. The Bilt points can also be used to make a down payment for your mortgage after you decide to buy your own house and stop living on rent.
Imagine if you stick to accumulating points all these years for simply paying rent, you’ll have a substantial burden lifted off your shoulders when making an upfront payment to your home mortgage plan with Bilt reward points.
Other benefits
Apart from using your rewards in a range of services, the Bilt Rewards system also brings you other benefits to make or save money from.
Referral bonus
You can earn 25,000 points on every 5 people you invite to the platform and use these points to make purchases. You can earn a total of 1 million bonus points through referrals, which means you can invite up to 200 people.
The fun part is that you don’t need to be a card user to gain this benefit; download the Bilt Rewards app and invite people to get points!
Cell phone insurance
If you’re paying your wireless bills with the Bilt card, you can get insurance on your cell phone for up to $800 per claim. The deductible is as low as $25 compared to other credit cards offering cell phone insurance.
Trip delay reimbursement
When your flight is delayed for over 6 hours, your Bilt card will reimburse you for expenses such as food, accommodation, and even extras like entertainment. You are eligible to receive $200 per day for up to three days with your flight delayed.
Final word
With everything explained in this review about the Bilt Rewards Card, you have enough to chew on and make a decision. There are many benefits to using this card, but the greatest benefit is having to pay no annual fee.
That saves you a lot of money compared to other credit card providers. However, if you don’t live on rent, you can also consider other cards offering better bonuses and rewards outside home rent.
Note: The offers and figures mentioned in the article are accurate for the time but subject to change by the card providers at any time.
