Paying with cash rubs me the wrong way, because every time I can't swipe a credit card, I'm forsaking points earning. Nevertheless, there are just some times and expenses that you must bite the bullet and pay without using a card. For many non-homeowners, the biggest monthly expense is rent, and the limited options they have had in the past for paying rent with a CC involved paying a fee, which usually rendered the benefits null. Until now. There is a relatively new player in the credit card reward space, and they are going after the renters niche. Bilt Rewards has a robust rewards program that rivals the big banks with solid earning and redemption options as well as a no annual fee, Wells Fargo issued Mastercard that ups the earning potential. Richard Kerr, the Senior Director of Travel at Bilt, left a job at The Points Guy to build Bilt's Rewards program from the ground up. He described how Bilt was born, "It's been frustrating for years that 90 million households in the US couldn't earn points on their largest monthly expense. Homeownership also seems more and more out of reach for the next generation. Bilt Rewards was made to solve both those problems. By allowing renters to earn points for free on rent and then redeem them to cover all or some of a downpayment, we thought this would have wide appeal."
Let's take a closer look at how it works.
No rental fees
Bilt has partnered with over 2 million rental properties to form the Bilt Rewards Alliance, including the following participating real estate partners nationwide:
The Blackstone Group
The Related Companies
Equity Residential
GID
AvalonBay Communities, Inc.
Camden Property Trust
Cushman & Wakefield
Trammell Crow Residential
Highmark Residential
AMLI Residential
Morgan Properties
SL Green Realty Corp.
Starwood Capital Group
LivCor
The Moinian Group
Veritas Investments
Artemis Real Estate Partners
You can enter your address in the Bilt app to see if your landlord is part of the alliance, and if so, you can earn 250 Bilt points per monthly rent transaction using ACH as usual. If you have the Bilt Mastercard, the earning is ramped up (see below). If your landlord is not part of the Alliance or doesn't accept credit cards, you can still pay rent through the app with the Bilt Mastercard, pay no fee, earn points, and Bilt will send your landlord a check or provide a unique "bank account"number you can use to pay via your landlord's online portal.
Earning Points with the Bilt Mastercard
As I mentioned, the real earning opportunities come if you apply for and use Bilt's Mastercard. The earning structure is as follows.
3x points on Dining
2x points on Travel
1x points on all other purchases
1x points on rent with no fee (up to 50,000 points per year)
Note that you must make 5 transactions (besides rent) per month to earn ANY rewards for the month.
Redeeming Points
Bilt offers a variety of creative ways to redeem your points:
You can transfer your points at a 1:1 ratio to the following airline and hotel partners (starting at 5000 points) to use for travel:
American Airlines AAdvantage
Air Canada Aeroplan
United Mileage Plus
Emirates Skywards
FlyingBlue (Air France, KLM)
Turkish Airlines Miles & Smiles
Virgin Atlantic Flying Club
Hawaiian Airlines
Cathay Pacific Asia Miles
World of Hyatt
IHG
Bilt travel portal- You can now book hotels, flights, and rental cars on Bilt's online portal, powered by Expedia. You can redeem points at 1.25 cents/point, which is comparable with redemption rates using the Chase Sapphire Preferred through Chase's portal. You can also use the portal to book Disneyland and Disney World hotels as well as park tickets which isn’t offered by most competing portals.
Amazon- You can now link your Bilt account and use points at Amazon at the rate of .7 cents/point. Although convenient, this isn't a good use of points.
Rent/Down payment- you can use points toward a portion of next months rent or save them for use toward a future down payment if financing through Bilt.
These offerings provide ample opportunity to use your points, and as always, transferring to travel partners usually yields the best value of flexible points. Kerr's experience in the loyalty space inspired him to make Bilt as consumer friendly as possible, "I was incredibly lucky to be a consumer of loyalty for almost a decade before starting at Bilt Rewards. Over the years as a customer and then quite frankly as a media critic and reporter, I too often scratched my head when a bank, airline or hotel would announce (or quietly make) a change that seemed to not make sense both from a business and member standpoint. After a few years, I developed a desire to take my experience and these head-scratching moments to help build a loyalty program that would achieve its goal of influencing consumer behavior while adding value to a consumer's life. I always try and keep our members and potential members in mind when we come to a crossroad in designing the program. I believe the years of seeing what other programs have done right and wrong continue to serve me well."
Loyalty Program
Bilt offers a loyalty structure where the more points a member earns in a calendar year, the more benefits they can be eligible for in this tiered program outlined below:
Conclusion
If you, your child, or someone you know is paying rent, they are most likely missing out on the ability to earn points on that spend, often the biggest monthly expense they have. Bilt has met that need. Their earning structure, redemption options, and no annual fee credit card, when combined, make it a no brainer for those looking to broaden their points and miles sphere. It should be noted also that the owner/applicant of the Bilt Mastercard doesn't have to be the lessee on an apartment. So if your child either couldn't or didn't want to apply for the Bilt Mastercard, a parent still could do so and use the card to pay the child (or anyone's) rent. That cardholder would then be the owner of the associated points earned.
Can Bilt, with its unique structure, both sustain as well as broaden their reach into other previously "unearnable" expenses such as mortgages. Kerr insists, "One of my first questions to our founder and to my boss during the hiring process was asking how the program was sustainable. While we rightfully have plenty of skeptics, I continue to assure everyone that our business model is sustainable and Bilt Rewards is here for the long run."
Take a hard look at Bilt's website or app and decide if it's a good fit for you.
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