Bilt Rewards is a relatively new travel rewards loyalty program that has created a lot of excitement in its wake. The program touts a vast array of transfer partners, the ability to earn points on rent and more. Should Bilt Rewards be on your radar? Let’s dig in and find out.

What Are Bilt Rewards?

As a loyalty program, Bilt Rewards allows its members to earn points for qualifying activities. This includes paying rent, making eligible purchases and using the Bilt World Elite Mastercard®.

Once you begin earning Bilt Rewards, you can transfer them to travel partners, purchase merchandise, use them toward your rent, a down payment on a home or redeem them for fitness classes.

How To Earn Bilt Rewards

To begin earning Bilt Rewards, you’ll need to sign up for a free account. Registering is simple and only takes a few minutes. At the time of registration, you can opt to apply for the Bilt World Elite Mastercard® or continue without the credit card application.

Bilt Rewards Alliance

Bilt’s main highlight is that it allows users to earn Bilt Rewards on their rent each month. In order for Bilt Rewards members to pay their rent, the issuer created the Bilt Rewards Alliance—a network made up of eligible Bilt Rewards rental properties.

All members who live in properties in the Bilt Rewards Alliance are eligible to earn Bilt Rewards on their monthly rent. Members of Bilt Rewards without the Bilt World Elite Mastercard® can earn up to 250 Bilt Rewards each month. Cardholders can earn up to 100,000 Bilt Rewards each year. You must use the card five times each statement period to earn points (rewards & benefits). Payments made by non-cardholders to properties outside of the Bilt network will not earn any Bilt Rewards. However, you can ask your landlord to join Bilt—they can submit a request via email at alliance@biltrewards.com.

Earning Status

Unlike traditional bank reward programs like Chase Ultimate Rewards® and American Express Membership Rewards®, Bilt has an elite status track of its own—similar to how airlines and hotel programs offer benefits to its most loyal members. Status is based on either annual earned Bilt Rewards points, known as Qualifying Points, or through annual cumulative spend, known as Fast Track.

These are the tiers for Bilt Rewards and the criteria required for each:

Tier Status Qualifying points (per calendar year) Fast Track (per calendar year)
Blue
Less than 50,000
Less than $10,000
Silver
Between 50,000 and 124,999
Between $10,000 and $24,999
Gold
Between 125,000 and 199,999
Between $25,000 and $49,999
Platinum
At least 200,000 or more
At least $50,000 or more

The cumulative spend required to achieve status through Fast Track is based on the following:

  • Any non-rent spend on your Bilt Mastercard®
  • Spend on Lyft rideshare booked through the app if Bilt Rewards is set as the active loyalty partner in your Lyft app
  • Bilt Dining spend when using an eligible card saved on your Bilt Wallet
  • Spend through the Bilt Travel Portal
  • Spend on SoulCycle® classes that you book through the Bilt app or website
  • Spend on Bilt Dining, Bilt Travel Portal  and other partners when using any debit or credit card linked to your Bilt account

Each status level comes with its own unique set of perks. The following table shows you which benefits you will receive at each tier.

Benefit/Status Blue Silver Gold Platinum
Interest Earned on Points
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Homeownership Concierge
No
No
Yes
Yes
Gift From Collection
No
No
No
Yes
Bonus Points on Points Earned from Signing Leases*
Yes*
10%*
25%*
50%*

Milestone Rewards

Bilt introduced the concept of milestone rewards, which will unlock limited-time offerings every time you earn 25,000 points toward elite status. These may include extra points on Bilt Dining, points towards the Bilt Collection, and accelerator earn opportunities.

Credit Card Spending

Wells Fargo issues the Bilt World Elite Mastercard®. The $0 annual fee card (see rates & fees) has an enticing earning structure, specifically its ability to earn rewards for paying rent. However, its most compelling feature—earning points on rent payments—is simultaneously the hardest for many to utilize, specifically those who do not pay rent.

There are a few essential pieces of information you should know about the Bilt World Elite Mastercard® before you apply. First, you’ll need to make five transactions each month before you are eligible to begin earning Bilt Rewards for that billing cycle.

And second, as a personal card, it will count towards your Chase 5/24 standing. Only you can decide if it’s worth a spot, but for non-renters, there are better options to pursue first.

Because the Bilt credit card is a Mastercard, it offers trip protections, travel benefits and all other coverages World Elite Mastercard normally provides.

  • Trip cancellation and interruption coverage. Get up to $5,000 in reimbursement for non-refundable fares if your trip is canceled or interrupted. The fare must be paid using your Bilt World Elite Mastercard®. Cancellations and interruptions must fall under covered reasons.
  • Trip delay insurance. Up to $200 daily, $1,800 maximum, to cover expenses incurred due to trip delays. This insurance kicks in once you have been delayed a minimum of 6 hours.
  • Cellphone protection. If your cell phone is damaged or stolen, you can file a claim and get up to $800 towards the repair or replacement of your phone. A deductible of $25 is due per claim. You can claim up to two phones per 12-month period.

Read more: Bilt Rewards Credit Card Review

Transfer Partners

There are no rewards currencies that transfer to Bilt Rewards. Bilt Rewards has several partners its points can be transferred to, though. More on that later.

Linking Your Loyalty Accounts

When you link Bilt’s travel partners to your Bilt Rewards account, you can earn Bilt Rewards—100 Bilt Rewards per partner. To link partners, you’ll need to download the Bilt Rewards app, which is available through both the Google Play and Apple stores.

Buying Bilt Rewards

Currently, there are no options to purchase Bilt Rewards points.

Combining Bilt Rewards

Bilt Rewards points cannot be combined with other Bilt accounts.

Bilt Travel Portal

Bilt’s travel portal, which is powered by Expedia, allows you to earn points on all bookings done through the portal. Bilt members who do not hold the Bilt Mastercard earn 1 point per dollar spent on all purchases in the Bilt Travel Portal. Cardholders earn 2 points per dollar spent when booking through the portal, plus 2 more points per dollar when using the card to pay.

Partnership With Lyft

Bilt members can earn bonus Bilt Rewards when booking a ride through the Lyft app. To begin earning points, you’ll need to link your Lyft account with Bilt via the Bilt Rewards app. Once your accounts are linked, you can begin earning 2 Bilt Rewards per dollar spent on Lyft rides as a Bilt loyalty member. Cardholders of the Bilt World Elite Mastercard® can earn an additional 3 Bilt Rewards per dollar spent for a grand total of 5 points per dollar.

How To Redeem Bilt Rewards

Now that you know how to earn Bilt Rewards, let’s dive into how to redeem them. Bilt Rewards has several ways to use your points, including transferring to travel partners, purchasing merchandise from the Bilt collection and finally, toward rent or a down payment on a home.

Some redemptions will result in much better value for your Bilt Rewards than others. This varies from person to person, so be sure to do the math first to guarantee you are getting the most bang for your points.

Through Transfer Partners

On the earning end of Bilt Rewards, its strongest feature is the ability to earn points when paying rent. For redeeming, however, Bilt’s strength lies in its list of transfer partners. By a landslide, transferring your Bilt Rewards to a travel partner will create the best value for your points. Bilt includes travel partners that no other flexible currency has all in the same program, making it compelling if you want ultimate flexibility when redeeming your points for travel.

You can convert your Bilt Rewards at a rate of one Bilt Reward point to one with the following partners:

Fitness Partners

Another feature unique to Bilt Rewards is its partnership with the following fitness clubs:

  • SoulCycle
  • Y7 Studio
  • [solidcore]

This means you can redeem your Bilt Rewards points towards individual classes with any of the three partners listed above. The number of points per class starts at 1,600 and goes up from there.

The Bilt Collection

The Bilt Collection is a compilation of unique artwork and home decor. Items are specially curated for Bilt Rewards and available exclusively to its members. Point redemptions vary per item, but expect to cash in 2,500 points for reusable paper towels, 7,500 points for a coffee table book or 20,000 points for a canvas print.

Rent and Down Payments

Banking your Bilt Rewards and using them toward a rent payment or a down payment on a home is another creative option of the program. According to Bilt, when you use your Bilt Rewards toward a down payment, you will get up to 1.5 cents per point. To fund your down payment on a home, you’ll need to email Bilt at downpayments@biltrewards.com.

Rent can be covered at just over half a cent for .55 cents per point. To pay your rent with Bilt Rewards, head to the Bilt app and select the Pay Rent option. Once you are on the payments page, you can select the option to Pay with points. Keep in mind that the minimum payment is 1,000 points with this redemption option.

Bilt Travel Portal

Not only can you earn points when booking through Bilt’s travel portal, but you can also redeem your rewards towards travel purchases. Points get a boost when you book through the Bilt Travel Portal—you’ll get 1.25 cents a piece towards flights, hotels, rental cars and activities. At this rate, if you have 10,000 Bilt Points, you’ll get $125 towards travel purchases.

Quirks

Bilt lets you search for award flights directly in its app thanks to an integration with Point.me. Members can use the Bilt app to search for the best award flights with any of Bilt’s partner airlines. Similarly, Bilt has partnered with hotel search engine, Awayz, to allow members to search for available hotel stays using Bilt Rewards. Members are allowed 50 hotel award searches each month in the Bilt app.

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Bottom Line

The Bilt Rewards program is unique in that no other loyalty program allows you to pay rent without a transaction fee while still allowing you to earn points. Joining Bilt Rewards is free, so many will find that it’s worth signing up. Plus, diversifying your reward points portfolio and adding more transferable currencies is always a positive play in your overall award travel strategy.