Bilt Credit Card Review: Which Of The Three Cards Is Right For You?

Link: Apply for a Bilt credit card, with three options to choose from

Bilt is the platform that is most known for offering rewards for housing payments. We’ve seen major changes to the company’s rewards concept, and Bilt now has three Mastercard credit cards issued by Cardless, which are potentially worth considering.

Long story short, if you pay rent or have a mortgage, there’s huge value to the Bilt ecosystem. And even if you don’t, there could still be value here. And so that I don’t bury the lede, I think the Bilt Palladium Card is by far the most worthwhile option, despite its high annual fee. While the card won’t be for everyone, I think it’s much easier to get outsized value from than the other options.

In this post, I’d like to review the three cards — since they’re substitutes and not compliments, I figure it makes sense to just have one consolidated review of them, so that everyone can decide for themselves which makes the most sense.

Is it worth having a Bilt credit card in general, and if so, which of the three cards makes the most sense? Let me say upfront that the whole Bilt concept is rather confusing, so bear with me…

Bilt credit card annual fee comparison

To start with the very basics, Bilt has three credit cards, at three very different price points:

• The Bilt Blue Card has no annual fee, and authorized users can be added for free
• The Bilt Obsidian Card has a $95 annual fee, and authorized users can be added for free
• The Bilt Palladium Card has a $495 annual fee, and authorized users can be added for $95 each (but receive some useful perks)

While the tendency is of course to go for a card with as low of an annual fee as possible, there’s huge value to picking one of the more premium cards.

Bilt credit card welcome bonus comparison

The three Bilt credit cards have very different welcome bonuses, which will no doubt push people to apply for the most premium version of the card:

• The Bilt Blue Card has a welcome bonus of $100 in Bilt Cash upon approval
• The Bilt Obsidian Card has a welcome bonus of $200 in Bilt Cash upon approval
• The Bilt Palladium Card has a welcome bonus of 50,000 bonus points and Bilt Gold status after spending $4,000 within three first three months (on non-housing purchases), plus $300 in Bilt Cash upon approval

I’ll talk more about Bilt Cash in a bit, but obviously the incentive here is very much to apply for the most premium version of the card, given the value of the bonus. Bilt points are extremely valuable, and only the most premium version of the card offers points as part of the bonus.

Let me emphasize that you’re only eligible for one co-branded Bilt credit card, so you couldn’t pick up multiple of them (not that you’d necessarily want to do so anyway).

Bilt credit card rewards structure comparison

The three Bilt credit cards have totally different rewards structures. To start, let me mention the three things the card have in common when it comes to spending:

• All three cards have no foreign transaction fees
• All three cards offer 4% back in Bilt Cash on everyday purchases, in addition to the points earned
• All three cards offer unlimited 1x points on rent and mortgage payments with no limits, when funded with Bilt Cash

With that in mind, here’s how the rewards structures otherwise compare:

• The Bilt Blue Card offers 1x points on everyday purchases
• The Bilt Obsidian Card offers 3x points on your choice of dining or groceries (dining is uncapped, groceries is capped at $25K of spending per year), 2x points on travel, and 1x points on all other purchases
• The Bilt Palladium Card offers 2x points on everyday purchases

While it’s nice that the Bilt Blue Card has no annual fee, it’s hard to get excited about that rewards structure. Meanwhile the Bilt Obsidian Card has two useful bonus categories (of your choice of two), but that’s also not that much to get excited about.

I think the Bilt Palladium Card is really where the value is at. You earn 2x points on all purchases, and then on top of that, you earn 4% back in the form of Bilt Cash. That’s pretty exceptional for everyday spending.

One thing worth mentioning is that Bilt has some random exclusions of purchases that don’t earn points. For example, tax payments made by credit card don’t earn points, even though they do on a vast majority of other cards. That’s super frustrating, since paying taxes by credit card can make a lot of sense.

Bilt credit card benefits comparison

Beyond the rewards structure, what kind of benefits do Bilt credit cards offer? Not surprisingly, the no annual fee Bilt Blue Card doesn’t offer much in the way of benefits, aside from standard World Elite Mastercard perks.

Meanwhile the $95 annual fee Bilt Obsidian Card offers a $100 Bilt travel portal hotel credit every calendar year, in the form of a $50 semi-annual credit, valid for a two-night minimum stay.

Lastly, the $495 annual fee Bilt Palladium Card offers the most perks:

• A Priority Pass membership, with up to two guests allowed (authorized users can be added for $95 each, and also receive a membership)
• $200 in Bilt Cash annually, deposited at the beginning of each year, including with account opening (this is separate from the welcome bonus offer)
• A $400 Bilt travel portal hotel credit every calendar year, in the form of a $200 semi-annual credit, valid for a two-night minimum stay

While there’s potentially value with the hotel portal credits, I think many of us in the miles & points game already get so many of these kinds of hotel credits, and the minimum stay plus fairly small amounts mean most of us probably aren’t going to value these anywhere close to the credit amounts.

How can Bilt points be redeemed, and are they valuable?

Above there’s a lot of reference to Bilt points, but how valuable are they, and how can they be redeemed? Bilt has what I’d consider to be a “proper” transferable points currency, with over 20 airline and hotel partners, most of which allow transfers at a 1:1 ratio.

Bilt partners with some valuable programs, ranging from Air Canada Aeroplan, to Air France-KLM Flying Blue, to Alaska Atmos Rewards, to Emirates Skywards, to World of Hyatt. If you’re used to earning points with Amex, Capital One, Chase, or Citi, then earning Bilt points should act as a very nice complement to that.

On the first day of each month, Bilt also has a Rent Day promotion, offering some sort of a special deal. More often than not, we see big transfer bonuses, with the size of the bonus being based on your Bilt elite status. There’s even the ability to use Bilt Cash to take advantage of a bigger transfer bonus. So if you value travel rewards, you really can’t go wrong with Bilt.

What is Bilt Cash? How is that used for housing rewards?

Okay, I promise that Bilt can be rewarding, but I can’t promise it’ll be straightforward. 😉 Separate from points, there’s also the concept of Bilt Cash, which I’ve written a detailed guide to. Bilt Cash can be earned in a few ways:

• All Bilt credit cards offer 4% back on spending in the form of Bilt Cash, in addition to points rewards
• Bilt credit cards offer some Bilt Cash as part of the welcome bonus, and the Bilt Palladium Card offers $200 in Bilt Cash annually as a benefit
• All Bilt members earn $50 in Bilt Cash for every 25,000 Bilt points earned, whether they’re earned through credit cards or through other means

What about redeeming Bilt Cash? On the most basic level, Bilt Cash is the currency that allows members to earn rewards for their housing payments (rent or mortgage) at no cost. Specifically, every $30 in Bilt Cash can unlock up to 1,000 points on rent or mortgages (with a maximum of one point per dollar of housing spending). As an example:

• If you spent $15,000 on a Bilt credit card, you’d earn $600 in Bilt Cash (since you earn 4% back in Bilt Cash on all spending on all cards)
• $600 in Bilt Cash would allow you to earn rewards for $20,000 worth of rent or mortgage payments, while earning 1x points

Basically, if you want to be able to pay your rent or mortgage while earning rewards at the rate of 1x points, you’ll need to spend an average of 75% as much as your housing payment to rack up sufficient Bilt Cash (this doesn’t include things like Bilt Cash as part of welcome bonuses, or the $50 in Bilt Cash you earn for every 25,000 points earned, so the math is actually more favorable than that).

However, there are all kinds of other ways that Bilt Cash can be redeemed, either in lieu of rewards on housing payments, or in addition to that. For example, for those with the Bilt credit card, Bilt Cash can be redeemed for a points accelerator on everyday spending, which I’d consider to be pretty lucrative.

Specifically, Obsidian and Palladium cardmembers can enable an extra 1x points on everyday spending for the next $5,000 spent following activation. This is available at the cost of $200 in Bilt Cash per activation, and up to five activations are allowed each calendar year.

Put another way, this can make the Bilt Palladium Card a 3x points card for everyday spending, for up to $25,000 in spending per year, assuming you can achieve that amount of spending. What’s so nice about this is that every $5,000 in spending earns you $200 Bilt Cash, so you can unlock this several times.

Bilt is complicated, so here’s the strategy to consider

Obviously every consumer is different, though personally I think the Bilt Palladium Card is the way to go, and it’s where you can really unlock value in the Bilt ecosystem. There’s no “one size fits all” answer as to what credit card strategy is best, but let me explain my lack of enthusiasm for the two less premium cards. Long story short, it comes down to the competitive landscape.

The Bilt Blue Card is perfectly fine for a no annual fee card, but I have a hard time getting too excited about a card earning 1x points per dollar spent, when there are cards out there earning 2x points per dollar spent. Admittedly there’s also Bilt Cash, but still, I don’t think you’re going to come out that far ahead there.

Meanwhile I find the Bilt Obsidian Card to be a little too niche, since you can only earn 3x points in one spending category and 2x points in another spending category, so most people aren’t going to find that to be overwhelmingly rewarding, in my opinion.

While I don’t love the annual fee on the Bilt Palladium Card, the actual rewards structure is pretty unrivaled. Let’s look at the value on an ongoing basis. Just as an example, let’s say you spend $100,000 per year on the card, and have $50,000 in housing payments per year. I realize those numbers are high for the average consumer, but I’m just trying to keep the math easy, and everyone can adjust the numbers for themselves.

In that situation, you’d earn 200,000 Bilt points from spending (at the rate of 2x points), plus you’d earn $4,600 in Bilt Cash ($4,000 from spending, $400 from the $25 in Bilt Cash for every 25,000 points earned, and $200 from the annual bonus on the card). When it comes time to redeem that Bilt Cash:

• $1,500 in Bilt Cash could be redeemed so that you earn 50,000 points on your $50,000 in housing spending
• $1,000 in Bilt Cash could be redeemed so that you earn 25,000 additional points from the spending multiplier

So at that point you’ll have earned 275,000 points for your $100,000 in spending, and you still have $2,100 in Bilt Cash to spend, on anything ranging from BLADE flights, to Lyft credits (in small increments), and more. Admittedly you have to be able to justify the $495 annual fee, which is steep, but I think the math on that very much checks out otherwise.

Bottom line

Bilt has three Mastercard credit cards issued by Cardless — the no annual fee Bilt Blue Card, $95 annual fee Bilt Obsidian Card, and $495 Bilt Palladium Card. The cards are obviously at very different price points, and also each have a unique set of benefits.

What all four cards have in common is that they offer 4% back in the form of Bilt Cash, and that’s the currency by which you can earn rewards for your housing payments. To simplify the math as much as possible, you’ll need to spend an average of 75% as much as your housing payment in order to earn 1x points per dollar spent on housing, whether it’s a rent or mortgage payment.

I think the Bilt card ecosystem is best for those who are big spenders, and/or those who have big housing payments. In that situation, the Bilt Palladium Card is the way to go, as you earn 2x points and 4% Bilt Cash on all spending. That Bilt Cash can be used to cover your housing payments, and then you’ll still have a lot of Bilt Cash left to spend, on everything from spending accelerated and other credits.

While I think the Bilt system is ridiculously complicated, for the right type of consumer, I think there’s good value to be had. Unfortunately I have a harder time making the math work for smaller spenders, in terms of justifying the annual fee, or coming out ahead on the less premium cards.

What’s your take on Bilt’s credit cards, and which do you think is most lucrative?