Bilt 2.0. Here’s What to know, How to Decide (and What Else You Can Use)
Photo Credit: Bilt
What Bilt Rewards Is, and What It Was Trying to Fix
Let’s start with the basics.
Bilt Rewards was founded in 2019 by CEO Ankur Jain with one simple idea: What if rent could earn rewards, just like groceries or travel?
That was the core concept. Bilt Rewards allows you to earn points when you pay rent, and also when you use the card for everyday spending. Those points can be used in a few practical ways. You can redeem them for real expenses like tuition, gift cards, or a down payment, or you can transfer them to airline and hotel programs for travel.
As of now, Bilt Rewards points can be transferred to 18 airline programs and 5 hotel programs, which is why the program has become appealing for some families who want flexibility rather than a single airline or hotel currency.
Why the Original Bilt Rewards Credit Card Felt So Generous
To make rent payments work, Bilt Rewards partnered with Wells Fargo. The original Bilt Rewards credit card had no annual fee and no foreign transaction fees, which already made it stand out.
The earning structure was also easy to remember:
3x points on dining
2x points on travel
1x point on rent and everything else
There were a couple of rules that people often overlooked. You needed to use the card at least five times per statement period to earn points. And while rent payments had no fee, there was a cap of 100,000 points per year from rent.
Even with those limits, for most people it still felt like free value.
Why Wells Fargo Eventually Stepped Back
Over time, large banks began to see how popular flexible points had become. Capital One showed that customers liked points they could transfer to airlines and hotels, and Wells Fargo wanted to compete.
By mid-2024, Wells Fargo began allowing transfers to airline and hotel partners, including:
Around the same time, Bilt Rewards announced something else: starting in 2026, Bilt cards would allow people to pay mortgages using a credit card. That sounds great but it’s also expensive.
According to Wells Fargo, the Bilt Rewards card was costing them (Wells Fargo) about $10 million per month. Visa and Mastercard charge fees on every transaction, and if customers aren’t paying those fees, someone else has to.
In this case, Wells Fargo was absorbing most of the cost. So while the partnership was originally scheduled to run through 2029, ending it early wasn’t about drama. It was about math.
What Happens If You Already Have a Bilt Rewards Credit Card?
If you currently hold a Wells Fargo–issued Bilt Rewards card and do nothing, you can continue using it until February 6, 2026.
After that, Wells Fargo will send a replacement card likely a Wells Fargo Autograph which will no longer earn Bilt Rewards points. Instead, it will earn Wells Fargo Rewards points.
One important thing to pause on: if you don’t already have another Wells Fargo credit card, accepting this replacement could mean giving up a future sign-up bonus opportunity. This is one of those situations where doing nothing is still a decision.
What’s Happening On and After January 14, 2026?
Starting January 14, 2026, existing Bilt cardholders can choose a new Bilt Rewards credit card in the app or on the website. There will be three options:
A card with no annual fee
A card with a $95 annual fee
A card with a $495 annual fee
There’s no new credit check, and you can keep the same card number. Physical cards should arrive before early February. These new cards will be issued by Cardless, not Wells Fargo.
Bilt has also announced a new feature: the ability to pay eligible residential mortgages using a Bilt credit card. Details haven’t been finalized at the time of writing. Based on Bilt’s website, the three cards are called Blue, Obsidian, and Palladium.
Bilt Blue (No Annual Fee)
Welcome bonus: $100 in Bilt Cash upon approval
Earning:
1x points on all purchases, including rent or mortgage
4% back in Bilt Cash on all purchases
No foreign transaction fees
Bilt Obsidian ($95 Annual Fee)
Welcome bonus: $100 in Bilt Cash
Earning:
3x points on dining or groceries (choose one)
2x points on travel
1x points on everything else, including rent or mortgage
4% back in Bilt Cash on all purchases
Hotel credit: Up to $100 per year via Bilt Travel Portal ($50 every six months, two-night minimum)
No foreign transaction fees
Bilt Palladium ($495 Annual Fee)
Welcome bonus:
Spend $4,000 within the first three months to earn 50,000 points
Bilt Rewards Gold status
Receive $300 in Bilt Cash upon credit card approval
Earning:
2x points on all purchases
1x point on rent or mortgage
4% back in Bilt Cash on all purchases
Annual credits:
$200 Bilt Cash
Up to $400 in hotel credits via Bilt Travel Portal ($200 every six months, two-night minimum)
Lounge access: Priority Pass (two guests free)
Authorized users: $95 for their own Priority Pass
No airport restaurant access
No foreign transaction fees
The Biggest Change to Understand
The original promise of Bilt Rewards was simple: rent with no fees.
The new model works differently, because that promise came with a real cost. In the new generation, Bilt clearly separates two things:
Bilt points, which remain flexible and transferable
Bilt Cash, which functions more like “fee-offset money”
Rent and mortgage payments may now involve a processing fee. Bilt Cash can be used to help cover that fee, but you earn Bilt Cash only by actually using the card for everyday spending.
For people who used Bilt only for rent, this will feel like a downgrade. For others, it’s more of a re-alignment. From a sustainability perspective, this change helps Bilt last longer even if it asks more from users.
What the Math Looks Like in Real Life
After the launch of the new cards, Bilt updated how points are earned on rent and mortgage payments.
There are a couple of positive changes:
You can now earn points from multiple properties
There is no cap on points earned from rent or mortgage payments
But earning those points now requires using Bilt Cash.
All three Bilt 2.0 cards earn 4% back in Bilt Cash on non-rent purchases. For every 25,000 Bilt points earned, you receive $50 in Bilt Cash.
To unlock rent or mortgage points:
$30 in Bilt Cash unlocks 1,000 points
This effectively mirrors a 3% fee, paid with Bilt Cash instead of cash
Bilt Cash expires on December 31, with only $100 allowed to roll over.
Rent or mortgage payments do not count toward the Palladium sign-up bonus
One more important detail: when paying rent or mortgage with the new cards, the payment is processed via a linked bank account, not charged to the credit card. I confirmed this directly in one of my friend’s account. That means rent or mortgage payments do not count toward the Palladium sign-up bonus you need actual card spending to qualify.
At a high level, the system is simple: you earn Bilt Cash from everyday spending, then use it to unlock points from rent or mortgage payments.
Example:
Monthly rent: $3,000
Points earned: 3,000 per month
Bilt Cash required: $90
Spending needed at 4%: $2,250 per month
This works smoothly only if you already have meaningful everyday spend on the card and those who just want one card for everything (like our P2s !)
Which Card Makes the Most Sense?
The first thing first, do you need to pay for rents (or mortgages)?
On the surface, Bilt Palladium makes the sense for the first year if you pay rents and earn sign up bonus. It comes with a meaningful welcome bonus, earns well on non-bonus spending, includes hotel credits, and offers you Gold status, which allows Rakuten cash back to transfer to Bilt points at 1:1. In the first year, you can earn at least $660 in Bilt Cash:
$300 upon approval
$200 annual credit
$160 from the $4,000 minimum spend
That’s enough to unlock 22,000 rent or mortgage points, roughly equivalent to $1,833 per month in housing payments.
Year two is different.The $300 sign-up Bilt Cash disappears, so whether the card still makes sense depends entirely on your spending habits.
Speacial note: Everyone has different spending models, so using this strategy simulator may help you to generate what benefits you actually gain. Click here for the comparison work sheet and calcultor: HERE (courtesy of uscardforum)
If You Don’t Want Any of the Bilt Co-Branded Cards
If you feel that none of the three Bilt 2.0 cards are a good fit and you don’t plan to keep one, there is another way to pay rent.
In addition to using Bilt 2.0 credit cards, you can also take advantage of Bilt Rewards’ exclusive partnership with Alaska Airlines and Bank of America. Thier personal Alaska Airlines co-branded credit cards issued by Bank of America can be added to the Bilt Rewards payment system (the “Wallet” feature) and then used to pay rent.
At the moment, using the following cards this way allows you to earn 3x Alaska Airlines miles on rent payments, with a 3% processing fee:
Atmos™ Rewards Summit Visa Infinite® Credit Card
Atmos™ Rewards Ascent Visa Infinite® Credit Card
A few important things to keep in mind here:
If you pay rent using a non-Bilt 2.0 credit card, you cannot use Bilt Cash to offset or cover the processing fee.
If you use an Alaska Airlines personal co-branded credit card (i.e. Summit or Ascent) to pay a mortgage (rent still shows 3x), those payments do not appear to earn 3x Alaska Airlines miles. (as of what the explanations by a Bilt Rewards representative on social media.)
This method does involve a 3% processing fee, but it can still work best for those when you:
Want to earn a large amount of Alaska Airlines miles through credit card spending for future flight redemptions
Are aiming to earn elite qualifying miles or status points toward higher-tier Alaska Airlines status (OneWorld Elite Status)
Have lower everyday, non-rent spending, making it difficult to earn enough Bilt Cash to fully unlock points from rent payments (Note: as mentioned in the beginning, you need non-rent spending equal to about 75% of your rent or mortgage to generate enough Bilt Cash to fully unlock those points)
However, the 3x earning on rent through Bilt by using Alaska Summit or Ascent only applies to the first $50,000 per year. So if your rent is too high, anything above that amount won’t earn the 3x rate.
Let’s look at this: Assume you’re paying $3,000 in rent every month through Bilt by using Bank of America Alaska Airlines Summit or Ascent credit card .
With a 3% processing fee, that comes out to $3,090 per month. Over a full year, your total rent spend is roughly $37,000.
If the Atmos program earns one elite-qualifying point for every $2 spent, that means you’d earn about 18,500 elite points in a year just from paying rent. On top of that, you’d also earn 3 redeemable miles per dollar, so $37,000 × 3 in flight miles.
To reach Gold status (eqivalent to oneworld® Sapphire status and benefits), you need 40,000 elite-qualifying points. The remaining gap can be made up through additional card spend, or by earning elite credit from award flights you actually fly.
So realistically, earning Gold status within a year is absolutely achievable.
Bilt Rewards has rolled out its new “Bilt Card 2.0” lineup, along with a major shift in how points are earned on rent and mortgage payments.
There are now three cards to choose from, with Bilt Palladium standing out the most at first glance especially in the first year. That said, earning points from rent or mortgage now requires real everyday spending to fully unlock those rewards, which adds a bit more friction than before.
If the new Bilt cards don’t feel like the right fit, there are still alternatives, such as using Alaska Airlines personal cards through the Bilt Wallet and earning miles that way instead.
So the real question is: Does this new setup match how you already spend? Do you want one card for everything or a separate, more targeted strategy?
