Bilt’s 2027 Shake-Up: Longer-Lasting Bilt Cash and a Deadline You Can’t Miss

If you have a Bilt credit card, things are changing … again.

Here’s the biggest piece of news: If you’re one of the Bilt cardholders earning 4% Bilt Cash on everyday purchases, you’ll lose that unless you opt out before your card anniversary date. For new cardholders, the option to earn 4% Bilt Cash (in addition to points) is going away entirely at the end of the year – apply or accept your offer in 2027 and it’s not possible, period. 

Bilt Cash is the program’s second rewards currency, separate from Bilt points – think of it as store credit you can only spend inside the Bilt ecosystem. Since January, cardholders have been able to choose between earning 4% in Bilt Cash and a simpler option that skips Bilt Cash and rewards points on housing payments based on how much you spend elsewhere.

Starting on each cardholder’s anniversary, Bilt is taking away that choice and moving everyone to a new set of benefits built around the “simpler” option, unless you opt out in your card settings in the Bilt app. Bilt’s current cards went live in early February, so if you’ve had one since launch, your last day to opt out is Feb. 6.

Bilt announced the changes on Tuesday and walked Thrifty Traveler through them in a briefing ahead of the announcement. Some of what’s coming is genuinely good – most notably, Bilt Cash will no longer expire at the end of the year – while other pieces are cuts dressed up as perks. For heavy spenders, this is the most consequential Bilt change since the program relaunched its cards in January, and it comes with a deadline.

Here’s everything you need to know.

What’s Changing (and What Isn’t)

• You’ll no longer get to choose how you earn on rent or mortgage payments. On your card anniversary, everyone moves to the new system, which earns up to 1.25x points per dollar on housing, unless they opt out.
• Bilt Cash lasts longer – it now expires 12 months after you earn it instead of on Dec. 31, including Bilt Cash earned in 2026.
• Annual card credits are being restructured – the Palladium’s $200 in Bilt Cash and $400 in hotel credits become a single $600 in Bilt Cash, Obsidian’s $100 hotel credit becomes Bilt Cash, and both arrive on your card anniversary instead of Jan. 1.
• Using Bilt Cash on hotels gets harder – starting Jan. 1, 2027, it drops from monthly to twice-yearly.
• Daily Rewards launches Jan. 15, 2027, a new prize program for all Bilt members, with $1,000,000 toward a home purchase as the top prize.
• Bilt elite members get status matches with SIXT and Hertz later this year, and Gold and Platinum members will be able to use points on Bilt’s luxury hotel bookings in the Home Away from Home program.

What isn’t changing: Bilt says the points you earn on everyday purchases stay the same, so a *Bilt Palladium* still earns two points per dollar spent. 

The Big One: The 4% Bilt Cash Option Goes Away … Unless You Opt Out

Since Bilt relaunched its cards in January, cardholders have chosen one of two ways to earn rewards on rent or mortgage payments.

The flexible Bilt Cash option earns 4% back in Bilt Cash on everyday purchases, on top of your regular points. You spend that Bilt Cash to unlock points on your housing payment, at $30 for every 1,000 points, and anything left over can go toward extra perks and credits in the Bilt app. The most valuable of those is a Point Accelerator, which costs $200 in Bilt Cash and earns an extra point per dollar on your next $5,000 in purchases, up to five times a year on the Palladium and Obsidian cards.

Housing-only mode skips Bilt Cash entirely. The more you charge to your card each month, compared with your rent or mortgage, the more points you earn on that payment:

Housing-only earnings isn’t new – it’s been an option since January. What’s new is that it becomes the default on your card anniversary, paired with the new annual credits covered below. If you already use the housing-only method, this change won’t affect how you earn on rent or mortgage, though your annual credits will change.

Bilt told Thrifty Traveler that most cardholders don’t use Flexible Bilt Cash mode today.

Here’s what Bilt confirmed about opting out:

• You keep earning 4% back in Bilt Cash, and you can still spend it on Point Accelerators.
• You keep your current annual credits. For Palladium cardholders, that’s $200 in Bilt Cash plus $400 in hotel credits, rather than the new $600 in Bilt Cash.
• You can move to the new benefits at any time, but it’s a one-way door: Once you’re on the new benefits, you can’t go back to earning 4% back in Bilt Cash. You also won’t be able to switch to Housing-only mode, like you can today.
• Your deadline is the day before your card anniversary. The opt-out takes effect the night before.

That one-way door is the key detail. If you’re earning 4% back in Bilt Cash and aren’t sure what to do, opting out is the safer call, since you can always move to the new benefits later … but if you let the switch happen on its own, there’s no going back.

Should You Opt Out?

Because you keep annual credits either way, the real trade is the 4% back in Bilt Cash on everyday spending versus the new setup’s extra quarter point on rent or mortgage (1.25x points per dollar instead of the 1x point Bilt Cash can unlock) … plus the freedom to spend Palladium’s $400 in hotel credits on something other than hotels.

Valuing Bilt Cash the way most heavy users spend it – on Point Accelerators, where $200 buys 5,000 bonus points – here’s roughly where opting out pays off:

• *Bilt Palladium*: If you’d use the hotel credits anyway, opting out comes out ahead once your monthly card spending tops your rent or mortgage payment. If those hotel credits would go to waste, you’d need to spend roughly $850 more than your housing payment each month ($400 in unused credits ÷ 4% back ÷ 12 months).
• *Bilt Obsidian*: The Bilt Obsidian’s $100 hotel credit is a smaller factor, so opting out pays off once your card spending is a little more than your rent or mortgage.
• *Bilt Blue*: The Bilt Blue doesn’t have an annual credit, and it can’t use Point Accelerators, so the extra Bilt Cash is only good for perks like Lyft and Grubhub credits. Opting out only makes sense if you spend more than your housing payment on the card and you’d actually use those perks.

If you don’t put much spending on your card, or your Bilt Cash has been piling up unused, let the switch happen. If your card spending is between 75% and 100% of your rent, the new setup earns you the same points or more with no extra effort.

For me, this one’s easy: I’m opting out. I pay my mortgage through Bilt, and my Palladium card is my default for anything that doesn’t earn a bonus somewhere else … especially my daughter’s daycare bill.

That spending produces a lot of Bilt Cash, and I’ve used most of it this year on mortgage points and Point Accelerators. The points accelerator effectively turns my Bilt Palladium card into a 3x-points-per-dollar-spent card on up to $25,000 each year. 

The new $600 credit would cover three Point Accelerators – I can use up to five today – and that’s the end of it. Bilt confirmed I can keep using Bilt Cash on Point Accelerators after opting out and keep my current credits, so for someone who spends as I do, 4% back on every purchase is worth far more. And if my spending changes, I can always move to the new benefits later.

What Happens to Your Annual Credits

A $600 annual Bilt Cash credit sounds like a big raise for Bilt Palladium cardholders on the new benefits … but Bilt confirmed it replaces the card’s current credits rather than adding to them.

If you struggled to use those hotel credits, the new setup is a genuine improvement, since that $400 can go toward Point Accelerators, Lyft rides, or anything else Bilt Cash covers. Like other Bilt Cash, the $600 lasts 12 months. If you book hotels through Bilt regularly, it’s a step back: The most you can put toward hotels in a year is $400, and that’s true even with Bilt Platinum status.

There’s also a transition period. Bilt told Thrifty Traveler that cardholders on the new benefits will still get the first-half hotel credit between Jan. 1 and their anniversary, and the $600 will be applied on the anniversary itself.

For Bilt Obsidian cardholders on the new benefits, the card’s $100 hotel credit – today, two $50 credits that each require a two-night stay – becomes $100 in Bilt Cash on your anniversary, which is a small but real win.

The Bilt Blue doesn’t have an annual credit to restructure.

Bilt Cash Lasts Longer … but Hotel Redemptions Take a Hit

Here’s the clearest win in the announcement. Today, Bilt Cash expires on Dec. 31, and only $100 carries over. Under the new rules, it expires at the end of the month, 12 months after you earn it, and that includes the Bilt Cash you already have: In Bilt’s own example, $100 earned in February 2026 now expires Feb. 28, 2027. 

The less flattering change is buried in the same section of Bilt’s announcement. Today, any Bilt member can put Bilt Cash toward hotels booked through Bilt every month, up to a limit set by their Bilt status. Starting Jan. 1, 2027, that drops to twice a year – once in each half of the year, on a single booking of at least two nights – cutting Blue and Silver members from up to $600 a year to $100, and Gold and Platinum members from up to $1,200 a year to $200.

That’s an 83% cut, even though Bilt’s announcement presents it as a new way to book hotels. I doubt many members came close to using the full monthly amount, but a cut is still a cut.

Daily Rewards: Big Prize, Few Details

The flashiest piece of Bilt’s announcement is Daily Rewards, a prize program launching Jan. 15, 2027.

Every on-time rent or mortgage payment through Bilt earns a Daily Reward, and so does one qualifying activity per day with a participating local business, such as eating out at a Bilt Dining restaurant, a rideshare, or a fitness class, paid with any card linked to your Bilt account. Prizes range from Bilt points and Bilt Cash to pieces you collect toward grand prizes, like $1,000,000 toward a home purchase. Bilt told Thrifty Traveler that fewer than 10% of its members have a Bilt card, and Daily Rewards is aimed squarely at everyone else.

Beyond that, the details are thin. Bilt hasn’t said exactly which businesses are included or what the odds of winning are, and it says more prizes and rules are coming in the new year.

Until then, there’s no way to know what Daily Rewards is actually worth … and nothing you need to do about it yet.

Why Bilt Is Doing This

Bilt says it’s simplifying the program, and it’s hard to argue with the goal. In its current form, Bilt’s system is incredibly complicated at first glance. From two reward currencies to limits on a long list of perks to a choice between two earning modes that Bilt added just two days after launching its new cards because the first version confused so many members, there’s a lot to digest.

The problem is that simplifying a complex program can cause significant short-term confusion, especially for existing cardholders. Over the next few months, they’ll need to figure out which mode they’re in, when their anniversary falls, which set of credits they’re on, and whether opting out is worth it, while hotel redemptions change on a completely different date.

The long-term result may well be simpler, but getting there will be messy.

What You Should Do Now

1. Check which mode you’re in and when your card anniversary is. Both should be in your card settings in the Bilt app. If you’re already in Housing-only mode, you can let the switch happen.
2. If you earn 4% back in Bilt Cash, decide by the day before your anniversary. For anyone who’s had a card since launch, that’s Feb. 6. If you do nothing, you’ll be switched automatically, and you can’t come back.
3. When in doubt, opt out. You keep your current credits and Point Accelerators, and you can move to the new benefits whenever you want.
4. Palladium cardholders: Use your second 2026 hotel credit if you were planning to.
5. Thinking about a Bilt card? Bilt says new cardholders get the new benefits starting Jan. 1. If 4% back in Bilt Cash would pay off for you, apply before then.
    

Bottom Line

Set aside the $1 million headline, and Bilt’s 2027 overhaul comes down to one decision: whether to keep something Bilt is otherwise taking away. If you’re already in Housing-only mode, let the switch happen on its own. If you’re earning 4% back in Bilt Cash, opting out keeps your options open, since you can move to the new benefits later, but can’t come back once you do.

Longer-lasting Bilt Cash is a real win, even if it comes about 10 months late. Find your card anniversary, mark the day before it on your calendar, and make your call before it passes.