Bilt is a relative newcomer to the world of travel rewards. But in short order, the company that set out to give travelers a way to earn transferable points for paying rent – and soon, even for their mortgage payments – has become a points powerhouse.
Over the years, Bilt has grown to become much more than a program for renters. From pharmacy and dining purchases to attending live events and fitness classes, there are more ways than ever to earn these ultra-valuable Bilt points on your everyday spending.
All the while, Bilt has steadily added more and more ways to redeem your points (while subtracting a few others). With more than 20 transfer partners, kicking your points over to an airline or hotel is almost always the most valuable way to use your points. But you can also put your points toward Amazon purchases, paying for Lyft, or even saving for a new home.
We'll walk you through the ins and outs of setting up an account, earning and redeeming points, and making the most of everything Bilt Rewards has to offer.
How to Create a Bilt Account
First things first, you'll need a Bilt account if you plan to start earning points. If you're not already a member, you can sign up (for free!) by entering either your phone number or your email address to get started.
You'll then need to verify your phone number or email address by entering the six-digit code that gets texted or emailed to you and fill out the rest of your personal info, including name and date of birth.
After that, you'll need to accept the terms and conditions and you're all set. You can now start earning and redeeming points, easy peasy.
Earning Bilt Points
From swiping a Bilt Mastercard® out shopping to paying rent and dining out, there are a lot of ways to earn Bilt points these days. Here's how it's done.
Paying Rent
Bilt was founded on the idea of turning a big monthly expense into lucrative rewards. If you live in one of the 4 million-plus Bilt Alliance properties around the country, you can make payments directly in your “resident portal” or through the Bilt App and earn 1x point for every dollar spent on rent (up to $100,000 per year).
If you don't live in a Bilt Alliance property – or just want to take things a step further – you can pay your rent with the Bilt Mastercard® and get 1x point for every dollar spent on rent payments (up to $100,000 per year) – with no additional transaction fees. There's one catch: You have to make at least five purchases each billing period with your card in order to earn points on that rent payment.
If you don't have the Bilt card, you can still earn 1x points for every $2 spent on rent (up to $100,000 per year) by paying with any Visa, Mastercard, Discover, or American Express card. But non-Bilt card payments come with a 3% transaction fee. That’s $75 on a $2,500 rent payment – no doubt a steep price to pay for a reduced return.
There is one exception, though. Renters using the Atmos™ Rewards Ascent Visa Signature® Card can earn 3x points per dollar spent on rent (up to $100,000 per year) … and Bilt has indicated that more of these arrangements are coming in the future. Either way, you'll still be on the hook for a 3% transaction fee when using anything but the Bilt Mastercard to pay rent.
Paying Your Mortgage (Coming Soon!)
Bilt recently announced an expansion into mortgages through direct partnerships with mortgage service providers, starting with United Wholesale Mortgage, which invested $100 million in Bilt as part of this new strategic partnership.
Bilt says more details on this partnership and earning points on mortgages will be announced this fall. Still, it's safe to say that earning Bilt points on mortgage payments will be limited to specific lenders, though Bilt says they “will continue to expand with other mortgage servicers in the industry.”
Related reading: Coming Soon: Earn Bilt Points on Your Monthly Mortgage Payments!
Swiping a Bilt Mastercard®
The Bilt Mastercard isn't just for renters – it's a really good option for your everyday spending as well. With bonus point earning on travel and dining purchases, plus the ability to earn double points on Rent Day (more on that in a bit) it's easy to rack up points in a hurry.
Here's a closer look at everything the card offers:
- 1x points per dollar spent on rent in the Bilt Rewards app with no added transaction fees (up to $100,000 per calendar year)
- 1x points per dollar spent on everyday purchases
- 2x points per dollar spent on travel
- 3x points per dollar spent on dining
- Earn double points on Rent Day (the 1st of the month), up to 1,000 bonus points per month
- 6x points per dollar spent on dining
- 4x points per dollar spent on travel
- 2x points per dollar spent on everyday purchases
- 1x points per dollar spent on rent
- Trip cancellation, interruption, and delay protection
- Auto rental collision damage waiver
- Cellular telephone insurance
- No foreign transaction fees
- No annual fee!
All information about the Bilt Mastercard® was collected independently by Thrifty Traveler and has not been reviewed by the issuer.
Learn more about the Bilt Mastercard® (for full disclosure, this is a personal referral link)
Bilt ‘Neighborhood' Spending
Dining Out
Dining programs are among the best ways to keep earning points and miles beyond a big welcome bonus – just link a credit card and earn bonus miles when you dine out. While most airlines and hotel programs have allow you to earn points and miles when you eat out, Bilt's “Neighborhood Dining” program is our absolute favorite.
Simply add any Visa, Mastercard, or American Express credit or debit card to your Bilt Wallet and you'll earn extra points every time you dine at a participating restaurant. Exactly how many points you earn will vary from restaurant to restaurant, but you can generally expect to get 3x Bilt points – and that's on top of what you'd earn from your credit card.
Once logged into your app, you'll want to navigate to the “Neighborhood” tab at the bottom and make sure Bilt Dining is selected at the top of the screen.
If you currently hold the Bilt Mastercard, it will automatically be added to your wallet and linked up with the neighborhood dining program. Other cards can easily be added to your Bilt wallet below.
Even if you don't know when you'll be able to take advantage of the Bilt Neighborhood Dining feature, it's still worth adding cards to your Bilt Wallet right now. After linking cards to your Bilt Wallet, you'll want to toggle on “Enable rewards at all restaurants” button.
Bby turning rewards on for all restaurants with Bilt Dining, it will forcibly unlink that card from any other participating dining programs. You can't double dip by earning Bilt Rewards and AAdvantage Miles or SkyMiles, for example. But given the value of Bilt points, you're almost certainly better off earning them for your dining purchases.
Related reading: Everything You Need to Know About Bilt ‘Neighborhood' Dining
Ordering a Lyft
Lyft and Bilt Rewards allow all Bilt Rewards members to earn 2x Bilt points for every dollar spent on Lyft rides. All you need to do is link your accounts in the Bilt app, add your payment methods to your Bilt Wallet, and select Bilt as your preferred rewards program.
To get started, head to the Bilt Rewards app and click on the “Rideshare” tab.
From there, you'll see a button you can click to “Link Lyft account.” That will open up a new tab, asking you to “Confirm & link accounts.” As long as the phone number associated with both your Lyft and Bilt account matches, you shouldn't have any issues.
Clicking the “Confirm & link accounts” button will automatically open the Lyft app. Once you hit the “Accept” button within the Lyft app, you're done. You should earn Bilt points on your next ride with Lyft.
Shopping at Walgreens
You can earn up to 2x Bilt points on Walgreens purchases – or a flat 100 points with every prescription refill. So long as your eligible Visa, Mastercard, or American Express is linked in your Bilt Wallet, you're all set.
Here's how the the points earning shakes out:
- Earn 1x Bilt points per dollar spent on all in-store and online Walgreens purchases
- Earn 2x Bilt points per dollar spent on Walgreens-branded items
- Earn 100 Bilt points on prescription refills (up to 26 prescriptions per year)
There are some exclusions to beware of – things like alcohol, tobacco, gift cards, and pharmacy co-pays won't earn rewards. But for the most part, this partnership is great news for anyone who shops at Walgreens.
Read more: Bilt Members Can Now Earn Bonus Points at Walgreens!
Taking a Fitness Classes
Bilt Members can earn rewards and get access to exclusive benefits and experiences with the following local fitness partners:
- Soulcycle
- Y7
- pure barre
- Rumble Boxing
- BFT
- CycleBar
- YogaSix
- CorePower Yoga
- Barry's
The exact amount of points you'll earn varies depending on the fitness provider and class you're taking but it's generally 2x or 3x Bilt points per dollar spent. You can book these classed directly through the Bilt app and some even include extra perks like a free shoe rental with Soul Cycle or a complimentary shake at Barry's.
Buying a House
No, you shouldn’t buy a house just for the points. But if you’re in the market, Bilt introduced an industry-first program that offers a huge earning opportunity.
By purchasing a home through an eXp Realty agent, you’ll earn 1x Bilt point per $2 spent, meaning a $200,000 home nets 100,000 Bilt points. With today’s housing prices, that can add up fast.
The only catch? You must use an eXp Realty agent to qualify.
Linking Loyalty Accounts
Bilt has partnered with some of the biggest names in travel – such as Alaska Airlines, United, Hyatt, and IHG – to offer 1:1 point transfers and allow redemptions within those individual award programs. You can currently earn 100 bonus points for every loyalty program that you link to your Bilt Rewards account.
That means if you link a new or existing account to all 21 of their partners (as of publication), you'll earn 2,100 transferrable points. These are seriously some of the easiest points you'll ever earn!
Redeeming Bilt Points
Building up a stash of Bilt points is only half the battle – redeeming them for maximum value is where the real fun is. Thankfully, Bilt offers a variety of ways to redeem points … some more valuable than others.
Travel Rewards
In case you didn't notice, this site is called Thrifty Traveler: Go figure our favorite way to use Bilt points is for travel. When it comes time to cash in, you've got two different choices at your disposal.
Bilt Travel Portal
Let's start with the easiest option. Bilt operates its own travel booking platform, where you can redeem points towards flights, hotels, rental cars, and activities.
Using your points this way, you'll get 1.25 cents per point redeemed through the portal – a significant boost compared to the flat 1-cent-per-point rate you'll find with most other travel cards.
Here's a quick example of how that works.
Let's say you want to go to Europe and this roundtrip flight from Minneapolis-St. Paul (MSP) to Paris-Charles de Gaulle (CDG) is the one that works best for you. You could redeem 99,000 Bilt points to cover the cost of that $1,200 flight by booking it through the Bilt Travel Portal.
This works the same way for hotels, rental cars, and even activities: Each point is worth 1.25 cents each for all types of travel. So you could book a $125 hotel room using 10,000 Bilt points … or a $250 car rental with 20,000 points.
It's quick and easy and you're getting solid value (more than 1 cent each) for each of your points.
Transfer Points to Partners
If you're ready to take things to the next level, Bilt's list of 20-plus travel partners is the perfect thing for you. But it's not just quantity: You could easily make the case that Bilt points are the most valuable of any currency.
You can send points to not one but three domestic U.S. airlines: Alaska and Hawaiian's Atmos Rewards, Southwest Rapid Rewards, and United MileagePlus. And the list of choices keeps growing with the more recent addition of Japan Airlines (JAL) and Qatar Airways.
The former is unique in the fact that there aren't a lot of good ways to earn JAL miles and it offers some incredible rates to get to Asia for cheap. The latter allows Bilt members to book Qatar's coveted Qsuites business class to Doha (DOH) and beyond at reasonable rates.
Here are all the current options for moving your Bilt points to an airline or hotel brand – plus some pointers on some of our favorite options.
| Program | Type | Transfer Ratio | Transfer Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aer Lingus Avios | Airline | 1:1 | Within 10 Minutes |
| Air France/KLM Flying Blue | Airline | 1:1 | Within 10 Minutes |
| Air Canada Aeroplan | Airline | 1:1 | Within 10 Minutes |
| Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan | Airline | 1:1 | Within 10 Minutes |
| Avianca LifeMiles | Airline | 1:1 | Within 10 Minutes |
| British Airways Avios | Airline | 1:1 | Within 10 Minutes |
| Cathay Pacific Asia Miles | Airline | 1:1 | Within 10 Minutes |
| Emirates Skywards | Airline | 1:1 | Within 10 Minutes |
| Iberia Avios | Airline | 1:1 | Within 10 Minutes |
| Japan Airlines (JAL) | Airline | 1:1 | Within 10 Minutes (new accounts may have to wait up to 7 days to redeem) |
| Qatar Airways | Airline | 1:1 | Within 10 Minutes |
| Southwest Rapid Rewards | Airline | 1:1 | Twice per day |
| TAP Air Portugal Miles&Go | Airline | 1:1 | Within 10 Minutes |
| Turkish Miles & Smiles | Airline | 1:1 | Within 10 Minutes |
| United MileagePlus | Airline | 1:1 | Within 10 Minutes |
| Virgin Red | Airline | 1:1 | Within 10 Minutes |
| Accor | Hotel | 3:2 | Within 10 Minutes |
| World of Hyatt | Hotel | 1:1 | Within 10 Minutes |
| IHG Hotels | Hotel | 1:1 | Within 10 Minutes |
| Marriott Bonvoy | Hotel | 1:1 | Within 10 Minutes |
| Hilton Honors | Hotel | 1:1 | Within 10 Minutes |
Here's why it matters: Using that same example above with flights from Minneapolis to Paris, you'd need nearly 100,000 points to book a free flight. But since Bilt partners with Virgin Red, you could instead transfer 30,000 Bilt points to Virgin and book the exact same roundtrip flight for a fraction of that amount.
At that rate, you could book for yourself and two others for nearly the same number of points as it would cost to book just one flight through the portal!
That's just one example, but it showcases the power of turning to transfer partners with your Bilt points. With some really high-value and unique transfer partners like Japan Airlines and Alaska's Atmos Rewards program, you should have no trouble redeeming a big stash of Bilt points for some unforgettable travel experiences.
Just keep in mind: These transfers are a one-way street. Once you send your Bilt points to one of these partners, you can't get them back to your Bilt account. That means you'll want to scope out award availability to ensure the flights you're eyeing are actually bookable with miles before initiating any transfers.
Read more: Bilt Transfer Partners: How & Where to Use Your Bilt Points
Everyday Rewards
Let's take a look at what else is possible with Bilt points.
Go figure, the company who's primary customer has long been renters has a way to redeem points for monthly rent payments. When you use points this way, each one is worth .55 cents. For example, you could knock $20 off your monthly rent payment by redeeming 3,636 Bilt points.
Considering you can easily get 1.25 cents per point through the Bilt Travel portal – and potentially greater value with transfer partners – this is a relatively poor redemption in comparison. Nonetheless, it will no doubt be appealing for some – namely, renters with little interest in travel.
If you have the Bilt Mastercard, you can redeem your points for a statement credit at the same .55 cents per point you get as a rent credit.
You can also redeem points for Lyft rides directly in the Lyft app. Again, this isn't the best option for travelers … but it is an easy way to use your points and cut down on the cash cost of a ride you'd otherwise be taking.
When you redeem for Lyft ride, your points will be worth about .7 cents each – better than a rent credit, but nowhere near as good as using them for travel.
You'll get a similar .7 cents per point in value when redeeming points for a variety of third-party gift cards and using them for Amazon purchases.
Bilt's “Home Collection” offers various kitchen and bath accessories, art, clothing, and more. When redeeming points for any of these items, you can actually get pretty decent value (usually 1 cent per point, sometimes more), but many of the items seem overpriced. Still, if you like what Bilt is offering, using your points this way isn't a terrible option.
Bilt also offers a couple of unique ways to use your points with the ability to redeem them for home purchases and to pay down student loan debt.
When you use your points for a down payment on a house, each one is worth a respectable 1.5 cents. That means if you're a renter who's amassed 100,000 Bilt points over the years and are now looking to get a place of your own, you could cash those in for $1,500 towards your down payment – not bad!
Meanwhile, using your points to pay down student loans is slightly less lucrative at 1 cent per point. Still, if you're able to throw some extra points at your outstanding balance, the money you'll save in interest over the course of time would no doubt make it a more valuable proposition.
Finally, you can redeem Bilt points for various “experiences” like fitness classes, special dining events, tickets to comedy clubs and concerts, and more. The value of your points will vary when redeemed for experiences. But you'll often get 1 cent per point (or more), making it a respectable redemption option.
Go Big on Rent Day
If you’re earning Bilt Rewards points, Rent Day is the one day each month you don’t want to miss. On the first of every month, Bilt takes a day that is loathed by most and offers a bunch of fun promotions for its members.
For travelers, Rent Day has become synonymous with big transfer bonuses to Bilt’s airline and hotel partners. These often range from 25% to 150% extra points, which can make your stash go a lot further when redeeming them for flights and hotels.
Bilt also supercharges rewards for those with the Bilt Mastercard, offering double points on purchases: 6x on dining, 4x on travel, and 2x on everything else (up to 1,000 points per month). Just keep in mind, you'll need to make five qualifying transactions per billing cycle to earn points.
Beyond the bonus earning and transfer boosts, Bilt spices up Rent Day with exclusive giveaways, app-based games, and limited-time experiences – including chances to win free rent or unlock early access to special events.
Whether you’re booking travel, transferring points, or just racking up extra rewards, Rent Day is hands-down the best time of the month to maximize your Bilt balance.
Check out our monthly ‘Rent Day' guide to see what Bilt is up to this month!
Bilt Status
Bilt has revamped its elite status program into four tiers: Blue (entry level), Silver, Gold, and Platinum. You can qualify for status based on the amount of points you earn or with qualified spending, whichever works in your favor.
Since it first launched, Bilt's elite program has evolved to provide status members with better promos, concierge services, lounge access, even helicopter rides and airline status. If you're strategic, those benefits can absolutely pay off. And on Rent Day (the first of every month), elite members receive increasingly generous transfer bonuses, with Blue getting the least and Platinum often enjoying the biggest bump – sometimes up to 100 % or more.
Exactly what you get with each level of status varies and Bilt even offers milestone rewards for every 25,000 points you earn.
Here's an overview of what you get with each level of status and how to qualify.
Blue (Basic Members)
You don't need to do anything to qualify for Blue status, as it's the entry-level tier for all members. Here's what you get as a basic Blue member.
- Access to Bilt’s transfer partners and Rent Day promotions – must transfer points in increments of at least 2,000
- Ability to redeem points via the Bilt Collection
- Optional rent reporting to credit bureaus
Silver
Qualifying for Bilt's Silver status requires earning 50,000 Bilt points per year or spending $10,000 on the Bilt Mastercard – or any card linked in your Bilt Wallet for purchases made at one of Bilt's “neighborhood” partners.
- Elevated Rent Day transfer bonuses
- Interest on your points balance (based on average daily points and national savings rates)
- 10% discount on BLADE helicopter rides
- Lower transfer threshold – only need to transfer 1,000 points, instead of 2,000
Gold
Gold status requires earning 125,000 Bilt points per year or spending $25,000 on the Bilt Mastercard – or any card linked in your Bilt Wallet for purchases made at one of Bilt's “neighborhood” partners.
- Even bigger Rent Day perks and earlier access to Rent Day experiences (events, dinners, etc.)
- A home-buying concierge to help if you use points toward a down payment
- Complimentary access to BLADE lounges (even if not flying)
Platinum
You can earn Bilt's highest tier Platinum status by earning a whopping 200,000 Bilt points per year or spending $50,000 on the Bilt Mastercard – or any card linked in your Bilt Wallet for purchases made at one of Bilt's “neighborhood” partners.
- Best Rent Day bonus rates and first dibs on experiences
- Annual complimentary BLADE helicopter flight between New York City (JFK) or Newark (EWR) and Manhattan
- Flying Blue Gold status (SkyTeam Elite Plus): lounge access, priority boarding, free seat selection, extra baggage, and more
- Extras: Milestone Rewards & Perks En Route
Milestone Rewards
In addition to each of these status tiers, Bilt also offers members certain milestone rewards along the way. For every 25,000 Bilt points you earn, you’ll unlock limited-time offers including accelerated earning opportunities, bonus points towards that can be used on “Bilt Collection” items, extra points on Neighborhood Dining purchases, and more.
Bottom Line
Bilt has quickly grown from a simple way to earn points on rent into one of the most versatile rewards programs out there. With plenty of everyday earning opportunities, more than 20 valuable transfer partners, and unique perks like Rent Day bonuses, Bilt points are arguably the most valuable in the loyalty currency in the world.
Whether you’re booking flights, saving for a home, or just stacking points to cover everyday purchases, Bilt makes it easier than ever to turn your spending into meaningful rewards.
Featured image courtesy of Bilt Rewards
