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Advertiser and Editorial Disclosure
The next generation of Bilt is here, and not everyone is going to like it.
If you’ve grown accustomed to earning free points on rent with just five transactions a month, I’ve got bad news. You won’t find the new program nearly as rewarding. (That’s by design; Bilt isn’t trying to launch another generation of credit cards that the issuer will back out of early.)
Bilt 2.0 includes three new credit cards issued by Cardless, each with a unique value proposition. Earning points on rent (and now mortgages!) remains a key reason to hold a Bilt card. But how many points you earn is directly tied to how much you actually spend on the card.
There’s a lot to unpack, starting with the new credit cards and the revamped rent-earning mechanics. Then, I’ll walk you through my thinking on whether I’m going to keep or cancel my card.
Related: The free way to earn valuable travel points
3 new Bilt credit cards
Bilt’s three new credit cards are out. You can only pick one, so choose wisely.
Here’s the lineup (it’s exactly as leaked).
| Bilt Blue | Bilt Obsidian | Bilt Palladium | |
| Annual fee | $0 | $95 | $495 |
| Everyday spending | 1x points | 1x points | 2x points |
| Points multiplier | N/A | 3x on dining or grocery (capped at $25k/year) | N/A |
| Welcome bonus | $100 Bilt Cash | $200 Bilt Cash | $300 Bilt Cash + 50,000 Bilt points and one year of Gold status after $4,000 within the first three months |
| Benefits | $100 Bilt travel portal hotel credit (split semi-annually per calendar year) | $400 Bilt Travel portal hotel credit (split semi-annually per calendar year), $200 Bilt cash (annual), Priority Pass |
To supercharge your spending, you can add authorized users to the Obsidian card for $50 a piece and $95 a piece for the Palladium card. Authorized users receive their own card number, can set individual budgets, and have no preset limit on rent and mortgage payments. (Housing charges get automatically deducted from your bank account within 24 hours of the transaction.)
How earning Bilt points on rent and mortgages works
Perhaps the biggest change to the Bilt program is how you’ll earn points on housing payments, which now includes mortgages — a major enhancement.
For one, the ability to make a free rent or mortgage payment using your card isn’t changing. What is being adjusted is the number of points you’ll earn on each transaction.
Going forward, you won’t earn points unless you also spend money on the card. And Bilt Cash is the new currency that’ll track how many points you can earn on rent or mortgages.
You’ll earn 4% Bilt Cash on all your non-housing expenses charged to any Bilt card.
Bilt Cash can be used in a variety of ways, but the primary one that’ll likely interest you is this: for every $3 you redeem in Bilt Cash, you’ll earn 100 points on housing expenses.
Let me give you an example. If you spend $4,500 a month on a Bilt card, you’ll earn $180 in Bilt Cash each month. You can redeem all of that Bilt Cash to earn points on a rent or mortgage payment of up to $6,000.
As you can see, the more you spend on your Bilt card, the more Bilt Cash you’ll accrue, and the more points you can earn on housing expenses.
The easy math
For a simple formula to calculate how many points you can earn in rent, do this math.
Monthly everyday spending * 1.33 = Number of monthly points (max) you can earn from rent or mortgage payments
Transition timeline for existing Bilt cardholders
Before you decide to keep or cancel, it’s worth paying attention to the timeline. (Note that if you don’t yet have a Bilt credit card, you can skip this section entirely.)
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From Jan. 14 until Jan. 30: Pre-order window
- During this time, you’ll have the ability to choose which new Bilt card you want.
- Your account info, including card number, will remain the same.
- No hard credit inquiry will be made.
- Your new card will arrive by Feb. 6.
If you choose a new Bilt card, you can transfer your balance to your new card and automatically close your old card issued by Wells Fargo
If you don’t choose a new Bilt card, your old account will remain open and be converted into a Wells Fargo Autograph® Card.
Feb. 7: Bilt 2.0 officially launches
Any existing Bilt cards that haven’t been upgraded to Card 2.0 will be converted into the Wells Fargo Autograph® Card on Feb. 7. You’ll need to manage this account, including processing any cancellations, directly with Wells Fargo then.
Don’t worry, you will retain all of your existing Bilt points and status even if you close your card.
Should you keep or cancel your card?
So now you’re probably wondering whether it’s worth keeping or canceling your existing Bilt card.
If you’re someone who is willing to move a significant portion of your everyday spend to a Bilt card, then it would definitely make sense to transition your card into either the Obsidian or Palladium cards.
If you were just using Bilt for free points on rent with little investment, I’d just close your card and be grateful for all the points you earned along the way.
What I’m doing
Personally, as someone with a lot of everyday spending (childcare expenses aren’t cheap!), the Palladium card is a no-brainer — at least in the first year.
To start, the sign-up bonus alone more than offsets the annual fee. Of course, the $495 annual fee is steep, but I’ll earn 50,000 bonus points, worth at least $1,000 in my book, plus Gold status for the first year after spending $4,000 on the card in the first three months.
Plus, the card itself is the single most rewarding one for everyday spending.
Not only do you earn 2x points per dollar spent, but that spending will also supercharge your Bilt Cash earnings, which in turn means you will earn free points on housing expenses.
If you factor in the points you earn on rent, you’ll be earning 3.33x points per dollar spent, which is a pretty generous return on non-bonused spend.
Bottom line
The truth is that, despite being a new dad, most of my spending is still on travel, dining, and groceries (in that order). There are plenty of other cards that offer more than 2x points in those categories, and I don’t plan on shifting that spend to Bilt.
I’ll move all non-bonused spend that today goes on my Chase Freedom Unlimited Card or Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card today to Bilt and review my earnings in a year when it’s time to renew the card.
Odds are that it’ll still be more valuable than either of those cards, since the breakeven math shows that it takes just $1,000 a month in everyday spend to outweigh the value of the points you’d earn on the same spend on the aforementioned cards.
But until then, the sign-up bonus alone is worth the jump. I’d say sign up for Palladium and set a reminder to reevaluate what to do in 2027.
Yes, the new Bilt program looks different, and extracting value isn’t as easy, but with a little bit of work (and a lot of math), it looks like I can still come out ahead.
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