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If you’re a United flyer, you might want to pay attention to this news.
The airline is teaming up with Bilt to offer a way to fast-track your points (and status) earning.
Earn United miles for rent
Starting Dec. 4, you’ll earn two total miles for every $1 spent on rent when paying through the Bilt portal using any participating United MileagePlus card, including:
- United Gateway℠ Card
- United℠ Explorer Card
- United Quest℠ Card
- United Club℠ Card
- United Presidential Plus℠ Card
You’ll earn up to 2x miles on up to $50,000 of rent per calendar year.
The downside to this tie-up, however, is that you’ll need to pay Bilt’s standard 3% processing fee when using third-party cards to pay rent.
For example, say your rent is $5,000 a month. (Sadly, not unreasonable in New York City.)
Paying with an eligible United card via Bilt would earn you 10,000 MileagePlus miles for a cost of $150.
That’s like buying United miles at 1.5 cents per point. Personally, I’m not a buyer at that rate, but if you are chasing Premier status, then the equation changes. That’s because eligible cobranded United cards earn Premier Qualifying Points (PQPs) based on card spend, and for many people, rent is their most significant monthly expense.
If you need help closing the gap to a Premier level, this could be a great way to do it.
That said, there are a few things to consider.
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United recently introduced a no-fee debit card, dubbed the United MileagePlus Debit Rewards Card.
It earns one United mile for every $2 spent. If you use this card to pay rent, you’re only on the hook for Bilt’s $9.95 fee.
In the above example, you’d earn 2,500 United miles for $9.95. At that rate (0.4 cents/mile), I’m definitely a buyer. The only downside here is that you wouldn’t earn any PQPs, and you could do better by paying rent with the Bilt card.
When you use the Bilt card to pay rent, you earn one Bilt point per dollar spent with no transaction fees. This remains my favorite way to pay rent, despite this new United enhancement.
Just note that the Bilt card is currently closed for new applicants as we wait for the revamped suite of cards coming early next year.
Other ways to earn bonus points from rent
In addition to bonus United miles for paying rent, Bilt recently announced a tie-up with Alaska that awards bonus Atmos points for paying rent.
This is exclusive to the new Atmos™ Rewards Ascent Visa Signature® Credit Card and Atmos™ Rewards Summit Visa Infinite® Credit Card.
You’ll earn 3x Atmos Rewards points for rent payments made through Bilt, capped at up to $50,000 of annual spend (after that, you earn 1x points).
As before, you’ll need to pay Bilt’s standard 3% processing fee when using third-party cards to pay rent.
As you can see, the Alaska tie-up is more rewarding than the new United one. Unless you’re actively chasing United status, I’d personally prefer to rack up Atmos points at a 3x rate than MileagePlus miles at a 2x rate.
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