As the new year approaches, Bilt Rewards has laid out a series of changes coming to its credit cards.
About Bilt’s Credit Card Updates:
Bilt is getting ready for some major adjustments to its credit card offerings. Ahead of that, though, the company has announced some changes that are effective immediately. Now, Bilt Cash will not expire (except for a $100 rollover) at the end of the year as originally planned. Instead, Bilt Cash will expire 12 months after it was first earned. Additionally, annual Bilt Cash credits will be issued on the cardholder’s anniversary date rather than at the start of the calendar year.
Turning to the new year, the first big change is that Bilt will be phasing out its Flexible Bilt Cash option, which allowed customers to earn 4% back in Bilt Cash on all purchases. Instead, starting January 1st, new Bilt cardmembers will be in what was previously called “housing-only mode.” Cardholders will be able to earn up to 1.25x points on their housing payments depending on how much of their housing cost they spend on non-housing payment purchases.
- Spend 25% of Housing Payment: 0.5x points
- Spend 50% of Housing Payment: 0.75x points
- Spend 75% of Housing Payment: 1x points
- Spend 100%+ of Housing Payment: 1.25x points
For those cardholders approved for a card before January 1st, 2027, they’ll have the option to keep the Flexible Bilt Cash option intact. However, they’ll need to opt out of the switch before their cardholder anniversary date. Moreover, these cardholders will no longer have the ability to switch back and forth between options — once Flexible Bilt Cash is turned off, it will not be turned back on.
Bilt is also making updates to the credits that came with its Obsidian and Palladium cards. For the Obsidian card, the former $100 in Bilt Travel Hotel credits will now be issued as $100 Bilt Cash each account anniversary year. Similarly, Palladium cardholders will receive $600 in Bilt Cash on their account anniversary rather than getting the $200 Bilt Cash and $400 in Bilt Travel Hotel credits.
Lastly, Bilt is also introducing Bilt Daily Rewards. Starting January 15th, 2027, when a cardholder makes an on-time monthly housing payment or makes a qualifying neighborhood partner purchase, they’ll earn a Daily Reward. Each Daily Reward earned will offer two prize options for members to choose from. In addition to instant-win Rewards, there will also be “collectibles” that members can accrue for a chance to win a grand prize. Some grand prizes teased include $1,000,000 toward the purchase of a home, 10,000,000 Bilt Points, free rent or mortgage for a year, free Lyft rides for a year, and more.
My Thoughts:
It’s kind of wild to me that Bilt is making such big adjustments less than a year after rolling out its big Bilt 2.0 program. What’s also confusing to me is how the company is simultaneously re-emphasizing and de-emphasizing Bilt Cash. I don’t really know what to think.
As for Daily Rewards, I get the feeling that someone at Bilt thought up this idea after going to McDonald’s during their Monopoly game promotion. I can’t really complain about it because it’s just an additional perk, but it sure does sound gimmicky.
Overall, I’m not really sure what to think about these changes — but my instinct is to keep my Flexible Bilt Cash on, just because I don’t currently even make a housing payment with my card! However, I do look forward to following the discourse about these latest shake-ups.
