How I Earn Thousands of Bilt Points Without Having a Bilt Credit Card

Bilt Rewards is a valuable rewards currency, known for being the first rewards provider to offer points to users who pay rent with its credit cards. But what many people don’t know is that you don’t actually need to have a Bilt credit card to earn Bilt Points.

In fact, the Bilt Rewards program makes it easy for everyday consumers to double-dip on rewards. It also has new partnerships and products that make it even more lucrative.

Here’s everything you need to know about maximizing Bilt Rewards — even if you don’t have a Bilt credit card.

Earn Bilt Rewards Without a Bilt Credit Card

You can earn Bilt Rewards points by spending on anycredit card as long as you sign up for a Bilt Rewards account. These earnings are in addition to any points or miles you would earn from spending on your rewards credit card, or you could even pay using a debit card and still earn Bilt Points.

Start by navigating to the Bilt website and clicking Sign Up to create an account. Once you have an account, you can link your debit or credit cards to your Bilt account. Then, you’ll automatically earn additional Bilt Points at every business that’s part of Bilt Neighborhood Rewards, spots like restaurants, fitness centers (you have to reserve the class via Bilt), pharmacies, and parking.

For example, I’ve connected my Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card and my Chase Sapphire Reserve^® to my Bilt Neighborhood Rewards account, though you can add as many cards as you’d like to your Bilt Wallet. Imagine I reserved a class at my local Pure Barre Studio via Bilt and ate lunch at a local participating restaurant. If I paid with the Capital One Venture X card for my Pure Barre class and used my Chase Sapphire Reserve to pay for lunch, I’d earn:

• 2x Capital One miles at Pure Barre
• 3x Bilt Points at Pure Barre
• 3x Chase Ultimate Rewards for lunch
• 3x Bilt Points for lunch

Essentially, you can double-dip on many purchases by linking the right credit cards to your Bilt account. Plus, Bilt Neighborhood Rewards is free to join, so there’s no reason not to.

Pay Rent With Any Card

Bilt now allows consumers to pay rent (including student housing payments) with other credit cards and earn rewards. The downside? Using non-Bilt credit cards incurs a 3% fee on rent payments, which can negate some of the rewards.

Visa, Discover, and Mastercard credit cards get 1 Bilt Point per $1 spent in addition to whatever your card earns, while American Express cards get 0.5 Bilt Points per $1 spent in addition to whatever your card earns. If you use ACH payments, you earn 250 Bilt Points per payment.

Earn Bilt Rewards Elite Status

Bilt offers elite status tiers, which can be achieved by earning Bilt Points or spending on the Bilt credit cards. You can fast-track to status if you spend on the Bilt credit cards. If you earn status through qualifying points, it includes the points you earn in the calendar year from both rent and non-rental spend:

• Blue: Anyone enrolled in Bilt Rewards with fewer than 50,000 points
• Silver: 50,000 or more points
• Gold: 125,000 or more points
• Platinum: 200,000 or more points

Once you hold status, you can get increased bonuses on Rent Day, perks like complimentary Blade flights, the opportunity for Flying Blue status matches, and other benefits.

Other Key Partnerships

Bilt Rewards is a comprehensive program with a ton of everyday partnerships:

• Lyft: If you connect both accounts, you earn 2x Bilt points plus whatever you earn on your credit card. You can also redeem Bilt Points for Lyft rides.
• Walgreens: You can automatically apply FSA/HSA benefits to eligible items when shopping there and paying with any linked card. You also get a 100-point bonus on recurring prescriptions and 2x points on Walgreens-branded products.
• Rakuten: Members can convert cash-back earned from an online shopping portal into Bilt Points once they log into their Bilt account, link their Rakuten account, and select Bilt Points as their redemption preferences. For the first 6 months, members receive a rate of 100 Bilt Points for $1 in Rakuten cash back. After that, Bilt Rewards members with Blue status get 50 Bilt points for $1 in Rakuten cash back, while Silver, Gold, and Platinum Bilt Rewards members keep the conversion rate of 100 points for $1.

Why Bilt Rewards Points Are Valuable

Bilt Points are an extremely valuable reward currency, and earning them on top of your credit card spending rewards is amazing. I love to transfer Bilt Points to participating partners, and there’s a long list of airline and hotel loyalty programs:

We value Bilt Points at 2 cents per point when transferring them to partners. You can also book travel via the Bilt Travel Portal (powered by Expedia), which allows you to earn Bilt Points (and airline loyalty program points) or redeem your points for travel, like hotels, airline tickets, vacation packages, and car rentals.

Bilt Points are worth 1 cent per point on the Bilt Travel portal (or slightly more if you have a Bilt credit card). Although transferring almost always yields better value, in some circumstances, it may be worthwhile to book travel directly via the portal.

Lastly, you can use your Bilt Points to pay your student loans at a redemption value of 1 cent per point. This is still a valid option if you’re up to your ears in student debt and want to pay it off in programs like Nelnet, Mohela, Aidvantage, and others.

Final Thoughts

Bilt Points can offer a lot of value, and you can join Bilt Rewards for free, so it’s an easy choice. Although I don’t currently hold a Bilt credit card, I’m keeping my options open for the Bilt 2.0 cards. For now, though, I’ll continue to double-dip by earning credit card points and Bilt Points for the same purchases.