Bilt Rewards program: Earn points on housing, card benefits and more

Since its launch in 2021, Bilt Rewards has been known as the program that awards points for rent. Through the years, Bilt has undergone a bevy of updates and changes — perhaps none quite as splashy and newsworthy as the rollout of three all-new Bilt 2.0 cards in January 2026.

But there’s much more to Bilt than housing rewards and credit cards. And you don’t have to make housing payments through Bilt or have a Bilt credit card to earn valuable Bilt Points through the loyalty program.

These points can be redeemed for travel through loyalty partners, put toward rent or future down payments on a house, shopping on Amazon, and more.

TPG’s February 2026 valuations deem Bilt points to be the most valuable currency on the market, at 2.2 cents apiece. However, there are plenty of ways to get even more value from them.

Bilt Palladium Card (see rates and fees): Earn 50,000 Bilt points plus Gold status after spending $4,000 on non-housing purchases in the first three months. You can earn $300 of Bilt Cash upon approval (up to $100 of Bilt Cash earned rolls over to the next year).

Let’s dive into all the details of the Bilt Rewards loyalty program and explore how to earn and redeem points for maximum value.

What is Bilt Rewards?

Bilt Rewards is a loyalty program that lets you earn points to redeem toward travel, a down payment on a home, gift cards, Lyft rides, Amazon purchases and more.

You can earn Bilt points by simply becoming a member (for free), linking a qualifying card to your Bilt Rewards account and transacting with Bilt partners.

Perhaps most notably, you can earn Bilt points on rent and mortgage payments and by spending on one of the issuer’s three cobranded cards:

• Bilt Blue Card (see rates and fees): Entry-level card, $0 annual fee (see rates and fees)
• Bilt Obsidian Card (see rates and fees): Mid-tier card, $95 annual fee (see rates and fees)
• Bilt Palladium Card: Premium card, $495 annual fee (see rates and fees)

As mentioned above, you don’t have to be a renter, homeowner or Bilt cardholder to be a Bilt Rewards member. You can create a free rewards account, link your cards and earn Bilt points any time you transact with one of Bilt’s partners (including restaurants, ride-hailing services, pharmacies, fitness classes and more).

Related: Are you eligible for a new Bilt Rewards card welcome offer? Your biggest Bilt card questions answered

How do you earn Bilt Rewards points?

There are multiple ways you can earn Bilt points. Here’s a deep dive on each method.

Earning Bilt points with a Bilt card

Each Bilt card provides a unique points-earning structure. These cards also earn points on rent and mortgage payments and offer the option to earn Bilt Cash (a separate rewards currency) on everyday purchases, but we’ll dive into these earnings later. Right now, let’s focus on how many Bilt points these cards earn on everyday, nonhousing spending.

With the Bilt Blue, you’ll earn 1 point per dollar spent on everyday purchases.

With the Bilt Obsidian, you’ll earn:

• 3 points per dollar spent on your choice of grocery (up to $25,000 per year) or dining*
• 2 points per dollar spent on travel
• 1 point per dollar spent on everyday purchases

*Your category choice remains in effect for the entire calendar year.

With the Bilt Palladium, you’ll earn 2 points per dollar spent on everyday purchases.

To learn more about the Bilt cards, read our full reviews of the Bilt Blue, Bilt Obsidian and Bilt Palladium.

Earning Bilt points on rent and mortgage payments

If you have the Bilt Blue, Bilt Obsidian or Bilt Palladium, you can make rent or mortgage payments through Bilt without incurring a transaction fee.

However, you have to track your spending — and do a little bit of math — to unlock your housing points through Bilt.

A note on Bilt Cash: We will dive deeper into the ins and outs of Bilt Cash, Bilt’s internal rewards currency, and how to redeem it later. For now, it’s worth noting that all three Bilt cards earn 4% back on everyday purchases in the form of Bilt Cash** — as long as you opt in to earn Bilt Cash when you decide on your housing rewards structure.

**Up to $100 of Bilt Cash earned rolls over to the next year.

Related: I earned points paying my mortgage via Bilt — how to set up your account to do the same

When you set up your Bilt card, you are prompted to select between two housing rewards structures. These are as follows:

• Flexible Bilt Cash option: Redeem Bilt Cash to unlock Bilt points on your housing payment at the following rate: $30 in Bilt Cash equals earning 1 point per dollar spent on $1,000 of your housing payment (maintaining the ability to earn 4% Bilt Cash on all nonhousing purchases).
• Housing-Only (no Bilt Cash option): Earn Bilt points automatically on your housing payments each billing cycle based on how much you spend on everyday purchases with your Bilt Card (forgoing the ability to earn 4% Bilt Cash on all nonhousing purchases). The number of points you earn depends on how much everyday spending you do compared to your monthly housing payment during that billing cycle.

If you choose the Housing-Only system of earning (and forgo earning Bilt Cash), these are your earning tiers:

• If you spend at least 25% of your monthly housing payment(s) on everyday purchases on the Bilt card, you’ll earn 0.5 points per dollar spent on your rent or mortgage payment that month.
• If you spend at least 50% of your monthly housing payment(s) on everyday purchases on the Bilt card, you’ll earn 0.75 points per dollar spent on your rent or mortgage payment that month.
• If you spend at least 75% of your monthly housing payment(s) on everyday purchases on the Bilt card, you’ll earn 1 point per dollar spent on your rent or mortgage payment that month.
• If you spend the amount of your monthly housing payment(s) or more in everyday purchases on the Bilt card, you’ll earn 1.25 points per dollar spent on your rent or mortgage payment that month.

To learn more about these earning structures, read our full article on earning housing rewards through Bilt.

You could also use a credit card that isn’t a Bilt card to pay rent, though it may not be the best option. If you use a Visa, Discover or Mastercard, you’ll earn 1 Bilt point per dollar spent on rent. Using an American Express card, you’ll earn 1 Bilt point for every $2 spent. However, you’ll incur a 3% transaction fee with this option.

Earning Bilt points through Bilt Dining

Bilt also has its own dining rewards program called Bilt Dining.

You can link any Visa, Mastercard or American Express credit card to the Bilt Dining program to earn up to 3 points per dollar spent at Bilt Dining restaurants when you pay with any eligible card in your Bilt Wallet. These earnings come in addition to what you earn with your credit card.

For example, if you pay with the Bilt Palladium, you can earn up to 3 additional points per dollar spent on top of the 2 points per dollar spent earned on everyday spending with the Palladium — for a total of up to 5 Bilt points per dollar spent. That’s an 11% return on your dining purchases, according to TPG’s valuations.

If you have the Bilt Obsidian and opt to earn 3 points per dollar spent on dining purchases, you could potentially earn up to 6 total Bilt points per dollar spent at Bilt Dining restaurants, a return of 13.2%, per TPG’s valuations.

There is no cap on how many points you can earn through Bilt Dining.

To learn more about earning Bilt points this way, read our full Bilt Dining guide.

Earning Bilt points on the Bilt Travel portal

The Bilt Travel portal allows members to earn points on flights, hotel stays, car rentals and activities.

As a Bilt Rewards member, you earn 1 point per dollar spent on flights booked through the portal and 2 points per dollar spent on hotel bookings made through the portal.

These points also stack with what you’ll earn using a Bilt card, resulting in the following earning rates:

• Bilt Blue: 3 points per dollar spent on hotel stays booked through the Bilt Travel portal, 2 points per dollar spent on flights booked through the portal
• Bilt Obsidian and Bilt Palladium: 4 points per dollar spent on hotel stays booked through the portal, 3 points per dollar spent on flights booked through the portal

Earning Bilt points with Lyft

You can earn 2 Bilt points per dollar spent on Lyft rides when you link your accounts.

As with earning on the Bilt Travel portal, these points also stack with what you’ll earn using a Bilt card, resulting in the following earning rates:

• Bilt Blue: 3 points per dollar spent on Lyft
• Bilt Obsidian and Bilt Palladium: 4 points per dollar spent on Lyft

Earning Bilt points with Walgreens

Bilt Rewards members also earn bonus points when they use a linked card in their Bilt Wallet or a phone number associated with their Bilt account at Walgreens checkout. These rates stack with everyday spending rates on Bilt cards.

Here is what you can expect to earn:

• 2 points per dollar spent on Walgreens-branded products
• 1 point per dollar spent on other purchases made at Walgreens
• 100 points per prescription refill with Walgreens (on up to 26 refills per calendar year)

Earning Bilt points with fitness studios

You can also earn up to 3 points per dollar spent when you book certain fitness classes through Bilt and use any linked card from the Bilt app or website. These earning rates also stack with everyday spending bonuses on Bilt cards.

Here are some example partners:

• Barry’s
• BFT
• CorePower Yoga
• CycleBar
• Pure Barre
• Rumble Boxing
• SoulCycle
• YogaSix
• Y7

Many fitness studio partners also provide complimentary items, such as mats, shoes, towels or smoothies, when you book through Bilt.

Earning Bilt points with referrals

Before Bilt’s 2.0 card revamp, you could earn referral bonuses for sharing links with your friends to sign up for Bilt Rewards.

I asked a Bilt support agent what the current earning rate is for these referrals. They wrote, “More details about the Bilt Card referral program, including a referral link you can share with friends, will be coming soon.”

So, for now, we’ll have to wait and see how much you can earn with referrals.

Earning Bilt points by playing the ‘Rent Free’ game

Bilt offers a game show-style opportunity for members to earn extra points on Bilt Rent Day (the first of the month): “Rent Free.”

“Rent Free” is set up like “Family Feud,” with a new creator or personality playing the game each month. As a Bilt member, you can earn points with “Rent Free” when you pick a top-three answer, you correctly rank that answer (double points) and when the celebrity guest picks the same answer as you (triple points).

On top of earning points, the 10 top-scoring players will win free rent for a month (up to $2,500). The next 600 top-scoring members will get Bilt points. If you tie, the tie will be broken by who played first.

Related: Bilt 2.0 transition questions answered: What you need to know

Bilt Rewards elite status tiers

Bilt offers four status tiers: Blue, Silver, Gold and Platinum.

You can reach Bilt elite status in two ways: earning Bilt points and receiving fast-track status through spending on your Bilt card and within the Bilt ecosystem.

While you won’t earn fast-track status on rent and mortgage payments, you can earn status through:

• Bilt Dining restaurant purchases made with any card linked to your Bilt Wallet
• Fitness classes booked through Bilt
• Lyft rides when Bilt is set as your rewards partner
• Nonhousing spending on your Bilt card
• Purchases made in the Bilt Travel portal
• Walgreens spending with any card linked to your Bilt account

Every Bilt Rewards member starts in the Blue tier.

Here’s a quick overview.

Your member status is based on the total points earned in a calendar year. You’ll receive the higher of the two statuses through qualifying points or via spending on the fast-track path.

You won’t earn Bilt points toward status through referrals, courtesy points, points from member surveys or incremental campaign bonus points.

No matter when you earn status in a calendar year, it’s good for the rest of that year and the following year.

Bilt Platinum members can apply for an Air France-KLM Flying Blue status match

Bilt Platinum members can receive 12 months of Flying Blue Gold status.

To activate this status match, members must go to the Bilt app and select “Elite Status Match.” Then, members must transfer 10,000 Bilt points to Flying Blue to officially activate their Gold status. Luckily, these 10,000 points can be used toward a future Air France or KLM award flight.

Flying Blue Gold status will give Bilt members additional airline perks and qualify them for SkyTeam Elite Plus status, which includes benefits on other SkyTeam airlines, such as Delta Air Lines.

Learn more about specific Flying Blue Gold status perks on Flying Blue’s tier benefits page and the added benefits of having SkyTeam Elite Plus status on SkyTeam’s FAQ page.

Related: How to earn ‘interest’ on your points balance with Bilt Rewards

How to use Bilt points: Best-value option

The Bilt Rewards loyalty program gives you many ways to use your points, but not every method carries equal value.

Let’s start with the best way for you to redeem your Bilt points. Nothing beats the outsize value of transferring your points to Bilt’s airline and hotel partners.

Transfer your Bilt points to travel partners

Joining these loyalty programs is free, even if you’ve never flown with the airline or stayed with the hotel brand.

By transferring your Bilt points to the right programs, you can easily get 2.2 cents per point in value (according to TPG’s valuations) — and perhaps much more — and score a lie-flat airplane seat or a luxurious hotel stay.

***TPG has not yet tested transferring Bilt points to these programs.

Best-value transfer partners

Bilt Rewards partners with some of our favorite airline and hotel loyalty programs, including Air Canada Aeroplan, Air France-KLM Flying Blue, Atmos Rewards and World of Hyatt.

These programs have largely kept standard award charts for award flights and hotel nights, meaning you’ll pay a predictable rate and can often get outsize value from your points.

One of my favorite ways to redeem Bilt points is transferring them to Atmos Rewards to book short-haul domestic American Airlines flights for 4,500 to 6,000 points one-way.

Transfer bonuses

Bilt Rewards has historically offered some of the best transfer bonuses we’ve seen during Rent Day (the first of every month).

These have included 150% transfer bonuses to some programs, such as Emirates Skywards, and a 100% transfer bonus to Flying Blue (offers no longer available).

Related: The best airline award chart sweet spots

How to use Bilt points: Medium-value options

The following redemption options offer decent value, with a redemption rate of at least 1 cent per point.

Use your points to save up for a down payment on a home

Bilt offers the unique ability for users to save up their points toward a down payment on a home.

If you opt for this route, your Bilt points are valued at 1.5 cents each toward a down payment. This means 10,000 Bilt points are worth $150 toward your down payment.

Redeem for travel on the Bilt Travel portal

You can use the Bilt Travel portal to offset the cost of flights, stays, rental cars and activities at a rate of 1.25 cents per point.

How to use Bilt points: Lower-value options

If you want to extract maximum value from your Bilt Rewards points, you’ll likely want to avoid some of these less valuable redemption options.

Buy gift cards

Bilt points are worth about 0.7 cents each when redeemed for gift cards, so we don’t typically recommend this option.

Use points for Amazon purchases

You can select your Bilt card on Amazon as a payment method and redeem your points to cover all or a portion of your purchase at checkout. However, Bilt points are worth 0.7 cents each when used this way.

For example, you’ll need approximately 14,300 Bilt points to cover a $100 Amazon purchase. Compare that to TPG’s valuation of 2.2 cents per Bilt point, and it’s not necessarily the best deal if you want to maximize your points.

Redeem for Lyft rides

While Bilt Rewards members can use their points for Lyft rides, the standard redemption rate is about 0.7 cents per point, so this isn’t a recommended redemption option.

Shop the Home Design Collection

The Bilt Home Design Collection is a curated list of items, including art, home decor and apparel.

The value per point will vary, but it rarely exceeds more than 1 cent per point.

Redeem your points for fitness classes

Fitness enthusiasts can redeem their Bilt points to attend name-brand classes like those available through Pure Barre, SoulCycle and Y7. The value will depend on the class you select, but it hovers around 1 cent per point.

Redeem your points for housing payments

A potentially enticing option with your points is to save them to help cover your next rent payment. However, the redemption value is just 0.55 cents per point, so this is not the best-value choice.

Related: 10 ways college students can meet credit card minimum spending requirements

What is Bilt Cash?

Bilt Cash is an entirely separate rewards currency from Bilt points and can be used for certain purchases and upgrades within the Bilt ecosystem.

How to earn Bilt Cash

If you choose the Flexible Bilt Cash housing rewards option, you’ll earn 4% Bilt Cash on all everyday purchases made with the Bilt Blue, Bilt Obsidian or Bilt Palladium.

Bilt Cash is also included in all three of the Bilt cards’ welcome offers:

• Bilt Blue: Earn $100 in Bilt Cash when you apply and are approved.
• Bilt Obsidian: Earn $200 in Bilt Cash when you apply and are approved.
• Bilt Palladium: Earn 50,000 bonus points and Bilt Gold status (through the rest of the calendar year in which it was earned and the following calendar year) after spending $4,000 on non-housing purchases in the first three months from account opening. Additionally, cardholders receive $300 in Bilt Cash upon approval and $200 in additional annual Bilt Cash.

The Bilt Palladium provides $200 in Bilt Cash each calendar year as a running card benefit. Up to $100 of Bilt Cash earned rolls over to the next year.

Regardless of whether or not you have a Bilt card, you’ll earn $50 in Bilt Cash for every 25,000 Bilt points earned toward elite status.

Related: What is Bilt Cash? How to earn and redeem this new reward currency

Redeem Bilt Cash for higher everyday spending earning rates on Obsidian and Palladium

If you have the Bilt Obsidian or Bilt Palladium, you can redeem $200 in Bilt Cash to receive a point accelerator on everyday spending.

You’ll earn 1 extra point per dollar spent on all everyday purchases for the next $5,000 in spending after you activate. This can be used for up to five activations per year, and expires after $5,000 in spending or at the end of the year.

This effectively boosts the Bilt Palladium to a card that earns 3 points per dollar on everyday spending. It also means the Bilt Obsidian earns 4 points per dollar spent on either dining or grocery (on up to $25,000 per year), 3 points per dollar spent on travel, and 2 points per dollar spent on everyday purchases.

This is a fantastic use of Bilt Cash if you have either one of these cards, and you can apply the point accelerator as soon as you get the card, since both cards provide at least $200 in Bilt Cash when you’re approved.

Redeem Bilt Cash for elevated transfer bonuses

You can also redeem Bilt Cash to unlock one higher status tier on Rent Day transfer bonuses.

This is a solid option if an especially lucrative transfer bonus comes across your radar, and you’re not a top-tier Bilt status holder. For instance, if you’re a Gold member, you can unlock a Platinum-level bonus by redeeming Bilt Cash.

Bilt provided an example cost of $75 to unlock a higher status tier for transfer bonuses, but labeled that this is subject to change.

Other Bilt Cash redemption options

There are a vast number of other redemption options for your Bilt Cash, including fitness credits, hotel stays booked through the Bilt Travel portal, Lyft credits, Blade helicopter rides and more.

To learn more, read our full article on how to redeem Bilt Cash.

Frequently asked questions

Do the Bilt cards charge a fee to pay rent or mortgage?

No, you will not pay a transaction fee when you use the Bilt Blue, Bilt Obsidian or Bilt Palladium to make rent or mortgage payments.

However, you will have to put some nonhousing spending on your card to receive points for these purchases, as outlined in the section on “Earning Bilt points on rent and mortgage payments.”

Can you use Bilt without a Bilt credit card?

Yes. You do not have to hold a Bilt card to enroll in Bilt Rewards and earn Bilt points in the program.

Does my landlord/management company have to have a partnership with Bilt?

No, you can use Bilt to pay rent even if your landlord does not partner with the program.

Related: 8 different types of credit cards

Bottom line

There’s a lot going on with Bilt Rewards, which can be a good thing if you’re ready to go all-in on the program — but could also be a detractor for travelers looking for something less complicated.

There is a lot of value to be found in the Bilt program, especially since you don’t have to have a Bilt card or use Bilt for your housing expenses to earn points. The only thing you have to do to earn Bilt points with partners is open a free account and link eligible cards.

Of course, if you want to maximize your Bilt Rewards experience and earning and redemption options, adding a Bilt card, choosing the best housing rewards earning structure and working toward elite status is the ideal option.

With such valuable rewards on the table, Bilt Rewards is worth a look for many travelers.

Related: The best premium credit cards: A side-by-side comparison