Every year, the TPG Awards honor excellence in credit cards, loyalty programs and travel. Please click here to read more about our winner selection process and methodology for the 2024 TPG Awards.
If you’re looking for a loyalty program ideal for renters, Bilt Rewards is a solid option. As a member, you’ll earn Bilt Points when you pay rent and make your regular everyday purchases. The points you earn can be redeemed for travel through loyalty partners, rent or future down payments, fitness classes, and more.
Plus, there are no transaction fees (see rates and fees) on rent payments when you use the Bilt Mastercard®. You can earn up to 100,000 points on rent per calendar year.
We’re celebrating the Bilt Mastercard (see rates and fees) for winning the Best No-Annual-Fee Travel Rewards Credit Card award at the 2024 TPG Awards. This card is a powerhouse for renters, who can earn valuable Bilt points on their rent payments with no transaction fee. You must make at least five transactions on the card every statement period to earn points (see rewards and benefits).
While we love this card, you don’t need to have it to earn and redeem points in the Bilt Rewards program.
TPG’s May 2025 valuations place Bilt points at 2.05 cents apiece, though there are plenty of ways to get more value from them. Let’s delve 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?
Perhaps most notably, you can earn Bilt points by paying your rent. With the Bilt Mastercard, you can earn points on rent with no transaction fee (see rates and fees).
How do you earn Bilt Rewards points?
You don’t necessarily need to have the Bilt Mastercard or pay rent to earn Bilt points. There are nine primary ways to earn Bilt points.
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1. Earning Bilt points by paying rent
You can earn 1 point per dollar spent on rent at any home (up to 100,000 points per calendar year) by paying your rent with the Bilt Mastercard.
You can pay your rent with your Bilt Mastercard through the Bilt app, but if your landlord only accepts physical checks, don’t fret. You can still pay your rent with the Bilt Mastercard on the app, and then Bilt will mail your landlord a rent check each month, allowing you to earn points on rent without incurring any additional transaction fees (see rates and fees). If applicable, you can also process payments through Venmo and your landlord’s online rent portal.
As of April 2025, you can now use a credit card that isn’t a Bilt Mastercard 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 route.
2. Earning Bilt points with the Bilt Mastercard
Speaking of the Bilt Mastercard, it offers a simple earning structure:
- 5 points per dollar spent with Bilt Dining partners and Lyft, once you link your Bilt and Lyft accounts and pay with the Bilt Mastercard
- 3 points per dollar spent on dining
- 2 points per dollar spent on travel booked directly with the provider or through the Bilt Travel Portal and on Walgreens purchases and prescriptions
- 1 point per dollar spent on rent payments (up to 100,000 points per calendar year) and all other purchases
You must use your card at least five times during each statement period to earn points.
This no-annual-fee card (see rates and fees) offers impressive perks, including an Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver, Trip Cancellation and Interruption Protection, and No Foreign Transaction Fees (see rates and fees).
You do not need to pay rent to apply for the Bilt Mastercard.
Related: Should you pay your rent with Bilt? We crunch the numbers
3. 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 your Bilt Mastercard, you’ll earn 3 additional points per dollar spent*, for a total of up to 6 Bilt points per dollar spent. Put differently, that’s a 12.3% return on your dining purchases, according to TPG’s May 2025 valuations.
Bilt states that you can earn up to 10 points per dollar spent on eating at a Bilt Dining restaurant and paying with any eligible card on file in your Bilt Wallet. Plus, there is no cap on how many points you can earn through Bilt Dining.
4. Earning Bilt points on the Bilt travel portal
Expedia powers Bilt’s travel portal, where you can earn points on flights, hotel stays, car rentals and things to do. As a Bilt member, you earn 1 point per dollar spent on travel booked through the portal.
As a Bilt Mastercard holder, you earn 2 points per dollar spent on travel booked through the portal and 2 additional points per dollar by charging your purchase to the card*. That is a total of 4 Bilt points per dollar spent.
5. Earning Bilt points with referrals
You’ll earn 2,500 points each time you refer a friend to the Bilt Mastercard, on up to 50 total referrals. For every five referrals, you earn 10,000 bonus points. You can refer friends to the card through the website or app.
6. Earning Bilt points with Lyft
You can earn 2 Bilt points per dollar spent on Lyft rides when you link your accounts. When you pay for your ride with the Bilt Mastercard*, you’ll also receive an additional 3 Bilt points per dollar spent.
7. Earning Bilt points with fitness studios
You can earn up to 10 points per dollar spent on fitness classes booked through the Bilt app.
These studios include SoulCycle, Pure Barre, Barry’s and Rumble Boxing.
8. 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, when 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 top 10-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 based on who played the game first.
9. Earning Bilt points on home buying
In 2024, Bilt launched a new way to earn points: home buying. The loyalty program partnered with eXp Realty, and when you work with an eXp agent, Bilt members will earn 1 point for every $2 of a home purchase price. For example, if you purchase a home for $500,000 using an eXp Realty agent, you could earn up to 250,000 Bilt points. According to TPG’s May 2025 valuations, those points would be worth $5,125.
*You must use your card at least five times during each statement period to earn points.
Bilt Rewards elite status tiers
Every member of Bilt Rewards starts in the Blue tier.
| Blue | Silver | Gold | Platinum | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Option 1: Bilt points qualification | All Bilt Rewards members | 50,000 points | 125,000 points | 200,000 points |
| Option 2: Fast track with spending | All Bilt Rewards members | $10,000 spent | $25,000 spent | $50,000 spent |
| Earn interest on your points (at the FDIC-published national savings rate) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Blade benefits | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ (including a complimentary Blade flight) | |
| Access to complimentary homeownership concierge | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| Rent Day transfer bonuses | Higher transfer bonuses | Gold-level transfer bonuses | Platinum-level transfer bonuses |
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-KLM award flight.
After requesting status, it may take up to three business days for your Flying Blue Gold status to become officially active.
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 like 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
Transfer your Bilt points to travel partners
| Program | Transfer ratio | Transfer time |
|---|---|---|
| ALL — Accor Live Limitless | 3:2 | ** |
| Aer Lingus AerClub | 1:1 | Within minutes |
| Air Canada Aeroplan | 1:1 | Within 24 hours |
| Air France-KLM Flying Blue | 1:1 | Within minutes |
| Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan | 1:1 | Within minutes |
| Avianca LifeMiles | 1:1 | Up to 72 hours |
| British Airways Club | 1:1 | Within minutes |
| Cathay Pacific Asia Miles | 1:1 | Within minutes |
| Emirates Skywards | 1:1 | Within minutes |
| Hilton Honors | 1:1 | Within minutes |
| Club Iberia Plus | 1:1 | Within minutes |
| IHG One Rewards | 1:1 | Within minutes |
| Japan Airlines Mileage Bank | 1:1 | ** |
| Marriott Bonvoy | 1:1, with 5,000 bonus points for every 20,000 points you transfer in a single transfer | Within 48 hours |
| Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards | 1:1 | ** |
| TAP Miles&Go | 1:1 | ** |
| Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles | 1:1 | Within minutes |
| United Airlines MileagePlus | 1:1 | Within minutes |
| Virgin Atlantic Flying Club | 1:1 | Within minutes |
| World of Hyatt | 1:1 | Within minutes |
**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 Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan, Air Canada Aeroplan, Air France-KLM Flying Blue, Virgin Atlantic Flying Club 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.
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 carriers, such as Emirates Skywards, and up to a 100% transfer bonus to Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan for July 2024 Rent Day. Additionally, Bilt has previously offered a 100% transfer bonus to Flying Blue.
Related: The best airline award chart sweet spots
How to use Bilt points: Medium-value options
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.
Redeem for travel on the Bilt travel portal
How to use Bilt points: Poor-value options
Use points for Amazon purchases
You can select your Bilt Mastercard 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 May 2025 valuation of 2.05 cents per Bilt point, and it’s not necessarily the best deal.
Shop the Bilt Collection
The Bilt Collection is a curated list of items, including art, home decor and apparel. The value per point will vary, but since it rarely exceeds more than 1 cent per point, you should likely pass on this option.
Redeem your points for fitness classes
Fitness enthusiasts can redeem their Bilt points to attend name-brand classes like SoulCycle, Solidcore, and Y7 Studio. The value will depend on the class you select, but it hovers around 1 cent per point.
Redeem your points for rent
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.
Related: Ways college students can meet credit card minimum spending requirements
Frequently asked questions
Does the Bilt Mastercard charge a fee to pay rent?
No, the Bilt Mastercard does not charge a transaction fee (see rates and fees) when you use it to pay rent through Bilt Rewards. However, you can only earn 100,000 points on rent each calendar year, and you must make at least five transactions with the card in each statement period to earn points.
Can you use Bilt without the Bilt Mastercard?
Yes. You do not have to hold the Bilt Mastercard 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.
What are Bilt points worth?
TPG’s May 2025 valuations deem Bilt points as worth 2.05 cents per point. Depending on how you redeem your points, however, you could get a much higher or lower value for them.
Is the Bilt Mastercard worth it?
The Bilt Mastercard could be worth it if you want to earn points on rent without incurring a transaction fee (see rates and fees). The card also features popular bonus categories and could be a great option if you find value in the program’s transfer partners.
However, the card doesn’t feature a traditional welcome bonus, and some features aren’t as useful if you live in a less populated area. So, as with any decision, you should consider what you want in a card before you apply.
Related: Bilt Mastercard review: No-transaction-fee rent payments
Bottom line
Even if you aren’t renting or don’t want to apply for the Bilt Mastercard, you can earn lots of points by linking your Lyft account, enrolling in Bilt Dining and booking travel through the Bilt portal.
See Bilt Mastercard rates and fees here.
See Bilt Mastercard rewards and benefits here.
