WHAT ARE THE BEST WAYS TO SPEND BILT CASH?

A Logical Guide for the Most Complex Credit Cards Ever

Max Plastic

8/9/20265 min read

Max’s Take:

You need to have the Bilt Cash rent payment option turned to earn Bilt Cash. When the option is turned on, your Bilt Cash will first be used to free rent points. If that absorbs all of your Bilt Cash, that’s okay. You’re earning at least 2.33 – 3.33 points per dollar spent, depending on the Bilt card you have.

If, however, you have enough everyday spend to have Bilt Cash left over, you have options to further squeeze benefits out of the card by spending that cash in the Bilt ecosystem. To get the most out of that cash, I would recommend (in this order):

  1. Look ahead to travel plans to see if $50 or $100 might be needed for a hotel stay. Use that as appropriate.

  2. Use $200 for points accelerators when available, the maximum 5 times, to earn a potential 25,000 bonus points in a year.

  3. Cash in on the smaller credits (GrubHub, Lyft, restaurant, Walgreen’s).

  4. Use any remaining Bilt Cash available to increase the Rent Day Transfer Bonus.

Bilt Cash provides great flexibility for use in the Bilt ecosystem. The concept is innovative and intelligent, and in a way more valuable than other credit cards offering a suite of credits for all cardholders which may or may not be used. With Bilt Cash, the cardholder chooses the credits they want to use so they can maximize their benefits if Bilt Cash is limited, based on their spending habits and needs.

For free guidance on any question you may have regarding Bilt credit cards, or questions about maxing your credit card portfolio or returns, contact us at email@maxyourplastic.com. We’ll guide you to the best solution, free of charge.

Credits Toward Purchases

Bilt Cash can be used for actual dollar value credits on a variety of purchases:

  • Hotel

  • Restaurant

  • GrubHub

  • Lyft

  • Blacklane

  • Blade

  • Fitness

  • Walgreen’s

  • more

Ahhhh, Rent Day. That first day of each month where our Bilt cards earn double points and Bilt reveals the transfer partner bonus. The bonus is dependent on your Bilt status, with higher status earning a larger bonus. Platinum members, for example, can earn double points with airline partners.

Whether you have Platinum or Blue status, you can use your Bilt Cash to purchase an increase in the transfer, usually an additional 25%. The cost of this has varied, but it seems to be settling in at $150. If you’re maxing out the transfer at 100,000 points, that 25% increase means 25,000 miles for $150. That equals 1.67 miles per cent, and that is a good deal.

Obviously, if you have the Bilt Cash available, you would want to activate this on a continual basis, but Bilt has set a maximum of 5 accelerators per year. Even with that limitation, that works out to a bonus you can earn of 25,000 points each year.

The Point Accelerator

Perhaps the best way to spend your Bilt Cash is through a Point Accelerator. Through this option, only available to Obsidian and Palladium card holders, Bilt allows you to use your Bilt Cash to increase points earned on your everyday spend. For $200 in Bilt Cash, an extra 1 point will be earned for each dollar over the next $5,000 spent. So, a Palladium cardholder would be earning 3x points on their everyday spend. There are no other credit cards available that pay 3x points on everything.

Here is the kicker…by the time you spend that $5,000, you will have earned more Bilt Cash…exactly $200 worth (4% of $5,000)! So, in essence, you will have earned 5,000 points for free. This comes in handy when large purchases are required.

The credits are available monthly, so they can be used time and again.

The math can be crazy fun when considering the return on these credits. For example, I have the Bilt Palladium card. Let’s consider if I used my Bilt card to purchase dinner in a place that is in the Bilt neighborhood restaurant network, on Rent Day, and I was later able to use the Bilt Cash earned for one of the above purchases. When I bought that dinner I would have earned:

  • 2x points for Palladium card

  • 2x points for Rent Day purchase (double points)

  • 3x points for neighborhood restaurant

  • 4% Bilt Cash rewards

That’s 7x points AND 4% cash back! Even if it is not Rent Day, I’d be earning 5x points and 4% cash back. How many credit cards earn you that much in any scenario?

Introduction

Whether you view the Bilt platform and credit cards as a pain in the neck or a challenge of cunning and strategy, we know this for sure: The Bilt rewards program is incredibly complex. To see a review of the Bilt credit cards and how they work, check out my article “BILT 2.0 CARDS – THE REAL SCOOP”.

In this article I’ll tackle Bilt Cash. I’ll address how it is accumulated, the multiple ways it can be used and the value of each.

This article includes:

  • Bilt Cash Accumulation

  • Unlocking Rent Points

  • Rent Day Transfer Bonus

  • Credits Toward Purchases

  • The Point Accelerator

Bilt Cash Accumulation

Bilt offers two methods to unlock points through rent or mortgage payments. The first is through a points chart which unlocks points in tiers, up to 125% of your paid rent, based on your everyday spend in relation to your rent. Bilt refers to these as “Housing-only rewards”, because the only option is to unlock points.

The second is through earning Bilt Cash and using it to unlock points. Bilt Cash is earned at a rate of 4% of your everyday spend. Then, if you have selected Bilt Cash as your method to unlock points, it is automatically applied at a rate of $3 per 100 points, up to a point total equaling your rent payment.

The selection of how to unlock points can be changed every statement cycle, as often as desired.

To see an analysis of how to determine the best option for you, check out my article “BILT CASH vs. THE POINTS CHART – WHICH OPTION IS BETTER?”

So what happens if you have an everyday spend which earns enough Bilt Cash to cover your entire rent? Your everyday spend continues to accumulate Bilt Cash at the 4% rate. What can you do with that extra Bilt Cash? Bilt allows you to carry-over only $100 into a new year, so if you have more than that you either use it or lose it. There are several options to use it, including unlocking rent points, spending it in the Bilt ecosystem, or applying points accelerators to increase your earnings rate.

Unlocking Rent Points

This is a solid return on your Bilt Cash. Because it is earned at 4% of your everyday spend, then applied to unlock rent points at 100points/$3, it is earning points at 1.33 per dollar of everyday spend (4% * 100/3). This is on top of the points earned through everyday spend. So a Blue card earns 2.33 points/dollar, a Palladium earns 3.33 per dollar, and an Obsidian varies depending on how much of your spend is on your 3x points category.

Rent Day Transfer Bonus
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