Big Changes at Bilt: More Rent Rewards, New Ways to Use Points

Bilt Rewards continues to prove itself as a top-tier rewards currency. Over the past month, the rewards program has added new ways to earn points on rent payments, more travel partners and more redemption options.

The positive changes have been rolling out fast. Here’s a summary of what’s new.

Earn more Bilt Points by paying rent with any credit card

Bilt now allows users to earn more Bilt points by using any credit card to pay rent. To get started, you'll need to join Bilt Rewards — it's free — and link a card to your account.

Previously, any rent payment that wasn’t made with the Bilt World Elite Mastercard® Credit Card was capped at earning 250 Bilt points per payment, or 3,000 Bilt points annually. There’s a 3% fee for using any third-party cards for rent payments, but you’ll also receive rewards from your credit card in addition to Bilt Rewards.

• Visa, Mastercard and Discover cards will earn 1 Bilt point per $1 on rent. 

• American Express cards will earn 1 Bilt point per $2 on rent. 

• The Alaska Airlines Visa Signature® credit card will continue earning 3 Alaska Mileage Plan miles per $1 on rent and does not earn Bilt points.

• The Bilt World Elite Mastercard® Credit Card will continue to earn 1 Bilt point per $1 on rent with no transaction fees. With this card, earnings are capped at 100,000 points per calendar year on rent payments. This cap doesn't apply to third-party cards.

If you're using the Bilt World Elite Mastercard® Credit Card, keep in mind that the card must be used five times per statement period to earn points on rent and qualifying net purchases (purchases minus returns and credits) for that statement period. If you don't make at least five transactions in a statement period, you’ll earn a flat 250 points when you use the card to pay rent through the Bilt app or website.

If you use a different card to pay rent, that 3% fee could be easy to overcome with the right credit card sign-up bonus.

Southwest Airlines joins as a transfer partner (with a Rent Day bonus)

Bilt expanded its partner network by adding Southwest Rapid Rewards as a transfer partner. Bilt points will transfer to Southwest at a 1:1 ratio, meaning one Bilt point becomes one Southwest point. NerdWallet values Southwest points at 1.3 cents each, which makes this an OK deal, although you can probably do better by transferring to other partners, such as World of Hyatt.

Southwest has recently been in the news for all the wrong reasons, including the introduction of dynamic pricing to point redemptions, so be sure to understand those changes before you transfer points.

Bilt is also making Southwest its monthly Rent Day transfer bonus for May 1, 2025. Depending on your Bilt Rewards elite status, you’ll receive between a 25% and 100% bonus for points transfers to Southwest — but like other Rent Day deals, it’s available for one day only.

» MORE: The guide to Bilt transfer partners

Bilt points can now be redeemed for student loan payments

Bilt Rewards can now be redeemed for payments to student loans serviced by Nelnet, MOHELA, Sallie Mae, Aidvantage and Navient. Points are worth 1 cent each when redeemed toward student loan payments. You can use the Bilt website or app to apply your points to your student loan balance.

While you can get better value for your rewards by transferring them to travel partners, this could be a great way to pay down your student loan balance faster. If your rent is $1,500 per month and you use your Bilt Rewards credit card each month for the payment, that could be an extra $1,800 per year you can funnel toward paying down your student loans.

Points can be redeemed at retailers, too — but it’s not a great deal

Bilt World Elite Mastercard® Credit Card holders can now redeem Bilt points for up to $10 in savings during checkout at Walmart, Walgreens, CITGO, CVS, BP and Dollar General. Points are worth 0.55 cent each at these merchants, with the exception of Walgreens Pharmacy where points are worth 0.7 cent each. These redemptions don’t give you a good value for your points, but it’s nice to have options. To redeem points at one of these stores, pay with your Bilt World Elite Mastercard® Credit Card at checkout and select “Yes” to redeem points when prompted at the terminal.