Bilt Rewards: How the Program Works

Bilt Rewards is a loyalty program that lets you earn points for paying your rent, with no transaction fees. You can redeem those points for things like travel or rent, or transfer points to several popular hotel and airline programs. The program is free to join and doesn't require opening a credit card, but you'll be able to earn rewards faster with the Bilt World Elite Mastercard® Credit Card. The card earns points on rent payments up to 100,000 points each calendar year.

Bilt Rewards members can also opt in to rent reporting, which allows Bilt to report rent payment information to the three major credit bureaus. By contrast, many landlords only report negative information such as collections or judgments for unpaid rent or damage to the rental. A history of on-time rent payments can boost your credit score. Note that rent reporting is only available to tenants who live in a Bilt Rewards Alliance residence, a collection of more than 4 million rental properties.

Here’s what you need to know about the Bilt Rewards loyalty program including how to earn and redeem points.

There are four tiers in the Bilt Rewards program: Blue, Silver, Gold and Platinum. Some of the benefits of leveling up in the program are earning interest on Bilt points and access to more perks.

There are two ways to earn elite status:

• Earn Bilt points, including by using the Bilt World Elite Mastercard® Credit Card.

• Spend money at Walgreens, on fitness classes booked through Bilt, Bilt Dining restaurants, Lyft rides when Bilt is set as the rewards partner in the Lyft app, and travel in the Bilt Travel Portal. Eligible purchases made with any debit or credit card linked to your Bilt Rewards account count toward elite status.

Once you earn elite status, you keep it all the way through to the end of the following calendar year. For example, if you earn elite status in May 2025, your status remains active until December 31, 2026. So, the sooner you earn status in a given year, the better.

For every 25,000 Bilt points you earn, you'll also get limited-time offers, such as additional points on Neighborhood Dining.

Paying rent on a Bilt Alliance property

If you live in a Bilt Rewards Alliance residence, you can earn 250 points by paying your rent through the Bilt Payment Center with a credit card, debit card or ACH withdrawal.

The Bilt Rewards Alliance consists of more than four million rental units across the U.S. Participating real estate companies include:

• Berkshire Residential.

• Camden.

• Equity Residential.

• Highmark.

• Starwood.

• ZRS.

To find out if your rental company is in the Bilt Alliance, ask your property manager.

Paying rent on a non-Bilt Alliance property

If your landlord isn't part of the Bilt Rewards Alliance, you can still earn points on rent payments. You’ll get 250 Bilt points when you pay rent with a linked debit or credit card.

» MORE: How paying rent with Bilt can net you a free Disney trip

Using the Bilt World Elite Mastercard® Credit Card

Bilt cardholders earn Bilt points on any purchase — including rent. Cardholders get:

• Unlimited 3 points per dollar spent on dining.

• Unlimited 2 points per dollar spent on travel (direct bookings with airlines, hotels, motels, resorts, cruise lines and car rental agencies).

• Unlimited 2 points per dollar spent on purchases made through the Bilt Travel Portal.

• 1 point per dollar spent on rent with no transaction fees (up to 100,000 Bilt points in a calendar year).

• Unlimited 1 point per dollar spent on other purchases.

To earn Bilt points in a given billing cycle, you must make five transactions with the Bilt card within that time frame. Rent payments count as one of the five transactions. Until you hit the transaction requirement, points will show as pending in your account. Once you’ve made five transactions, the points will become available.

Every month, Bilt cardholders have an opportunity to earn even more Bilt points. On the first of every month, or Bilt Day, cardholders can get double points on everything except rent and tax payments up to a 1,000-point monthly cap:

• 6 Bilt points per dollar spent on dining (normally 3 points).

• 4 Bilt points per dollar spent on travel booked directly from an airline, hotel or car rental company (normally 2 points).

• 2 Bilt points per dollar spent on other purchases (normally 1 point).

Booking travel in the Bilt Travel Portal

In the Bilt Travel Portal, you can book flights, hotels, car rentals and activities. If you pay for travel with the Bilt card, you’ll earn 2 Bilt points per dollar spent. Travel purchased with another payment method will earn 1 Bilt point per dollar spent.

You won’t earn Bilt points for any part of a travel purchase that was redeemed with Bilt Points.

Purchasing a home

Bilt Rewards offers homebuyers that purchase through it's partner, eXp Realty, one point for every $2 of a home's purchase price. That means a $400,000 home would earn you 200,000 Bilt Rewards.

Taking Lyft rides

Bilt cardholders who pay for a Lyft rideshare, bike or scooter with their credit card will earn 3 points per dollar spent. You can earn 2 more points per dollar spent for linking your Bilt and Lyft accounts and setting Bilt as the active loyalty partner. (Bikes and scooters are ineligible for the latter promotion.)

Only Lyft rides in the U.S. earn Bilt points.

» MORE: Best credit cards for Uber and Lyft

Eating at Neighborhood Dining restaurants

Earn up to 9 Bilt points per dollar spent for dining at restaurants that participate in Bilt’s Neighborhood Dining program. As of October 2024, Neighborhood Dining is available in over 50 cities, including Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Los Angeles and New York. Depending on the restaurant, you could earn 2 or 3 Bilt points per dollar spent. To get rewards, you must pay with a linked card, which must be a Visa, Mastercard or American Express.

The points earned from eating at a Neighborhood Dining restaurant stack on top of any rewards you earn from the credit card used to pay for your meal.

Taking fitness classes

You can get up to 10 Bilt points per dollar spent for taking classes at a Neighborhood Fitness gym. As of October 24, Neighborhood Fitness partners include AKT, BFT, CycleBar, Pure Barre, Rumble Boxing, Soul Cycle, YogaSix and Y7. Classes must be booked through the Bilt app or on the Bilt website and be paid for with a Visa, Mastercard or American Express to earn rewards.

Referring friends

If you refer someone to the Bilt card, and that person uses your unique referral link and is approved for the card, you'll earn 2,500 points. For every fifth successful referral, you'll get 10,000 points.

Shopping at Walgreens

At Walgreens, Bilt members can get 2 Bilt points per dollar spent on Walgreens-branded items, 1 Bilt point per dollar spent on other Walgreens purchases and 100 Bilt points for each prescription, on up to 26 refills per year when using a linked card.

Linking your airline and hotel loyalty programs

Bilt partners with several airlines and hotels. When you link your Bilt Rewards account to any of these programs, you will earn 100 points for every loyalty program linked, up to 500 points.

» SEE: Best airline and hotel rewards programs

Taking a helicopter ride

You'll also earn 2 Bilt points per dollar spent on BLADE bookings when they pay with a linked credit or debit card. BLADE provides transportation via helicopter, chartered jets or seaplanes. Flights between Manhattan and John F. Kennedy International Airport or Newark Liberty International Airport start at $195.

Transfer to travel partners

Bilt points transfer on a 1:1 basis to several popular airline and hotel loyalty programs. Transferable points allow you to take advantage of high-value redemptions in various programs, making this redemption option potentially the most valuable.

» MORE: The guide to Bilt transfer partners

Pay for housing costs

Bilt Members can use their rewards to pay rent or save toward a down payment. For the latter, one Bilt point is worth 1.5 cents. However, point values vary when using rewards to pay rent according to the landlord’s policy.

Get a statement credit

Bilt members who have the Bilt card may redeem their points as a statement credit to reduce their credit card balance.

Take fitness classes

Bilt Rewards members may redeem points to cover the cost of a fitness class from major companies like SoulCycle and Pure Barre. Classes start at 1,600 points each.

» MORE: Best credit cards for fitness perks

Shop on Amazon

Bilt points may be used to cover all or a part of your Amazon purchases but only for Bilt Rewards members who also have the Bilt credit card.

» LEARN: Which credit card rewards programs let you shop with points on Amazon?

Buy merchandise

Bilt points may be used to purchase items from the Bilt Collection, a catalog of art, home decor and goods that is only accessible to Bilt members.

» NEXT: NerdWallet's quick start guide to points and miles