Bilt’s 3 New Cards Earn Rewards on Housing, But It’s Complicated

Bilt began as a renter's dream, and now it's opening the door to homeowners, too.

The company's long-awaited new credit cards — the Bilt Blue Card, Bilt Obsidian Card and Bilt Palladium Card — are available for pre-order as of Jan. 14, 2026. All three cards make it possible to earn rewards on rent payments and, now, mortgages as well, without having to pay processing fees.

Well ... sort of. It depends.

Cardholders will have two options for earning rewards on rent and mortgage payments:

• One option does indeed allow you to earn rewards on housing payments without incurring a fee. But the amount of rewards you earn on each dollar of your housing payment is tied to how much you use your Bilt credit card for other spending, relative to the size of your rent or mortgage payment.

• The second option effectively will charge you a 3% fee in exchange for earning housing rewards. But the new cards come with a new rewards currency, called Bilt Cash, that can be used to cover that fee. You'll earn Bilt Cash on everyday purchases in addition to earning Bilt Points, the program's valuable and flexible original currency. (You won't earn Bilt Cash on housing expenses, though.)

Cardholders can change between the two options at any time. Changes go into effect the following month.

If that sounds complicated, that's because it is. Let's dive in.

» MORE: Bilt Rewards: How the program works

The 3 new Bilt cards: Features and key points

The new Bilt cards replace the pre-existing Bilt World Elite Mastercard® Credit Card, which was issued by Wells Fargo and is being discontinued. Unlike that $0-annual-fee card, two of the three new Bilt cards will charge annual fees. But also unlike that card, the new versions — now issued by Column N.A. Bank and serviced by Cardless — feature welcome bonuses for new cardholders. (Customers who are upgrading from the older card are eligible for the bonuses.)

Starting Jan. 14, 2026, you can select which of the three cards you want in the Bilt app or at bilt.com/card. Bilt says you’ll receive the new card by Feb. 6, 2026, if you make your selection and are approved by Jan. 30, 2026. The cards will become usable on Feb. 7, 2026.

» MORE: Dear Bilt Palladium: You're welcome to move in, but you won't pay the rent

Key points to know

• There’s no cap on how many points you can earn from rent and mortgage spending.

• All personal mortgages, regardless of the lender or servicer, are eligible to earn points.

• Rent and mortgage payments don’t count against your Bilt card’s credit limit.

• Five authorized users are allowed per Bilt credit card. (At this time, you can apply for just one Bilt card, but you can be an authorized user on one more.)

• Unlike the previous Bilt credit card, the new Bilt cards do not require that you make a minimum of five transactions per billing cycle to earn meaningful rewards. However, you'll still be highly incentivized to use your Bilt card for more than just housing payments — whether to earn the maximum amount of rewards possible (option No. 1 above), or to earn enough Bilt Cash to cover the processing fees on those payments (option No. 2 above).

» MORE: Will the next Bilt credit card please stand up?

Two options for earnings rewards

Option 1: Points based on spending

As noted earlier, Bilt cardholders can choose which way they want to earn Bilt points on rent and mortgage spend. The first way doesn't incur any processing fee, but the points you earn will be based on the amount of non-housing spending you put on your Bilt card.

• If you spend at least 25% of your monthly rent/mortgage, you'll earn 0.5x Bilt points on your housing payment.

• If you spend at least 50% of your monthly rent or mortgage, you'll earn 0.75x points.

• If you spend at least 75% of your monthly rent or mortgage, you'll earn 1x points.

• If you spend the same or more as your monthly rent or mortgage, you'll earn 1.25x points.

Those who don't hit the minimum spending requirement will get just 250 Bilt points per housing payment.

Option 2: Leveraging Bilt Cash

The second way to earn rewards on rent and mortgage involves Bilt's new currency, Bilt Cash, which cardholders can use to offset a fee they'll incur for that privilege. But wait, wasn't Bilt's brand originally built around rent payments with no fees? Yes, and it's still possible to avoid paying the fees out of pocket. It's just a lot more complicated than it was with the original Bilt World Elite Mastercard® Credit Card.

Bilt Cash that you earn on non-rent/mortgage purchases (which, again, is new and separate from normal Bilt points) can be redeemed on a dollar-for-dollar basis toward a variety of options, including fitness classes, hotel bookings, Lyft rides, GoPuff orders and access to partner transfer bonuses. You can also effectively use Bilt Cash to "buy" Bilt points, though you can't transfer Bilt Cash to travel partners, as you can with Bilt points.

But you can also use Bilt Cash to cover the 3% transaction fee that Bilt will now charge you if you want to earn rewards on your housing bill. For this, too, $1 in Bilt Cash is worth, well, $1.

For example, say your monthly mortgage payment is $2,000, and you pay it with a Bilt credit card. To earn the full 2,000 Bilt points from the mortgage payment, you’ll need to cough up $60 of Bilt Cash (3% of $2,000). You can't use actual cash to cover this fee, Bilt says.

Under this option, your earnings on housing payments top out at 1x back (as opposed to the possibility of 1.25x back with option 1).

Key points to know

• Bilt Cash is earned on all non-rent/mortgage spending with one of the Bilt credit cards (if you choose option 2). You also earn an additional $50 of Bilt Cash for every 25,000 Bilt points accrued.

• Bilt Cash may be redeemed beginning in February 2026.

• There’s no minimum amount of Bilt Cash you need before you can redeem.

• $100 of Bilt Cash rolls over into the next calendar year. The remaining Bilt Cash expires if not used by Dec. 31.

» MORE: Bilt Palladium vs. Capital One Venture X: An in-depth comparison

Do the Bilt cards make sense for you?

No matter which option you choose above, the new Bilt credit cards are anything but simple. They can still offer a lot of value, but not everyone will have the patience for a card that earns two different reward currencies, especially given the math and monthly tracking involved.

In the previous example of a $2,000 mortgage, a Bilt credit card might make sense. All the cards earn 4% back in Bilt Cash on non-housing spending, so you could reach the $60 in Bilt Cash you'd need for that payment by spending $1,500 a month on other purchases. And indeed, that's exactly what Bilt wants its cardholders to do: Use the cards as often as possible.

But what if your rent or mortgage is, say, $5,000? You’d need $150 of Bilt Cash to earn rewards on that payment for no fee, which could require you to spend $3,750 on non-housing expenses per month, depending on the Bilt card. Still doable? Maybe.

Even if you choose option 1 above, not only will you have to closely track your monthly spending in order to maximize your rewards, but there also may be an opportunity cost involved. That is, you might be better served putting all that non-housing spending on any number of other rewards cards that feature similar or better ongoing rewards on that spending.

If the math isn’t in your favor, you don’t have to get one of the new Bilt cards, even if you're an existing holder of the old Bilt World Elite Mastercard® Credit Card. That card will be deactivated on Feb. 7, 2026, the same day the new Bilt cards will become usable.

No hard pull is required to upgrade, but those who decide not to do so will be automatically transitioned to the Wells Fargo Autograph® Card. If you don’t want that card, Bilt says it will close your Wells Fargo account upon request.

» MORE: NerdWallet's best credit cards for recurring bills