Dear Bilt Palladium: You’re Welcome to Move in, but You Won’t Pay the Rent
Even if I won't use you to pay my rent or mortgage, Bilt Palladium, you're the card I didn't know I needed.
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Dear Bilt Palladium Card,
Welcome to the block! The neighborhood is full of other successful premium travel cards, and you’re going to fit in well. Just not in the way you think.
Let's be clear — I won’t use you to earn points for paying rent or a mortgage. The math doesn't make sense. But as a traditional travel credit card, you might still make it to the top of my wallet.
I’ve been loyal to the Bilt World Elite Mastercard® Credit Card for years, but that card is on its way out. Now I have a decision to make by Jan. 30, 2026: close my account, change my card to the Wells Fargo Autograph® Card, or transition to one of three new Bilt cards. The new Bilt card options are:
- Bilt Blue Card ($0 annual fee).
- Bilt Obsidian Card ($95 annual fee).
- Bilt Palladium Card ($495 annual fee).
These cards are currently available for preorder, and cardholders can start using them on Feb. 7.
Bilt didn’t make the decision easy. During the rocky rollout of “Bilt 2.0” — a reboot of its loyalty program — the company introduced a complex secondary rewards currency and changes that left many cardholders uncertain.
Still, after weighing the risks, I decided to go with the Bilt Palladium Card. Its $495 annual fee and perks strike a balance between the simplicity and lower cost of the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card and the more complex, higher-priced American Express Platinum Card® and Chase Sapphire Reserve®. Of the new Bilt cards, it's also the only one to offer a sign-up bonus with Bilt points.
I didn’t start 2026 expecting to get another premium travel card. But the Bilt Palladium Card changed my mind.
Big, flat-rate rewards
I’m a credit card optimizer to the core, but I’m not someone who likes babysitting a bunch of bonus categories. With the Bilt Palladium Card, I’ll get outsized rewards, earning a flat 2 Bilt points per dollar.
Based on those ongoing rewards and the high value of Bilt points, the card is more generous than other established premium cards. NerdWallet values Bilt Points at 1.8 cents each — better than almost any other card rewards. Here's how those rewards stack up on $5,000 of non-bonus spend.
| American Express Platinum Card® | Chase Sapphire Reserve® | Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card | Bilt Palladium Card | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rewards earned on $5,000 of non-bonused spend | 5,000 Membership Rewards. | 5,000 Ultimate Rewards®. | 10,000 Capital One Miles. | 10,000 Bilt Points. |
| NerdWallet's value of those rewards toward travel | $80. | $90. | $160. | $180. |
Now, I have to be honest, Bilt Palladium Card. I know you like to talk about how you can help people earn rewards on rent or mortgage payments. But you don’t make it straightforward. Cardholders have two options for earning additional rewards on top of their everyday rewards:
Option 1: Tiered rewards. Earn up to 1.25x points on housing payments, depending on how much non-housing spend you put on your card. More non-housing spending will help you qualify for higher earning tiers.
| Non-housing spending as % of monthly housing payment | Points earned per $1 on housing |
|---|---|
| 25%. | 0.5x points. |
| 50%. | 0.75x points. |
| 75%. | 1x points. |
| 100% or more. | 1.25x points. |
Option 2: Earn 4% Bilt Cash back on everyday spending (excluding housing payments). Bilt Cash can be used to cover a 3% transaction fee to earn rewards on housing payments. For example, you can redeem $30 in Bilt Cash on every $1,000 of housing payments to earn 1,000 Bilt Points. Or, it can be redeemed in other ways, including at a dollar-for-dollar rate with select Bilt merchants. These options aren’t straightforward; merchant redemption limits and other restrictions apply. Bilt Cash expires at the end of the year, but $100 can be rolled over.
I’m probably not going to use this card for housing payments. Instead, I plan to select Option 2 and use the Bilt Cash for redemptions with Bilt merchants, or to purchase increased Rent Day transfer bonuses or an additional 1x point on everyday spending with my card (for a total of 3x on up to $5,000 in spend per Bilt Cash redemption). This way I won’t have to track my spending on the card or pay for housing through Bilt to optimize my rewards.
» Learn more: Bilt 2.0 promises rewards, delivers confusion
While I considered switching to the Bilt Obsidian Card to earn 3x points on dining or groceries (up to $25,000 in grocery spend per year) and the same 4% back in Bilt Cash, that card only offers 1x points in non-bonus category spend. I’d rather get extra travel benefits and not have to worry about tracking bonus categories or spending caps.
If I wanted to earn bonus rewards at the grocery store, I’d turn to the Capital One Savor Cash Rewards Credit Card, which has a $0 annual fee and earns 3% back at a wider range of merchants, including both grocery stores and restaurants.
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A big sign-up bonus
Of the three new Bilt cards, the Bilt Palladium Card is the only one that offers a points-based welcome offer that new cardholders (including those moving from the Bilt World Elite Mastercard® Credit Card), can earn: 50,000 Bilt Points + Gold Status after spending $4,000 on everyday purchases in the first 3 months + $300 of Bilt Cash.
The sign-up bonus more than makes up for the $495 annual fee in the first year. NerdWallet values Bilt points at 1.8 cents each, so 50,000 points is worth $900. Add that to the $300 in Bilt Cash, and this sign-up bonus tops $1,000 in value, even before factoring in the additional perks, such as annual credits and Priority Pass lounge access.
Valuable annual credits
I also see some signs that the Bilt Palladium Card might help me out in the long term.
In addition to that big sign-up bonus, it also comes with an annual $200 in Bilt Cash and $400 in hotel credits when you book a two-night minimum stay through Bilt Travel (issued as two $200 semiannual credits).
The $400 in hotel credits will take a little bit of work to optimize since they’re doled out as $200 in credits from January to June, and another $200 from July to December. But this won’t require much effort compared to the pile of credits you need to track with other premium travel cards. Of the new Bilt cards, this is the only one that offers these annual credits, and since I travel a lot, it won’t be hard to use them.
Another thing I like about the Bilt Palladium Card: It's well-connected to some of my favorite loyalty programs.
The earning structure means I’ll earn Bilt Rewards more quickly and more easily than I would with the other two Bilt cards. That’s great news, because those points can be transferred to some of the most valuable travel partners out there, like World of Hyatt and Atmos Rewards, the joint loyalty program of Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines.
Additionally, Bilt’s Rent Day transfer bonuses, which change every month, can provide up to a 100% bonus on a rotating selection of transfer partners, adding even more potential value to those points.
While the card has a similar earnings structure and value proposition to the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card, there’s no denying that Bilt's transfer partners are significantly better than Capital One. Since nearly all of my credit card points are transferred to travel partners, that matters to me.
The card I didn’t know I needed
Bilt Palladium Card, you're not as simple as the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card, but your value is much more straightforward than the premium cards from Chase, Citi or American Express. I don’t like having to choose between Option 1 and Option 2, and I don’t like the restrictions around redeeming Bilt Cash. But I’ll gladly put in a little more effort to use your benefits if it means earning points that can be transferred to what I think is the most valuable group of travel partners out there.
After weighing the costs and benefits, the math works — for now. Welcome to my wallet.
All information about the Bilt World Elite Mastercard® Credit Card has been collected independently by NerdWallet. The Bilt World Elite Mastercard® Credit Card is no longer available through NerdWallet.
How to maximize your rewards
You want a travel credit card that prioritizes what’s important to you. Here are some of the best travel credit cards of 2026:
- Flexibility, point transfers and a large bonus: Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
- No annual fee: Wells Fargo Autograph® Card
- Flat-rate travel rewards: Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card
- Bonus travel rewards and high-end perks: Chase Sapphire Reserve®
- Luxury perks: American Express Platinum Card®
- Business travelers: Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card
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