There’s a new(ish) kid on the block…

and shes PURDYYY 😍

If you want to use points to drastically reduce the cost of your vacations – LISTEN UP!

The best part?? You don’t even NEED a BILT credit card to earn these unmatched points!! Although BILT is historically known for helping people pay rent with a credit card – the rewards system is SO much more than that!

**BRAND NEW – BILT just launched 3 new credit cards that allow you to earn transferrable points by paying your mortgage…this is a first!

AMAZING…but also not so simple. Read below to see if the math maths for your family. 🙂

What are Bilt rewards?

Most points are one of two varieties:

1. Flexible bank points (Chase, American Express, Capital One Citi)
2. Fixed points earned with a specific airline or hotel (American Airlines, Marriott, etc)

BILT rewards are their own category and don’t really fall into EITHER of those groups. However, just like those general bank points, you can transfer BILT points out to their unique airline and hotel transfer partners for HUGEEEE travel savings.

(…think paying 60,000 for a lie flat business class flight instead of $5,000 in cash or 500,000 points in a travel portal)

***BILT has hands down the best, best, BEST transfer partners of ANY bank – so you reallllyyy want to learn how to both earn and maximize these points!

Start earning Bilt points today

1️⃣ Sign up for their free app HERE! (non-negotiable!)

2️⃣ Connect your BILT and Rakuten Accounts

New! You can now earn BILT points for all those purchases you are making via Rakuten instead of cash back (wayyy more valuable!)

Rakuten is the easiest way to earn more points for travel without signing up for a new credit card. Run the purchases you were going to make anyway through the shopping portal (BOOM, literal no-brainer savings on your next vacation)

More on Rakuten (and why it’s absolutely worth your time, even if you are brand new)- HERE!

👉🏼 Sign up for a free Rakuten account here!
(Spend $50 you had planned to anyway and you’ll get a free $50 — or 5,000 Bilt Points!)

🚨 NOTE: Make sure your email addresses match with both accounts!

👉🏼 Then link Rakuten + Bilt inside your Bilt app.

Tap “Rewards” >>> “Everyday Rewards” >>> “Earn points with Rakuten” to link!

Earning Additional Bilt Points

3️⃣ Link your current credit cards!

When you link any of your credit/debit cards to BILT, you again earn PASSIVE, mindless BILT points for travel (on top of the points earned with that card!! YES it’s that good and easy)

• Dining: There’s thousands of restaurants BILT partners with. When you check out with your credit card you earn 1. Points on that credit card 2. Zero Effort BILT points in the background ALSO
• Fitness + Wellness: There’s a selection of studios that have also partnered with BILT (even Walgreens purchases can earn you extra BILT points!)

👉🏼 Link Credit Cards Here

4️⃣ Link your Lyft and BILT accounts

Earn an additional 2x Bilt points on any Lyft ride ON TOP OF the points you earn from the credit card you pay with. Once the accounts are linked you earn mindless, passive BILT points for every ride you take- SUCH a win.

👉🏼 Link Lyft + Bilt HERE!

Earn points by paying your mortgage

Now for the first time ever you can earn transferrable points for travel by paying your mortgage! Although this is EXCITING news, there are some pros and cons.

PROS:

• You can earn points paying your mortgage (no matter your mortgage provider!)
• No limit on the properties you can use the BILT card for!
• You can transfer earned BILT points to VERY valuable transfer partners (more on this below!) for outsized travel value

CONS:

• You have to “pay to play” – you can’t actually unlock those points earned on mortgage payments without “BILT cash” (keeeeppp reading)
• To be quite honest, the math even hurts my brain- but essentially you have to use your BILT card for purchases OTHER than your mortgage to actually unlock the mortgage points earned and not pay a transaction fee
• Based on the math and your family’s budget, this may not be a good fit for everyone

**Cards are not even available until February 6th!

Does the math, math?!

So in order to actually USE the points you earn from paying your mortgage, you have to have “BILT cash.”

➡️ ALL 3 cards earn 4% BILT cash on all non-mortgage purchases

➡️ I.e. you need to use your BILT card for expenses other than your mortgage to actually USE those points without paying a fee

➡️ This “BILT cash” activates your points for a portion of or your full mortgage payment

Every $30 in Bilt Cash unlocks 1,000 Bilt Points for rent or mortgage payments (i.e. 3% of your mortgage in Bilt Cash will unlock points on the full amount)

…if this is where your brain starts to shut down, ME TOO. Let me break it down with a real example.

HERE’S ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW

🚨 You need to use your BILT card for 75% of your housing payment on non-mortgage purchases for this to really make travel saving sense

👉🏼 Your Mortgage x .75 = The amount of additional spend you need to put on your BILT card monthly

• On a $1,000 mortgage you would need to put $750 in non-mortgage expenses monthly on your BILT card for the “math to math”
• On a $2,000 mortgage you would need to put $1,500 in non-mortgage expenses monthly on your BILT card for the “math to math”

LET’S BE NOSY, HERE’S OUR NUMBERS

➡️ Our mortgage is $1,800/month

➡️ $1,800 x .75 = $1,350

➡️ We need to be able to put $1,350 in non-mortgage spend on our BILT card for this to be valuable

(normally we like to use most of our everyday spending towards new card welcome offers for the highest points earning ROI – Does our budget have room for $1,350 to be “taken” by the BILT card monthly and still earn new welcome bonuses??)

➡️ POINTS EARN FROM MORTGAGE PAYMENT: 1,800 points/month

➡️ POINTS EARN FROM NON-MORTGAGE SPEND: 1,350 points/month (if we held the 1x Blue or 1x Obsidian) or 2,700 points/month (if we held the 2x Palladium)

➡️ That’s 3,150-4,500 transferrable BILT points/month (depending on the card we hold)

➡️ 37,800-54,000 BILT points/year

I LOVE that it would earn us points on our largest monthly expense, that normally put 0 points for travel in our pockets.

I do LOVE the transfer partners I could transfer those potential 54k points to…

But I think it’s definitely a math game here. Run the numbers above for YOUR fam and decide if the credit card piece of this is worthwhile for you. It DOES take up a 5/24 slot, but obviously would be a “forever keeper” and not a strictly welcome bonus kind of card…DECISIONS.

How to maximize your Bilt points

Okayyy what it’s all for though- the unmatched travel savings value that BILT points can bring. And that’s namely because of their vast and varied collection of transfer partners that allow you to get OUTSIZED vacation value out of your rewards

***BILT has some KEY transfer partners that are either notoriously very challenging to earn points with, have NO transfer partners, or are crazy valuable partners with historically limited avenues of earning!

I have starred those below- the partners I personally will most likely be moving my BILT points to to get cheaper family vacations!

BILT Hotel Transfer Partners:

• Hilton Honors
• Marriott Bonvoy™
• World of Hyatt®**
• IHG® One Rewards
• Accor Live Limitless (3:2 ratio)

BILT Airline Transfer Partners:

• Atmos Rewards (Alaska Airlines + Hawaiian Airlines)**
• Avianca Lifemiles
• United MileagePlus®
• Air France/KLM Flying Blue®
• Virgin Red®
• Virgin Atlantic Flying Club
• Emirates Skywards®**
• British Airways Executive Club
• Cathay Pacific
• Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles
• Aer Lingus AerClub
• Iberia Plus
• Air Canada Aeroplan®
• TAP Miles&Go
• Southwest Airlines
• Japan Airlines**
• Qatar Airways Privilege Club Avios
• Etihad Airways
• Spirit**

This is where things get just SO fun!!

➡️ Transfer your BILT points to Hyatt to get free nights in Hawaii for HALF the points the travel portal would likely charge you

➡️ Transfer your BILT points to Atmos/Alaska to get the LOWEST rates on American Airlines flights (when you have x6 everything – those rock bottom point prices realllyyy matter)

➡️ Transfer your BILT points to Japan Airlines to book business class to Tokyo for 60,000 points + taxes instead!! (No other bank transfers to Japan at a 1:1 ratio!!)

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Don’t sleep on BILT – if you want to travel more…without paying more, this is WELL worth your time (even without getting one of their credit cards…butttt it may make sense for your family to do that too)

👉🏼 Sign up for your FREE BILT account here!