If you have the Bilt Mastercard® (see rates and fees), you are likely familiar with at least one monthly Bilt Rent Day promotion. After all, cardmembers earn double Bilt Points on nonrent purchases on the first day of each month as long as they use their card at least five times per statement period (see rewards and benefits).
This means Bilt cardmembers earn as follows for purchases each Rent Day:
- Dining: 6 points per dollar
- Travel: 4 points per dollar
- Other purchases (excluding rent): 2 points per dollar
- Rent: 1 point per dollar (up to 100,000 points in a calendar year)
Cardmembers can currently earn up to 10,000 bonus points on purchases with their Bilt Mastercard each Rent Day. However, starting Oct. 1, Bilt Rewards is decreasing the bonus points you can earn each Rent Day through the double points promotion to just 1,000. You can see this change in the terms for August Rent Day:
“Effective 10/1/2024, the maximum amount of bonus points you can earn under this promotion will be 1,000 per month regardless of how much you purchase.”
Related: Fly to Ireland for only 13K Bilt Rewards points, and 4 more ways to redeem points for maximum value
Starting Oct. 1, you’d max out your double points by spending just $334 on dining each Rent Day.
TPG credit cards editor and Bilt Mastercard cardmember Emily Thompson is disappointed about this upcoming change, noting: “I take advantage of Rent Day to top off my dining apps, like Starbucks, to earn 6 points per dollar on those purchases. I also take advantage of Bilt bonus earnings when I’m at a Bilt restaurant or pop into a SoulCycle class when I’m in NYC. The new 1,000-point bonus cap will mean that I need to be strategic about how I take advantage of my bonus-earning opportunities each month. Instead of topping off all my dining apps, for instance, I might just do a couple and use my American Express® Gold Card to earn 4 Membership Rewards points per dollar* on the rest of my dining spending.”
With the Amex Gold, cardholders earn 4 points per dollar on the first $50,000 spent on dining at restaurants, then 1 point per dollar after.*
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A spokesperson for Bilt Rewards offered TPG the following statement about the upcoming changes: “Here’s the context for the change: Less than 2% of members cross 1,000 bonus points on Rent Day. By making this update, we are able to fund the full base points [plus] all the bonus points for 98% of our members while enabling us to invest in new Rent Day benefits like transfer bonuses and Rent Day experiences. We know there’s no perfect solution, but we want to ensure we give the most value to the most members possible.”
Related: 6 reasons I love my Bilt Mastercard as a renter in the most expensive city in the US
Richard Kerr, vice president of travel with Bilt Rewards, took to X over the weekend with a similar message.
Interestingly, less than 2% of Bilt Rewards cardmembers — TPG confirmed with Bilt that this statistic refers to cardmembers, not total Bilt members — earn more than 1,000 bonus points through the double points promotion on any specific Rent Day. That likely indicates that less than 2% of cardholders are maximizing the number of rewards they earned by saving up purchases for Rent Day and prepaying future expenses on Rent Day.
If you are one of the less than 2% of Bilt cardholders who typically earn more than 1,000 bonus points through the double points promotion on Rent Day, you’ll want to do as Emily plans to: Be strategic and look at the bonus categories on all of your cards. Then choose which purchases to make on Rent Day with your Bilt Mastercard, focusing on purchases for which it would otherwise be difficult to earn bonus points.
See Bilt Mastercard rates and fees here.
See Bilt Mastercard rewards and benefits here.
