Bilt has made quite some announcements this week. This includes the launch of three new credit cards in partnership with Cardless — the no annual fee Bilt Blue Card, $95 annual fee Bilt Obsidian Card, and $495 Bilt Palladium Card (the premium card is the obvious choice, in my opinion). It also includes a complete overhaul of rewards for rent and mortgages, which are a mixed bag.
The reality is that earning rewards for rent through Bilt is becoming a lot more complicated and costly (in terms of opportunity cost for spending), so in this post, I’d like to go over what’s likely the most exciting other opportunity to be rewarded for rent with Bilt — that’s to earn Alaska Atmos Rewards points for paying rent, at an attractive cost. How does this work, and is it worth it?
Bilt Rewards & Alaska Atmos Rewards partnership basics
For some background, Alaska Atmos Rewards is a 1:1 transfer partner of Bilt Rewards. That’s a great use of those points, given how valuable Atmos Rewards points can be. Furthermore, Atmos Rewards doesn’t partner with any other major transferable points currency, aside from Bilt.
There’s another cool aspect to this, and it probably got even more interesting with the upcoming Bilt changes we’re seeing.
Bilt lets you pay rent with third party credit cards in exchange for a 3% fee. Typically that’s not worth it. However, thanks to the exclusive collaboration between the two brands, those with the Atmos™ Rewards Ascent Visa Signature® credit card (review) and Atmos™ Rewards Summit Visa Infinite® Credit Card (review) can earn points for paying their rent at an advantageous rate:
- These cards offer 3x Atmos Rewards points for rent payments through Bilt, on up to $50,000 of spending annually (after that you earn 1x points); you can potentially even earn 10% more points if you have an eligible Bank of America account
- The way this works, you link your Atmos Rewards card to you Bilt account, and then Bilt will process the rent payment, and in turn, you’ll be awarded points
- As mentioned above, the catch is that Bilt charges a 3% fee for third party credit card payments, and that applies here as well
- Just to be thorough, let me mention that while Bilt will soon start letting members redeem Bilt Cash to pay for mortgages with no fees on Bilt credit cards, that will not be part of this partnership, so it continues to only be possible to earn 3x points on rent with these cards, and not mortgages (and Bilt Cash can’t be used to offset the fees when using Atmos credit cards)
In isolation, 3x Atmos Rewards points for paying rent at a 3% fee with the Atmos Rewards Ascent Card or Atmos Rewards Summit Card is a heck of a deal, as it’s like buying Atmos Rewards points for one cent each. That’s phenomenal.
Of course one has to consider this in the context of the opportunity cost of earning Bilt points for rent rewards. Bilt is becoming much more complicated, so it’s not as straightforward of a comparison as it used to be. People will fall into one of two camps with these changes:
- If you have a Bilt credit card and would otherwise have enough Bilt Cash to offset the cost of the rent fees, then it comes down to whether you’d rather earn 1x Bilt points at no fee, or 3x Atmos Rewards points for a 3% fee; if you were to value the points currencies equally, it would be like acquiring Atmos Rewards points for 1.5 cents each
- If you wouldn’t otherwise have a Bilt credit card and/or wouldn’t otherwise have enough Bilt Cash to offset the cost of rent fees, then it comes down to whether you’re willing to pay 1.0 cents per Atmos Rewards point, which seems like quite a good deal
Is earning Atmos Rewards points for rent worth it?
I think there’s potentially a lot of merit to paying the 3% fee for rent on the Atmos Rewards Summit Credit Card, and earning 3x points. There’s a lot of upside with Atmos Rewards beyond the points you earn, given the incentives for spending money on the Atmos Rewards Summit Card:
So lets say, theoretically, that you spent $50,000 per year on rent (that’s more than most spend, but I’d like to keep the numbers easy). You would pay $1,500 in fees, and you’d earn 150,000 Atmos Rewards points, 25,000 Atmos Rewards status points, and you’d be over 80% of the way to the Global Companion Award.
If being able to earn points on rent would change your ability to earn a 100,000-point Global Companion Award or to earn elite status, I think there’s significant merit to going that route.
Let me emphasize that everyone should crunch the numbers for themselves, and most people might not want to unnecessarily pay an extra $1,500 in fees annually. The thing is, with the upcoming Bilt changes, I know a lot of people are also being locked out of rent rewards there, which might make this option more lucrative.
After all, with the changes, you basically need to spend an average of 75% as much as your rent in order to be able to make fee-free payments, and not everyone will find that to be worthwhile.
Bottom line
Bilt Rewards and Alaska Atmos Rewards have a partnership. For one, Bilt Rewards points can be moved to Atmos Rewards at a 1:1 ratio, which is a nice redemption option. Beyond that, those with a personal Atmos Rewards credit card can pay a 3% fee to pay their rent by card, and then earn 3x Atmos Rewards points, on up to $50K of rent spending per year.
I’d say that’s potentially really compelling, thanks to the amazing value of the Atmos Rewards Summit Card. Not only will you earn 3x Atmos Rewards points per dollar spent, but you’ll earn one Atmos Rewards status point per $2 spent, and that spending will also count toward the 100,000-point Global Companion Award.
With the latest changes to how Bilt rewards rent payments, I think this may just interest more people than ever before. If you’ve decided you no longer want a Bilt credit card, this is the best alternative, if you ask me.
What do you make of this Bilt Rewards & Alaska Atmos Rewards partnership? Are you changing your consumer behavior?
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