Bilt Palladium Application Didn’t Go as Planned—Smaller Credit Line, Hard Pull, and a Better Bonus Offer Elsewhere

Bilt Rewards unveiled their three new credit cards and it’s a really interesting slate.

The Bilt Palladium card is going to be my go-to for spending that doesn’t earn a bonus on other cards. It earns 2x on all spending, and Bilt’s points are more valuable than other currencies (more and better transfer partners, better portal value) and you can earn additional bonus points as a cardholder when you pay rent or mortgage.

I applied for the card, it didn’t go exactly as planned, so I thought it would be useful to lay out for y’all what happened.

First, I was given the option to pick the mirror card. It’s actually kind of beautiful. I wouldn’t choose a card for the finish, but it’s nice nonetheless.

They had information I’d previously shared for my last Bilt card, and I just had to confirm it. I submitted, and the system did its thing for a few moments.

Three things happened during the application that were different than I expected.

1. I got a significantly smaller credit line than my current Wells Fargo card. I had understood credit lines were supposed to be matched, and they gave me half.
2. I got a hard credit pull. I don’t actually care about this, since I knew I would get a Chase 5/24 strike for the application either way. I’m not worried about too many hard pulls right now. But apparently it was a glitch they were experiencing for part of the day when I applied.
3. I didn’t get the offer to close my Wells Fargo card the way it’s promised. That’s no big deal. I don’t actually want a Wells Fargo Autograph card. But I’m not going to cancel it.

   I plan to keep Autograph and at some point convert it to Active Cash which is basically a 2x card, that I may someday pair with an Autograph Journey card which earns 5x on hotels, 4x on airlines, 3x on dining and other travel. They just need more points transfer partners.

Introduction Of The Palladium Mirror Finish Card

Something I did not realize when I applied: they gave The Points Guy a better offer than is available in their app, and better than what’s available at the link they gave me. (Update: The TPG offer is no longer available.)

The standard offer for Palladium is 50,000 Bilt Points + Gold Status after spending $4,000 on everyday purchases in the first 3 months + $300 of Bilt Cash. What they gave to TPG is 5x earn in the first 5 days, up to 50,000 points, on top of this (this appears to be an extra 3 points per dollar for a total of 5, not 5 bonus points per dollar spent).

Initially Bilt’s Richard Kerr posted that this was incorrect but later said that, indeed, using that link gets you both offers.

Frankly, I’m pretty pissed off at them for giving me an inferior link for y’all. Mostly I’m mad they did it and didn’t say they were it. I didn’t share my own link before seeing this, though.

• Some of you aren’t going to immediately put big charges on the card the first five days you have it, so it might not be super material.
  
• But you deserve the choice whether to use the standard offer (my link) or not. I’d get some benefit when you use my link, just as TPG generates revenue from theirs with the extra offer.

I’d love it if they’d given me an exclusive offer! So I have no beef with TPG over it. I give them credit for pulling a fast one on Bilt. It’s not like TPG wasn’t going to promote an actually-good card they’re getting paid for! It may wind up costing them applications from other sources, too.

I’ll keep sharing the card, though, because I’m genuinely excited to be earning 2x Bilt points on my spending plus points for the amount of my mortgage payment. The card also comes with Bilt Gold status, which means continued 1:1 points transfers from the Rakuten shopping portal, as well as their Home Away From Home hotel booking program (similar to Amex Fine Hotels & Resorts).

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