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I have my Bilt Palladium Card (See rates and fees) and I’m using it and I like it even more than I thought I would.
When I first applied for the card, I saw the value proposition for earning more points faster than my current card setup. I discounted Bilt Cash but now that the redemption options are published and real and I’m earning it with my spending, I’m actually excited for it.
- Initial bonus offer: 50,000 Bilt Points + Gold Status after spending $4,000 on everyday purchases in the first 3 months + $300 of Bilt Cash.
- Earning: 2X Bilt Points on everyday spend and you can choose to earn 4% back in Bilt Cash on everyday spend. (Up to $100 of Bilt Cash earned rolls over to the next year.)
- Benefits: $400 Bilt Travel Hotel credit (applied twice a year, as $200 statement credits, for qualifying Bilt Travel Portal hotel bookings) and $200 Bilt Cash awarded annually, along with a Priority Pass ($469/year value, see guide to benefits).
- Annual fee: $495
What I love is that paying my mortgage through Bilt lets me earn more points on my spending. I can also redeem Bilt Cash to earn more points on sets of the next $5,000 in spend. Together those set this up to be a card that earns more than 3 points per dollar, on average.
This guy gets it, and even the naysayers on Reddit agree – they’ve designed a card that’s more rewarding than anything else for actually spending money on.
If you make extra housing payments, the Palladium is fantastic. If you value Alaska, Hyatt, and United as transfer partners, it’s killer.
Since they removed the cap on housing points you can earn, there’s no rule against “topping up” your housing spend. So a few days before the end of the billing period, I’ll try to do as close as possible of an extra payment on my mortgage that brings up my housing spend as close as possible to the “everything else” spend on my Palladium card without going over.
It effectively turns the card into a 3.25x points-on-everything card, which is pretty obscene. The irony of a credit card that encourages you to be financially responsible is not lost on me.
Then, being able to use those points with United, Alaska, and Hyatt is awesome. I fly all around the West Coast and Pacific regions constantly, with flights to common United hubs as well in the Midwest and East Coast. I’m also a huge Hyatt fanboy, their points are incredibly valuable and I’ve never had a bad time at a Hyatt.
Throw in all the other ancillary benefits like the rental insurance, cell phone protection, etc, and this card is a home run for my situation. I’ve basically stopped using all my other credit cards besides my Bilt Palladium and my B of A Unlimited Rewards (Costco only takes Visa in store).
If you’re a heavy spender, who isn’t dedicating all their spend to earning new initial card bonuses, there’s no better one card solution.
Is there a single better card out there that rewards actual spending? American Express Platinum is great for benefits, but terrible for actual spending (other than on airfare purchases that earn 5x). You can pair a Chase Sapphire Reserve with a Freedom Unlimited to earn 1.5 points per dollar on spend that isn’t in a bonus category (like 4x on direct airfare purchases and hotels, 3x on dining). Still, that’s two cards.
I was doing a good bit of ‘unbonused’ spending. Things like my homeowner’s insurance go on a credit card with no added fee. That sort of thing wound up on my Venture X card to earn 2 points per dollar. Not only will Bilt Palladium earn faster, they are the most valuable single points currency.
- Redeem at 1.25 cents apiece for travel purchased through their portal, which is actually pretty good for bookings – a lot of direct booking hotels that earn hotel loyalty points, status credits and status benefits, and direct book airline tickets where the airline provides service (so it doesn’t get treated as an Expedia-like ‘OTA’).
- More and better points transfer partners than Chase, American Express, Citi or Capital One.
- Bigger transfer bonuses than any program has run before, ever. They’ve frequently offered up to 100% bonuses, and they’ve even done 150% bonuses.
Here are their transfer partners:
- Star Alliance: Air Canada Aeroplan, Turkish Miles & Smiles, United Airlines MileagePlus, Avianca LifeMiles, TAP Air Portugal Miles&Go
- oneworld: Cathay Pacific Asia Miles, Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan, Iberia Plus, British Airways Club, Japan Airlines Mileage Bank, Qatar Airways Privilege Club
- SkyTeam: Air France KLM Flying Blue, Virgin Atlantic Flying Club
- Non-alliance: Emirates Skywards, Southwest Airlines, Aer Lingus Aer Club, Etihad Guest, Spirit Airlines Free Spirit
- Hotels: World Of Hyatt, IHG One Rewards, Marriott Bonvoy, Hilton Honors, Accor ALL – Accor Live Limitless
I like Hyatt and Japan Airlines (the latter for better award availability in JAL premium cabins plus Air France and Etihad) and Aeroplan for general Star Alliance, Air France KLM for those airlines and SkyTeam. Alaska Airlines has some great partner values as well.
As I said, I discounted the Bilt Cash piece when the card was first announced because full details on how that’s used weren’t available yet. Now that I know what 4% back in Bilt Cash is all about, I’m pretty thrilled. First I use it earn more points. But any leftover cash can be used for credit on hotel bookings through their travel portal (which is great, since the card also comes with hotel booking credits usable on required 2+ night stays), for Blade helicopter transfers, and a variety of other things.
I’ll probably skip the $10 redemption items like Lyft rides and Walgreens, even though that’s real money with in some sense a higher return than using the Bilt Cash to earn more points. The amount of money involved is too low to turn it into a big win, the way I can with more points, leveraged by big transfer bonuses. And of course I can use Bilt Cash to increase those transfer bonuses, too.
- Maximize housing payments with your spending to earn 3.3 points per dollar
- And a Platinum may buy up to a 125% transfer bonus
- Potentially netting 7.4 points per dollar spent on the card
Yes, it’s complicated in the sense that there’s a lot going on with the card, a lot of value. Even if you ignore that it’s still a good card. But I find they’re even getting me to use the app, looking at all the options and getting me to think about Bilt more than they ever used to.
If you disagree with my take – and how I’m using the card – riddle me this: what single card is more rewarding for actual spend than Bilt Palladium?
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