Bilt Mastercard® Review: Fee-Free Rent Rewards and Transferable Points

Bilt started out as a way to earn rewards while paying rent with your credit cards. Now Bilt has launched its own rewards credit card, the Bilt Mastercard®. With it, you can earn rewards on rent without the transaction fee, as well as earn bonus rewards on dining and travel, all with no annual fee. But how does it compare to your other rewards card options? Read our detailed Bilt Mastercard® review to find out.

This credit card is a good fit for: Bilt users who want to waive their transaction fee, or anyone looking for transferable travel rewards with no annual fee.

Top perks

This card offers a surprising number of perks, considering it has no annual card fee.

Earn up to 3X points per dollar

The Bilt Mastercard® earns up to 3X points per dollar in its bonus categories, which include:

• 3X points per dollar on dining
• 2X points per dollar on travel
• 1X point per dollar on rental payments made through the Bilt App (up to 100,000 points per calendar year)
• 1X point per dollar on other purchases

As with most cards that offer bonus rewards on dining, the Bilt Mastercard® dining category includes restaurants, bars, and most delivery services. Basically, anything that Mastercard codes as dining should qualify.

The travel category for the Bilt Mastercard® is very restrictive compared to the best travel rewards cards. It is limited to flights, hotels, rental cars, and cruises. Plus, you'll need to book directly with the respective carrier -- i.e., the airline, hotel, or car rental agency -- to earn the bonus rewards on those purchases.

Any travel booked through a third party, including travel agents, Airbnb, Vrbo, and other vacation rental sites, won't be included. Nor will you earn bonus rewards on bus lines, railways, rideshares, campgrounds, parking lots, or tolls.

Keep in mind that there's a transaction minimum to earn rewards each month (more on that below).

Rewards can be transferred to 12 travel partners

One of the most stand-out features of the Bilt Mastercard® is that your rewards points can actually be transferred to one of its 12 travel partners. This is almost unheard of for a no annual fee travel card. The list of partners includes:

• American Airlines
• Air Canada
• Asia Airlines
• Emirates Airline
• Flying Blue (Air France & KLM)
• Hawaiian Airlines
• Turkish Airlines
• United Airlines
• Virgin Atlantic
• Hyatt
• Mariott Bonvoy
• IHG

While comparable programs have way more travel partners -- American Express Membership Rewards can transfer to twice as many partners -- you still have access to a few standout brands. For example, Hyatt is very popular as a transfer partner thanks to its potential for high-value redemptions. United transfers are also an interesting option, as Chase is its only other credit card transfer partner.

If you don't want to use your rewards for travel, they can also be redeemed towards your rent, used on Amazon.com, or redeemed for fitness classes at four fitness partners.

Cardholders can pay rent without the transaction fee

Although pretty much any credit card we've reviewed will let you earn rewards on rent payments made with your credit card, this one takes it a step further. Specifically, as a Bilt Mastercard® cardholder, you can use Bilt to make your rent payments without the extra transaction fee. This can save you 3% on each transaction. Note that you can only make a rental payment to one rental property per month.

Travel benefits and no foreign transaction fee

Bilt's extra travel perks are again unusual for a no annual fee travel card, but very welcome. Firstly, cardholders can take advantage of trip cancellation and interruption protection, which offers up to $5,000 in coverage for non-refundable passenger fares booked with your card that are canceled for a covered reason. You also get trip delay coverage for covered delays of six hours or more. And no travel card would be complete without 0% foreign transaction fees. This lets you make purchases abroad without paying extra fees for currency conversion.

No annual card fee

Perhaps the most remarkable thing about this card isn't its rent rewards or even its transferable points -- it's that there isn't an annual card fee. This makes the card much more versatile. If you're not in the market for a travel card, but you use the Bilt App regularly, the card still makes sense as a way to waive the rental payment fee and it won't cost you extra to keep in a drawer the rest of the month (note that you still need to hit the transaction minimum to earn rewards, though). On the other hand, if you're a casual traveler who wants to earn transferable points without the fee, this card works for you, too.

What could be improved

While this card has a lot of perks, there are some notable drawbacks, as well.

Must make five transactions a month to earn rewards

One of the most important things to note about the Bilt Mastercard® is that you won't necessarily earn rewards every single month. That's because there is a five-transaction minimum to earn rewards. This means you need to make at least five credit card transactions every month to earn rewards on your purchases. (Presumably, this is to keep people from using the card solely for rent and not for anything else, as card companies make a lot of their money through the fees they charge businesses when you use your card.)

No sign-up bonus

Another key thing to keep in mind before applying for this card is that there isn't currently any kind of sign-up bonus. You won't get extra points just for signing up or for spending a certain amount on your card. This is a big bummer, as comparable travel rewards cards -- even those without annual fees -- tend to have sign-up bonuses worth at least a couple hundred dollars. If you're willing to pay an annual fee for a travel card, you can even find sign-up bonuses worth $750 to $1,000 or more.

No intro APR offers

In addition to there being no sign-up bonus of rewards points, there also isn't any kind of welcome offer for an intro APR on purchases or balance transfers. As such, you'll be charged the go-to APR on any balances you carry past the due date from the start. This means you'll want to pay your full balance before your due date every month to avoid accruing high interest fees. It also makes this card a poor choice for balance transfers.

The Bilt Mastercard® is issued by Wells Fargo; neither party publishes any information on the credit score requirements. However, most rewards cards require at least good credit, which usually means a credit score of 670 or higher. That said, your entire credit profile, not just your score, will be considered in the decision. Moreover, there are a few cardholder reports of being accepted with scores as low as 650.

The Bilt Mastercard® is a good choice for anyone who already uses Bilt regularly to pay their rent, thanks to the waived transaction fee. But it's also a solid option for casual travelers who want to earn transferable travel rewards without paying an annual fee for the privilege. While Bilt's list of transfer partners is minimal compared to the competition, that list does include a few notable options. That said, there's no sign-up bonus or intro APR offers, which may be a dealbreaker for rewards collectors.

Our credit card methodology

At The Motley Fool Ascent, we rate credit cards on a five-star scale (1 = poor, 5 = best). Our rating criteria includes rewards rates, welcome bonuses, fees, and perks like travel credits and 0% intro APR offers to evaluate our ratings.

We combine these factors with an evaluation of brand reputation and customer satisfaction to ensure you're getting the best card recommendations. Learn more about how The Ascent rates credit cards.