My Thoughts on the Bilt 2.0 Rumors

Yesterday, rumors absolutely swirled after this reddit post claimed to find details of the Bilt 2.0 card from source code (did they learn nothing from Hilton’s similar leak?? and how are these people finding the relevant pages for the code anyway??!!)

After some initial blogger chatter, the post added multiple options – as if Bilt hasn’t even decided yet (although I do not think, with the high level at which the Bilt team executes and the compliance involved in Cards, that the cards are not already final!).

Here are the THREE potential permutations posted on Reddit each with three levels of Card as previously confirmed.

Version 1

Bilt Blue Card

Annual fee: $0

Welcome bonus: $100 Bilt Cash

Rewards:

• 4% Bilt Cash on everyday spend
• 1X points on rent, mortgage, and everyday spend

Benefits:

• No foreign transaction fees
• Neighborhood Benefits program
• Use Bilt Cash to waive rent and mortgage transaction fees

Bilt Obsidian Card

Annual fee: $95

Welcome bonus: $200 Bilt Cash

Rewards:

• 4% Bilt Cash on everyday spend
• 3X points on dining or grocery (choice of one; grocery up to $25K/year)
• 2X points on travel
• 1X points on rent, mortgage, and everyday spend

Benefits:

• $100 Bilt Travel hotel credit ($50 every six months)
• Cellular Telephone Protection
• Use Bilt Cash to waive rent and mortgage transaction fees

Bilt Palladium Card

Annual fee: $495

Welcome bonus:

• 50,000 Bilt Points + Gold Status (after $4,000 spend in first 3 months)
• $300 Bilt Cash

Rewards:

• 4% Bilt Cash on everyday spend
• 2X points on everyday spend
• 1X points on rent and mortgage

Benefits:

• $400 Bilt Travel hotel credit ($200 every six months)
• $200 Bilt Cash annually
• Priority Pass
• Use Bilt Cash to waive rent and mortgage transaction fees

Version 2

(h/t u/TrashCanPeter)

Bilt Home ($0)

• 0.5x Rent
• 1X Everything else
• 10 transactions to waive fee

Bilt Everyday ($95)

• 0.75X Rent
• 3X Neighborhood Rewards Spend
• 1.5X Everything else
• 10 transactions to waive fee

Bilt Neighborhood ($495)

• 1X rent
• 3X Dining
• 2X Travel
• 6X Neighborhood Rewards spend
• 10 transactions to waive fee

Version 3

Bilt Home ($0)

• 0.5X Rent
• 1.5X Everything else
• Spend $1,000 in a statement to waive transaction fees on rent and mortgage

Bilt Titanium ($95)

• 1X points on rent
• 5X points on Neighborhood Rewards spend
• 1X points on all spend
• Spend $2,000 in a statement to waive transaction fees on rent and mortgage

Bilt Platinum Card ($495)

• 1.25X points on rent
• 2X points on dining
• 5X points on travel
• 2X points on Neighborhood Rewards spend
• Spend $2,500 in a statement to waive transaction fees on rent and mortgage

My Thoughts

The whole point of Bilt is to reward you for rent. Now, it’s become MUCH bigger than that, an entire neighborhood hub, if you will. But the genesis and anchor is in earning rewards for paying rent, your biggest expense, and also soon mortgages. 

In version 1, you would need to spend 75% of your rent on the card to get enough Bilt Cash to offset your 3% fee. If your rent is $4,000, you need to spend $3,000 a month to earn $120 in Bilt Cash to cover the $120 fee. At higher rent levels – and keep in mind Bilt is most prevalent in high cost of living areas (HCOLAs), it gets harder for you to keep up.

The median rent in Manhattan, where Bilt is based, is near $5,000 a month. Sure, it’s insane on its face but it is also reality. That is $60,000 a year in rent. A median 2 bedroom apartment is about $7,500 a month. That’s $90,000 a year.

Currently, you get 1X on rent on up to $100,000 of rent a year. 

In “Version 1” you would have to spend $75,000 a year on non-rent purchases in order to cover your 3% rent transaction fee. 

I’m already on the Bilt “status hamster wheel” and I get enough value from Bilt Platinum status with transfer bonuses and things like Accor Platinum for a year and Air France Flying Blue Gold that I don’t mind being on that hamster wheel.

But I have no interest in trying to keep up with my year to date spend and have that align with my rent or mortgage payments nor spend quite that much on a Bilt card (and yes, I’m in the NYC metro area, a very HCOLA). On the one hand I get that some people benefit too much proportionately from a high current cap on transaction free rent, but there’s a contrary point of when it’s too much effort for higher rent people. 

Now on the other cards, we see things like 10 transactions a month or X spend a month (at a reasonable level!) to get rent paid with no transaction fees with various earn rates based on the card. In this scenario someone in a HCOLA can pay for the $495 card, get a bunch of Bilt benefits back that stay in the Bilt ecosystem, and get a nice multiplier on rent – although we don’t know if there is a lower cap than the current $100k.

Personally I would have thought the rent / mortgage spend multiplier might have been impacted by Bilt status in 2.0, but I guess not? Status is the product of Bilt engagement and that is what Bilt wants, no?

Anyway, that’s all I have to say for now since this may ALL be wrong. Bilt might have even done this all for fun as a red herring!!

But I’ll certainly have more to say once we learn the real cards on January 14th.

What do you think??

Thoughts?

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