Bilt is the most confusing rewards program in the country, because rent does not earn points directly and the currency you earn on everyday spend, Bilt Cash, is only fuel for unlocking points. This tool cuts through it: enter your rent and spending, and see how many Bilt Points each of the three cards really produces, whether you generate enough Bilt Cash to keep the boosts running, and which one comes out ahead.
The math above only works if you run a meaningful share of your everyday spending through the Bilt card, because that spend is what generates the Bilt Cash that fuels your rent points and boosts. In other words, Bilt rewards you for being loyal to it and punishes you for splitting spend across cards.
That loyalty has a real price: every dollar you put on Bilt is a dollar not earning a welcome bonus somewhere else. A single new card's welcome offer is often worth $500 to $1,000, which usually dwarfs a year of Bilt points. Bilt is a fantastic long-term keeper for the rent line specifically, but running your whole life through it can quietly cost you far more than it pays.
Want to see that tradeoff in dollars? Run the same spending through the main Cardocrat calculator and compare the results under its 6-month and 3-month acquisition windows, which fold in the welcome bonuses you would be giving up.
On Bilt Card 2.0 the rent or mortgage swipe earns nothing on its own. You earn housing points only by redeeming Bilt Cash: $30 of Bilt Cash unlocks 1,000 points, capped at 1× your monthly housing payment.
All three cards earn 4% back in Bilt Cash on non-housing spend, alongside their regular point multipliers. That Bilt Cash is what you feed back into rent points and boosts, so your everyday spending literally powers your rent rewards.
For $200 of Bilt Cash you unlock +1x points on the next $5,000 of everyday spend, up to five times a year. This calculator spends your Bilt Cash where it makes the most points, filling the more efficient rent boost first, then this one.
Bilt Cash cannot be cashed out or transferred to partners, has monthly redemption caps, and mostly expires at year end (only $100 rolls over). That is exactly why converting it into transferable points, even at a lossy rate, can beat letting it vanish. We count only the points as value.
No. Rent and mortgage do not earn points from the swipe on Bilt Card 2.0. You unlock housing points by redeeming Bilt Cash at $30 for 1,000 points, capped at 1× your monthly housing payment. Your everyday spending generates the Bilt Cash that makes those housing points possible.
At a flat 1¢ per point, no: $30 of Bilt Cash becomes 1,000 points worth about $10, so you lose roughly two-thirds of the face value. It only makes sense because Bilt Cash cannot be cashed out, is capped monthly, and largely expires each year. Turning soon-to-expire Bilt Cash into transferable points beats losing it, especially if you redeem those points through travel partners above 1¢.
Maxing your rent points takes 3% of your annual rent in Bilt Cash, and each everyday boost costs another $200. If your 4% everyday earnings do not cover all of that, you cannot fully fuel the boosts, so the calculator caps the points you can actually unlock and flags the shortfall.
No. Like the main Cardocrat calculator, this measures spending rewards only. Palladium's $400 hotel credit, $200 annual Bilt Cash, and lounge access, and Obsidian's $100 hotel credit, can add real value on top of what is shown here. Check each card's page for the full benefit list.
Compare Bilt against every other card › in the main calculator, where welcome bonuses and the 6-month acquisition pace show the full picture.
Bilt Blue · Bilt Obsidian · Bilt Palladium — read the full review of each card.