How Bilt Rewards Works: Cards, Tiers, and Bilt Cash, Explained

By Bryce Casson, Founder · Cardocrat · Updated June 2026

The short answer: Bilt confuses people because it has two separate ladders and two currencies. There are three cards, Blue at no fee, Obsidian at $95, and Palladium at $495, that differ by everyday earning and perks, and four status tiers, Blue, Silver, Gold, and Platinum, that you climb by earning points and that boost your bonuses. On top of that sit two currencies: transferable Bilt Points, the valuable part, and Bilt Cash, a constrained dollar-for-dollar credit you spend inside the Bilt app. Here is the whole structure, untangled.

Two kinds of "tiers": the cards versus your status

The single biggest source of confusion is that "Blue" is both a card and a status level. Bilt has two separate ladders. The first is which card you carry, Bilt Blue, Bilt Obsidian, or Bilt Palladium, which sets your everyday earning rates, perks, and annual fee. The second is your status, Blue, Silver, Gold, or Platinum, which you earn by how many points you rack up in a year and which boosts your bonuses. They are independent: you can hold the no-fee Blue card and still climb to Platinum status, or carry the Palladium card and sit at Blue status if you do not earn much. Keep the two ladders separate in your head and Bilt suddenly makes sense.

The three cards, compared

The cards launched in early 2026 as Bilt Card 2.0, and for the first time they earn on mortgages as well as rent. Here is how the three compare on fee, everyday earning, and perks.

Card	Annual fee	Everyday earning	Standout perks
Bilt Blue	$0	1x on everyday purchases	Earns on rent and mortgage with no fee; $100 Bilt Cash to start
Bilt Obsidian	$95	3x on dining or groceries (your choice; groceries to $25k a year), 2x travel, 1x else	Up to $100 a year in Bilt Travel hotel credit; best for foodies
Bilt Palladium	$495	2x on everything except housing	$400 hotel credit, $200 Bilt Cash, Priority Pass Select

In short: the no-fee Blue is the default for any renter or homeowner who just wants to earn on housing; the Obsidian suits people who spend heavily on dining or groceries and want a hotel credit; and the Palladium is for big everyday spenders who will use its hotel credit, Bilt Cash, and lounge access to outrun the $495 fee. All three earn on rent and mortgage the same way, which is its own topic.

How earning on rent and mortgage works

This is the mechanic people miss. Every Bilt card lets you pay rent or mortgage with no transaction fee, but the points rate is not flat, it scales with how much you also spend on everyday purchases on the card, measured against your housing payment. Spend at least 25 percent of your housing amount on other purchases and you earn 0.5x on housing; 50 percent earns 0.75x; 75 percent earns 1x; and matching or exceeding your housing payment earns the full 1.25x. Bilt is effectively paying you to make it your daily card, not just a rent button. If you only ever pay rent and nothing else, you earn the least. See paying rent with a credit card.

Bilt status: Blue, Silver, Gold, Platinum

Your status is earned by the points you generate in a calendar year, or by fast-track spending, and it determines how rich your bonuses are. Once earned, status holds for the rest of the current year, all of the next year, and through January 15 after that.

Status	How to reach it in a year	What it adds
Blue	Under 50,000 points (everyone starts here)	Base bonuses
Silver	50,000 points, or $10,000 in eligible spend	Earns monthly interest on your points; 10 percent lease bonus
Gold	125,000 points, or $25,000 in spend	Bigger Rent Day transfer bonuses; 25 percent lease bonus
Platinum	200,000 points, or $50,000 in spend	Top transfer bonuses and interest; 50 percent lease bonus

The benefits compound as you climb. Rent Day, on the first of each month, gives double points on purchases plus partner perks, and its transfer bonuses scale with status, a recent Rent Day bonus to Japan Airlines ran from 25 percent at lower tiers up to 100 percent at Platinum. Silver and above also earn monthly interest paid in extra points on your balance, and lease signing or renewal bonuses at Bilt Alliance properties rise with status. Higher status makes every point you hold and earn worth more.

Bilt Cash, explained

Bilt Cash is the part that trips people up, because it sounds like cash but is not. It is a dollar-for-dollar credit you can only spend inside the Bilt ecosystem, and it replaced the old Milestone Rewards. It does not replace Bilt Points; it runs alongside them. You earn it two ways: through status milestones, which pay $50 in Bilt Cash for every 25,000 points you earn toward status and are open to everyone, even non-cardholders; or by choosing Flexible Bilt Cash as your bonus, which pays 4 percent back in Bilt Cash on everyday purchases, excluding rent and mortgage, on top of your points, with the Palladium card including $200 a year. You redeem it at checkout in the Bilt app or on bilt.com, mostly through specific monthly credits: about $10 a month toward a Walgreens gift card, $25 a month at participating Bilt Dining restaurants paid through Bilt, a $5 monthly delivery credit, and $350 per seat toward Blade helicopter transfers twice a year. The catch is that most of these reset monthly on a use-it-or-lose-it basis, and only up to $100 of Bilt Cash rolls over to the next year, so it behaves more like a stack of monthly perks than a savings balance.

What to spend Bilt Cash on, including the points boost

Because Bilt Cash mostly expires monthly, the goal is to never let it sit. The cleanest value is to redeem it dollar-for-dollar on things you would buy anyway, dining through Bilt, food and grocery delivery, hotels in the Bilt travel portal, Lyft rides, or parking, where one Bilt Cash dollar is worth a full dollar. If you will actually use those, they are the simplest best use.

The option people overlook is using Bilt Cash to boost your transferable points, which can be the smartest move if you would otherwise waste it. There are two ways. You can unlock points on your housing payment at a rate of $30 in Bilt Cash for 1,000 points, up to 1x on your rent or mortgage, which works out to 3 cents per point. And on the Obsidian or Palladium card, the Point Accelerator turns $200 in Bilt Cash into one extra point per dollar on your next $5,000 of spending, up to 5,000 points and five times a year, about 4 cents per point, which effectively makes the Palladium a 3x card on that spend.

Whether the boost is worth it comes down to how you redeem the points. You are paying 3 to 4 cents of Bilt Cash per point, so it pays off when you turn those Bilt Points into premium-cabin awards worth more than that through transfer partners like Hyatt, Alaska, American, and United, which is very doable, or when the alternative is letting the Bilt Cash expire for nothing. Bilt Points are the real prize, so treat Bilt Cash as fuel: spend it on dollar-for-dollar credits you would use anyway, or convert it into transferable points, but never let it expire unused. See best ways to use Bilt points, how to use a transfer bonus, and the broader Bilt Rewards ecosystem guide.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between Bilt Blue, Obsidian, and Palladium?

They are the three Bilt cards. Blue has no annual fee and earns 1x on everyday spend; Obsidian is $95 and earns 3x on your choice of dining or groceries plus 2x travel; Palladium is $495 and earns 2x on everything but housing, with a $400 hotel credit, $200 Bilt Cash, and Priority Pass. All three earn on rent and mortgage the same way.

What is Bilt Cash and how is it different from Bilt Points?

Bilt Cash is a dollar-for-dollar credit you can only spend inside the Bilt app, mostly through monthly credits like a Walgreens gift card or Bilt Dining. Bilt Points are the transferable currency that moves to airline and hotel partners and is worth more than a cent each. Points are the valuable part; Bilt Cash is a constrained supplement.

How do Bilt status tiers work?

There are four: Blue (under 50,000 points), Silver (50,000 points or $10,000 spend), Gold (125,000 or $25,000), and Platinum (200,000 or $50,000), earned over a calendar year. Higher status means bigger Rent Day transfer bonuses, monthly interest on your points from Silver up, and larger lease bonuses. Status is separate from which card you hold.

How do you earn points on rent and mortgage with Bilt?

Every Bilt card pays rent or mortgage with no transaction fee, but the rate scales with your other spending on the card. Spending 25 percent of your housing amount on everyday purchases earns 0.5x on housing, 50 percent earns 0.75x, 75 percent earns 1x, and matching or exceeding your housing payment earns the full 1.25x.

Can you cash out Bilt Cash?

No. Despite the name, Bilt Cash is not withdrawable cash. It is a dollar-for-dollar credit redeemable only inside the Bilt ecosystem, largely through fixed monthly credits, and most of it is use-it-or-lose-it each month, with only up to $100 rolling over per year.

What is the best way to use Bilt Cash?

Redeem it dollar-for-dollar on things you would buy anyway, like Bilt Dining, delivery, Bilt travel portal hotels, or Lyft, or use it to boost transferable points: $30 in Bilt Cash unlocks 1,000 points on housing, about 3 cents per point, and on the Obsidian or Palladium the Point Accelerator turns $200 into a bonus point per dollar on your next $5,000 of spend, about 4 cents per point. Boosting points pays off when you redeem them above that rate via transfer partners, or when the Bilt Cash would otherwise expire.

Which Bilt card should I get?

For most people the no-fee Blue card is the starting point, since it earns on rent and mortgage at no cost. Choose Obsidian if you spend heavily on dining or groceries and will use the hotel credit, and Palladium only if your everyday spend and use of its hotel credit, Bilt Cash, and lounge access clearly beat the $495 fee.