Bilt Blue Card review 2026: This $0-annual-fee card earns on rent and mortgages

Earlier this year, Bilt retired the original Bilt Mastercard® and introduced a new line of Bilt 2.0 cards, including the Bilt Blue Card (see rates and fees).

This no-annual-fee card is meant to be a starting point for those newer to the Bilt ecosystem. While it doesn’t offer much in terms of bonus categories, it does come with Bilt’s specialty: The ability to earn points on rent and now mortgages.

As CNBC Select previously covered, there’s a lot of potential value in the Bilt 2.0 ecosystem — but it’s remarkably complex. You have to be willing to put in the time to fully grasp the ins and outs. If you’re at all interested in what the new Bilt cards have to offer, the Bilt Blue Card could be a great place to start.

If you apply for the Bilt Blue Card and are approved, you’ll earn $100 in Bilt Cash as a sign-up bonus

Bilt Cash has 19 different redemption options, including the ability to cover your mortgage transaction fee (depending on the housing payment option you pick) and a point accelerator feature that earns additional Bilt Points. It’s worth noting that all but $100 of your Bilt Cash will expire at the end of the year, so use it or lose it.

Earning Bilt Points

The Bilt Blue Card earns 1X points per dollar spent on everyday spend (all non-housing purchases).

Through the Bilt Rewards program, you can earn additional points at partnered stores, like restaurants or workout classes. You also have the ability to earn on housing, but how you do so is up to you.

Earning on housing

Deciding how you want to earn on housing is where the Bilt Rewards program gets more complex. Gone is the more simplistic system of the past; instead, you have two new options:

Option 1 is probably the simplest: Pay no transaction fee (see rates and fees) and earn up to 1.25X points on your housing payment. Essentially, the more you spend on everyday purchases with your Bilt Blue Card, the more you’re able to earn via your housing payment.

While it is a “spend more, earn more” system, it’s also tiered. Once you hit a minimum spending threshold, you’re guaranteed at least that rate of rewards.

Option 2 is more complex. You earn 1X points on housing payments with a 3% transaction fee, plus 4% in Bilt Cash on every purchase (on top of Bilt Points earned). Your Bilt Cash can be used to pay for the housing payment transaction fee.

What makes this system more complex is also what makes it more desirable: its flexibility. Earning Bilt Cash means you have a lot more redemption options at your disposal (which we’ll get into further below).

Earning Bilt Cash

At the moment, there are only a few ways Bilt Blue cardholders can earn Bilt Cash, and only one of them is constant:

• New cardmember $100 Bilt Cash sign-up bonus
• Earn 4% Bilt Cash with any of the Bilt cards, depending on which option you choose for earning rewards on housing (see Option 2 above)
• $50 Bilt Cash for every 25,000 Bilt Points you earn toward elite status

Redeeming Bilt Points

Bilt Points are among the most valuable credit card rewards currencies, but it all depends on how you use them. As a general rule of thumb, you’ll typically receive over 1 cent per point for:

• Bilt Travel bookings
• Transfer to Bilt travel partners
• Down payment on a home
• Fitness classes

While Bilt Points can be worth over 2 cents per point toward transfer partner travel, they have a guaranteed value of 1.5 cents per point when redeemed toward a down payment on a home.

Bilt offers 23 different transfer partners, split between 18 airlines and five hotels. Points transfer at a 1:1 ratio (unless noted):

You’ll typically receive 1 cent per point (or less) for:

• Rent payments
• Student loan payments
• Statement credits
• Gift cards
• Merchandise, including Amazon, Bilt Home Delivery and Bilt Design Collection
• Lyftrides

Redeeming Bilt cash

Bilt offers 19 different redemption options for Bilt Cash, two of which are exclusive to cardholders. Each redemption option will have its own dollar limit and other restrictions, which you can dive into here.

Cardholder-exclusive:

• Housing transaction fees: Bilt Cardholders can use Bilt Cash to cover the transaction fee, depending on the housing payment method selected
• Point accelerator: By paying $200 in Bilt Cash, you’ll earn an additional 1X points on the next $5,000 in purchases (up to five times per year; expires after $5,000 everyday spend or calendar year-end)

Redemption options

• Unlock higher transfer bonuses during Rent Day promotions
• Bilt Travel hotel credits
• Lyft rides
• Blacklane rides beginning March 1, 2026
• BLADE airport helicopter flights (coming soon)
• Bilt Home Away from Home benefits beginning March 1, 2026 (if you don’t qualify with elite status)
• Priority Pass additional guest credits
• Bilt Neighborhood Parking credits beginning (coming soon)
• Fitness classes
• Walgreens credits
• Grubhub beginning March 1, 2026
• Bilt 15-minute home delivery by Gopuff Fam
• Gopuff Fam membership beginning March 1, 2026
• Bilt partner restaurants
• Bilt dining experiences beginning March 1, 2026
• Bilt comedy experiences beginning March 1, 2026
• Bilt Design Collection credits

The Bilt Blue Card (see rates and fees) has a $0 annual fee, but there are late payment and returned payment fees of up to $41 each. The card doesn’t charge any foreign transaction fees.

In terms of interest rates, the Bilt Blue Card currently features a10%intro APRon purchases for 12 billing cycles (followed by a variable APR of 26.74% to 34.74%).

Bilt Blue Card vs. Wells Fargo Active Cash Card

If dealing with multiple rewards currencies is too much for you, the Wells Fargo Active Cash® Card offers a flat 2% cash rewards on all purchases. While you will be sacrificing some of the extra redemption flexibility, you’re gaining an easier-to-use rewards system.

The Active Cash Card’s welcome bonus does require spending, but you’ll earn more rewards. New card members can earn a $200 cash rewards bonus after spending $500 in purchases in the first three months after opening the account.

Both cards carry a $0 annual fee, and just like the Bilt Blue Card, the Wells Fargo Active Cash also comes with cell phone protection (subject to a $25 deductible). It also features a 0% intro APR for 12 months on purchases and balance transfers (as opposed to the Bilt card’s 10% intro APR on purchases), followed by a lower variable APR range of 18.49%,24.49%or28.49%. Balance transfers made within 120 days qualify for the intro rate and a 3% balance transfer fee, then a fee of up to 5% (min. $5) applies.

Bilt Blue Card vs. Citi Strata Card

If having a card with transfer partners is a draw, the Citi Strata℠ Card offers full access to Citi’s airline and hotel partners — including popular options like American Airlines and JetBlue. Since the Citi Strata is a no-annual-fee card, the Citi ThankYou® Points it earns typically transfer at a lower 1:0.7 ratio (with a few exceptions, which you can learn about here).

Outside of its rewards on select travel bookings and restaurant purchases, the Citi Strata lets you pick your 3X rewards category from one of five options: Fitness clubs, select streaming services, live entertainment, cosmetic stores/barber shops/hair salons or pet supply stores.

There’s also a longer intro APR period that applies to both purchases and balance transfers.

If you’ve heard about Bilt and are interested in the program it’s building upon, the Bilt Blue Card could be a great starting point.

The Bilt Points you earn can be incredibly valuable when used toward the right redemption options. But the card only earns 1X points on everyday spend, so you likely won’t accumulate points quickly on general card spending alone.

It’s also worth asking yourself how much time and effort you’re willing to put into Bilt. Having two different housing reward systems can be complex, and Bilt Cash comes with its own rules to navigate.

If you’re game to roll up your sleeves and put in the effort, the Bilt Blue Card offers a no-annual-fee way to start exploring the card-centric benefits of Bilt Rewards.

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