Bilt Cash Review: Bilt’s 2nd Rewards System, A Very Thick Coupon Book
A few days ago, Bilt officially announced how Bilt Cash works. It’s… complicated. This article is dedicated to walking through it in detail.
What Is Bilt Cash
Bilt Cash is a second rewards system launched by Bilt, separate from Bilt Points. Bilt Points are extremely popular thanks to excellent transfer partners (including Hyatt, Japan Airlines, Alaska Airlines, United, etc.) and frequent generous transfer bonuses—this is one of Bilt’s biggest strengths.
Bilt Cash, on the other hand, is simply not that great to use. In one sentence: the system is overly complex, with too many restrictions on redemption. That said, there are some specific situations where it might make sense. Read on for details.
One important note: Bilt Cash expires every year on 12/31. You can only roll over up to $100 of Bilt Cash into the next year. So if you earn it, you really need to use it promptly.
How to Earn Bilt Cash
There are two ways:
- Everyday spending (everything except rent and mortgage payments) earns 4% back in Bilt Cash.
- For every 25,000 Bilt Points earned toward status, you automatically earn $50 in Bilt Cash. The key phrase here is “toward status,” meaning points from sign-up bonuses do not count. In practice, this mostly means you can only earn this through spending.
All the Ways to Use Bilt Cash
The list is long, painful, and honestly exhausting. I’ll paste the original list below so you can quickly skim it—reading it carefully will absolutely give you a headache:
Dining and Groceries
$120 / year towards grocery or restaurant delivery (fulfilled via GrubHub)
Redeem toward restaurant and grocery delivery fulfilled by GrubHub; $10 credit each month; Available 3/1/26
$60 / year of credits for Bilt 15-minute home delivery
Redeem Bilt Cash toward Bilt’s ultra-fast Home Delivery orders on groceries, alcohol, and essentials, powered by Gopuff; $5 credit each month
$100 / year toward Gopuff FAM (Free delivery and discounted groceries)
Cover your Gopuff FAM membership for up to twelve months; up to $100 annually; redeemable for monthly or annual membership; Available 3/1/26
$300 / year of restaurant credit at select Bilt Dining partners
Use Bilt Cash toward meals at select Bilt partner restaurants via Mobile Dining Checkout; one visit per month up to $25; rollout expanding to thousands of restaurants nationwide throughout this year
$600 / year toward dining experience bookings
Redeem Bilt Cash to book exclusive Bilt dining experiences; up to $50 per month; Available 3/1/26
Cardholder Exclusive Bonus Points
Cardholder exclusive bonuses are available when card earning is set to 4% back in Bilt Cash on everyday spend.
Point accelerator on everyday spend²
Enable +1X bonus points on all everyday spend for the next $5,000 following activation; exclusively available to Obsidian and Palladium cardholders; Cost: $200 Bilt Cash; up to 5 activations annually; expires after $5,000 spend or calendar year-end
Obsidian earnings when enabled: 4X dining or grocery³, 3X travel, 2X everyday spend
Palladium earnings when enabled: 3X everyday spend
Unlock points on housing payments, up to 1X
Unlock points on monthly rent or mortgage payments with no transaction fees; every $30 Bilt Cash redeemed earns 1,000 points, up to 1X of your monthly rent or mortgage payment
Travel and Transportation
Up to $1,200 hotel credit / year
Use Bilt Cash in the Bilt Travel Portal; two-night minimum; up to $50/month for Blue & Silver members and $100/month for Gold & Platinum members
Unlock higher transfer bonuses
Use Bilt Cash to upgrade your Rent Day transfer bonus to the next status tier; Platinum members receive an additional boost; example: Gold member can upgrade from 75% to 100% for $75 Bilt Cash; pricing and availability subject to change
$120 Lyft rideshare credits / year
Redeem $10 per month toward Lyft rides
Up to $150 toward a Blacklane ride / year
Redeem for Blacklane rides; up to $50/year (Blue & Silver), up to $100/year (Gold), or up to $150/year (Platinum)
Up to $700 of BLADE credit / year
Redeem for BLADE airport flights; up to $350 per booking; up to 2 bookings per year; Available 3/1/26
Unlock Home Away From Home hotel benefits
Blue & Silver members can unlock luxury hotel booking benefits usually reserved only for Gold and Platinum members for $95 Bilt Cash; may include benefits such as room upgrades, ~$100 hotel credits, early check-in, late checkout, and more; Available 3/1/26
Up to $840 of Priority Pass extra guest credits / year
Palladium-only; cover up to two guest fees per month; $35 per guest; up to $70 statement credit per month
$60 toward parking / year
Redeem $5 per month at participating Bilt Neighborhood Parking locations; Available 3/1/26
Health and Wellness
$480 fitness class credit / year
Redeem toward one group fitness class per month in the Bilt app (including SoulCycle, Barry’s, and others); up to $40 per month
$120 Walgreens credit / year
Redeem $10 per month toward a Walgreens credit
Other
$600 toward comedy experience bookings per year
Redeem up to $50 per month for exclusive Bilt comedy experiences; Available 3/1/26
$120 Bilt Design Collection credit per year
Redeem up to $10 per month toward Bilt Design Collection purchases
Every single use case has a very low cap, almost all of them are monthly, and the whole thing is frankly insane.
That said, I do understand the intent behind this design. A no-annual-fee card that earns 4% on almost all spending, while maintaining an explicit dollar-for-dollar value—if this weren’t designed to be extremely difficult to use, the bank would lose a fortune.
Recommended Ways to Use Bilt Cash
Personally, I find the $10/month-style coupons completely exhausting. Tracking all of these feels like taking on a second job. So my recommendation is to focus on the following uses:
1. Rent or Mortgage Payments
In our article about paying rent and mortgage with Bilt, we mentioned that there are two options. The first option does not involve Bilt Cash (and if you choose this, your spending will not earn 4% Bilt Cash). The second option lets you spend $3 in Bilt Cash to earn 100 Bilt Points, capped at your rent or mortgage amount.
For example, on a $2,000 bill, you can spend up to $60 in Bilt Cash to earn 2,000 Bilt Points.
This method converts hard-to-use, soon-to-expire Bilt Cash into highly valuable Bilt Points. If you earned Bilt Cash through a sign-up bonus or similar means, this is one of the best ways to use it.
2. Point Accelerator to Earn More Bilt Points
You can spend $200 in Bilt Cash to activate a +1X bonus on Bilt Points for the next $5,000 in spending. You can do this up to five times per year (i.e., up to $25,000 in spending).
Here’s the interesting part: since everyday spending earns 4% back in Bilt Cash, spending $5,000 will earn you $200 in Bilt Cash—exactly what you spent to activate the bonus. You can then use that $200 again to activate another +1X bonus. Some people jokingly call this a “perpetual motion machine,” though it is not “perpetual” with the $25k spending limit.
If you spend heavily on dining or groceries, the Bilt Obsidian card with the +1X bonus lets you earn up to 4X Bilt Points in those categories, which is very strong. If most of your spending is in “other” categories, the Bilt Palladium card with +1X becomes 3X on everything, which is also quite competitive.
This strategy only makes sense if you truly have the ability—and willingness—to put significant spending on Bilt cards.
3. Buying Higher Transfer Bonuses
During Bilt Rent Day promotions, Bilt frequently offers transfer bonuses, sometimes with very strong partners and very high bonus rates. Bilt has stated that Bilt Cash can be used to buy higher transfer bonus tiers. Pricing and availability will vary.
So far, this hasn’t actually happened yet, and pricing is unknown. When it does, we’ll update our Bilt Rent Day page accordingly.
Final Thoughts
Bilt Cash, as Bilt’s second rewards system, is extremely complex, with a coupon book that’s way too thick and genuinely painful to read. For most people, we recommend choosing the simple option when paying rent or mortgage—one that doesn’t involve Bilt Cash at all.
If you do want to play the Bilt Cash game, the uses we recommend are: converting it via rent or mortgage payments, using the Point Accelerator to boost earning rates by +1X Bilt Points, or buying higher transfer bonuses during Bilt Rent Day promotions.
