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Bilt Rewards has updated its referral program for the Bilt Mastercard.
- The old program gave cardmembers 25,000 points after every 5 successful referrals. But if you just referred 1, 2, 3, or 4 people to the card you did not receive anything.
- The new program gives 2500 points for each referral plus 10,000 points as a bonus after each 5 referrals.
If you refer exactly 5 (or multiples of 5) people that’s a slight decrease – you’ll earn 22,500 points instead of 25,000. However most people will come out ahead because they get rewarded for every referral, not just every 5 referrals.
When I last updated my valuation of points I valued a Bilt Rewards point at 1.7 cents. That was before they added several transfer partners, added travel portal redemptions at 1.25 cents apiece, added Amazon as a partner, and introduced ‘Rent Day’ deals like double points-earning.
Normally the no annual fee Bilt Mastercard is the only credit card to earn points paying rent at no cost (up to $50,000 per year) and earns double points on travel and triple points on dining. (You must make 5 transactions on the card in a month to earn points for that month.)
Each Bilt point can be spent at 1.25 cents apiece towards travel through their portal or transferred 1:1 into:
- Star Alliance: Air Canada Aeroplan, Turkish Miles & Smiles, United Airlines MileagePlus
- oneworld: American AAdvantage, Cathay Pacific Asia Miles, British Airways Executive Club, Iberia Plus
- SkyTeam: Air France KLM Flying Blue
- Non-alliance: Emirates Skywards, Virgin Atlantic Flying Club, Hawaiian Airlines HawaiianMiles, Aer Lingus Aer Club
- Hotels: Hyatt, IHG Rewards
The card seems like an absolute no-brainer if you rent where you live, and a competitive card with many of the better rewards products (and arguably the single best no annual fee card) even if you don’t. While there’s no initial bonus offer, someone renting in a high-priced market for four years could earn up to 200,000 points that no other card would let them earn – far more than the initial bonus offer on nearly any other product.
If you’re already a Bilt Mastercard, convince your friends to sign up using the link in your Bilt Rewards app and you’ll be rewarded for it too.
