Bilt has made a major change to the value proposition of Rent Day. Starting October 1, 2024, Bilt cardholders will only earn double bonus on Rent Day up to 1,000 bonus points per month — down from up to 10,000 points per month. Worse yet, that change was communicated via a terms and conditions link buried at the bottom of a Friday afternoon email from Founder & CEO Ankur Jain that focused on Bilt benefits with no mention at all of this change in the body of the email. You still have two more rent days before this change takes effect, but if you were counting on Rent Day spend both offering you double points and progress toward elite status, know that your capacity for double points is about to drop dramatically.
Part of Bilt’s ongoing Rent Day value proposition has long been double points on Rent Day. That means that cardholders earn an effective 6x on dining, 4x on travel, and 2x everywhere else on Rent Day (the 1st of the month), earning up to 10,000 bonus points each month. That has made the Bilt card worth using even on otherwise unbonused purchases on the first of the month since you’d effectively be earning 2x transferable points, and occasional exciting Rent Day transfer bonuses can boost your effective return significantly.
However, moving forward, you’ll only earn up to 1,000 bonus points per month on Rent Day. Given the double bonus categories, this means that dining out on the first and paying a check of $167 or more ($333 since the cap pertains to bonus points, not base earn) at your chosen restaurant will max out that month’s bonus points long before you’ve earned bonus points from any other purchases. Given Bilt’s core markets and image, it wouldn’t be hard to imagine many cardholders meeting or exceeding the double points cap eating at a restaurant in Bilt’s own Neighborhood Dining program.
This change will be particularly disappointing for those who have made it a point to chase elite status via Rent Day spend. As a reminder, Bilt elite status can be earned at the following thresholds via spend on the Bilt Mastercard:
- Silver – $10,000 dollars spent
- Gold – $25,000 dollars spent
- Platinum – $50,000 dollars spent
Given the chance to earn up to 10,000 points per month via the Rent Day double points promotion, it has been possible for those with $4,167 per month in bills that would otherwise be unbonused to reach Platinum status while also earning an excellent return on spend given the effective 2x earning rate. While many cardholders may not have that much to pay in bills ordinarily, others were surely hitting that number or even more with things like insurance and taxes.
Unfortunately, the math on changes significantly moving forward with only up to 1,000 bonus points per month based on double points for Rent Day spend. While I think Bilt points are a very valuable currency to collect, there is no currency I’m excited about collecting at only 1x given the plethora of 2x-everywhere cards on the market. I wouldn’t consider spending toward elite status if that means only earning 1 point per dollar spent.
All that said, I don’t find the change itself terribly surprising. As I just said, I’m sure that not very many cardholders spend $4,200 per month on Rent Day. The cost of funding that ongoing promotion for those who spend a lot on Rent Day may not make sense if it’s a small percentage of cardholders taking fuller advantage of that promotion. If you asked an average cardholder whether they’d like to be able to earn double points on up to $10,000 in spend on the 1st of every month or [insert flashy Rent Day promotion here], I wouldn’t be shocked if a majority of cardholders would chose the “other” thing.
More disappointing here than the change itself is the way in which it was communicated. The lack of transparency is both surprising and disappointing. Ankur Jain, Founder & CEO of Bilt Rewards, sent a Friday afternoon email to Bilt Rewards members. As a Bilt Rewards member myself, that email hit my inbox at 4:04pm on Friday while I was driving to the airport to fly to Europe, so while I saw the message, I initially missed the tiny footnote at the bottom of the email to “Terms and Conditions”. A number of observant readers and some other blogs caught that link (see those terms and conditions here), and in a paragraph found at that link about the Rent Day double points, folks found this passage:
The maximum amount of bonus points you can earn under this promotion is 10,000 per month, regardless of how much you purchase. Effective 10/1/2024, the maximum amount of bonus points you can earn under this promotion will be 1,000 per month regardless of how much you purchase.
It’s disappointing that Bilt buried this important detail in a terms and conditions link at the bottom of a Friday afternoon email rather than clearly and transparently communicating it. Nobody likes to give or receive bad news, but plenty of PR people make careers of spinning bad news in some sort of positive light. Sure, I’d be rolling my eyes at the “program enhancements” announcement that mentioned this change if that’s what had happened, but that would feel a lot different than hiding the change in a way that feels designed to make sure that very few cardholders would see it coming.
If I’m right that Bilt figures that this change won’t be material to the majority of its members, then they should have communicated it clearly. It wouldn’t have changed much for the folks who weren’t spending anywhere near the cap to see that info front-and-center in an email and while it still would have been just as disappointing for those who are negatively affected, that bitter taste wouldn’t have been compounded by the manner in which it was delivered.
I have certainly been legitimately excited about what Bilt has done in this space. It’s been a great rewards currency with exciting transfer bonuses and some innovative promotions. I haven’t loved every Rent Day offer, but many times I’ve seen the market for whom they would be applicable even if that market wasn’t me. But as excited as I’ve been about many Bilt offers, I’m extremely disappointed that they’d make this sort of change and do such a poor job communicating it to cardholders. I continue to root for awesome Rent Day promotions, but I hope that program changes like this one are communicated as transparently as those Rent Day promos.
The post Big change to Bilt Rent Day: Double points only up to 1,000 bonus points per month [Starts 10/1/24] appeared first on Frequent Miler. Frequent Miler may receive compensation from CHASE. American Express, Capital One, or other partners.