I covered the recent launch of Bilt 2.0 last week. This week, Bilt came out with two tweaks to the new program which they thought enhanced and explained the value proposition further, but instead most people are receiving this as even more confusing.

As I explained last week, going forward, you have to “earn” the right to receive points on your rent/mortgage payment by using Bilt Cash, which is earned from non-rent/mortgage spend on the Bilt credit card (and you also get some at varying levels as a sign-up bonus when the card launches). People found this a bit confusing as you earn 4% Bilt Cash per dollar charged to non-rent/mortgage spend and it offsets the 3% transaction fee you would be charged on rent/mortgage spend. Clear as mud.

With a negative response to lots of math being required, Bilt came out with what they called Bilt 2.1. It provided a second way to earn points on rent/mortgage spend. The new method is simply earning a percentage of your rent/mortgage spend points based on your non-rent/mortgage spend.

• Spend 25% of Rent/Mortgage → 0.5x points
• Spend 50% of Rent/Mortgage → 0.75x points
• Spend 75% of Rent/Mortgage→ 1x points (The old standard)
• Spend 100% of Rent/Mortgage → 1.25x points

The big news here is that you can now earn 1.25x on rent/mortgage spend, which is more than you could ever earn with the old Bilt 1.0. You can also flip between the two methods of earning rent/mortgage points from month to month depending on how much Bilt Cash you have available and how you want to use it. This may be a simpler and easier method for many people who just want to make sure they are earning points on rent/mortgage payments along with their other spend and can easily budget to make sure they hit the milestone they need to earn those points with other spend each month.

That brings us to Bilt’s second announcement this week – what is Bilt Cash and how can you use it? The announcement showed all the different uses of Bilt Cash beyond using it to cover rent/mortgage fees and earn points on that spend. Here are all the options:

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; up to $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

Travel and Transportation – Up to $1200 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 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 $768 of Priority Pass extra guest credits / year – Palladium-only; cover up to two guest fees per month; $32 per guest; up to $64 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 per 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 per 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 Collection credit per year – Redeem up to $10 per month toward Bilt Design Collection purchases

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 spend – 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 grocery, 3X travel, 2X everyday spend – Palladium earnings when enabled: 3X everyday spend

Housing – 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

What to make of all this? Well, first of all, if you try and maximize every category with your Bilt Cash you will drive yourself crazy. Remember something important: Bilt Cash expires at the end of the year with the exception of $100 that can be carried over. Use it or (mostly) lose it! So, what is my recommendation?

If you are getting the Palladium card as I recommend for the first year to get the sign-up bonus and the 2x spend on everything, you will start with $500 Bilt Cash. I would probably go ahead and use that to earn points on the first $16,666 of rent/mortgage payments so that you make sure you use up that Bilt Cash. In the meantime, you’ll hopefully be earning Bilt Cash on all of the 2x non-bonused spend you put on the card (perhaps replacing for now the spend on your Amex Blue Business Plus, Citi Double Cash or Capital One Venture/Venture X cards). You can see what makes sense to your travel/spending patterns to use that Bilt Cash either to continue earning on rent/mortgage payments or perhaps something else.

For example, as a Bilt Platinum member, I have one free Blade helicopter ride to use this year between Manhattan and JFK airport. If I want to bring my wife along, it costs up to $300 for a second person. Perhaps I’ll use some Bilt Cash to cover the second person and we can both ride for free. This is a ridiculous first-world use of Bilt Cash, but it beats paying for the ride and lets us enjoy something we would never normally pay for more than once in a lifetime.

I may also use the Bilt dining credits at partner restaurants as we often find ourselves at Fado Irish Pub in Atlanta for Liverpool matches and it’s a Bilt Neighborhood Dining restaurant. One more use that piques my interest is the ability to unlock 3x spend on the Palladium card for up to $5,000 with $200 Bilt cash. Essentially this is paying .4 cents per bonus point earned which may not be the best deal, but could be worth it if you have a $5,000 bill coming up and you’ll know you will take full advantage of it. This could also be useful if you are getting the $95 Obsidian card to bump up your earnings on your spend.

The biggest thing Bilt is hoping for is that you earn Bilt Cash and either burn it on stupid things like Priority Pass guest passes or Bilt Collection knick-knacks. Or more likely, they hope all your Bilt Cash expires at the end of the year unused.

There are some nuggets of value here, but they are hard to parse. I suppose that’s part of the point, but in moving from a simple value proposition (earn 1x on rent, 2x on travel, 3x on dining) to a complicated one (three different cards and earning structures, Bilt Cash, two different methods to earn points on housing), Bilt may have turned off a lot of people. Even people like me who enjoy the gamification of credit cards are having a hard time grasping all of this. If the time it takes to figure out what to do is more than the value of the rewards program, you have a problem. Let’s hope Bilt sorts itself out in this first year of the new program or there may not be a second year.

If you have questions about this post, let me know in the comments or send me an email at emptynestermiles@gmail.com. If you are thinking about opening a new credit card, please use one of my links. I also recommend using CardPointers to track your credit card spending discount offers.