Two months ago Bilt Rewards shared that they would introduce points-earning on mortgages, that there would be a new credit card value proposition, and new benefits coming.
Now they’re out to members with a note describing an upcoming survey about changes they’re considering to the Bilt credit card – that will be going out in the next 48 hours.
They flag several areas under consideration. I’ll go through each with my reaction:
- “Earning points on housing, whether you rent OR own.” They’re adding points-earning for mortgages. That’s great for a whole new segment of cardmember. I’m not sure how much it’ll appeal to the current Bilt cardmember base, most of whom are renters and picked the card to earn points for rent. It does let them keep those cardmembers as they graduate into homeownership if long-term interest rates ever come down, as well as expand into a huge new market.
With the Mesa Card becoming broadly available, I’d like to see them fast-track this. Bilt will have a lot more marketing distribution than Mesa, and they have a lot more resources. I’m waiting for Bilt because I’d much rather earn their points than Mesa’s (which do not yet transfer to airline miles). But they need to move on this.
- “Ensuring long-term value for everyone.” There are going to be some new restrictions on earning points for rent payments. We don’t know what. Here’s how they explain it,
Waiving the standard 3% card fee on rent payments represents a significant cost to the program—and unique value that we provide to Bilt cardholders. Ensuring this benefit goes to members who genuinely engage with our broader program—rather than those taking advantage of loopholes—will allow us to continue delivering long-term value for our entire cardholder community.
If they’re talking about loopholes like sending paying things other than rent while earning points, that’s genuinely a loophole and fair to close! If they’re saying that in order to earn points on rent you’ll need to “genuinely engage in our broader program” for instance earning a certain number of points in ways besides rent as a new hurdle, that’ll make a lot of members unhappy. Those aren’t necessarily the members that Bilt will mind losing!
Today it takes 5 transactions a month on the Bilt card to earn points for the month. But 5 transactions doesn’t mean a lot of spending; making it your regular card. They likely want to move cardmembers more in this direction. We’ll see what that looks like – I suspect it’s an area where you’ll want to fill out the survey they send you.
- “Bringing even more value to your neighborhood.” They say they’re “working on expanding to new neighborhood spend categories” (new categories where you earn more than one point per dollar, perhaps) and on “more innovative solutions like what you saw with our automatic FSA/HSA savings benefit” though I’m genuinely not sure what that looks like in the card context.
- “More options, tailored to you.” They’re looking at an annual fee card in addition to the current no annual fee product. There are great premium cards, and not so great ones, and I’m looking forward to seeing what they’re surveying and what they come up with. Hopefully the premium card is great, and today’s no annual fee isn’t diluted. I’d love to even see two cards that pair really well together, but I suspect they’re too smart to create a two-card ecosystem like Citi, Amex, and Chase that lets you earn at accelerated rates and never just one point per dollar.
- “A more seamless card experience.” The Wells co-brand integration into the Bilt app lags the original Evolve card – you can’t set up autopay in the app, you need a separate Wells Fargo login to do that. It sounds like they’re going to solve some of these limitations.
We’re working to make it easier to manage your card with improved self-service capabilities, from adding authorized users to setting up auto-pay, all designed to work effortlessly within the Bilt app.
Points for mortgages is going to make the Bilt card even better for me. I value a single Bilt point more than I do any other currency, given their transfer partners and their regular transfer bonuses that are bigger than anybody’s else’s. I pick them as my Lyft earning partner and the restaurants that joined as part of their original dining program (rather than the Rewards Network expansion of the program) are really fantastic.
So I’m a prime candidate for a premium card. I have enough confidence in Bilt’s fundamental desire to not be lame that I’m sure it won’t be $395 for Priority Pass and Global Entry reimbursement. I also don’t want to see an Amex-style coupon book either. Maybe I’m not the target market for an upgrade after all – I’m a tougher customer. I’m not going to be a first time upgrader into the premium card segment. They need to offer me something better than what’s out there today, or at least significantly differentiated, to earn a slot in my wallet.
In some ways the $100 annual fee price point could be easier to manage a win – leveraging benefits and earning with their partners, they don’t necessarily load up on costs, and offer more 2x points-earning in ways that generates incremental and regular spend on the card. That bolsters card economics and use without having to come up with the bundle of benefits that they need to buy which will be enough of a hit with enough premium customers to be worth $350 – $650.
Regardless, I’ll certainly be opening the survey that I get.
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