Bilt Authorized User Guide to Bilt Cash & Points Accelerators
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One of the most interesting parts of Bilt’s authorized user setup is not simply just that another person can spend on your card. It is that a Bilt authorized user gets their own allocation of Bilt Cash redemptions.
TL;DR
A Bilt Authorized User can give a household a second account for earning and redeeming Bilt Cash
Interestingly, Bilt authorized users can elect where they want to earn Bilt Cash and Bilt Points. For instance, an authorized user can elect to earn their own Bilt Cash and to accrue Bilt Points in the primary cardholder’s account
However, for the authorized user to use Points Accelerator, they must elect to receive both the Bilt Points and Bilt Cash
Bilt Authorized Users Can Earn Their Own Bilt Cash
Under Bilt Card 2.0, cardholders who select the Flexible Bilt Cash rewards option earn 4% back in Bilt Cash on eligible everyday purchases in addition to the card’s normal Bilt Points earnings.
Authorized users participate in the primary cardholder’s selected rewards structure. They cannot independently select Flexible Bilt Cash if the primary cardholder has selected Housing-only rewards.
The important part is how those rewards are allocated.
By default, the Bilt Points and Bilt Cash generated by an authorized user’s spending go to the primary cardholder. However, under Bilt’s Card 2.0 Offer Terms, the primary cardholder can change the rewards allocation so that authorized-user rewards instead accrue in the authorized user’s Bilt account. The change takes effect immediately, and purchases that have not yet posted follow the new selection.
Why You Want the Points to Stay With the Primary Cardholder
For many two-player households, splitting transferable points is inconvenient.
If one person primarily handles award travel, monitors transfer bonuses, or already has the larger Bilt balance, it may make more sense to keep earning Bilt Points in that account rather than building two smaller balances.
However, what the authorized user needs is Bilt Cash.
Why?
Bilt Cash redemptions operate at the individual cardholder level. For instance, the primary Palladium cardholder can redeem up to $10 of Bilt Cash per month for a Walgreens credit. However, an authorized user is also able to redeem their own Bilt Cash for an additional Walgreens credit every month… essentially doubling your maximum Bilt Cash usage rate every month.
The Authorized User Bilt Cash / Points Accelerator Strategy
If you’re accumulating too much Bilt Cash and don’t know what to do with it, an authorized user may be the way to go (that said, our Bilt Cash Redemption Calculator can compare the Point Accelerator with housing, credits, and other redemption options).
For eligible Bilt Obsidian Card and Bilt Palladium Card cardholders, Bilt’s current Bilt Cash guide says a Points Accelerator can be unlocked using $200 in Bilt Cash, with up to five activations annually. The accelerator adds an additional 1 Bilt Point per dollar on up to $5,000 of eligible purchases. But as noted, an authorized user receives a separate set of accelerators from the primary cardholder rather than sharing the primary cardholder’s allotment.
That effectively creates another lane through which a household can redeem Bilt Cash. Eg the primary cardholder might have run out of Point Accelerator activations, but you can add an authorized user and get an additional 5 Accelerator activations.
When earning Bilt Points via Flexible Bilt Cash, $5,000 of eligible everyday spending generates $200 in Bilt Cash at the 4% earning rate. That means an authorized user starting with no Bilt Cash could theoretically spend $5,000, generate the $200 needed for an accelerator, and then use that accelerator on subsequent spending. And then once they exhaust an accelerator’s +1X points on $5k spend, they can activate another.
Unfortunately, the limitation is that the authorized user’s Point Accelerator does not apply while the primary cardholder is designated to receive the points. For an authorized user to activate the Accelerator, the points allocation must be switched to the authorized user.
My chat with the Bilt Concierge. Now, don’t believe all AI you see, but there’s a lot of corresponding datapoints here.
A Simple Example of Unlocking More Point Accelerators to Use Bilt Cash
Imagine a Palladium household with one primary cardholder and one authorized user.
The primary cardholder is running into the issue where they just have too much Bilt Cash and wouldn’t be able to use all of it before the end of the year if they kept spending on the card throughout the next few months.
The household could structure spending like this:
Select Flexible Bilt Cash as the overall account’s Bilt-exclusive rewards option.
Divert all spending to the authorized user card until the authorized user accumulates $200 in Bilt Cash.
Set the authorized user’s Bilt Points and the Bilt Cash from their purchases to both accrue to the authorized user (otherwise, you won’t be able to activate the authorized user’s accelerator)
Have the authorized user redeem $200 in Bilt Cash for the Points Accelerator.
Put up to $5,000 of eligible purchases on the authorized user card. Both the card’s normal points and the accelerator’s additional 1X will accrue to the authorized user.
After the accelerated spending is complete, rinse & repeat until you’ve ran out of Accelerators to activate
With $5,000 of nonhousing, everyday spending earning 4% Bilt Cash, the authorized user would generate the $200 Bilt Cash to activate another Points Accelerator.
The tradeoff: the authorized user will accumulate all the points here. The benefit is that the you have less Bilt Cash that goes unused…
You can run your own housing and everyday spending through our Bilt 2.0 Calculator to estimate how much Bilt Cash you’d accrue and get a sense if you’d need to add an authorized user.
Authorized Users Can Also Redeem Bilt Cash for Lyft, Grubhub, and More
Points Accelerators are only one use for an authorized user’s Bilt Cash. The authorized user can also redeem their own balance for eligible credits through Bilt, including Lyft and Grubhub credits.
That creates a second set of useful redemptions for the household. Instead of spending all of the authorized user’s Bilt Cash on Points Accelerators, they can also use their balance for eligible Lyft, Grubhub, Walgreens, travel, fitness, dining, and other credits available through Bilt. For monthly restaurant redemptions, our Bilt Mobile Checkout map shows locations where Bilt Cash can be used. For hotel benefits, our Bilt Home Away From Home map lets you browse participating properties.
That is the broader value of directing some Bilt Cash to the authorized user: it creates more opportunities to use Bilt Cash, especially if the primary cardholder is running out of ways to use their Bilt Cash.
For instance, this doubles your BLADE redemption capabilities from up to $700 Bilt Cash per year, to $1400 Bilt Cash per year.
Why This Is Especially Interesting on the Bilt Palladium
The strategy becomes particularly compelling for Palladium authorized users also get Priority Pass access.
However, there is also a cost: Bilt lists a $95 annual fee per Palladium authorized user, charged to the primary cardholder. So adding an authorized user purely for convenience may not make sense.
But someone with substantial household spending may be able to extract considerably more value by treating the authorized user as an additional Bilt Cash redemption channel.
The primary Palladium cardholder can use their own Bilt Cash and accelerators. The authorized user can generate Bilt Cash and unlock a separate set of accelerators or redeem their Bilt Cash elsewhere.
The Best Bilt Authorized User Setup for Maximizers
For households specifically trying to maximize Bilt Cash, the most intriguing setup appears to be:
Keep the Bilt Points centralized with your “Player 1,” but let the authorized user earn the Bilt Cash from their spending.
The authorized user can then use that Bilt Cash for their own Bilt Cash redemptions like the monthly Lyft, GrubHub, and Walgreens credits.
However, to use a Points Accelerator, the authorized user needs to switch to earning both the Bilt Points and the Bilt Cash. Otherwise, you won’t be able to use Bilt Cash for the accelerator. Although it may be inconvenient to split point earnings across two accounts, it might still be one of the easier ways to use an additional $1,000 in Bilt Cash.
Ultimately, a Bilt authorized user is most valuable when the household has a clear plan for both currencies. Direct Bilt Cash to the person who can use the next credit or accelerator, and remember that the authorized user must also receive the points for their Points Accelerator to work. If the extra redemptions and Priority Pass access can justify the $95 Palladium authorized-user fee, this setup can help keep more Bilt Cash from expiring unused.
FAQs
Can a Bilt authorized user earn and redeem their own Bilt Cash?
Yes. If the primary cardholder selects Flexible Bilt Cash, the Bilt Authorized User can direct the Bilt Cash earned from their purchases to their authorized user Bilt account. The authorized user can then redeem their balance for eligible benefits such as Lyft, Grubhub, Walgreens, travel, dining, and fitness credits.
Can Bilt Points go to the primary cardholder while Bilt Cash goes to the authorized user?
Yes. The primary cardholder can route the authorized user’s Bilt Points to the primary account while directing the Bilt Cash from those purchases to the authorized user. However, the authorized user cannot use Points Accelerator while the primary cardholder is designated to receive the points.
Can a Bilt authorized user activate their own Points Accelerator?
An eligible Bilt Obsidian or Palladium authorized user can redeem $200 in Bilt Cash to activate an additional 1X on up to $5,000 of eligible everyday purchases, with up to five activations per year (per Bilt account holder). The points allocation must be set to the authorized user for the accelerator to be activated and applied.
Do an authorized user’s Bilt Cash redemptions count against the primary cardholder’s limits?
Monthly Bilt Cash redemption limits apply per Bilt account.
Under Bilt’s Cash terms, Bilt Cash cannot be transferred or pooled between accounts, and only up to $100 of unused Bilt Cash rolls into the next year.
How much does a Bilt Palladium authorized user cost?
Bilt charges a $95 annual fee for each Palladium authorized user, and the fee is billed to the primary cardholder. The extra Bilt Cash redemption capacity and Priority Pass access need to provide enough value to justify that recurring cost.
