*This article has been updated to reflect the new changes announced on Jan 16, 2026

Bilt has been marketing the exciting release of the Bilt 2.0 cards for a while and the announcement is finally here. The three new cards are the Bilt Blue Card, Bilt Obsidian Card and Bilt Palladium Card—Blue at no annual fee, Obsidian at $95, and Palladium at $495. They're very different from their original counterparts.

The "Litmus Test" to determine if you should get any of the new Bilt card

Before you read on, there's a simple litmus test to help you decide if you should bother getting any of the new Bilt cards:

1. Do you have a monthly housing payment? If no, do not get any Bilt card.

2. Do you value Bilt Points at least 1 cent per point? If no, do not get any Bilt card.

3. Do you have a card that earns at least 2.33 points per dollar spent on your misc. purchases? If no, then continue reading—the new Bilt cards could be relevant to you.

What is Bilt Cash?

Bilt Cash is a new concept that Bilt has rolled out for all three of their new cards. You earn Bilt Cash from your nonrent spending if you select Flexible Bilt Cash (Option 2) as your housing points option.

• You earn Bilt Cash on all your spend, at a rate of 4%, meaning every $1 spend on the cards = $0.04 Bilt Cash

  • Or, $100 spend = $4 Bilt Cash

• Then, you can convert your Bilt Cash into Bilt points. Every $0.03 of Bilt Cash unlocks 1 Bilt Points

  • So, $3 Bilt Cash = 100 points

  • So, $30 Bilt Cash = 1,000 points

• So when you spend $750 on your Bilt card, you earn $30 in Bilt cash that then becomes 1,000 Bilt points (when redeemed against rent).

Unit economics wise, this means $1 in spend on the card earns 1.33 Bilt Points when redeeming against rent via Option 2.

*Alternatively, you can also redeem Bilt cash for neighborhood dining experiences, hotel bookings, Lyft credits etc. As far as we know, it can be redeemed dollar for dollar (1:1), which is huge if you value Bilt Cash at face value.

What is the Bilt Blue card?

The Bilt Blue card is the new no annual fee card in the Bilt portfolio. Here are all the perks and benefits of having the Bilt Blue card:

• 1X points on everyday spend

• 4% back in Bilt Cash on everyday spend

• $100 in Bilt Cash on account opening

• Earn both Bilt Points and Bilt Cash with no annual fee and no foreign transaction fees

The $100 of Bilt Cash welcome bonus, when redeemed against your rent or mortgage, is worth 3,333 Bilt points.

What is the Bilt Obsidian card?

The Bilt Obsidian card is the new midtier Bilt card sitting in between the Bilt Blue card and Bilt Palladium card, at a $95 annual fee. Here are the benefits you get with the Bilt Obsidian card:

• 3X points on dining or grocery (grocery up to $25K/year), 2X on travel, 1X on all other everyday spend

• 4% back in Bilt Cash on everyday spend

• Up to $100 in annual Bilt Travel Hotel credits (Up to $50 semiannual)

• $200 in Bilt Cash on account opening

• Trip Delay Insurance, no foreign transaction fees

The $200 of Bilt Cash welcome bonus, when redeemed against your rent or mortgage, is worth 6,666 Bilt points.

What is the Bilt Palladium card?

The Bilt Palladium card is the most premium card out of the three new Bilt cards and it comes with lots of bells and whistles. Here are all the perks and benefits that come with the Bilt Palladium card at a $495 annual fee:

• 2X points on everyday spend

• 4% back in Bilt Cash on everyday spend

• First-ever, limited-time 50,000-point sign-up bonus + Gold Status (after qualifying spend)

• $300 in Bilt Cash on account opening

• Up to $600 in annual credits ($400 Bilt Travel semiannual Hotel credits + $200 in Bilt Cash)

• Additional premium benefits, including Priority Pass access, purchase protection, no foreign transaction fees, authorized users

If you redeem the $300 in Bilt Cash upon account opening against your rent or mortgage, you get 10,000 Bilt points.

The annual $200 of Bilt Cash, when redeemed against your rent or mortgage, is worth 6,666 Bilt points.

Are the changes on the new Bilt cards good for cardholders?

On the surface, these cards seem uninteresting/complex. The introduction of Option 1 and 2 when it comes to earning points on housing payments just makes the cards even more confusing.

However, if you run the numbers, you start to realize some interesting trends:

1. Option 1 always earns at least 2x points per dollar spent, with potential to far exceed that

2. Option 2 always earns at least 2.33x points per dollar spent, up to 75% of your monthly housing payment

The easiest way to understand this is via examples/calculators.

Example 1: $1,000 Monthly Rent, $249 Monthly Spend on Bilt Cards

If you spend $249 on the Bilt Cards (~24% of your rent), Option 2 is always better (see calculations):

This is because you miss the "25% threshold" to earn any points on your rental payments. So, in effect, you're literally just earning the 250 base points when you pay your rent through Bilt.

Example 2: $1,000 Monthly Rent, $250 Monthly Spend on Bilt Cards

Just a difference of $1 makes a world of difference. Here, Option 1 absolutely crushes Option 2, earning at least 3.00x points per dollar spent (link to calcs):

The reason why this happens is because by hitting 25% of your rent spend, you suddenly unlock points on your actual rent. 25% of rent spend gets you 0.5x points on your total rent.

Example 3: $1,000 Monthly Rent, $450 Monthly Spend on Bilt Cards

Since you haven't hit the 50% incremental tier on rent spend to unlock 0.75x points on total rent via Option 1, Option 2's flat rate earnings are superior:

Why does Option 2 lead to to the cards earning 2.33x on all purchases?

When you spend on the Bilt Cards, you earn 4% Bilt Cash on all your purchases.

That Bilt Cash you earn can then be redeemed against your rent at a rate of $0.03 Bilt Cash = 1 Bilt Points. So every $1 you spend becomes 1.33x Bilt points when you redeem Bilt Cash against rent.

This changes the math tremendously.

• Bilt Blue: earns effectively 2.33x Bilt points on everyday spend*

• Bilt Obisidian: earns effectively 4.33x Bilt points on your 3x category spend, 3.33x on your 2x category spend, 2.33x on your everyday spending*

• Bilt Palladium: earns effectively 3.33x Bilt points on all your spend*

*When redeeming Bilt Cash against your rent. $3 Bilt Cash unlocks 100 Bilt Points when using Bilt Cash on monthly rent payments

We think the new Bilt cards can be enormous winners for the right people.

How does the Bilt Blue card compare to the Citi Double Cash® Card?

If you have monthly rent or mortgage spend, the Bilt Blue card beats the Citi Double Cash® Card in terms of pure raw earnings.

The Double Cash earns up to 2% cashback on all spend (1% for spend, 1% when you pay your statement).

The Bilt Blue card effectively earns at least 2.33x transferable points on all spend (when factoring in the 4% Bilt Cash earnings). Otherwise, Option 1 can well exceed the 2.33x mark.

For $1,000 in rent and $500 in monthly spend on the Bilt Blue, you can see how it outearns the Double Cash in all scenarios:

How does the Bilt Blue card compare to the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card?

Bilt Blue generally earns more points than the $95 annual fee Venture Rewards per $1 spent.

• With Option 1, the lowest rate the Bilt cards ever earn is 2.00 points/dollar

• With Option 2, the lowest rate the Bilt cards ever earn is 2.33 points/dollar

Notably, Bilt’s transfer partners are also better than Capital One’s! However, you also miss out on the Capital One Venture's welcome bonus.

For $1,000 in rent and $500 in monthly spend on the Bilt Blue, you can see how it outearns the Venture cards in all scenarios:

How does the Bilt Obsidian compare to the Citi Strata Premier® Card card?

The Citi Strata Premier card is an underrated card that has some incredibly strong categories in its own right, such as 3x on restaurants, supermarkets, and air travel/hotels.

Compared 1:1 without rent/mortgage expenses, the Strata Premier is definitely the better card for the same annual fee. Not to mention, the Strata Premier has a huge welcome bonus that makes it hard for the Bilt Obsidian to compete with.

However, given the Bilt cards let you earn points on monthly housing payments, the Bilt Obsidian becomes very interesting. For example, with Option 2, the additional 4% Bilt Cash earned on your spend makes the Bilt Obsidian very powerful.

For instance, on $1,000 of rent and $500 of grocery spend, you'll see how the Obsidian always beats the Premier:

It’s close, but I think the Strata Premier provides more significant short term value with its bonus, whereas the Bilt Obsidian punches above its weight with the incredibly strong 4.33x in grocery or dining (via Option 2). However, the Strata Premier’s coverage is generally stronger, so the Obsidian needs to be partnered with another card.

How does the Bilt Palladium compare to the Robinhood Gold card?

I don’t even think this is a hot take—the Bilt Palladium crushes the Robinhood Gold on a pure earnings perspective.

Bilt Palladium earns 2x on all purchases. But, it also earns 4% Bilt Cash on all purchases via Option 2:

1. If you redeem that Bilt Cash against your rent, you earn an additional 1.33x Bilt Points per $1 spent on the card (effectively 3.33x Bilt points on all spend)

2. If you redeem that Bilt Cash in other ways (eg neighborhood experiences, Lyft credits), then it’s just 4% cashback ontop

So in the bear case, you earn 3.33x Bilt points per $1 spent on the Palladium AND you can transfer those points to partners like Hyatt. Even if you value Hyatt points conservatively, that’s almost 5% back on ALL spend.

For instance, let's say you have $5,000 in monthly housing payments and spend $4,000 on the cards per month:

If you value Bilt Points at anything higher than 1 cpp, the math starts to look pretty good. 3.33x points at 1.5 cpp becomes ~5% cashback, which is awesome.

Of course, there’s an enormous $495 annual fee that I’m not factoring in here, but the credits/benefits provided make it relatively worth the breakage with the additional point earnings. It’s still a headache, but for 3.33x points on all spend, may be worth it.

For me, I’d be looking to leverage the $200 annual Bilt Cash + maybe one of the Bilt Hotel credits. Not looking to have to spend too much time with the breakage on these credits in particular. The bonus is useful for guaranteeing value, at least in the first year.

Misconception: do I need to spend up to my rent per month to earn Bilt points at all?

No. There is no requirement for you to spend any amount on the card. Rather, the more you spend, the more points you earn.

• With Option 1, your nonrent spend is tied to your points multiplier on the card.

• With Option 2, you earn Bilt Cash for every dollar you spend on the cards. You can then redeem Bilt Cash against your rent/mortgage.

  • Bilt Cash expires in the calendar year it was earned. So, Bilt Cash earned during 2026 will expire at the end of the year. However, you can rollover up to $100 in Bilt Cash every year.

How can I get one of the new Bilt cards if I had the old Bilt card?

If you are a current Bilt cardholder, you “preorder” and select from one of the three cards up until January 30, 2026. Your new card will arrive by February 6th and then you’ll be able to use it starting February 7th.

Can I apply for a Bilt card now if I don’t have one already?

Yes, you can apply for the new cards on Bilt's site right now.

Final Remarks

The new Bilt cards are complex vehicles redesigned entirely to force users to spend regularly on them. While the new rewards structure is a headache to understand, after removing the cobwebs, it’s clear that the new Bilt cards are extremely strong cards with a lot of potential to replace a lot of the core cards we’ve all been familiar with.

However, to make the most of the Bilt Cards, you must have mortgage or rent payments. If you don’t, these cards struggle against the incumbents & are not worth getting.