What is the Bilt 2.0 Calculator?
The Bilt 2.0 Calculator helps you estimate how many Bilt Points you earn from rent, mortgage, and everyday spending on the Bilt Blue, Obsidian, and Palladium.
You can use this Bilt rewards calculator to:
Calculate Bilt points from rent and mortgage payments
See how many Bilt points you earn per month and per year
Estimate your total Bilt rewards based on spending
Calculate your effective points per dollar across all spending
Compare between the Bilt cards (Blue, Obsidian, and Palladium)
Compare Bilt rewards against other 20+ popular credit cards like the Chase Freedom Unlimited® or Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card
Enter your monthly rent and/or mortgage and spending to instantly see your total Bilt points and estimated value.
This is both the simplest and most advanced Bilt calculator out there. It includes support for Bilt Cash redemptions, Points Accelerator, and advanced reward scenarios, giving you a more accurate estimate than most basic calculators.
Which Bilt card is Right For You?
There are three Bilt cards to choose from, all with their own quirks:
Bilt Blue Card: $0 annual fee
Bilt Obsidian Card: $95 annual fee
Bilt Palladium Card: $495 annual fee
The Bilt Blue suits renters who want to unlocking housing points with no annual fee. Since it is low commitment, the reward potential (relative to risk) is high, especially given it already earns 1x points on all your purchases.
For those who spend a lot on grocery or dining purchases outside of normal spend, the Obsidian is interesting & can be very powerful as well, given it unlocks points on housing spend as well. Notably, the Obsidian can also access Points Accelerator, which can make for a relatively easy use of Bilt Cash.
Finally, the Palladium is a fantastic catch-all spending card. With its flat 2x points on all purchases, it already is in a competitive position relative to the likes of the Venture X or Freedom Unlimited. However, given it can unlock points on rent or mortgage spend with no transaction fee, it effectively earns considerably more than just 2x points per dollar spend. We like the Palladium the best, despite its larger annual fee.
Housing Only Rewards vs. Flexible Bilt Cash: Which Should You Choose?
Bilt has two methods for you to earn Bilt Points.
Option 1: Housing-only Rewards
With this method, you don’t earn any Bilt Cash from your day to day spend. Rather, how many points you earn from rent or mortgage spend per month will increase depending on how much you spend on your card every billing cycle.
The more you spend on your Bilt Card, the more points you’ll earn on housing payments made during the same billing cycle.
Spend % of Monthly Housing | Housing Earn |
|---|---|
At least 25% | 0.50x points |
Option 2: Flexible Bilt Cash
Here, you’ll earn 4% back in Bilt Cash for every dollar you spend on everyday purchases (meaning rent or mortgage payments don’t earn any Bilt Cash). This rewards currency is designed to be “flexible” so that you can use it across multiple redemption channels like Lyft credits, Points Accelerator, and Point Transfer bonuses.
You may be asking: but wait, does earning Bilt Cash mean I can’t earn any points from my housing spend? Bilt Cash can be converted into Bilt Points on housing payments at a rate of $0.03 Bilt Cash = 1 Bilt Points (eg $30 Bilt Cash = 1,000 Bilt Points)
You can redeem Bilt Cash to unlock up to 1x points on rent or mortgage payments (limited to your payment amount). For instance, if your mortgage is $3,000, that means you can only redeem $90 Bilt Cash at most for that payment to unlock 3,000 Bilt Points.
Is Housing Only Rewards Better Than Flexible Bilt Cash?
Not necessarily. Use the Bilt Calculator to determine how much you’d earn from either method. It’s too hard to generalize “personas” here, but if you truly value simplicity and not thinking, then Housing Only Rewards will work well for you.
For the majority of people, Flexible Bilt Cash will likely be the winner.
Example Bilt Calculator Results
These examples show how the Bilt calculator compares Blue, Obsidian, and Palladium using different rent, mortgage, and everyday spending profiles. Use the calculator above to adjust the assumptions for your own wallet, but these are sample personas to help you get a sense of which card is best for the typical Bilt user.
Typical City Renter: $2,000 rent + $1,200 monthly nonrent spend:
Total points earned per 12 month period (calculator link)
Card | Housing Only Points | Flexible Bilt Cash Points |
|---|---|---|
Bilt Blue |
Here, while the Palladium earns the most points, it may just be best to go with the Blue when you factor in the $495 annual fee. To justify the Palladium, you need to make use of the hotel credits plus earn enough points to breakeven on the fee. In this particular case, it’s particularly tight.
The welcome bonus will typically make the Palladium worthwhile in the first year, but it may be hard to make worthwhile in an ongoing basis.
Low Spend Renter: $1,000 rent + $500 nonrent spend
Total points earned per 12 month period (calculator link)
Card | Housing Only Pts | Flexible Bilt Cash Pts |
|---|---|---|
Bilt Blue |
Similar scenario above, but this scenario basically tells us that the Bilt Blue is best for this persona. Why?
Well, factoring in the annual fee of the Obsidian and the Palladium, we simply do not earn enough additional points or benefits to justify the fees. The Blue has no fee, so we do pretty well from the getgo.
Heavy everyday spender: $2,500 rent + $3,000 nonrent spend
Total points & Bilt Cash earned per 12 month period (calculator link)
Card | Housing Only Pts | Flexible Bilt Cash Pts |
|---|---|---|
Bilt Blue |
The Palladium is clearly the winner here, even with all that extra Bilt Cash. Firstly, you earn at least 30-40k more points with the Palladium compared to both the Blue and Obsidian, which is already getting close to breaking even on the hefty annual fee.
Now, with all that Bilt Cash, you can redeem it for credits (Lyft, Grubhub, Walgreens) or you can purchase Points Accelerator to earn an additional 1x point per dollar spent (up to $5,000 per activation).