Bilt Card 2.0 rumors run wild: So, is it good or bad news for Bilt Rewards members?
Editor's Note
If the first week of 2026 is an indicator, this year is shaping up to be an exciting and definitely not-at-all boring ride when it comes to the realm of credit card rewards, loyalty programs and how you can maximize them.
Since last year, Bilt Rewards has teased three upcoming card additions to its portfolio and, most notably, confirmed that cardholders can use the Bilt Card 2.0 to earn Bilt Points on eligible mortgage payments.
Aside from that, details surrounding the specific benefits (or even the names of the new cards) have been scarce ... well, until rumors leaked on each of the three cards.
While TPG doesn’t normally dive into Reddit-fueled rumor mills, as someone who hopes to make this the year I fully immerse myself in the Bilt Rewards ecosystem to start maximizing on my biggest life expense, my mortgage, I couldn’t resist taking a peek.
On the Bilt Rewards Reddit thread, some rumored details have trickled out about the new Bilt cards, including earning bonus structures, welcome offers and card benefits.
What we know for sure about the Bilt 2.0 cards
Before we dive into the rumors, there is some information that Bilt Rewards has confirmed, including:
- There will be three new Bilt credit cards that will be issued by Cardless instead of Wells Fargo (the Bilt Mastercard® issuer).
- The cards will have the following annual fee price points: a no-annual-fee card, a $95 per year card and a $495 per year card.
- The cards will earn points on eligible residential mortgage payments in addition to rent, which has been a part of the program since its inception.
- Details around the three new cards will be revealed Jan. 14, as will the preorder process for the cards for existing Bilt cardholders.
- Existing Bilt cardmembers who opt into one of the new cards will keep the same card number, not experience a hard credit pull and have the new card in hand by Feb. 6.
- Those who keep (and don't preorder or close) their original Bilt Mastercard will be converted into a Wells Fargo Autograph® Card (see rates and fees).
- The Bilt 2.0 cards will become available for new applicants Feb. 7.
So, with just a week off from having all the details, a little rumor indulging can be fun every now and again, so let's now turn to that side of the equation.
The information for the Bilt Mastercard has been collected independently by The Points Guy. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.
Related: Bilt Rewards isn’t just for renters — here’s why there’s something for everyone now
What's rumored to be true about the Bilt 2.0 cards
If the Reddit rumors are true, the three Bilt 2.0 cards could look something like this:
Bilt Blue Card
- $0 annual fee
- Welcome bonus: $100 Bilt Cash
- Earning structure: 1 point per dollar spent on rent, mortgage and everyday spending
- 4% Bilt Cash awarded on everyday spending; you can use Bilt Cash to waive rent and mortgage payment transaction fees
- No foreign transaction fees
Bilt Obsidian Card
- $95 annual fee
- Welcome bonus: $200 Bilt Cash
- Earning structure: 3 points per dollar spent on dining or groceries (up to $25,000 per year), 2 points per dollar spent on travel and 1 point per dollar spent on rent, mortgage and everyday spending
- 4% Bilt Cash awarded on everyday spending; you can use Bilt Cash to waive rent and mortgage payment transaction fees
- $100 annual Bilt Travel hotel credit ($50 available biannually)
- Cellphone protection
Bilt Palladium Card
- $495 annual fee
- Welcome bonus: 50,000 Bilt points plus Gold elite status after spending $4,000 on purchases in the first three months; $300 in Bilt Cash
- Earning structure: 2 points per dollar spent on everyday spending and 1 point per dollar spent on rent and mortgage payments.
- 4% Bilt Cash awarded on everyday spending; you can use the Bilt Cash to waive rent and mortgage payment transaction fees
- $400 in annual Bilt Travel hotel credit ($200 available biannually)
- $200 in Bilt Cash awarded annually
- Priority Pass membership
The information for the Bilt Blue, the Bilt Obsidian and the Bilt Palladium has been collected independently by The Points Guy. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.
According to the Reddit thread, there are multiple versions of the rumored cards, all sourced, it appears, from a code on Bilt's website. However, the details above are the main versions shared in the thread.
If these card details are mostly true, they imply that all three card tiers will award 4% Bilt Cash on everyday purchases (plus some additional Bilt Cash bonuses) and that you will be paying transaction fees with all three cards when making housing payments, which can be offset with that Bilt Cash.
Related: Should you pay your rent with Bilt? We crunch the numbers
My thoughts on the value of the Bilt 2.0 cards (if the rumors are true)
Based on the thread of Reddit comments, plus knowing how many people loved the fee-free rent transactions on the old Bilt card, I'm betting that if these rumors are grounded in truth, this will be met, at least initially, with some pearl-clutching or even flat-out disappointment when it comes to housing payments no longer being as easily fee-free as they were before.
Given the economics of this, I had already assumed that the value proposition would be changing in a Bilt Card 2.0 world, so I am not personally in the camp of disappointment. That said, I had hoped that at the higher-tier card level, there would be some level of fee-free housing payments included — but we'll come back to that.
If you used your Bilt Mastercard to pay your monthly rent, making at least five transactions per month and possibly earning up to 100,000 Bilt points on rent per year, these rumors probably aren't great news.
But personally, as someone ready to go pretty all-in on Bilt, I have a different perspective.
I want to earn a lot of Bilt Rewards points. That's because they are the most valuable rewards currency out there, and they transfer to programs I'm personally low-key obsessed with. This includes World of Hyatt and Alaska Airlines Atmos Rewards, just to name a couple. I want to earn Bilt points on more than just my monthly mortgage payment and thus don't view "having" to use the card more to get fee-free housing payments as an inherently terrible thing.
That's especially true because if the rumors about earning 2 points per dollar spent on everything with the premium-tier card are true, then that's pretty phenomenal since TPG values Bilt points at 2.2 cents apiece per our January 2026 valuations. That's a 4.4% return on spending before you factor in the 4% Bilt Cash earned on everyday spending, which can help offset the housing payment transaction fees.
To put it another way, if I use my Bilt card each month to pay for $3,000 worth of everyday expenses that I'm mostly not getting bonus earnings for currently anyway, such as kid dance and gymnastics classes, doctor's appointments, veterinary bills and insurance, with the Palladium Card rates, I would earn potentially earn 6,000 Bilt points per month on those charges at 2 points per dollar spent.
Presuming that now earns me enough Bilt Cash to offset fees on making my $3,000-ish monthly mortgage payment each month with the card, that's another 3,000 points earned that I'm not earning at all right now, as the card will reportedly earn 1 point per dollar spent on eligible mortgages.
So, this could potentially be 9,000 points per month earned on $3,000 in spending, not factoring in the Bilt Cash, which presumably makes the mortgage payment fees "free." You could call that 3 points per dollar in spending if you wanted to and not really be wrong.
Yes, there's a $495 annual fee on the higher-tier card, but I'm not worried about that at all the first year with the rumored welcome bonus and likely won't be too worried beyond that due to the alleged hotel statement credits and Bilt Cash the card comes with, assuming the rules to use those aren't too restrictive. In any case, that's a future problem, and I could always decide to go with the mid-tier card if I wasn't coming out on top, though I suspect I will.
Bottom line
While much of this Bilt Card 2.0 information remains speculative, it seems logical enough to analyze nonetheless.
Bilt Rewards offers the most valuable points out there right now, and it is also the most innovative loyalty program in my view when it comes to travel bookings, transfer bonuses and one-of-a-kind offerings like Rent Day. I've lived on the fringes of Bilt for years, waiting for the day that mortgage payments give me a reason to dive in. And even if it turns out that I have to earn some Bilt Cash to make those payments "free," I'm still very much a player.
But stay tuned, as we should have all the intel in just one more week.