Earn bonus points: Bilt Rewards expands into health care with new Walgreens partnership

TPG founder Brian Kelly is a Bilt adviser and investor.

Bilt Rewards, the program known for helping members earn points on rent payments, just announced its latest venture: a partnership with major drugstore chain Walgreens. Thanks to this new relationship, Bilt members will have an easier time using their Flexible Spending Account and Health Savings Account benefits, and they can earn extra rewards on Walgreens purchases and prescriptions — even if they don't pay with the Bilt Mastercard®.

Let's take a closer look at the new benefits Bilt is offering.

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: A Q&A with Richard Kerr, VP of travel at Bilt Rewards, on recent changes — and what the future may hold

Link your FSA/HSA account to Bilt Rewards to save money

The first part of Bilt's Walgreens partnership is designed to help members take advantage of their FSA and HSA benefits. When you shop at Walgreens with any debit or credit card linked to your Bilt account (it doesn't have to be the Bilt card), Bilt's new system will automatically identify FSA- or HSA-eligible items in your purchase. You'll be notified which items from your Walgreens shopping trip are eligible, and you can easily apply a credit to your original form of payment from your FSA or HSA card.

According to Bilt's press release, "Currently, $4 billion in FSA funds are lost because of the complexities in knowing what items qualify for these funds and the requirement to carry a separate, dedicated payment card." With its newest feature, Bilt hopes to simplify health care shopping and make FSA and HSA funds easier to use.

If this feature — which Bilt touts as a "one-click solution to apply benefits" — is as simple as it sounds, this could be a big win for Bilt members. You can earn a lot of points and miles by using a rewards card on health care purchases and then reimbursing yourself from your FSA or HSA, but the hassle involved often discourages people from doing so. Bilt's new system could make it much easier for points and miles enthusiasts to earn rewards on their FSA- and HSA-eligible purchases and get closer to their next free trip.

Related: Bilt travel portal: How to redeem and transfer points for flights, hotels and more

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Earn points when shopping at Walgreens

The other benefit of Bilt's new partnership is that Bilt Rewards members can earn extra Bilt Points on Walgreens purchases — no matter what credit card they use. As long as you link your card to your Bilt account before using it at Walgreens, you'll earn 1 point per dollar spent on all Walgreens purchases, 2 points per dollar spent on Walgreens-branded items, and 100 points per prescription refill (subject to certain exclusions), in addition to your usual credit card rewards.

So, for example, if you use the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card to pay for your Walgreens purchase, you'll get 1 or 2 Bilt points per dollar plus the 2 Capital One miles per dollar you would normally earn on all purchases. Or if you hold the Chase Freedom Flex® (see rates and fees) or Chase Freedom Unlimited® (see rates and fees), you'll earn 1 or 2 Bilt points per dollar plus the 3 Chase Ultimate Rewards points per dollar you'd normally earn at drugstores. Since Walgreens sells much more than health care supplies, you could stack rewards on everyday purchases like shampoo, snacks, gift wrap and photo prints.

And you can combine these rewards with Walgreens' loyalty program, myWalgreens, which lets you earn points on purchases and redeem them for a discount on a future purchase. I love this program because it often offers coupons that give you bonus rewards if you spend a certain amount, like "Get $7 in rewards when you spend $35," making it easy to accumulate rewards faster. I always check my account for these coupons before each Walgreens trip.

Related: The best rewards credit cards for each bonus category

Bottom line

Bilt Rewards members will be happy to see Bilt's new partnership with Walgreens, especially after Bilt ended its partnership with American Airlines AAdvantage earlier this year. Since Walgreens has over 8,000 locations across all 50 U.S. states and sells a variety of health care items and other necessities, this partnership could prove valuable to many Bilt Rewards members.

Because I'm not a renter, I've never seriously considered getting the Bilt Mastercard® — but with Bilt adding new transfer partners and rewards-earning opportunities, I may just change my mind.