rewrite this title Bilt's 3 New Cards Earn Rewards on Housing, But It's Complicated – NerdWallet

Bilt began as a renter’s dream, and now it’s opening the door to homeowners, too.

The company’s long-awaited new credit cards — the Bilt Blue Card, Bilt Obsidian Card and Bilt Palladium Card — are available for pre-order as of Jan. 14, 2026. All three cards make it possible to earn rewards on rent payments and, now, mortgages as well, without having to pay processing fees.

Rent and mortgage payments on the new cards will include a 3% processing fee if you want to earn rewards on those payments. But the new cards come with a new rewards currency, called Bilt Cash, that can be used to cover that fee. Bilt Cash is earned on everyday purchases in addition to Bilt Points, the program’s valuable and flexible original currency. (You won’t earn Bilt Cash on housing expenses, though.)

If that sounds complicated, that’s because it is. Let’s dive in.

The new Bilt cards replace the pre-existing Bilt World Elite Mastercard® Credit Card, which was issued by Wells Fargo and is being discontinued. Unlike that $0-annual-fee card, two of the three new Bilt cards will charge annual fees. But also unlike that card, the new versions — now issued by Column N.A. Bank and serviced by Cardless — feature welcome bonuses for new cardholders. (Customers who are upgrading from the older card are eligible for the bonuses.)

Starting Jan. 14, 2026, you can select which of the three cards you want in the Bilt app or at bilt.com/card. Bilt says you’ll receive the new card by Feb. 6, 2026, if you make your selection and are approved by Jan. 30, 2026. The cards will become usable on Feb. 7, 2026.

Bilt Cash is the key to earning rewards on rent and mortgage payments without feeling the sting of a 3% transaction fee. But wait, wasn’t Bilt’s brand originally built around rent payments with no fees? Yes, and it’s still possible to avoid paying the fees out of pocket. It’s just a lot more complicated than before, when no such fee existed.

Bilt Cash that you earn on non-rent/mortgage purchases (which, again, is new and separate from normal Bilt points) can be redeemed on a dollar-for-dollar basis toward a variety of options, including fitness classes, hotel bookings, Lyft rides, GoPuff orders and access to partner transfer bonuses. You can also effectively use Bilt Cash to “buy” Bilt points, though you can’t transfer Bilt Cash to travel partners, as you can with Bilt points.

But you can also use Bilt Cash to cover the 3% transaction fee that Bilt will now charge you if you want to earn rewards on your housing bill. For this use, too, $1 in Bilt Cash is worth, well, $1.

For example, say your monthly mortgage payment is $2,000, and you pay it with a Bilt credit card. To earn the full 2,000 Bilt points from the mortgage payment, you’ll need to cough up $60 of Bilt Cash (3% of $2,000). If you don’t have enough Bilt Cash to cover the fee, you can still earn the full amount of rewards on your housing bill by paying the deficit from your own pocket. (You cannot use Bilt points toward covering the transaction fee.)

So using that same $2,000 mortgage example, let’s say you have only $45 of Bilt Cash available. That’s enough to cover the transaction fee on $1,500 worth of your payment (3% of $1,500 is $45). You would earn only 1,500 Bilt points instead of the full 2,000. You can choose to pay the $15 difference in actual cash to get the remaining 500 Bilt points.

To be clear, it’s still possible to pay your housing bill via Bilt and have no transaction fee at all. But you won’t earn rewards for it. If you want to earn Bilt points on that payment, you’ll need Bilt Cash or “cash” cash.

The introduction of Bilt Cash makes the new Bilt credit cards anything but simple. They can still offer a lot of value, but not everyone will have the patience for a card that earns two different reward currencies, especially given the math involved.

In the previous example of a $2,000 mortgage, a Bilt credit card might make a lot of sense. All the cards earn 4% back in Bilt Cash on non-housing spending, so you could reach the $60 in Bilt Cash you’d need for that payment by spending $1,500 a month on other purchases. And indeed, that’s exactly what Bilt wants its cardholders to do: Use the cards as often as possible.

But what if your rent or mortgage is, say, $5,000? You’d need $150 of Bilt Cash to earn rewards on that payment for no fee, which could require you to spend $3,750 on non-housing expenses per month, depending on the Bilt card. Still doable? Maybe.

If the math isn’t in your favor, you don’t have to get one of the new Bilt cards, even if you’re an existing holder of the old Bilt World Elite Mastercard® Credit Card. That card will be deactivated on Feb. 7, 2026, the same day the new Bilt cards will become usable.

No hard pull is required to upgrade, but those who decide not to do so will be automatically transitioned to the Wells Fargo Autograph® Card. If you don’t want that card, Bilt says it will close your Wells Fargo account upon request.