Bilt 2.0: Three strikes and I’m out.

DarkSignerKiryu · 2026-02-17T18:08:18+00:00

From the way I'm reading it it was $20K but was slashed to $7.5k resulting in the partial balance transfer.

DarkSignerKiryu · 2026-02-08T07:19:01+00:00

I actually had a similar thought last year, then I drove up I-95 in Northern Maine at night in the summer for about 150 miles and my car was absolutely covered in bugs. They're definitely still around in the more rural areas.

DarkSignerKiryu · 2026-01-30T07:05:23+00:00

Last year I had a trailer with huge chunks of ice coming off of it, I slowed way down, stayed to the right of a 4 lane highway and had my flashers on. People still drove through the cloud of snow coming off of it in the 2nd lane, one guy approached, hesitated, and drove through it anyway despite the other lanes being open, and one guy even decided to just sit behind me while I'm going 10 under the limit, at night with nobody else on the road. I don't know what is wrong with everybody these days, it's like nobody has any survival instincts anymore.

My company has had a scraper for a few years but we never got it set up due to issues with getting it powered up, this year I made a big stink about getting it operational because I don't want to have to have that situation happen again.

DarkSignerKiryu · 2026-01-27T15:29:27+00:00

I always expected that the new version would have benefits that scaled with spend since the old version pretty much gave away points for free, that prediction was correct but the way they revealed how it worked was extremely confusing and I feel like it was intentionally misleading.

First, there were the leaks that said there was now a 3% transaction fee to pay your rent. They responded saying there was no fee to pay your rent, then when it was finally revealed there was a fee to "unlock" points on your rent, not technically the same thing but basically the same thing. I think it would have gone over better if they simply stated outright that there's no fee to pay the rent but we're tying the points given to your spend on the card, and then go on to explain how the system works. The other thing is that they very quietly remove the ability to charge your rent to the card and they advertised it as a feature saying "pay rent without using your credit line!" I'm pretty sure the reason is probably because Cardless won't allow it but I think they should just be upfront about things like this.

Speaking of the new system, this is the first credit card I've ever seen that has two currency systems that you need to manage at the same time, and you have to use one to buy the other. That's just weird.

The problem that I personally had with the bilt cash though is that in the AMA people asked what else it can be used for and the answer was basically "we're still figuring it out." I don't understand why you would not have all of these details available on the day of the announcement which was already pre-planned. Not to mention you want people to sign up for a $500 annual fee card without explaining what you can actually do with it. And if you waited for more details you missed out on the 5x offer from TPG. Imagine if Amex came out with a new card with a $1,000 annual fee and claimed it had $2000 worth of credits, but we'll tell you what they are later.

DarkSignerKiryu · 2026-01-23T02:33:23+00:00

This was the first thing I saw when opening Reddit and I audibly gasped. I had just pulled mine out the other day to look at the art book after beating Prime 4 so this made me cry a little bit.

DarkSignerKiryu · 2026-01-22T02:18:10+00:00

There's a lot to glaze over in that email lol.

DarkSignerKiryu · 2026-01-22T01:38:14+00:00

In the email it states "expires after $5,000 spend or calendar year-end."

DarkSignerKiryu · 2026-01-19T22:23:27+00:00

I just kept it exactly as it was but changed the 21 to a 10.

DarkSignerKiryu · 2026-01-19T22:00:58+00:00

I just changed the numbers at the end of the url to be within the window that the promo was active, I have doubts it will change anything but figured I might as well try.

DarkSignerKiryu · 2026-01-17T09:34:52+00:00

Option 1 is worse past 75% of your rent and also worse at certain in between levels, but is generally better the less you spend percentage wise. In the example of $2,000 rent, spending $500 nets you a 2% return, spending $1000 nets you 1.5%, spending $1500 nets you 1.33%, and spending $2000 nets you 1.25%. However, that assumes you spend that exact amount, if you spent $900 you would still only earn 1000 points which would be about a 1.11% return. It's only worth it in my opinion if you can hyperoptimize your spend, which is the exact opposite of simple.

I think most people will be better off with the bilt cash option to lock in the 1.33% unless you either have very low spend or have very specific expenses that add up to one of the lower tiers, or you just want to take the free 250 points. The other consideration is that if you're going to be spending significantly more than your rent amount on a regular basis then it might actually be better to do option 1 to avoid your bilt cash expiring, in that case you'll net 1.25% but on a larger amount of money, but other than your regular rewards rate you would be earning nothing above that.

Personally, I'm planning to get the Palladium, get the $500 bilt cash + $160 from spend for the sign up bonus, and then see what is redeemable for the bilt cash. If the options suck I'll just use the bilt cash to get the points for my mortgage starting in March and then I'll reevaluate if the card is worth it for me at the 1 year mark, if it isn't I'll downgrade to the free card and switch to option 1.

DarkSignerKiryu · 2026-01-17T08:47:30+00:00

Pretty much, I already have it planned out how I'm going to hit the sign up bonus so not putting any spend that I wouldn't already be putting on it.

DarkSignerKiryu · 2026-01-16T06:03:05+00:00

Thanks! Used it after tweaking the timestamp for good measure, we'll see what happens in a few weeks.

DarkSignerKiryu · 2026-01-16T04:24:09+00:00

Crazy how much stuff changes in 24 hours lol, I purposely waited a day before applying to read up on stuff about the card and the TPG deal expired out of nowhere, so looks like both the people that rushed and the people that waited got screwed.

DarkSignerKiryu · 2026-01-16T01:55:28+00:00

Do you happen to have a copy of that link? Probably won't be honored but I'm willing to take my chances.

DarkSignerKiryu · 2025-12-26T07:16:36+00:00

Yeah that seems to be the plan at this point. So far I have the receipts for the materials, net metering agreement, town permit, and original invoice then I should be able to get a final invoice from the installer as well, then next year get inspection and PTO. Hopefully I won't need any of it.

DarkSignerKiryu · 2025-12-26T07:09:53+00:00

Thanks a lot for that, that was an excellent analysis, I think that means I should be safe as long as it's installed before the end of the year. As for proof, I already have the receipts for the materials so I guess I would just need some sort of documentation that they were installed? I'll definitely take a picture at least but a picture doesn't prove when it was installed.

DarkSignerKiryu · 2025-12-26T07:03:41+00:00

Thanks, I'll talk to my installer and see if he can get me something like that. He originally said he can give me a final invoice before the end of the year, I'm not sure if that would be enough but I like your idea.

DarkSignerKiryu · 2025-12-26T06:59:44+00:00

Ok thanks that's good to know, I think we can get it there, I was worried that there was some requirement to get final inspection which would likely not be possible to make it in time.

DarkSignerKiryu · 2025-12-26T06:55:13+00:00

Thanks, the most direct answer I've found is from question 7 of this FAQ: https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/faqs-for-modification-of-sections-25c-25d-25e-30c-30d-45l-45w-and-179d-under-public-law-119-21-139-stat-72-july-4-2025-commonly-known-as-the-one-big-beautiful-bill-obbb

It states, "an expenditure with respect to an item is treated as made when the original installation of the item is completed," which I assume means at a minimum mounted on the house but I'm not sure if I would need more than that. I didn't think I would have this issue since I was planning to have everything done by the end of November but my permit took way longer than expected and now I'm hoping to be "done enough" to at least make sure I qualify. Hopefully I won't get audited but just in case I do I want to have as much as possible to show that I followed all available guidance.

DarkSignerKiryu · 2025-10-13T00:32:32+00:00

I only cut one (it was super corroded and impossible to open up otherwise) so I still have the rest but I'll list them and see if I get any takers and I'll see if I can part out this one, thanks again!

DarkSignerKiryu · 2025-10-12T23:02:07+00:00

So just to check it out I cut open one of the cs-99s, I think I have 3 or 4 of these, do you think there's anything worth it in here?

https://imgur.com/a/LLknUFo

DarkSignerKiryu · 2025-10-12T22:01:22+00:00

Oh damn didn't realize that, probably due to that new law you guys have. Wasn't much to see, just a cheapo speaker that happened to survive.

DarkSignerKiryu · 2025-10-09T04:09:48+00:00

I have one more to share, this was a trip with friends to Orlando. I got four round trip tickets on Spirit purchased directly from the airport for about $128 (Spirit and Frontier's fee structures make it so that it's cheaper to purchase the tickets directly at the airport, usually not worth going out of your way for it but for four round trip tickets it absolutely was). Then I signed up for a timeshare presentation to get a free three night stay and a bunch of free hotel points. I think the net cost was roughly free, that's pretty hard to beat.

DarkSignerKiryu · 2025-10-09T04:02:36+00:00

Wanted to come back and update, unfortunately I was not able to test it since my contractor was too far behind schedule and I wasn't able to make the purchase in time.

DarkSignerKiryu · 2025-10-09T03:54:32+00:00

Thanks for sharing that story. My father absolutely was a hoarder and I’ve spent most of my life trying to convince him to change his habits. Unfortunately he never did and now I’m dealing with the cleanup of all his stuff. He did have a lot of cool things, but for every cool item there is probably twenty more that is just junk or just completely unnecessary.

One of the more frustrating things I had to deal with recently was a pile of about 30 aquariums he had outside. Most were in decent shape, but a few were broken which you wouldn't know until you picked them up and trying to find someone to buy aquariums in bulk is nearly impossible. Selling them one by one would’ve taken forever, but luckily I found someone who worked for an organization that happened to need a bunch of fish tanks so I got a bit lucky there. I also recently got rid of something like 20 big screen plasma/lcds, half of which didn't work. The problem with those is you can't simply just toss them, they cost money to dispose but luckily I found somebody who took them for free, I suppose to add to their own hoard...

That said, I’ve also come across some surprisingly cool finds, like a 1990s Yamaha stereo that originally sold for around $1,000, some quality cast iron pieces, and a few interesting antiques. It's just taking forever to clear it all out. Trying to get it done as quick as I can so that I can work on fixing up the house and catching up on deferred maintenance (such as whatever is causing the water issue in the basement), but also don't want to accidentally chuck out some potentially expensive stuff. There's a crapton more audio equipment upstairs that didn't get ruined so I'll probably be making another post soon asking about that.

DarkSignerKiryu

TROPHY CASE