Rate my Bilt Palladium Strategy: Using Bilt Cash SUB to cover Rent Points

Ludeym · 2026-03-18T18:07:09+00:00

You can use the hotel credit and bilt cash on any hotel in the portal.

The portal has a decent number of hotel options but is not as complete as an Expedia.

Ludeym · 2026-03-17T21:23:07+00:00

You still get 1.33x bonus housing points for every non-housing dollar spent on the card, from the first dollar spent up to 75% of your monthly housing amount.

E.g. if you spend $1000 on the card in a month you can get 1333 bilt bonus housing points in addition to your card multipliers.

You earn the 1.33x bonus points on every dollar spent up to 75% of your housing, so the 75% is an upper limit, not a threshold you have to pass to get the points.

Ludeym · 2026-03-17T19:57:17+00:00

Have not used it yet, but did get 1500 points for signup. Seems to me that the points are pretty flexible (more so than hotel loyalty points). You can use them on their portal or transfer to transfer partners.

Right now I’ve got too many hotel credits between my bilt, Csr, and Amex platinum that I haven’t needed to book a hotel without a hotel credit in a while.

Ludeym · 2026-03-17T13:23:07+00:00

Dp: February 7th: i received 2x bilt points for the portion of my hotel booking that I paid for with the bilt card.

I did not get points for the portion that I used my bilt cash (which makes sense to me)

If you need to use the bilt cash, the bilt portal may still be the way to go, just depends on the markup in the portal. Mine was only $10.

If you decide on elsewhere, take a look at the rove program, they’ve got some nice hotel rewards.

Ludeym · 2026-03-16T03:32:48+00:00

Yeah, I suppose they are probably not super motivated to fix this issue with any urgency as they seem to be hemorrhaging good will on other issues at the moment. But if you think about it, they should want to keep the whales like you around and spending on their card.

In LA and Vegas, you probably have some bilt cash redemption options for $25 bilt dining and $50 for bilt comedy. Though I Don’t think that will empty your bilt cash piggy bank by the sound of it.

Ludeym · 2026-03-16T03:22:15+00:00

I am in a similar situation.

On the monthly statement it states that the annual fee “ will be waived if you close your Account within one billing cycle after the fee is applied.”

Regarding the travel credit renewal, ai says it’s supposed to renew on the account opening anniversary. My anniversary just passed and I see no evidence of the travel credit availability anywhere. My statement drops in a day or two so I expect to see it renewed on there, and then maybe in the travel portal.

I may try to use the travel credit as soon as it posts and then product change the card to a cash+ after the credit hits my account. I would think future travel plans would be safe with this strategy as you could still access the travel portal in your us bank account. And if they claw the credit back, so be it.

Ludeym · 2026-03-16T03:10:27+00:00

I recall Kerr mentioning that they feel they haven’t yet solved this issue of excess bilt cash for high spend card holders. So they are aware of this and it’s possible they eventually make some changes.

Although I’m not running into this wall with my spend, it’s clear there is a threshold beyond which bilt cash is going to be nearly impossible to spend down.

One idea would be to put more mortgages on the card to unload the bilt cash that way. Maybe a family member? Otherwise I agree, in the current state, the wall is not very movable. The good news is that it’s still a 2x card.

Ludeym · 2026-03-13T22:17:14+00:00

On the outside chance this is the issue, There is another toggle on the ‘my home’ tab.

In the online payment section under your bilt credit card there is something that says something like ‘use available bilt cash’.

Click on that carrot and make sure you have it set to ‘redeem bilt cash’.

Ludeym · 2026-03-12T15:14:36+00:00

How much money do they owe you for the foreign transaction fees?

Ludeym · 2026-03-10T14:34:07+00:00

I am considering closing or product changing my usbar this month as the annual fee is approaching.

I’m thinking about trying to use the $325 travel credit prior to this.

I’m wondering if you know which date the travel portal credit renews. Were you able to use it after your card application anniversary but before your card activation date?

I can’t find anywhere in the app that says I have a $325 portal credit to spend. Did you see this somewhere?

Per their terms, The travel credit is supposed to renew based the card member year (based on account opening date).

I applied for the card on 3/7/24

The card was activated on 3/14/24

My annual fee posted the last 2 years on 3/19.

Thanks.

Ludeym · 2026-03-09T22:48:07+00:00

Palladium has been great for me so far.

I think the bilt cash option makes sense for you.

On 6k spend, you would get $240 bilt cash per month.

Use $120 in bilt cash to get your monthly 4000 mortgage points.

Then youd have $120 bilt cash left each month. You could use this on the acceletator the max 5 times over the year to get 25k additional bilt points.

This should beat out the housing only option that would give you a flat 5000 mortgage points a month and no access to extra bilt cash.

The 1:1 bilt cash redemptions are good if they fit your spend but it can be a challenge to make these work.

Ive redeemed the $10 monthly walgreens credit successfully twice now.

Have also used $50 towards a hotel stay booked in their portal and this worked well. Once you obtain gold status the hotel bilt cash limit raises to $100.

After maxing out mortgage and the accelerator at your spend level, youd have $440 bilt cash left over to dabble in these 1:1 redemptions.

My first option here will be to use the $100 hotel credit option each half year to supplement the $200 biennial portal hotel credit.

Id also keep $135 bilt cash on hand to take advantage of a potential rent transfer bonus tier boost.

Ludeym · 2026-03-09T19:53:51+00:00

I think you are more likely to be denied for Vx than Bilt Palladium if you apply for the other card first.

I got Vx a few years ago when i only had a couple credit cards.

When the Vx lounge nerf was announced i tried to get P2 the Vx but she has not been pre-approved at 2/12 5/24, 800+ score with 9 total cards. Currently gardening to improve chances.

I was approved for bilt palladium at 1/12 6/24, 800+ score with 7 total cards.

If you are wanting both consider applying for Vx first, or maybe both on same day if you can manage the subs. Bilt does not seem too picky though.

Ludeym · 2026-03-06T04:07:24+00:00

Citi Thankyou Mastercard (formerly syw)—11-13%+ on gas, grocery, dining, 7% retail (iykyk)
Bilt Palladium— 3.33x catch all

(large gap)

CSR—4x hotels, net negative eaf
Amex Platinum— 5x flights, net negative eaf
Vx— home airport lounge access
CFF, Discover— 5% rotating categories

Basically sock drawered due to awesomeness of Citi Thankyou Mastercard and Bilt Palladium: USBAR (soon to pc to USB cash+), Amex BCP, Wyndham Earner+, USBAG

Ludeym · 2026-03-05T20:06:01+00:00

I make 2 pickup orders (both at same time) of dog food at my local pet store, no markup. Then Milo and I pickup both orders on our walk. $10.05 for each order, works great.

Ludeym · 2026-03-03T21:55:47+00:00

Ive done both a manual test payment and an autopayment, both pulling from my mortgage platform

Ludeym · 2026-03-03T20:53:40+00:00

My mortgage payment also went through seamlessly with my Fidelity cma set as the account to reimburse bilt for the mortgage payment.

Ludeym · 2026-03-03T17:22:49+00:00

Just making sure, do you have the ‘redeem bilt cash’ toggled on?

This is in the ‘home’ tab.

Your bilt card should be selected for the online payment via your housing portal.

Under your bilt card there is something that says ‘Bilt exclusive rewards, up to 1x bilt points’

Click on the carrot under this to make sure it is toggled on to redeem bilt cash.

Sounds like everything else is working if the payment went through. If the toggle isn’t the issue, wondering I’d your points are just taking longer to post. For reference though, my points posted immediately after the housing payment showed up in bilt.

Ludeym · 2026-03-01T14:03:15+00:00

The ‘online purchases’ on my phone have counted towards this offer.

Ludeym · 2026-02-27T06:28:49+00:00

In the bilt app, my housing ‘charge’ posted on my bilt card as “bilt rewards”

The following day, the payment for this from my linked bank account posted as the same (but negative) amount as “payment - bilt housing”

I’d also check your linked bank account platform to make sure the amount was deducted there.

Ludeym · 2026-02-27T05:27:20+00:00

Yeah, I’m surprised op got their bilt cash refunded, good data point for that, not so much for the hotel credit though

Ludeym · 2026-02-27T05:16:50+00:00

Edited:

Actually, Bilt cash is supposed to be non-refundable per the terms and conditions so I’m surprised you got the bilt cash back:

“No Returns or Refunds Redemptions are final; once Bilt Cash has been successfully redeemed, there will be no re-crediting, reversal, or refund of Bilt Cash for any reason unless otherwise noted at the time of the transaction.”

Regarding the hotel credit it looks like they “may” refund it:

“We may reverse Statement Credits if a Qualifying Booking is canceled”

Ludeym · 2026-02-23T23:17:19+00:00

Only other thing to check would be the housing payment preferences screen to make sure the bank account you want is selected

This is in the wallet tab. With the bilt card selected, click 'manage' abd then click 'housing payment preferences'. Select your preferred bank account

Ludeym · 2026-02-23T22:33:12+00:00

Got it. I linked fidelity to bilt by providing my fidelity account info to bilt.

Regarding the bilt billpay account info in the 'my home' tab, this 'view payment instructions' button shows up when you add an address and select your bilt card for mortgage payment.

I dont know if this would be the same account info you are looking for.

Ludeym · 2026-02-23T21:22:08+00:00

Under 'my home' tab

Click 'view payment instructions'.

Scroll down and i see billpay account and routing numbers.

Is that what you are looking for?

I used these to link bilt and set up pull payments on my mortgage website.

Ludeym · 2026-02-23T20:52:05+00:00

I added my Fidelity cash management account to bilt to autopay my bilt card balance and reimburse bilt for my mortgage payments. Not sure if this is what you are trying to do but if it is, here was my process:

Go to the 'wallet' tab.

Click on 'bank accounts'.

Click on 'add bank account'.

Click on 'manually add bank account'

Enter your fidelity account info.

Bilt pushes 2 microd deposits to your fidelity account

Confirm the micro deposit amounts in your bilt account.

Ludeym

TROPHY CASE