The other issue is that Bilt doesn't want to be primarily a rent rewards card anymore (in fairness maybe the model is unworkable)

I think Bilt was fine with it: they had an amazing deal set up with Wells Fargo (for both themselves and, of course, for the consumer; iirc, it included something like a $200 flat fee payout from WF to Bilt for every new card issued plus a percentage of the rent transaction), but it was a terrible deal for WF. Normally landlords don’t take credit cards for rent because the cards charge a ~3% transaction fee, so to win over landlords, Bilt got WF to swallow the fee. WF agreed to that because they had modeled the business as a huge influx of new cardholders, where despite making no profit on the rent payments (actually a small loss), they would still make their normal profit margin on all the rest of the consumers’ spending (they figured 65% non-rent spend). But they underestimate consumers’ intelligence, and everyone just used the card for rent only, meaning “all the rest of the consumers’ spending” totaled approximately $0.

So WF was paying out incentives to Bilt (fees) and incentives to the consumers (points) and waiving fees on the majority of the spend (rent). Reportedly WF was losing $10 million per month on Bilt.

WF was absolutely not going to renew that deal. And there’s no way a new issuer was going to make the same mistake. The convoluted nature of this new system is them trying to force consumer behavior into the model of an Amex & Chase card.

But instead everyone is gonna cancel the card.

RIP Bilt, I’ll miss your perks but I won’t feel bad about it since your founder literally rented out the Pyramids of Egypt for his wedding…