The Smart Math Behind The Bilt Mastercard Value Proposition

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A good friend of mine who’s very smart when it comes to points and miles reached out to me earlier this week to ask, “So, talk to me about the Bilt card.  Why is it so amazing?  On the surface, I can’t get excited.”

Now, this is someone I’ve known for quite some time.  If he didn’t get it, how many other folks failed to see the value in the Bilt Mastercard?  I figured it made sense to break it down for readers along the lines of how I explained it to my friend.  To better understand the value prop, we need to draw some comparisons to other cards in the market.  For this example, let’s use the Chase Sapphire Preferred.  The Chase Sapphire Preferred offers the following bonus categories:

• 3 points per dollar on dining.
• 2 points per dollar on travel (they also offer 5X points to book travel through their portal, which is a non-starter for me and many travel nerds).
• 1 point per dollar on everything else.

Now, what does the Bilt Mastercard offer for these same categories?  Let’s take a look:

• 3 points per dollar on dining.
• 2 points per dollar on travel.
• 1 point per dollar on everything else.

Looks pretty familiar, right?   The Chase Sapphire Preferred card comes with a $95 annual fee while the Bilt Mastercard has no annual fee.  The Chase Sapphire Preferred card also generally comes with a valuable sign-up bonus whereas Bilt doesn’t, which is where many hardcore points and miles folks lose their minds.

There’s no question that the Chase Sapphire Preferred sign-up bonus is valuable.  It currently sits at 60,000 Ultimate Rewards points, well worth the $95 annual fee.  But, let’s get back to what I told my friend the value prop was for Bilt.

I see the Bilt card earning, on average, more than double what the Chase Sapphire Preferred earns if you use it correctly.  Let’s break that down:

• On the first of the month, Bilt doubles all the earnings rates (with the exceptions of charges on rent), up to a maximum of 10,000 bonus points per month.
• Bilt also has made a habit of offering incredibly lucrative transfer bonuses on the first of the month, as high as 150%.  Depending on your elite status level with Bilt, you should expect these to be anywhere between 75% and 150%.

If we split the difference and assume that, on average, you’ll be able to enjoy a 100% transfer bonus when you redeem your points, you’ve effectively doubled your earning rate on all of these categories.  Let’s say you spend $2,000 per month on your Bilt Mastercard, with a breakdown something like this:

• $300 on travel
• $200 on dining
• $1,500 on everything else

If you knew you were going to be able to snag a 100% transfer bonus, that makes the math look something like this:

• An extra 900 points on travel ($300 x 3 points).
• An extra 400 points on dining.
• An extra 1,500 points on everything else.

That’s 2,800 extra points per month before you figure in any bonuses for spending on rent day, bonus points on Lyft rides or Bilt Dining.  That’s over 30,000 extra points earned with Bilt over the Chase Sapphire Preferred, or about half of that sign-up bonus you received from Chase.  If you were able to achieve Bilt Platinum status and score a 150% transfer bonus, that would be 50,000 extra points.  Shift a bit of that spending to Rent Day (hint: load your Starbucks account) and you’ll probably earn the equivalent of that Sapphire Preferred bonus in the first year.

I purposely chose what I consider to be a pretty modest spending estimate.  It shouldn’t be hard to see the value if you spend more on the Bilt Mastercard.

Now, there’s arguments against my strategy.  Maybe you don’t like the monthly transfer bonus partner.  Or, maybe Bilt does away with it (though they’ve been pretty clear that they’re profitable even with this sort of offering).  Chase does offer occasional transfer bonuses but they are limited to only a few partners and generally only 20 or 30%.  Bilt doesn’t have a 5X category for booking through their travel portal, though they do have other bonuses you can take advantage of.

The Final Two Pennies

At the end of the day, this is essentially what I told my friend.  Smart folks will earn bonus points on Rent Day and strategize to redeem points during lucrative transfer bonuses.  Folks who can earn elite status with Bilt can use that to increase earnings and, in many cases so far, the transfer ratio.  Sign-up bonuses are great, but even with the lack of a sign-up bonus the Bilt Mastercard can outperform other credit cards if you learn how to use the program effectively.

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