What Is Bilt Cash? How to Earn and Use It — The Points Party

Bilt Cash is a second rewards currency that sits beside Bilt Points. You earn it mainly by spending on a Bilt credit card, and you spend it inside the Bilt app: to unlock points on your rent or mortgage payment, on monthly credits at partners like Lyft, Walgreens and Grubhub, or on perks like a Point Accelerator. It isn't cash. It can't be withdrawn, it can't pay your card bill, and anything above $100 of it expires every December 31.

Bilt Cash is built into the Bilt Card 2.0 lineup, and it changed how rent rewards work. This guide covers how you earn Bilt Cash, the two rewards options that decide whether you earn it on spending at all, the ways to spend it, and the rules that make people lose it. Everything here comes from Bilt's card page, its Bilt Cash help article, its Bilt Cash Program Terms (dated August 21, 2026) and its Card Offer Terms (updated September 18, 2026), all read on September 30, 2026.

Bilt Cash in One Paragraph

On a Bilt card with the Flexible Bilt Cash Option selected, you earn 4% back in Bilt Cash on everyday purchases. Every $3 of Bilt Cash you redeem on a housing payment unlocks 100 Bilt Points, up to 1 point per dollar of the payment. Whatever you don't use on housing can go to partner credits and perks. Up to $100 rolls into the next year, and the rest expires at year end.

Bilt describes it as dollar-for-dollar value inside its own ecosystem, and says it works alongside Bilt Points rather than replacing them. You can't send Bilt Cash to airline or hotel partners. That's still a job for points, and our Bilt transfer partners guide covers where I'd send them.

How You Earn Bilt Cash

There are four ways in, and the first one matters most.

1. Everyday Spending on a Bilt Card (Flexible Option Only)

Bilt's Card Offer Terms say cardholders on the Flexible Bilt Cash Option "can earn 4% back in Bilt Cash on all Everyday Spend." Everyday Spend means eligible purchases, not your housing payment. Bilt is explicit that "Bilt Housing Payments do not earn Bilt Cash under either Rewards Option."

That 4% is on top of the Bilt Points your card already earns on the purchase; the terms list Bilt Points on everyday spend under both options. It's also the part people miss: on the Housing-only Option, you don't earn Bilt Cash on everyday spending at all.

The purchases that earn neither points nor Bilt Cash include balance transfers, cash advances, gift cards and prepaid cards, person-to-person payments like Venmo, PayPal, Cash App and Zelle, tax payments (except property taxes paid as housing payments), crypto, and fees or interest on your card account. Bilt says points and Bilt Cash from card purchases "typically post within 2-5 business days after the transaction posts."

2. Welcome and Annual Bilt Cash

Each card comes with Bilt Cash at account opening, according to the card page and offer terms. The Bilt Blue Card, with a $0 annual fee, comes with $100. The Bilt Obsidian Card, at $95 a year, comes with $200. The Bilt Palladium Card, at $495 a year, comes with $300, plus 50,000 points and Gold status after $4,000 in purchases (excluding rent or mortgage) in the first 90 days. The terms say welcome Bilt Cash typically posts right away, but to allow 6 to 8 weeks in certain circumstances.

The Palladium also gets $200 in Bilt Cash every calendar year, credited at account opening and on January 1 of each year the account is open and in good standing. Bilt says that's separate from the $300 welcome amount. The terms note that welcome Bilt Cash arrives "regardless of your selected Rewards Option," so you get it even on the Housing-only Option.

3. Elite Status Progress, Card or No Card

You don't need a Bilt card to take part. The Bilt Cash Program Terms say "it is not required that you have a Bilt Card to participate." Bilt's help article puts a number on it: every member, including non-cardholders, "earns $50 in Bilt Cash for every 25,000 Bilt Points earned toward elite status." You can track progress to the next milestone in the Wallet tab.

4. Promotions

Bilt reserves the right to add ways to earn through campaigns announced on bilt.com. Those come with their own terms.

The Choice That Decides Everything: Housing-Only or Flexible Bilt Cash

Every Bilt cardholder picks one of two Rewards Options, and it applies to the whole account, including authorized users. If you don't choose, the terms say your account defaults to Housing-only.

Housing-only Option. You earn points on rent or mortgage automatically, with no transaction fee, at a multiplier set by how much you spend on the card that billing cycle compared with your housing payment. Bilt lays out the tiers using a $2,000 rent example:

Everyday spending of 25% of your housing payment ($500) earns 0.5x (1,000 points).
50% ($1,000) earns 0.75x (1,500 points).
75% ($1,500) earns 1x (2,000 points).
100% or more ($2,000) earns 1.25x (2,500 points).

Below 25%, you get a floor of 250 points per billing cycle. Bilt says those points post after your statement closes. You earn no Bilt Cash on everyday purchases under this option.

Flexible Bilt Cash Option. You earn 4% Bilt Cash on everyday spending and redeem it to unlock up to 1x points on housing. The terms say you "do not have access to the Housing-only Option tiers," so 1x is the ceiling, and they list the 250 point floor as not applicable to this option.

Switching Between Them

For the first seven calendar days after you open the account, you can switch back and forth freely. After that, your option is locked for the rest of the billing cycle. You can submit a change any time before the cycle's last day, and it takes effect on the first day of the next cycle.

There's one trap in that first week. If you make a housing payment on Housing-only, switch to Flexible, and don't switch back to Housing-only before the seven days end, the terms say you "will forfeit the opportunity to earn any points on that Bilt Housing Payment." Pick your option before your first rent payment, not after. The terms say a product change keeps your existing card account; our piece on Bilt card upgrades and downgrades covers what happens to your Bilt Cash when you switch cards.

Authorized Users

The primary cardholder chooses whether points and Bilt Cash from an authorized user's purchases go to the primary account or to the authorized user's own Bilt account. On the Flexible option, an authorized user who pays their own housing through Bilt redeems Bilt Cash from their own balance, and those points go to them. Bilt's help article says monthly redemption limits apply per Bilt account, so a primary cardholder and an authorized user can each take their own $10 Lyft credit if both have the Bilt Cash.

What Happened to the Five-Transaction Rule

The original Bilt card required five transactions a month to earn points on rent. Bilt's card page says that minimum "does not apply to any Bilt Card 2.0 product." What you earn on housing now depends on which Rewards Option you've chosen.

Using Bilt Cash on Rent and Mortgage

On the Flexible option, you decide at each housing payment how much Bilt Cash to redeem. The rate is fixed: every $3 of Bilt Cash unlocks 100 Bilt Points, up to 1 point per $1 of the payment. The smallest redemption is $0.03, which unlocks 1 point. Anything you don't redeem stays in your balance.

Bilt's card page puts the same rate another way: "Every $30 of Bilt Cash you redeem means 1,000 Bilt Points." The help article adds that you don't have to redeem in $30 steps.

If you return or reverse a housing payment that earned points this way, Bilt takes the points back and puts the Bilt Cash back in your account.

Other Ways to Spend Bilt Cash

The Bilt Cash help article and program terms list the partner redemptions and their limits. Monthly credits reset at midnight Pacific (3:00 a.m. Eastern) on the 1st, and unused monthly credits don't roll over. The ones with a set monthly limit:

Lyft: $10 of Bilt Cash per month for a $10 Lyft Pass credit, which expires at the end of that month.
Walgreens: $10 per month for a $10 digital gift card, valid for 30 days.
Grubhub: $10 per month for a $10 promo code on a delivery order, expiring at month end.
Bilt Dining partners: up to $25, one visit a month, at select restaurants through Mobile Dining Checkout.
Group fitness classes: one class a month, up to $40, including SoulCycle and Barry's.
Bilt Home Delivery (powered by Gopuff): up to $5 a month.
Hotels through Bilt Travel: up to $50 a month for Blue and Silver members and up to $100 a month for Gold and Platinum members, on stays of two nights or more.
Priority Pass guests (Palladium only): $35 of Bilt Cash per extra guest pass, up to $70 a month for two passes.
Experiences: up to $50 a month toward Bilt dining experiences and up to $50 a month toward Bilt comedy experiences.
Bilt Design Collection: up to $10 a month.

There are annual options too. BLADE airport flights allow two $350 credits a year, each applied to one seat, with nothing refunded if the seat costs less. Equinox members can take two credits a year toward personal training, Pilates or spa services, worth up to $75, $100 or $150 each depending on Bilt status, with a $50 minimum redemption. Blacklane gets one credit a year, worth up to $50 to $150 by status. Blue and Silver members can also pay $95 of Bilt Cash a month to unlock benefits usually reserved for Gold and Platinum members on one Home Away From Home hotel booking. Bilt lists a $5 monthly parking credit as coming soon.

Watch the "up to" wording. Bilt's help article says that for those benefits you can redeem any amount up to the cap in a single use, and "any unused portion is forfeited."

The Point Accelerator

Obsidian and Palladium cardholders on the Flexible option can redeem $200 of Bilt Cash for a Point Accelerator. It adds 1 extra Bilt Point per dollar on eligible purchases on the card you choose, up to $5,000 in purchases, and runs until you hit $5,000 or December 31, whichever comes first. You can buy it up to five times a calendar year. Bilt's help article gives the boosted rates: on the Obsidian, 4x dining or grocery, 3x travel and 2x on everyday spend; on the Palladium, 3x on everyday spend.

Rent, mortgage, HOA dues, utilities and tax payments don't count toward it. If you switch to Housing-only while one is running, it pauses until you switch back.

Transfer Bonus Upgrades and Other Access

The terms also let you spend Bilt Cash on access rather than credits: tier upgrades for transfer bonuses, early access to Rent Day benefits and access to Bilt's Home Away From Home hotel collection. Bilt's own example is a Gold member upgrading a Rent Day transfer bonus from 75% to 100%. Our October 2026 Rent Day breakdown shows what those step-ups cost in Bilt Cash on a live offer.

The Rules That Cost People Bilt Cash

It expires every year. Bilt Cash earned in a calendar year expires at the end of that year, except $100, which rolls over. Rolled-over Bilt Cash is used first. The card page is blunt about it: that includes "Bilt Cash earned in November and December."

It has no cash value. Bilt Cash "is not redeemable for cash," and it "cannot be redeemed as a statement credit toward your Bilt Card balance."

It can't be moved. You can't transfer, sell, share or pool Bilt Cash between accounts.

It disappears if the account closes. If your Bilt account closes, "any unredeemed Bilt Cash will immediately be forfeited."

Early exits can claw back the welcome amount. If you close the card within 30 days of opening, the offer terms let Bilt offset welcome Bilt Cash you've already redeemed. A downgrade within 30 days after the annual fee posts reverses the old card's welcome Bilt Cash, which can leave your balance negative.

Redemptions are final. Once redeemed, Bilt Cash isn't refunded unless the transaction says otherwise, apart from the housing payment reversal above.

A Worked Example: $2,000 Rent

Say your rent is $2,000 and you put $1,500 of groceries, dining and bills on the card each month. That's 75% of your rent.

On Housing-only, Bilt's own tier table puts you at 1x, or 2,000 points on the rent. You earn no Bilt Cash.

On Flexible, $1,500 at 4% is $60 of Bilt Cash. At $3 per 100 points, $60 unlocks 2,000 points on the rent, which is the 1x cap. You'd have nothing left for Lyft or Walgreens that month.

Now say you spend $2,000 a month instead. Housing-only moves you to 1.25x, or 2,500 points. Flexible still caps the rent at 2,000 points, but you'd earn $80 of Bilt Cash and have $20 left over for partner credits.

Which Option I'd Pick

Pick Housing-only if your everyday spending on the card is close to or above your housing payment and points on rent are what you're after. The 1.25x tier is the one thing Flexible can't reach, and those extra points go straight to transfer partners. It's also less work, since there's nothing to redeem each month.

Pick Flexible if you'd spend $10 a month at Lyft, Walgreens or Grubhub anyway, if you book two-night Bilt Travel hotel stays, or if you hold an Obsidian or Palladium and want Point Accelerators. Just redeem steadily through the year, because anything above $100 is gone on December 31.

Here's what I'd actually do: on a Palladium or Obsidian with heavy card spending, I'd start on Housing-only and keep the welcome and annual Bilt Cash for credits I'd use regardless. Whichever you pick, set it in the first seven days, before your first housing payment. You can change it later, one billing cycle at a time.

Sources

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What Is Bilt Cash? How to Earn It, Spend It and Use It on Your Rent

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