Best in Class
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Bilt Palladium Credit Card Review
Key Takeaways
While the $495 annual fee is steep, the first-year value more than offsets it and gives you the chance to earn serious points for high-value transfers to partners like Hyatt, Alaska, and Japan Airlines. Whether it’s worth keeping long-term depends on how much you value a high earning structure for putting most of your spend on one card while maximizing points for your housing.
Why This Card Could Be Right For You
You’ll earn $300 in Bilt Cash just for signing up, which can be used to earn points on your rent or mortgage. Every $30 in Bilt Cash covers the fee for earning 1 point per dollar on $1,000 in rent or mortgage payments. You’ll also earn 4% back in Bilt Cash on all non-housing purchases, helping you build a stash to offset future fees. The Palladium also offers a 50,000-point signup bonus and Bilt Gold Status after spending $4,000 on non-housing purchases in the first 90 days.
Maximizing points efficiency
Bilt remains one of the few ways to earn points on rent or mortgage, so it’s worth factoring in the earning structure. To unlock 1x points on your housing payment, you’ll need to spend 75% of that amount on non-housing purchases each month.
- With a $2,000 housing payment and $1,500 in non-housing spend, you'll earn 5,000 total points because of the Palladium's 2x multiplier on all non-housing spend (2 * 1,500) + 2000
- That's an effective 3.33x return on your all card spend outside of housing, which is very strong for points that are transferrable to such a wide range of valuable transfer partners
In addition to the welcome offer, you’ll receive the following benefits and spending multipliers:
- $200 in Bilt Cash annually after your account anniversary (including your first year)
- $400 in hotel credits through the Bilt portal, split into two, $200 biannual credits (two-night minimum required for each)
- Priority Pass membership
- 2x points on everyday spend
- 4x points at Bilt Neighborhood Partner restaurants
- 4x points at Bilt Neighborhood Partner fitness studios
- 4x points on Lyft rides
- 3x points at Walgreens
Included protections:
- Cellular Wireless Protection
- Purchase Assurance
- MasterRental Coverage
- Trip Cancellation & Interruption Protection
- Trip Delay Reimbursement
- Extended Warranty
- Baggage Delay Insurance
- Lost or Damaged Luggage Insurance
- Price Drop Protection
When The Usual Advice Doesn't Apply
The exceptions where this card might not be good for you:
- You were a Bilt user before Bilt 2.0 and primarily used their card to earn points on rent with little else to worry about
- You don't find the benefits worth the annual fee
What to Know About Bilt Rewards
No longer a slam dunk for renters, but Bilt’s strong transfer partners make the program worth watching
- Bilt now has three credit cards, all with points transferable to partners that rival, or even outshine, Chase
- You can earn points for both rent and mortgage, but you'll have to put a significant amount of other monthly spend on the card to earn it
- Earning points on housing is more complex, and Bilt’s user base is shifting
- Bilt is now best used as a daily spend travel rewards card when not working on a new card welcome offer
- The program can still be highly rewarding, but you'll need a clear plan to maximize point earning
How The Bilt Palladium Credit Card Fits In The Bilt Rewards Ecosystem
If you’re going to jump into the Bilt ecosystem, this is the card we recommend. It offers tremendous first-year value that easily offsets the annual fee, especially considering the strong transfer partner network available for your points. The other cards simply don’t come close. If you were a Bilt 1.0 user who primarily earned points on rent while only making 5 small purchases per month, that’s no longer possible, and you're going to have to adjust your strategy.
Bilt has complicated the process. While all three cards let you earn points on rent (and now mortgage), you’ll need to put meaningful non-housing spend on the card to do so, but it can still provide good value.
Bilt Blue (no annual fee):
- $100 in Bilt Cash as a welcome offer (no spend required)
- 4% back in Bilt Cash on all non-housing spend
- A few decent bonus categories to earn additional points
- No annual fee
- If you use Bilt to pay your housing then spend 75% of that amount on non-housing purchases, you can effectively earn 2.33x on that non-housing spend
Bilt Obsidian ($95 annual fee):
- $200 in Bilt Cash as a welcome offer (no spend required)
- $100 annual hotel credit, split into two $50 credits (two-night minimum for each)
- Better bonus categories than Blue
- $99 annual fee
- If you use Bilt to pay your housing then spend 75% of that amount on non-housing purchases, you can effectively earn 2.33x, 3.33x, or 4.33x on that non-housing spend depending on the bonus category
All three Bilt cards earn points on rent and mortgage payments under the same rules. You choose one of two ways to unlock housing points:
- Option 1: Spend a required percentage of your monthly housing amount on non-housing purchases to unlock points on rent or mortgage, earning on a sliding scale up to 1.25X per dollar. The more non-housing spend you put on the card, the higher your housing earn rate.
- Option 2: Use Bilt Cash to unlock points on housing. Every $30 in Bilt Cash unlocks 1X points on up to $1,000 in rent or mortgage payments (with a 1x max redemption option
Card Information
Bonus Points
50,000
Minimum Spend
$4,000 / 3mo
Point Value
1.7 ¢
Annual Value
Annual Fee
$495
1st Year Value
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Differentiating Perks
3X Points on Everything with Point Accelerator*
Points for Paying Rent & Mortgage
Rules
Potential Boosts
$300 Bilt Cash
Card Extras
Extra
Worth/Fit
Est. Value
Total Annual Value
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Card Benefits
No benefits are available for this card.
Historical Card Offers
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Average Frequency
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Estimated Next Offer
Start Date
Offer Length
Bonus
Minimum Spend
Spend Categories
3.4¢
Per Dollar
Spent
Spent
Bilt Palladium Application Rules
Chase applications will be declined if 5 new cards have been added to your personal credit report in the past 24 months.
Point Transfer Options
+11 Lower Value Transfers Show
Best for Series
Below is a snapshot of where this card performs best compared to the other cards in our database:
Rank
6th
Rank
2nd
Rank
6th
Rank
7th
Rank
8th
Rank
3rd
Ranking of Cards Offering Bilt Rewards
Downgrade Options
Bilt Blue
Bilt Rewards
Bilt Obsidian
Bilt Rewards