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Reading Time: 5 minOne of the best ways to travel for free is by earning points and miles. And while you might think you need a credit card to earn rewards, we have a secret for you — you don't, thanks to this program.
Bilt Rewards is best known for its Bilt Mastercard, which earns points on rent with no transaction fees. But you don’t actually need the Bilt card to start racking up rewards. The company offers plenty of ways to earn its points just by going about your daily life. (And spoiler alert: Bilt points are incredibly valuable!)
So let's take a look at Bilt Rewards to see how you can start earning travel rewards right now with no credit card required.
First, joining the Bilt Rewards program is incredibly easy — and totally free. Unlike a credit card, there's no credit inquiry and no process to be approved. You just need to go to Bilt's website and sign up by clicking the "Join Now" button.
Once you've signed up, you'll want to take a look at Bilt's Neighborhood Benefits program. This part of Bilt is similar to a store rewards program — the more you participate in the program, the more rewards you'll earn.
With Bilt Neighborhood Benefits, you can automatically earn points every time you dine out at participating restaurants, as well as whenever you shop at Walgreens, and when you take fitness classes at any participating gym.
To earn points with these transactions, all you have to do is link whatever card you usually use to pay when you're out and about. And it doesn't have to be a credit card! If you normally use a bank debit card to pay for things, you can connect that to your Bilt account and earn Bilt points.
You can even link multiple cards if you use different cards based on where you're shopping. Just by using any linked card to pay your bill, you'll earn the bonus points.
Again, there's no additional cost for this program — you're earning these points and paying nothing extra for them. And you do not need a Bilt credit card.
There's also another way to earn Bilt points. If you connect your Bilt account to Lyft, you'll automatically earn 2 Bilt points for every dollar you spend whenever you take a Lyft rideshare. Plus, you'll get 3 more points if you have the Bilt credit card, for a total of 5 points per dollar on Lyft rides.
This system runs separately from your connected credit or debit card, so make sure to link your Bilt and Lyft accounts to earn these bonus points as well.
Of course, one of the best — and most rewarding ways — to earn points is for renters. Renters who pay their rent through one of Bilt's Alliance properties can earn 250 points per rent payment, unless they have the Bilt Mastercard, which offers 1x points on rent (up to 100,000 points each calendar year).
If your landlord isn't on the list, the Bilt Mastercard lets you pay any landlord with Bilt. Even if your landlord doesn't accept a credit card (or wants to charge you a fee for using one), Bilt will provide an account and routing number for your ACH payment, or write a rent check on your behalf and charge the amount to your credit card statement.
You can earn up to 100,000 points from paying your rent this way each calendar year as well, as long as you make 5 transactions in each statement period with the Bilt Mastercard. With high rent these days, those points can add up quickly.
So, now that you've earned a ton of Bilt points, how do you use them? Fortunately, it's incredibly easy.
Bilt offers multiple ways to redeem your points, but you'll usually get the best value by using them for travel. And there are two ways to do it.
First, Bilt points can be redeemed through the Bilt travel portal. If you do it this way, you can get pretty much any flight or hotel room that's normally available with cash, and just pay with your Bilt points instead.
Your Bilt points are worth 1.25 cents each when you redeem them this way. That means if you're able to earn 50,000 points throughout the year, they're worth $625 toward travel.
The second option is to transfer your points to one of Bilt's 18 airline and hotel partners. This option requires more homework, as you'll need to check each partner for award availability. But you can potentially get even more value from your Bilt points by putting in the extra effort.
Here'a a list of Bilt's current travel partners:
Airlines
Hotels
As an example of how this works, just last summer, I found an option to redeem 20,000 Air France Flying Blue points to fly one-way from Boston to Croatia. Since most of Bilt's partners transfer at a 1-to-1 ratio, that means I could transfer 20,000 Bilt points to get those 20,000 Air France miles.
That flight would have otherwise cost over $800 in cash, or 64,000 Bilt points if I redeemed them through Bilt's travel portal. So finding the award availability on Air France's website and transferring Bilt points to Air France meant I could get a whopping 4 cents per point in value for my Bilt points!
Finally, Bilt runs 'Rent Day' promotions on the first of each month, when you can often transfer your Bilt points to one of its partners at an even higher rate than 1-to-1, meaning you can get even more value out of them.
Since Bilt Rewards is available to everyone, there's no reason not to join. Just by linking any credit or debit card to the program, you can automatically earn points everywhere in your daily life. And with Bilt points being so easy to redeem, you can be on your way to free travel in no time.