Pay Your Rent with a credit card and Transfer points to American Airlines and Hyatt

Pay Your Rent with a credit card and Transfer points to American Airlines and Hyatt

by | Jun 26, 2023 | Points, Rent & Mortgages

The Bilt Mastercard recently started accepting applications for anyone who wishes to apply after a waitlist program. This is an innovative no annual fee card that virtually anyone who pays rent in the United States should consider picking up.

The no annual fee Bilt Mastercard is issued by Wells Fargo. The card has lucrative bonus categories, and earns points that can be transferred to popular airline and hotel partners. But the truly unique feature of the card — and really the fundamental value proposition — involves the ability to pay rent with the card with no fee, all while earning rewards.

That’s right, you can pay your rent with no fee even if your landlord doesn’t accept credit card payments, or would otherwise charge a fee. For many people that probably sounds too good to be true.

The Bilt rewards card makes sense for anyone who pays rent and doesn’t currently earn rewards doing it. Rent for many people is the largest monthly expense. The national average or median rents are in the $1100-$1300 range per month

Finally a credit card you can pay your rent with!

Earning points with the Bilt Mastercard

The Bilt Mastercard earns the following rewards when you have at least five posted transactions per billing cycle:

The card also has no foreign transaction fees and is a World Elite Mastercard, so has great global acceptance, and is a good card to use abroad (especially given that a lot of foreign spending is on dining and travel).

Redeeming points with the Bilt Mastercard

You” be earning 1-3x points per dollar spent with a variety of ways to redeem points (ranging from experiences to merchandise). Frequent travelers would be most interested in the ability to transfer these points to airline and hotel partners.

Bilt has the following travel transfer partners, all offering 1:1 transfers:

  • Air Canada Aeroplan
  • Air France-KLM Flying Blue
  • American AAdvantage (the only program that transfers to American Airlines 1:1)
  • Emirates Skywards
  • Hawaiian Airlines HawaiianMiles
  • IHG Rewards
  • Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles
  • United MileagePlus
  • Virgin Points
  • World of Hyatt

These transfer partners are competitive with what you’ll find with major transferable points currencies. What some might find most exciting is the World of Hyatt partnership, as well as the American AAdvantage partnership. That’s because the former only otherwise partners with Chase Ultimate Rewards, while the latter doesn’t otherwise partner with any major transferable points currencies.

Disadvantages of the Bilt Rent Payment Card

The most intriguing aspect of the Bilt Mastercard is the ability to pay rent by credit card without fees and earn up to 50,000 points per year. This works even if your landlord doesn’t accept credit card payments, as Bilt will send a check. We assume that Bilt loses money when giving out rewards and then mailing a check to a landlord it has no relationship with. They most likely hope to get rental companies on its platform, hoping that being associated with Bilt gets more renters, and streamlines the payment process.

My two biggest cons with the card is that The Bilt Mastercard doesn’t offer any sort of a welcome bonus, some apartments do not take anything but money orders or cashier’s checks, and you have to spend a certain amount ($250) to get the cash back on your rent payment. You also have a minimum redemption of $50 which is more than most programs including Discover where you can redeem at any amount.

Is the Bilt Mastercard worth it?

Is it worth getting the Bilt Mastercard? If you’re a renter in the United States and you can’t currently pay your rent by credit card, or have to pay a fee to make such a payment by credit card, then yes, this card is absolutely worth it. You can earn valuable rewards for money you have to spend anyway, so that’s a complete no-brainer.

If you don’t pay rent and have a mortgage it may still make sense for some because of the transfer partners. Given that you can’t make fee-free payments for mortgages, HOAs, etc., could it still make sense to get the card? Earning 3x transferable points on travel and 2x transferable points on dining on a no annual fee card is still a great deal.

For someone looking to earn transferable points without an annual fee, I’d say this is an excellent option, especially if you spend a lot on dining and travel.

Bottom line

The no annual fee Bilt Mastercard is issued by Wells Fargo, and recently opened to applicants without a waitlist. This card is mostly targeted for those who rent an apartment who can pay up to $50,000 per year in rent without fees. This happens when you pay through the Bilt app, and a check will be sent to your landlord on your behalf. A fascinating way to earn money when paying rent.

The Bilt card offers 3x points on dining, 2x points on travel, and those points can be transferred to several valuable partners, ranging from American AAdvantage to World of Hyatt.

I think this card is absolutely worth it for renters, and even for non-renters this could be a great no annual fee card option, assuming you’re looking for travel rewards and spend a lot on dining and travel.

$400 in Free Points & Miles for New Plastiq Members

by | Mar 30, 2017 | Rent & Mortgages, Tax Payments

I made a related post describing how I used the online bill-pay service Plastiq to meet minimum spend on a new credit card I applied for a few months ago. Typically this site charges a 2.5% service fee when you use an American Express, Visa, Mastercard, or Discover card to send payment to pay a bill. While paying this fee usually isn’t worth it for your regular bill payment, it might be worth it to meet minimum spend that you might not be able to meet otherwise.

For a limited time, however, new members that sign up for Plastiq can receive their first $400 fee-free! That means you can pay $400 on your credit card through this service and you will not receive a charge! Even if you aren’t trying to meet minimum spend, you can always pay use it to earn some free points or miles.

The terms specifically state that some sections of the site and emails state the standard amount, but you’ll still receive the double bonus. As long as you make your first payment of at least $20 between March 14, 2017 and April 18, 2017, you’ll receive $400 free dollars. The person making the referral will receive $800 in free dollars. For those new to the site and wanting to take advantage of getting some free points/miles on their card or to make a payment towards meeting their minimum spend requirement, you can sign up here. Feel free to leave your referral code below, and here is my referral code if you want to support – 502988.

To start taking advantage of the promotional 2% fee, follow these easy steps:
1. Sign Up for Plastiq
2. Submit or schedule a payment for ANY bill.
3. Make sure the “Processing Date” is no later than April 18, 2017. You can see the “Processing Date” when you hover over a date in the calendar.
4. Use an American Express card to make the payment.
5. A special 2% fee will be applied to payments processed until April 18, 2017 using an American Express card. Offer does not apply to payments scheduled during the promotional period which are set to process after the promotional period.

To Profit with a huge credit card bonus from the offer then apply for one of these AMEX Cards first:
1. Up to $300 Bonus on American Express Blue Everyday. No Annual Fee so use this Plastiq offer to pay your property taxes or federal taxes to maximize on both promotions to meet your minimum spend of $1,000 to get a $100 Bonus. It also features a $200 Amazon bonus.
2. 75,000 Hilton HHonors Points
3. If you own a Business then Sign up for this 100,000 Membership Rewards Bonus Point offer that expires in a few days!

How I’m Making A Profit from My Mortgage & Tax Payments!

by | Feb 23, 2017 | Rent & Mortgages

I’ve had a bad week or so after learning that I was denied for the new Chase Sapphire Reserve Card everyone has been going overboard about. This led to be being depressed and applying for 4 other cards in which I got approved for all of them because they are not Chase Nazi’s. Ha!. One of those cards is the Barclaycard Arrival Plus MasterCard which I have had before but it’s been a few years. This card is a Mastercard and gives 2% back on all purchases which leads me to one of the best ways to do manufactured spending right now that The Bluebird Card and other ways are off the table. This would enable me to reach a $3,000 spend in order to qualify for a 40,000 point bonus I get with the travel credit card.

This works wonderful in my situation because I need to do spending anyway and would love to put more money towards my mortgage without paying any fees using my credit card. You have to act fast to do this though. Let me show you how it works below so you can either get in on this promotion or do it when they bring it back.

Plastiq is a new way to pay bills that can’t normally be paid with a credit card. Plastiq says you can pay any bill (businesses or individuals) using their service and they’ll charge you a flat 2.5% fee. But for a limited time you can schedule at least 6 rent or mortgage payments with your MasterCard, by September 30, and lock in a 1.75% rate on those payments.

Just follow these five steps, then sit back and relax as you pay your rent or mortgage just the way you want – with a rewards credit card:

Updated Offer at 2% Promo
Use your American Express card to pay only a 2% fee on any payment made by the deadline.
To start taking advantage of the promotional 2% fee, follow these easy steps:
1. Sign Up for Plastiq
2. Submit or schedule a payment for ANY bill.
3. Make sure the “Processing Date” is no later than February 28, 2017. You can see the “Processing Date” when you hover over a date in the calendar.
4. Use an American Express card to make the payment.
5. A special 2% fee will be applied to payments processed from January 11, 2017 to February 28, 2017 using an American Express card. Offer does not apply to payments scheduled during the promotional period which are set to process after the promotional period.

To Profit with a huge credit card bonus from the offer then apply for one of these AMEX Cards first:
1. Up to $300 Bonus on American Express Blue Everyday. No Annual Fee so use this Plastiq offer to pay your property taxes or federal taxes to maximize on both promotions to meet your minimum spend of $1,000 to get a $100 Bonus. It also features a $200 Amazon bonus.
2. 75,000 Hilton HHonors Points
3. If you own a Business then Sign up for this 100,000 Membership Rewards Bonus Point offer that expires in a few days!

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