Posted: 10/16/2023 | October 16th, 2023
The Bilt Mastercard® is my favorite travel credit card. It’s been making waves in the travel world as the only credit card that allows you to earn points simply by paying your rent (up to 100,000 points on rent per year), making it a must-have for any renter. And while you can’t earn Bilt Points if you pay a mortgage, in all honesty, it’s a great card to have in your wallet even if you own your house, as it comes with several other standout features.
One of those features, which is unique to Bilt, is Rent Day. Rent Day is Bilt’s alternative to a welcome offer. A welcome offer is normally a one-time offer of a large number of points given to you in exchange for spending a certain amount of money on your card within a set time frame (usually the first 3-6 months). Welcome offers usually equate to a free flight or free hotel stay(s) so they are used to encourage people to get a card and spend money on it. As such, they are a huge part of earning points and miles for free travel — one of the most important parts. But Bilt doesn’t have a welcome offer. It has Rent Day instead, which, in my opinion, is just as good (if not better). I usually advise against getting a new card unless it has a stellar welcome offer. But Rent Day happens 12 times a year, meaning that you have that many more chances to maximize your points earnings. It’s truly one of the best features of the card. To help you maximize your points, here’s everything you need to know about Bilt’s Rent Day.
What is Bilt’s Rent Day?
For most renters, rent is due on the first of every month, making it something of a dreaded day. But Bilt aims to turn this day into one you can look forward to, with ways to earn more points (up to 10,000 bonus points) each time. I’ll go over each of these in more detail in the sections below, but the main features of Rent Day are these:
- Double earning capabilities on all categories (except rent payments)
- Point Quest
- Free rent giveaways
- Unique perks that change each month (i.e. different ways to earn or spend more points)
- SoulCycle Rent Day rides (complimentary SoulCycle rides)
There are only two things you have to do to make sure that you’re making the most out of Rent Day. The first is one of the most important things to know about the Bilt card, which is that you must use the card at least five times each statement period to earn any points, including any earned on Rent Day. Once you’ve used your card five times in a statement period, you’re good to go and will earn all your points. The second thing to remember is to download the Bilt app, as some Rent Day benefits are only available on the app (like Point Quest; more on that below). While it really is that simple, here’s how you can start taking advantage of all that Rent Day has to offer.
How to Earn More Points on Rent Day
Since Bilt first launched Rent Day in October 2022, double points on all categories have been a main feature, and it’s an easy one to get. All you have to do is use your Bilt Rewards Mastercard to make purchases on the first of the month, and you’ll instantly get double the points on that purchase. That means you’ll earn:
- 4x points on travel (flights, hotels, and car rentals)
- 6x points on dining
- 11x points on Bilt Dining (dining at select restaurants)
- 2x points on all other purchases (excluding rent)
It’s a no-brainer to make a habit of using your Bilt card for anything you buy on the first of the month. That way, you’ll get more points and be that much closer to hitting your required five transactions for the month. Pro tip: For any reoccurring payments (like subscriptions) that hit your account on the first of the month, change the payment card on file to Bilt (assuming you can’t earn more points on these purchases with a different card). That way you’ll automatically get at least 2x points for these (more if they’re in travel or dining categories), while ticking off some of those five required transactions. If you have subscriptions processing on other days of the month, call the company and see if you can move your billing to the 1st so you can get those extra points.
Point Quest
While it’s easy to earn double points on your purchases on the first of the month, this Rent Day benefit makes you work for your points. Point Quest is a game played on the Bilt app in which you can earn points for correct answers to trivia questions. There are always five questions to answer, and you’ll get 150 points if you get them all right, plus a sixth question, worth 100 points all on its own. That means you could earn up to 250 Bilt points playing Point Quest each month. The questions are usually centered on that month’s theme. For example, when Bilt offered 5x points on sports tickets and NFL boxes as a Rent Day feature, the Point Quest questions were sports related. But don’t worry — the questions aren’t that hard. Even if you don’t know much about the theme that month, chances are you’ll still be able to answer at least a few questions. Remember to download the app so that you can play. It takes just a couple of minutes and is an easy way to get some extra points on Rent Day.
Rent Giveaways
Another popular feature of Rent Day is the monthly free rent giveaways. This has taken different forms over the months, but the central tenet is the same: you could earn a month’s free rent just by playing. In the past, Bilt created Rent Challenges in which you had to solve a puzzle of some kind in order to secure your entry to the giveaway. Challenges included finding Bilt’s logo hidden within a scene or fill-in-the-blank sentences to complete an idiom or popular saying. Some months, completing these challenges entered you to win not only a free month’s rent but free flights to destinations that Bilt was highlighting that month (e.g., in February 2023, Bilt partnered with Hawaiian Airlines and offered free flights to Hawaii). Over the past couple months, these challenges have been replaced with the Rent Free Game Show, in which comedians, creators, and other personalities answer questions to help Bilt members earn a chance to get their rent paid (up to $2,500 USD). It works like this:
Each month, Bilt randomly asks a thousand Bilt Members hypothetical questions. (These questions set the baseline for answers. Even if you aren’t randomly selected to participate, you can still win free rent.) These questions are all over the place, and in the past, have included things like: “Where is the worst place to get proposed to?” and “What foods do picky eaters hate?” and even “What’s the biggest red flag you see on dating apps?” The Rent Free guest (the comedian or other personality) then tries to guess the consensus of Bilt members who answered. The more they get right, the more people’s rent Bilt will pay (up to 10 winners each month). Then, on Rent Day, Bilt members have the chance to answer those same questions in the Rent Day tab of the app. If you guess correctly, you’ll be entered to win free rent for that month. So far, it doesn’t seem like there’s any limit on how many times you can try, so don’t worry if you guess wrong initially. Just keep trying until you get at least three correct answers, and you’ll be entered to win! You can watch the game show on the Bilt app too, though it’s not required for entry.
Previous Rent Day Prizes
While Bilt doesn’t announce its Rent Day prizes too far in advance, to give you a sense of what they are like, you can look at perks from the past. While it’s nice that there are some Rent Day bonus mainstays, part of the fun of Rent Day is that you never…