How to Travel for FREE by Paying Your Rent!!!
If you clicked on this blog, then you’re most likely someone who is renting and wants to be able to travel around the world for free. Well, if this is you, then you’ll be excited to hear there’s a way for you to book flights and hotels for the low price of free by paying your rent as well as other expenses with the Bilt Mastercard!!!
Now the Bilt Mastercard is like any other credit card that allows you to earn points when you purchase things with it. But what makes it different from all of the other credits out there is that you’re able to use it to pay your rent without having to pay any fees and you’ll earn 1 point for every dollar you spend on rent. This may not seem like a huge deal, but it really is! As far as I know, the Bilt Mastercard is the only credit card that does this.
Let’s say that you’re paying $2,000 a month in rent, which is right around what people are paying in rent on average in the United States. If you paid for your rent using the Bilt Mastercard, you would receive 2,000 points a month, which is 24,000 points a year.
That’s a lot of points! But you’re probably wondering, what is the value of these points when they’re converted for travel? In most cases, each point is going to be worth at least 1 cent when they’re redeemed for travel. So 24,000 points would be worth at least $240. However, Bilt has a ton of travel partners that allow them to provide you with discounts. Here’s a list of all their travel partners:
Click this link to view the list: https://upgradedpoints.com/credit-cards/bilt-rewards-transfer-partners/
So, let’s say you decided to take a trip to Disney. You could use the 24,000 points you earned from one year’s worth of rent to book a flight, which would cost you 23,712 points. If you paid for this plane ticket with cash, then it would cost you $297. So this means each point in this scenario is valued at 1.25 cents.
Ok, let’s say you wanted to book a hotel instead with your points. Here is a hotel close by Disney, which would cost you 17,520 points a night. If you paid for this hotel room with cash, then it would cost you $219. So this means each point in this scenario is valued at 1.25 cents.
If you already think the Bilt Mastercard is a top-notch credit card, there are way more benefits that it offers…
#1: You don’t just earn points from paying your rent! You’ll also earn 3 points per dollar spent on dining, 2 points per dollar on travel, and 1 point per dollar on other purchases.
#2: There’s NO annual fee! Most travel credit cards will make you pay an annual fee to have access to their travel partners, with some of them charging you hundreds of dollars a year.
#3: If your landlord doesn’t allow you to pay your rent with a credit card, you’re able to either make an ACH payment through your landlord’s online payment system or have Bilt send a check to your landlord on your behalf.
#4: To prevent you from using all of your available credit when paying your rent, Bilt is able to connect to your bank account and pull funds directly to pay off any rent charges on your card statement within 48 hours (kind of like a debit card). That way you can earn points on rent payments without using up your available credit.
#5: If you’re renting from a Bilt Alliance property, which is a collection of property management companies that have an official partnership with Bilt, you can choose to have your rent payments automatically reported by Bilt to the credit bureaus each month, which can help build your credit history with each on-time rent payment you make.
#6: Not only can you redeem your points for travel, but you can also redeem your points for a downpayment on a home, which is so awesome! If you decide to use your points for this, you will get around 1.5 cents for each point.
#7: Bilt offers up to $5,000 in reimbursement for nonrefundable tickets if a trip is canceled or interrupted for a covered reason. If your trip is delayed, you can get reimbursed for expenses like meals or lodging after a delay of six hours, and there is a maximum of $2,000 per day.
#8: If you pay for a car rental using your Bilt Mastercard, you can waive the collision protections offered by the rental agency and be covered by your credit card's benefits.
#9: If you pay your cellphone bill with your Bilt Mastercard, there is a cellphone protection benefit that provides up to $800 coverage (with a $25 deductible) against damage or theft.
#10: You’ll receive a three-month DashPass membership, which provides perks like waived delivery fees, plus you can get $5 off your first order each month.
Ok, if you made it to this part of the blog you’re most likely interested in getting the Bilt Mastercard.
Based on my research, to have the best chance of getting approved for this credit card, you’ll need to have around a 700 credit score. Your chances of being approved will also depend on how much you’re making every year and what your debt-to-income ratio is. Keep in mind these are just guidelines so for example you may have a low annual income but no debts and still get approved.
If you check off all these boxes, let me share with you the drawbacks of the Bilt Mastercard before you apply for it, which you can do by clicking this link:
https://www.biltrewards.com/card
#1: You have to make at least five transactions every month to be able to earn points from paying your rent. However, paying your rent counts as one of those five transactions.
#2: There’s no welcome bonus, which kind of sucks because most credit cards out there offer some type of welcome bonus.
#3: You can only receive 100,000 points a year from paying your rent, which isn’t that big of a deal because you’d have to be paying more than $8,333.33 a month in rent for that to matter. Also, if you’re able to afford to pay that much in rent, you should probably own a home instead LOL.
That’s pretty much all of the drawbacks of the Bilt Mastercard, at least the ones that stand out to me the most. Overall, I think that every renter should get this credit card if they’re able to because you don’t receive nearly as many benefits from paying rent as you do with paying a mortgage, so you might as well use this credit card to get some free travel.
Now, I can’t stress this enough. If you’re someone who isn’t responsible with credit cards, then DON’T get any credit cards. You should never use a credit card as a way to live beyond your means. Only purchase things with a credit card if you have the money to pay for it right away. To make sure that you’re not affecting your credit score you should always pay off the balance on your credit card on time and in full. If you’re carrying a balance on your credit card, then you’ll be paying interest on it, which completely defeats the purpose of using a credit card for free travel. If you use credit cards like the Bilt Mastercard the right way, then you’ll never have to pay for a hotel or flight ever again.
Thanks for taking the time to read this blog. If you end up getting the Bilt Mastercard please let me know what you plan on redeeming the points for!
