I signed up for the Bilt Mastercard in 2022 and since then I’ve felt they’ve done more to keep the card relevant than any other travel program. Since October 2022, the most buzzworthy promotion had been Bilt’s Rent Day. On the first of the month. Bilt offers something extra to members.
For those who are only Bilt members who use the program to pay rent, there have been offers to transfer points to HawaiianMiles or Air France/KLM with a bonus or the chance to earn United and Hyatt status.
Besides those offers for those who have a free Bilt Rewards membership, there’s a recurring bonus for those who have a Bilt Rewards Mastercard.
The usual bonuses for the card are doubled. This means you earn 6X points on dining, 4X points on travel and 2X on everything else (besides rent). The offer runs from 12:00 AM ET to 11:59 PM PT, which means it actually runs for 25 hours.
However, I’ve run into issues when buying items online over the past two months. While I purchased them on the 1st of the month, the charges didn’t post to my account until the 2nd. This means I didn’t get the double (or 6x points.)
For instance, I loaded $100 onto my Starbucks account via Apple Pay. While I received the 300 points for the 3X points expected for dining, I didn’t receive 6X points for making the purchase on Rent Day. The transaction date on the Bilt App shows at 5/2, even though it was done on the 1st.
The same thing happened for a purchase on Amazon.com. While I finished the transaction on the 1st, it posted on the 2nd and only earned 1X points per dollar.
The only thing that posted properly was when I used the card at a local Walgreens. Then I received the 35 points plus an additional 35 points for Rent Day.
I don’t blame Bilt for these problems as there are clearly challenges to offering a bonus different from other credit cards. I don’t know of another program that tries to give a bonus to cardholders that make purchases on a single date. You’re at the mercy of the merchant when they post the purchase as well as subject to Wells Fargo and their systems.
The issues I’ve had was when I made purchases online, either through a website or by using Apple Wallet. Those payments can have delays in processing payments. If you want to buy something on Amazon.com, it would be best to go to a store and buy a gift card on Rent Day. That way the payment is processed right away. The same goes for any other app purchases. This month I’m going to load my Starbucks account by using Bilt Mastercard in a store instead of loading my account with the app.
These snafus are things you only discover by trial and error. I hope that Bilt can find a way to fix these issues but until then I’m going to do what I can to make sure I receive the points I deserve for using my card on Rent Day.
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