The Bilt Palladium Card is designed to reward housing payments, but an overlooked feature allows homeowners to earn an effective 4 Bilt Points per dollar on all spending. This isn’t a bug, but a deliberate design element that savvy users are now exploiting. The key? Combining the card’s “housing-only rewards” system with a home equity line of credit (HELOC).
How It Works: The Housing-Only Reward System
Bilt Rewards offers two main earning structures: earning Bilt Cash (with a yearly cap) or fixed rewards based on housing payments. The latter is the core of this strategy. Here’s how the tiers work:
- 25% of Housing Payment: Earn 0.5X points on housing
- 50% of Housing Payment: Earn 0.75X points on housing
- 75% of Housing Payment: Earn 1X points on housing
- 100% or More: Earn 1.25X points on housing
The most efficient approach is to hit the 25% threshold, which effectively turns the Bilt Palladium into a 4x points card. This is because the card already earns 3.3 points per dollar when used for housing payments.
The HELOC Loophole
The trick is to artificially inflate your housing payment via a HELOC. The process is simple: draw down a line of credit, then immediately pay it back with your Bilt Palladium. This triggers the 0.5x multiplier on your housing payment, resulting in a net 4x points per dollar on all spending.
This method mirrors similar tactics used by frequent flyers two decades ago, who leveraged home equity lines for airline miles. The costs are minimal – typically a few days’ worth of interest on the borrowed amount.
Scaling the Rewards
If your monthly non-housing spend is $750, and your housing payment is $3,000, you can draw down a HELOC for $3,000 and immediately repay it with your Bilt Palladium card. This qualifies you for the 0.5x multiplier, effectively doubling your points earning rate to 4x.
Maximizing Value with Transfer Bonuses
The Bilt Rewards program offers transfer bonuses to various airline and hotel partners. Cardholders who spend $50,000 annually reach Platinum status, often unlocking 100% transfer bonuses. This means the 4 points per dollar can easily translate into 8 points per dollar in partner programs.
Conclusion
The Bilt Palladium Card, when combined with a HELOC, presents a straightforward path to outsized rewards. This strategy is not a glitch but a feature designed to incentivize higher spending and housing payments. For homeowners with equity, it’s a powerful way to maximize points earning on everyday purchases.
