When Bilt Card 2.0 launched this week, there were a few surprises in the terms and conditions. Among them is the fact that using your card for tax payments will not earn rewards or Bilt Cash (if you choose the Bilt Cash option). Oddly, there are also restrictions against online marketplaces like eBay and Facebook Marketplace that are worth knowing before you use your card heavily, only to be surprised that you don’t earn rewards on certain purchases.
The Bilt Rewards Card Offer Terms include the following description of “eligible purchases” which will earn rewards and those which are do not earn Bilt Points or Bilt Cash (bold is mine and added for emphasis):
“Eligible Purchases” or “Purchases” means transactions for goods or services made with your Bilt Card, minus returns, refunds, or credits. Purchases that do not earn Bilt Points or Bilt Cash: Balance transfers, Special Transfers, cash advances, travelers checks, money orders, wire transfers or similar cash-like transactions, prepaid cards, gift cards, person-to-person payments (such as Venmo, PayPal, Cash App, or Zelle), tax payments, online resale marketplaces (such as eBay or Facebook Marketplace), cryptocurrency or other digital currency purchases, fees or interest posted to your Account (including annual fees, late fees, and returned payment fees), lottery tickets, casino gaming chips, race track wagers or similar betting transactions, and checks that access your Account
Most credit cards exclude things like cash advances, money orders, and that sort of thing. I am not aware of any other credit cards on the market that exclude purchases made via online resale marketplaces such as eBay or Facebook Marketplace. That seems crazy to me, as those are mainstream online shopping outlets. Furthermore, that creates a lot of ambiguity: If eBay and Facebook Marketplace are excluded, is Etsy excluded? Surely an Amazon Marketplace seller wouldn’t be excluded, would they? I suppose that Bilt is trying to prevent some sort of abuse, but I don’t like the ambiguity there or the propensity for ordinary customers to end up with an unpleasant surprise, as no reasonable ordinary customer would expect online resale marketplace purchases to be excluded.
Many readers will find the exclusion of tax payments also surprising and disappointing, particularly since tax payments are coded as ordinary purchases (that earn rewards) on all other credit cards in the market with which I am familiar. While Bilt had long ago excluded tax payments from earning double rewards on Rent Day (which is now capped at 1,000 additional points anyway), it is disappointing to see tax payments excluded from earning rewards altogether. We thought it was particularly important to highlight this here as these cards are launching around tax time, and many readers have already written to us with plans centered around making tax payments in order to earn rewards on their mortgages. Be aware that, as the terms are written, tax payments will not earn rewards or Bilt Cash.
Of course, it is possible that real-world experience won’t match the terms word-for-word. For instance, the terms exclude the purchases of gift cards. If you’re at the grocery store, and in the checkout lane, you grab a $100 Olive Garden gift card to give your sister for her birthday, is Bilt really going to know and/or care? It would be surprising if they drilled down in that type of detail. On the other hand, if you’re spending $2,000 at a time on GiftCards.com purchases, be aware that the Bilt cards might not be good cards for those types of purchases.
We will continue to monitor program terms for updates.
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