- \n
- Bilt commemorated the launch with a stupid banana trophy<\/a> to make fun of manufactured spenders<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- There are three flavors cards, each with a different annual fee, multiplier, and set of coupon credits:\n
- \n
- $0 annual fee, 1x everywhere<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- $95 annual fee, 3x on dining or grocery (max $25,000), 2x travel, 1x everywhere<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- $495 annual fee, 2x everywhere<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Bilt invented a new currency that’s earned at 4x,
Itchy and Scratchy Money<\/s> Bilt Cash<\/li>\n\n\n\n- Bilt Cash’s only use is to allow you to earn points for paying your rent or mortgage with a Bilt card<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- For the only churner on the planet without a Priority Pass, $495 will get you one<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- There are more hotel credits that aren’t really worth much<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- There are small sign-up bonuses<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
There are other largely meaningless card features too, but I promise they almost certainly don’t matter to an average churner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Talking Points that Affiliates Can’t Say<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Affiliate relationships tightly control the content of news articles, so let’s mention a few things that they can’t:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- \n
- Cardless doesn’t like manufactured spenders<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- A shutdown from Cardless is a lifetime Cardless ban<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- There’s a good chance that a Cardless shutdown means forfeited points for the most recent statement cycle<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Bilt’s best transfer partner is Hyatt – you can spend $495 for 2x Hyatt everywhere with Bilt and it might last a while without cycling, but you can earn 1.5x Hyatt everywhere with a Chase Ink Unlimited<\/a> which is much more tolerant and has a much bigger sign-up bonus<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Many of the card’s advertised benefits come by virtue of being a Mastercard and you’ve probably got those same benefits on other cards<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- If you use an affiliate blogger’s link, they’re earning several hundreds of dollars in Bilt kickback; their sign-up bonus is probably bigger than yours (by all means, support affiliate bloggers if you like them, just make it a conscious choice and not a default one)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
Finally, let’s talk about converting existing Wells Fargo Bilt cards:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- \n
- You’re going to have yet another new personal card on your credit report<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- You may not be approved even if you have the Wells Fargo card<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- You’ve got to decide to convert by January 30 to avoid another hard pull<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- You won’t get a sign-up bonus as part of the conversion<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
For those keeping track at home, this is the third new credit card on personal credit reports for early Bilt adopters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The MEAB Wrap<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
The affiliate hype machine is great at getting the word out and great at getting you excited, but it’s also good at glossing over the negatives. When a media blitz hits, be extra careful. There’s value in Bilt 2.0, but there’s plenty of downside too and a looming threat of a shutdown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What’s my takeaway? Well, personally I just want the banana trophy or a replica as a peace offering from Richard Kerr.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Happy Thursday!<\/p>\n\n\n
\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/misspelled-capslock.jpeg-576x1024.webp\")
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\nLook, sometimes misspellings are intentional, just ask Dell about its Caps Lcok key.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Background I couldn’t find an affiliate blog that wasn’t talking about Richard Kerr’s \/ Bilt’s Blit’s new Cardless issued credit card lineup yesterday. Of course<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_editorskit_title_hidden":false,"_editorskit_reading_time":0,"_editorskit_is_block_options_detached":false,"_editorskit_block_options_position":"{}","footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-credit-cards"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13128","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13128"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13128\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13134,"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13128\/revisions\/13134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
- There are three flavors cards, each with a different annual fee, multiplier, and set of coupon credits:\n