Why the Bilt Palladium is Our New Favorite Card
This is the January 25, 2026 edition of the LazyPoints Weekly newsletter. It goes out by email every Sunday at 8:00 a.m. Pacific–unless I oversleep–and is archived here on the blog. Want it straight to your inbox each week? Sign up here.
If you’re an existing Bilt cardholder, the “pre-order” period to choose a new Bilt 2.0 card closes next Saturday, the 31st. If you don’t have a Bilt card yet, applications are now open. The card portfolio launched with a lot of key information missing, but those gaps have been filled since then, and the picture is complicated but promising: Bilt appears to be offering perhaps the most rewarding all-around cards on the market. And, for now, the Palladium card stands out to me as the clear winner.
Bilt Cash Redemptions
The confusion at launch stemmed from the fact that these new cards each earn 4% Bilt Cash on everyday spending… but it wasn’t clear what you could actually do with Bilt Cash. On Wednesday, Bilt released the details on how it will work (at least at first; these things are always subject to change). There are plenty of options with dubious value, and the redemption limits might be disappointing in some cases, but the overall picture is very exciting:
As originally advertised, you can use it to earn points on housing, essentially earning as much as 1.33 extra points per dollar on everyday spending (this will generally be the case when your monthly spending is no more than 75% of your monthly housing expenses)
In addition, you can use $200 in Bilt Cash to earn an extra 1 point per dollar on your next $5,000 everyday spending on Palladium or Obsidian cards. $5,000 in spending, incidentally, earns another $200 in Bilt Cash. And you can repeat this step up to 4 more times.
There are a few redemptions that have low limits, but should be almost as good as cash if you are spending on these purchases anyway: $10 per month on Lyft rides and/or Walgreens purchases, and up to $25 per month in a single visit to a Bilt Dining restaurant. You can also use Bilt Cash for $50 per month toward 2-night hotel bookings via Bilt, or $100/month if you have Gold or Platinum status. The hotel benefit is great for Obsidian and Palladium cardholders, who can use it in combination with the hotel credits that come with those cards.
There are some more niche redemptions that might have value for some people—or be fun if you have Bilt Cash burning a hole in your digital pocket: credits toward Blacklane private car service or BLADE airport flights.
Perhaps most exciting, but hardest to value: you can redeem Bilt Cash to upgrade to a higher Rent Day transfer bonus. Bilt gave the example of spending $75 in Bilt Cash to get a 100% transfer bonus instead of 75%. If you transfer enough points, you could potentially get hundreds of dollars in extra points with that strategy (although it may depend on the terms and conditions of any given offer).
Why the Palladium is special
The Palladium comes with $200 in Bilt Cash every year, so even if you did not want to deal with points on housing, you could activate the +1x at the beginning of the year and use the Bilt Cash earned on that spending to earn 3x on all purchases throughout the year (with occasional check-ins to re-activate the +1x as needed), up to $25,000 in spending. That’s a relatively simple way to get ~3x on nearly every purchase, and excellent value for rewards this good. Plus, you’ll get a $300 Bilt Cash head start, 50,000 bonus Bilt points, and Gold status until January 2028 as a welcome offer.
Lazy Take 🦥
I think there will be many opportunities to wring extra value out of this new Bilt universe, but the simple route should be manageable for many people—and if you put in that effort with a Palladium, you will be rewarded with a single, do-it-all credit card that can provide best-in-class rewards in the vast majority of spending situations.
But if you want something even easier, we’ve got ideas! Read on for more…
This week on the blog 📝
For those turned off by the complexities of Bilt 2.0 and considering an alternative, we asked: “What’s Simpler?” That was focused on travel cards, so if you prefer a no-fee card, there are several on our top cards list.
Quick Points of the Week ⚡
Bilt 2.0 💳
More information about the new cards:
How will housing payments work under Bilt 2.0? They will be paid via ACH from your linked checking account—not via your credit account.
The new cards have some earning restrictions, including offering no points for tax payments or payments through Venmo or eBay.
Want to try to maximize your points? Frequent Miler has a chart showing the spending levels where the original Bilt Cash model is more rewarding and where you would be better off with the “simplified” model.
Correction 🛠️
In last weekend’s newsletter, I overstated the math slightly. When using Bilt Cash to earn points on rent, you can effectively earn ~1.3x Bilt points per dollar of everyday spend up to about 75% of your housing payment(s)—not all the way to 100%, as I previously wrote. Once you pass that threshold, you’ve fully funded your rent points; additional spending still earns Bilt Cash, though, which can be redeemed elsewhere (including on bonus points if you have a qualifying card and sufficient Bilt Cash).
Mark your calendar 📅
Bilt Rent Day is February 1st. We don’t know the details yet, but I’m optimistic.
More value 📈
Redeem AA miles for Aer Lingus flights. It’s another high-value option for American miles—also transferable from Citi. (Frequent Miler)
Ski for free with Alaska Airlines. Some ski resorts offer free lift tickets with a same-day Alaska boarding pass—better book a morning flight! (AwardWallet)
Rumors 👀
United is planning something “big” for its loyalty program. No details yet, but hopefully this could spell more value for transfer partners Bilt and Chase. (TPG)
Sign-up bonus of the Week 🎯
The Capital One Venture Rewards card is offering a $250 travel credit in addition to the normal 75,000 points after spending $4,000 in the first 3 months after account opening. The card offers double points on every purchase—more on some travel booked via Capital One—but doesn’t offer any meaningful credits to offset its $95 annual fee. Thus, I don’t normally recommend this card. But this offer is worth at least $1,000 in travel, so some might find it worth exploring Capital One’s simple points and redemption structure. 🔥
Other great current bonuses
50,000 points + Bilt Gold status on the Bilt Palladium (🔥🔥🔥🔥)
100k points on the Citi Strata Elite (our take: 🔥🔥🔥)
125k (175k?) points on the Chase Sapphire Reserve (our take: 🔥🔥🔥)
80k miles on the Citi AAdvantage Platinum Select (our take: 🔥🔥)
5 free nights + airline credits on the Marriott Boundless (our take: 🔥🔥)
75k points on the Chase Sapphire Preferred (our take: 🔥)
Up to 100/175k on the Amex Gold/Platinum (our take)
Enjoy the weekend! 🦥
Hopefully I won’t have to do math again for a while.