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One of the more unusual perks of Bilt elite status is the ability to earn interest — paid in the form of bonus points — on your existing Bilt Rewards balance. On the surface, it sounds like a no-brainer: keep your points, and they’ll grow over time. But in the world of points and miles, holding a large balance can be risky due to the constant threat of devaluations.
While the ability to earn interest on your Bilt Rewards balance presents an interesting option for Bilt members, is it actually worth factoring into your Bilt strategy?
Let’s break down how it works, what you can realistically earn, and when it might make sense.
Page Contents
Earn Interest on Your Bilt Points Balance
First, let's talk about the requirements of the benefit and how it works. Only Bilt members with Silver status and above can earn interest on their Bilt points balance.
You'll earn Silver status after earning 50,000 Bilt Points in a calendar year, or spending $10,000 in the Bilt Rewards ecosystem using the Fast Track qualification requirements. Once you're a Silver member, Bilt will begin depositing Bilt points into your account each month as interest.
Interest is earned based on your average daily balance of Bilt points over the last month, as well as that month's FDIC National Savings Rate.
What is the FDIC National Savings Rate?
The FDIC stands for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. It’s a part of the U.S. government that protects your money in the bank if the bank fails. The National Savings Rate is the average interest rate that banks are paying savings account holders across the country. So, in a way, Bilt is treating your Bilt points like a true savings account.
This rate fluctuates month to month, so the amount of points you'll earn as interest will fluctuate not only with your average points balance, but with the market as well. The current methodology to calculate this rate began in 2021, so historically, we haven't seen rates much higher than the rate as of writing.
How many Bilt Points should I expect to earn as interest?
Unfortunately, this is where the bad news about this benefit comes into play. While it's certainly attention-grabbing to earn interest on your Bilt points, in reality, you won't earn very much. At the time of writing, the National Savings Rate is 0.38%. That means, if you had an average of 100,000 points, you'd expect to earn just 380 points per year, or 31 points per month.
In reality, many members won't have that high of an average balance. And, since the program encourages members to use their Bilt points, member average balances may fluctuate greatly as redemptions occur. So, in effect, this benefit isn't quite as useful for “regular” members, but only the “Bilt Whales” with high balances that would see meaningful interest on their points in their accounts. Still, some bonus points are better than none at all.
Other benefits of Bilt Silver status
While earning interest on your Bilt balance won't move the needle much, members still have an incentive to earn Bilt Silver status — the first level of Bilt elite status. In addition to earning interest on points, Bilt offers the following benefits to Silver members:
- Higher Rent Day transfer bonuses
- 10% off BLADE flights
- Transfer Bilt Points to airline and hotel partners at 1,000 points
Having a lower threshold to transfer Bilt points is a useful benefit. Plus, 10% off BLADE flights might be of use to frequent travelers to New York City.
However, the most valuable benefit of Bilt Silver status may be higher Rent Day transfer bonuses. Rent Day is the first day of every month in Bilt Rewards. Most months, Bilt offers a transfer bonus available to one of its transfer partners. Every Rent Day is different, but each increasing status level typically has a higher transfer bonus.
Our Take
Earning interest on your Bilt Rewards balance is a fun extra — but it’s not a game-changer. For most members, the payout will be tiny, and the opportunity cost of holding a big balance could outweigh the gain. If you naturally keep a lot of points on hand or have a redemption planned months down the line, you may as well enjoy the extra trickle of rewards.
For everyone else, the real reason to value Bilt Silver status is for benefits like higher Rent Day transfer bonuses and a lower transfer threshold to partners. The interest perk is best viewed as icing on the cake, not the cake itself.
- 3x points on dining
- 2x points on travel
- 1x points on rent payments without the transaction fee (up to 100,000 points each calendar year)
- 1x points on other purchases
- *You must use the card 5 times each statement period to earn points—see Rewards & Benefits.
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