In an increasingly crowded ring of premium credit cards, one new contender is laying claim to the heavyweight crown. Meet the Bilt Palladium Card, designed to make paying your largest monthly expense—housing—even more rewarding. This new credit card offers cardholders the ability to earn up to 1X points when they pay their rent and even their mortgage, a rewarding option that has been next to impossible without incurring high fees.

There are no spending categories to keep track of, and no merchant-specific coupons to remember to go out of your way to use just to make the annual fee feel worth it. Furthermore, it earns arguably the most valuable points on the market. Plus, not only does it earn 2X points on everyday purchases, it can actually earn two kinds of rewards on those purchases, too. These features make the new Bilt Palladium Card a strong contender for your wallet whether you rent or own your home, and even if you do not use it to pay your monthly housing bill.

Industry-Leading Rewards, Earned Two Ways

The Bilt Palladium Card is brand-new, but Bilt is not. NerdWallet has been following the company’s evolution—and recommending its valuable points—for years. Bilt is a loyalty program that lets you earn points by paying rent, dining out, taking rideshares, shopping with select merchants, and even buying a home. There are several options to redeem Bilt Points, including transferring them 1:1 to one of the best selections of hotel and airline partners of any rewards program out there.

Each year, NerdWallet performs a comprehensive, data-driven analysis of dozens of airline, hotel, and general credit card rewards programs to determine how much actual value you can expect to get from any given points or miles. Bilt points have consistently come out on top as having the highest value.

The new Bilt Palladium Card earns 2X Bilt points on everyday purchases. That is a solid, predictable rewards rate that matches the highest you will find on everyday purchases among premium credit cards. However, those 2X points are only half the rewards you can earn. You can also choose to get an eye-popping 4% back in Bilt Cash on everyday purchases. Bilt Cash is a new kind of reward that cardholders can earn alongside Bilt Points, making each transaction doubly rewarding.

You can redeem Bilt Cash at face value, dollar for dollar, for credits across Bilt’s network of offerings. That means $50 in Bilt Cash can get you things like $50 worth of Lyft rides, $50 off your bill at select restaurants, $50 toward hotel bookings made in the Bilt travel portal, $50 to cover select fitness classes, $50 toward Walgreens purchases, and more.

Cardholders have noted that Bilt avoids a one-size-fits-all approach to rewards, providing a lot of choice in how to make the card work best for individual needs. While there are some limits and restrictions with Bilt Cash, the flexibility allows you to redeem it in the way that makes the most sense. Whether you want to spend some to cover a Walgreens purchase you were going to make anyway, grab lunch with a GrubHub credit, or splurge for a helicopter ride in Manhattan, the options are varied. Plus, you can use Bilt Cash to access elite-level perks like exclusive experiences, more valuable transfer bonuses, and the ability to unlock Bilt points when you pay your rent or mortgage using the card.

Admittedly, having multiple kinds of rewards and redemption options can be a bit complicated, requiring a little mental math. But once you understand how valuable Bilt Points and Bilt Cash can be, the pieces fall into place. Bilt actually launched three new credit cards, with the Bilt Palladium Card serving as the top pick, alongside two other options for consumers.

The Card’s Math Doesn’t Lie

To understand the core value of the Bilt Palladium Card, it helps to examine the basic structure. The sign-up bonus offers 50,000 Bilt Points plus Gold Status after spending $4,000 on everyday purchases in the first 90 days, along with $300 of Bilt Cash, subject to approval. NerdWallet values Bilt Points at 1.8 cents each when transferred to select travel partners, making the sign-up bonus of 50,000 points worth roughly $900 toward travel.

To put the everyday earning potential into perspective, consider a scenario where you spend $5,000 a month on everyday purchases using the Bilt Palladium Card. You will earn 10,000 Bilt Points, plus $200 in Bilt Cash if you have selected Flexible Bilt Cash as your bonus rewards option. Because NerdWallet values Bilt Points at 1.8 cents each when transferred to select travel partners, those 10,000 Bilt Points are worth around $180 toward travel. Combined with the $200 in Bilt Cash, that results in $380 in total rewards value on $5,000 of spending.

By comparison, spending that same $5,000 in everyday, non-bonus categories on other premium cards yields significantly lower estimated values according to NerdWallet analyses. The American Express Platinum Card earns 5,000 Membership Rewards, valued at roughly $80. The Chase Sapphire Reserve earns 5,000 Ultimate Rewards, valued at around $90. The Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card earns 10,000 Capital One Miles, valued at approximately $160. For consumers looking for the flat-out best return on everyday credit card spending, the Bilt Palladium Card emerges as a clear winner.

You Can Earn Rewards on Rent and Mortgage Payments

Here is where the Bilt Palladium Card gets even more interesting. As noted, the only way to earn rewards on rent and mortgage payments and earn valuable points is through Bilt. For most people, housing is by far their biggest monthly expense, so the ability to earn up to 1X points on this expense is significant. With the card, you can pay your monthly rent or mortgage with no transaction fee, and there is no cap on how much you can spend on housing.

While you can pay your housing with no transaction fee, you will not earn points on that expense unless you allocate some of your Bilt Cash in exchange for points. For example, if you have a $5,000 mortgage, you can pay it through the Bilt platform using your Bilt Palladium Card without paying a transaction fee. If you want to earn Bilt points on that transaction, you will need to spend your Bilt Cash equivalent to 3%. Thirty dollars in Bilt Cash is worth 1,000 Bilt points, up to 1X on your total housing payment.

For a $5,000 mortgage, you would need $150 in Bilt Cash to cover the transaction and earn 5,000 Bilt points. If you do not have enough Bilt Cash to unlock the maximum 1X points on your housing payment, you can redeem a smaller amount of Bilt Cash to earn up to 1X points. If you only have $30 in Bilt Cash, you can redeem it to earn 1,000 points on your $5,000 mortgage payment.

You can choose to use the card to pay your rent or mortgage only once you have enough Bilt Cash to unlock the maximum 1X points on your payment, with no obligation to pay your housing expense every month using the card. Alternatively, you could choose to use the card only for your everyday spending and skip using it for your mortgage or rent payment altogether, redeeming your Bilt Cash for things like hotels booked through Bilt, Lyft rides, select restaurant bills, and more.

Trade Your Bilt Cash to Earn Even More Points on Everyday Spending

Another unique and valuable option available to Bilt Palladium Card and Bilt Obsidian Card holders is the ability to use Bilt Cash as a points accelerator to make spending on the card even more rewarding. If you select Flexible Bilt Cash as your bonus rewards option, you can spend $200 in Bilt Cash to enable an additional 1X bonus points on all everyday spend, up to $5,000.

This means the Bilt Palladium Card would earn 3X points on everyday purchases you make in that period. You can choose to redeem your Bilt Cash for points acceleration up to five times per year. Additionally, Bilt offers another option to earn up to 1.25X points on your rent or mortgage, depending on how much you spend per month on the card in non-housing spend, allowing you to skip earning Bilt Cash on your purchases in favor of other preferences.

A Full Portfolio of Options

If you do not want to commit to a premium credit card, but you still want to earn some of the most valuable points out there toward travel, Bilt has two other options in its portfolio. Both the Bilt Obsidian Card and the Bilt Blue Card give the same option to earn 4% flexible Bilt Cash uncapped on every non-housing purchase, plus the ability to earn up to 1X points on your rent or mortgage payments, uncapped.

Consumers will be hard-pressed to find a flat 4% return that can be redeemed toward dollar-for-dollar value on everyday lifestyle purchases like Lyft rides, restaurant bills, hotel bookings, and fitness classes on any other mid-tier or annual-fee-free cards. The Bilt Obsidian Card features a sign-up bonus of $200 Bilt Cash upon application and approval, while the Bilt Blue Card offers a sign-up bonus of $100 Bilt Cash.

Is a Bilt Card Worth It?

If you are looking to pile up travel points with the highest value, a Bilt card offers a compelling value proposition. Bilt provides the option to transfer points 1:1 to one of the best selections of hotel and airline partners of any rewards program on the market. Even if you do not want to use your points toward travel, Bilt offers a wide variety of other redemption methods.

These credit cards offer the groundbreaking ability to earn points when you pay your mortgage or rent using the card. However, even if you do not want to use your card to pay for housing, a Bilt credit card remains exceptionally valuable. The overall return from the Bilt Palladium Card makes it a top pick for many consumers, featuring no spending categories to track and no merchant-specific coupons to remember. The annual $400 hotel credit goes a long way toward covering the card’s $495 annual fee, which is modest compared with other premium credit cards.

With a sign-up bonus consisting of 50,000 Bilt Points, Gold Status after spending $4,000 on everyday purchases in the first 90 days, and $300 of Bilt Cash, cardholders can realize a total value of around $1,200 in the first year alone. Combining travel points valued at $900 with the $300 Bilt Cash establishes Bilt cards as strong contenders for any wallet. Bilt Cards are issued by Column N.A., Member FDIC, pursuant to license from Mastercard International Incorporated.