I waited to make this newsletter to see if BILT would be my pick for the best card for this quarter - and the answer is maybe. See below for my analysis of why it could - or could not be a good card to get.

The cards I’m going to crown for the best card to get in this quarter are two hotel cards with similar bonuses - 5 FREE nights:

• Marriott Bonvoy Boundless

• World of Hyatt

and then…

• BILT

Marriott Bonvoy Boundless

The best offer is back on the $95 annual fee Marriott Bonvoy Boundless card - 5 free nights worth up to 50,000 points each AND $100 airline credit - but you’re not going to get the card for the Marriott perks. You’re getting it for the Ritz Carlton card.

The Ritz Carlton card offers amazing perks for the $450 annual fee:

• $300 travel credit + Global Entry

• Annual free night award for any Marriott hotel up to 85,000 points (with the ability to top off 15,000 points more)

• 3 certificates per year for upgrades to club-level rooms at Ritz Carlton properties

• Chase Sapphire Lounge and Priority Pass lounge access with up to two guests (recently changed from being unlimited)

  • You have priority for the Chase Sapphire Lounges

  • You also get experience access (e.g., spa, games) with Priority Pass

• FREE authorized users who also have their own lounge access

You cannot apply for this card anymore - you can only get it by product changing a Chase Marriott card after having it for a year. That’s why the earlier you get this Marriott card, the earlier you can get the Ritz Carlton card - it helps that right now the Bonvoy Boundless is having it’s best sign-up offer now!

World of Hyatt

Even though I’m a big fan of Hyatt and love having the personal card around, the sign-up bonus usually sucks. They market a 60,000 bonus usually, but in reality it’s 30,000 points after spending $5K, and then an extra 1% on non-category spend up to 15,000 points. So for $15K of non-category spend, you only net 45,000 points.

There are pros and cons to having points - they don’t expire, they’re more flexible. But if you plan on traveling with Hyatt in the future, and you’ve been waiting for a good bonus, this is one of those times.

After spending $5,000 on the card, you get 3 free Category 1-4 nights. Then another 2 nights after you spend $15,000 (within 6 months). Even though $15K spend can seem a lot, you do get a lot of value if you’re committing to Hyatt. If you spend the $15K, you get:

• 5 free Category 1-4 nights from the sign-up bonus (one-time, expire in 1 year)

• 1 free Category 1-4 nights from spending $15K in one year (annual benefit)

• 5 qualifying tier nights for status from having the card (annual benefit)

• 6 qualifying tier nights for status from spend - 2 nights every $5k spent (continuous benefit)

So as long as you have Category 1-4 night hotels in mind to travel in this next year, you could save more points than the regular bonus. For example, you’d want to hit the Category 4 night hotels that can cost between 12,000-18,000 points - so that’s minimum already 60,000 points of value.

Finally, to recoup the $95 annual fee, you get another Category 1-4 night award after each anniversary - so again, as long as you’re staying at Hyatt hotels, this is a no-brainer to keep.

Interested in hotels?

Don’t forget to join Rove Miles for free to start earning valuable miles on normal shopping and hotel purchases. No credit card, no hoops to jump through. Just sign-up and get points to transfer to airline. It’s that simple.

BILT Analysis

Unless I’m your sole source of points & miles news, you’ve probably seen the debacle of the Bilt 2.0 launch - so we won’t touch that. Let’s just talk about what you need to know.

The card tries to make everyone happy but we all know when you do that, it rarely makes anyone happy. At its core:

• there are two currencies - Bilt Cash and Bilt Points. Cash is for specific dollar-to-dollar redemptions within the Bilt ecosystem (e.g., rent fees, extra perks, Lyft) while Points are the typical rewards currency for a broader range of redemptions (e.g., student debt, transfer partners, etc.)

• there are 3 credit cards: Bilt Blue ($0), Bilt Obsidian ($94), and Bilt Palladium ($495) each of them somewhat competing with typical bank counterparts at those price ranges - with varying points bonuses and credits

• you can still earn points on rent/mortgages - in two ways

  • Option 1: a simple tiered method where the more non-rent you spend, the more points you can earn back on your rent, up to 1.5x

  • Option 2: earn the Bilt Cash currency on top of your points to redeem for the 3% transaction fee

There are two realities I want to point out.

1. Most people’s monthly rent will not yield that many points. Yes, rent and mortgages can be a significant portion of one’s budget, but at the end of the day a potential point gain from a $4k/month rent (average rent in NYC) will only net around 48,000 to 60,000 points. That’s basically just one card sign-up bonus.

2. As always what card and method to choose will depend on your behaviors and lifestyle. Generally..

   1. If you value simplicity - Get the no annual fee Bilt Blue and forgo Bilt Cash so you can earn some points on rent/mortgage by spending normally on other purchases.

   2. If you like optimizing - Get the $450 Bilt Palladium and spend 75% of your rent/mortgage on non-categorical spend to get ~3.33% back

   3. If you’re a churner - Get the bonus for the Palladium, then downgrade next year.

   4. If you like the Bilt points ecosystem - You can even ignore the rent/mortgage stuff and earn valuable points using whichever card fits best (likely the $95 Bilt Obsidian)

Personally I will not get any of the cards - simply because I’m a churner. I'm a sign up bonus (SUB) chaser, so I don't care about the 2%, 3.33% whatever return. I want more. I've removed my insurance and property tax from my escrow so I could pay with card and capitalize on 0% APR promos.

Leaving the actual mortgage, I would only net enough points for maybe 2 nights at a Hyatt or one RT economy flight. The opportunity cost is huge when I can get more points from SUBs. So not a recommendation for everyone, just my reasoning why I'm not going to get the cards

What’s In our Wallets (Newsletter Exclusive)

Our lineup for this week is below. See our rationale here just for newsletter subscribers like you.

Matthew: World of Hyatt Business

Sarah: Matt’s World of Hyatt Business | Capital One Venture X

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