Letter to Bilt Members 2024...Mortgage Officially Being Added!

As we wrap up what has been a transformational 2024, I wanted to share a preview of what's ahead for Bilt in 2025 and answer one of the most common questions I hear from members: How does Bilt's business work, and how are we able to provide such valuable rewards and benefits?

While our award-winning cobrand credit card has received much attention, it remains just one part of our business. Bilt's foundation is actually built on three robust and interconnected businesses that together form the largest housing rewards platform in the country.

Through our platform, you can earn rewards on rent payments regardless of how you pay - whether by bank account, debit card, or credit card. You get access to exclusive neighborhood benefits and can now earn rewards at every step of your housing journey, from signing a new lease to buying your first home.

I'm excited to walk you through each of these businesses and show you how we're working to create more value on your biggest everyday expenses in the year ahead. Keep reading to learn more or explore relevant slides here.

1. Rewarding You on Rent (...and Mortgage) Payments

This is where our story began – creating the first platform that rewarded members for rent payments, while helping them boost their credit history with every on-time payment. Today, we're the largest reporter of on-time rent payments to the credit bureaus - a benefit we offer for free. We’ve issued tens of billions of points to members for rent payments, and we’ve rewarded millions of members with limited-time Rent Day benefits like complimentary elite status on airlines and hotels, complimentary rideshare credits, and more.

In our first two years, the Bilt Mastercard gave us a bridge to rewarding customers on rent payments while we built something much bigger: a payments platform that rewards members regardless of how they pay rent. Today, around 15% of our members have our cobrand card, while the vast majority of our members join Bilt through our network of apartment and condo buildings that use our platform for all rental / HOA payments. Whether you pay by check, ACH, debit, or credit card, you’ll automatically earn points and receive free rent reporting to boost your credit history when your property uses Bilt.

We get paid fees to process these payments, just like other companies you may have paid rent or HOA fees through before. But here's where we're different: we give a portion of that back to you in the form of rewards. And importantly, we never share sensitive personal data – your privacy and security are our top priorities.

Thanks to our members asking their property managers for Bilt, we've won market share at an unprecedented pace:

We now process and reward members on over $36 billion in annual rent and HOA payments (up from $11 billion last year).
We've now signed and are rolling out as the exclusive payments platform for over 70% of the top 100 property managers/owners in multifamily housing, which is expected to double the volume of annual rent payments we process in the coming months.
And we've grown rapidly in single-family rentals and condos.

We've also built innovative partnerships that help fund even more rewards when you use other cards, like our partnership offering 3x Alaska Airlines miles plus status qualifying points when you pay rent with the Alaska Airlines x Bank of America card.

Looking ahead to 2025:

We’ll announce the first phase of plans in the mortgage space, creating a whole new category of value for homeowners. Whether you’re making monthly payments or refinancing, you’ll soon be able to earn points on your mortgage payments.
We’re also expanding partnerships to help you earn more rewards on rent, whether you use the Bilt card or other credit and debit cards you may already have.

By transforming housing payments into an opportunity to earn rewards, Bilt is creating value where it matters most.

2. Creating Exclusive Neighborhood Benefits

Our newest initiative is perhaps our most exciting: Neighborhood Benefits, which creates exclusive ways to connect and reward you with the places you shop, dine, and spend time near home. Built around a simple insight – that 80% of spending outside housing happens within 15 miles of home – Neighborhood Benefits is designed to turn your everyday spending into something more rewarding.

With approximately 40% of renters moving every year, local businesses are eager to connect with their newest neighbors. Our Neighborhood Benefits program creates exclusive rewards and benefits at our network of local merchants, helping these businesses win more of your spend through added value. Our merchant partners pay us a commission on this spend, which we reinvest in better rewards for members - creating value for everyone.

The momentum behind your Neighborhood Benefits has been incredible: spend at neighborhood merchants through our platform has reached $5 billion annually (up from $2 billion last year). This includes remarkable growth across key categories: dining spend has reached $1 billion (up from $400 million) and rideshare spend has grown to $300 million (up from $200 million).

Through innovative integrations with payment networks and merchant platforms, we’ve enabled benefits you won’t find anywhere else:

Seamlessly check out at partner restaurants via your phone and charge your card on file with Bilt in one tap.
Save up to 40% on health related purchases by having Bilt automatically file FSA/HSA-eligible items for reimbursement with your health plan whenever you shop at partners like Walgreens - no matter which card you use.
Stack additional points on top of the rewards you already earn with your favorite credit or debit card.

As part of your Neighborhood Benefits, we're also creating exclusive neighborhood experiences like our dining events and just-announced comedy series bringing exclusive standup shows to neighborhoods across the country.

In 2025, we're dramatically expanding our Neighborhood Benefits program in three key ways:

Adding More Essential Daily Categories: We're working on bringing rewards and benefits to the places you visit most - including grocery stores, gas stations, and parking facilities across your neighborhood.
Growing Our Local Coverage: We're rapidly expanding our merchant network to ensure you can earn and redeem points at more locations in your area.
Enhancing Connected Experiences: Like our one-tap restaurant payments and automatic FSA/HSA processing at Walgreens, we're creating more seamless ways to save time and earn rewards in your daily routine.

Our goal is simple: wherever you spend in your neighborhood, Bilt should make it more rewarding.

3. Rewarding Your Housing Journey: From Leasing to Home Buying

As more members pay their rent with Bilt, we discovered another opportunity to create value: transforming how properties incentivize new leases and renewals.

Here's what we learned: properties spend approximately $30 billion yearly on lease incentives and marketing. Our platform now turns that spend into direct value for you - through new lease and lease renewal offers of points, benefits, and more. When properties issue incentives through Bilt, you get higher value through our rewards ecosystem – recently ranked as the highest-value points currency in the market – which you can use for travel, fitness, dining and more. Meanwhile property owners save with fewer vacancies and we earn a piece of those savings.

The results have been exceptional. In our pilot programs, Avenue5, one of the largest property management services, saw 95% of residents renew their leases earlier when offered rewards incentives – showing just how valuable these rewards are to our members.

We've also expanded into home-buying rewards. With approximately 7.5% of renters buying homes annually, we now reward home purchases through our broker network with one point for every two dollars (and no limit - so 250,000 points on a $500k home purchase!), creating wins for everyone involved and opening new ways for you to earn on life's biggest purchase.

Next year, we'll be rolling out our automated platform that makes it easy for properties to offer you rewards, meaning you'll see significantly more opportunities to earn points on new leases, renewals, and more across the country.

What's Next for the Bilt Mastercard

While our card program represents about 15% of our member base, you've helped make it one of the fastest-growing cobrand programs in the market. Winning The Points Guy's Readers Choice award multiple years in a row speaks to how much value our members find in the program.

With guidance from industry legends Ken Chenault (former American Express CEO and Bilt Chairman) and Phillip Riese (former President of American Express Consumer Card), we are building towards Bilt Card 2.0. This next evolution of our card program would focus on tiered offerings that better serve different member needs while delivering enhanced value through new benefits on housing spend and our neighborhood network. We expect the Bilt card to remain the preferred payment option for 15-25% of our members, as we continue to innovate and enhance the card experience.

But more importantly, I've been reading and passing along your feedback and requests for the current Wells Fargo issued-and-operated Bilt card program. We know you want more premium offerings - and also ways to earn points on your mortgage payments. We also hear the challenges many of you have had with approval rates, credit line sizes, and the need for core tech features like authorized users, pay over time, and auto-pay integrations. Some of you have mentioned that your credit limits are too low to cover more than a month or two of rent, leaving little room to take full advantage of the card’s benefits – especially considering the average FICO for these members is above 750. We hear you loud and clear. These are all things that require support from our issuing bank partner, and we're actively working on solutions.

Looking Ahead

2025 is shaping up to be our biggest year yet. From expanding into mortgage payments to growing Neighborhood Benefits, evolving our card program to creating new tools for renters and homeowners, we’re just getting started on our mission to make housing more rewarding for everyone.

Thank you for being part of the Bilt family and for trusting us to make your housing journey more rewarding. Your feedback drives everything we do, and we’re excited to share more updates soon.

Sincerely,

Ankur Jain Founder & CEO, Bilt Rewards

If you need a sign-up link, I have one! 🙏🏽💳

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