Bilt Card 2.0 is more complex
Does it earn a profit now?
Introduction
The new Bilt card made news twice last week:
They announced a new rewards proposition that rewards both Rent payments and Mortgage payments
They announced a 10% cap on APRs for 2026
The prior Bilt Card was issued by Wells Fargo. Wells terminated the deal because it was a money loser. A WSJ article detailed the reasons why:
Many cardholders primarily paid rent with the card, where Wells didn’t make money
Cardholders rarely revolved, so spread income didn’t offset losses on spend
Nominal spend qualified cardholders to get Rent rewards, so there was no incentive to make the card primary
The WSJ article claimed the program lost Wells $10M per month. The bank terminated the relationship and Bilt found new partners:
Cardless for card processing
Column Bank for balance sheet and BIN-sponsorship
This post examines if the new Bilt proposition remediates the flaws that made Wells resign. The situation is similar to the Goldman/Apple/Chase piece I wrote last week – with Wells as Goldman, Bilt as Apple, and Cardless/Column as Chase.
