If you hold a Bilt credit card and have been letting your Bilt Cash pile up, here's your nudge: only $100 rolls over each calendar year, and the rest disappears on December 31. The revamped Bilt program introduced Bilt Cash in early 2026, and the list of things you can do with it has grown quickly — some uses stretch it much further than others.

First, how you get it: cardholders earn 4% back in Bilt Cash on eligible non-housing purchases, plus one-off bonuses at approval ($100 on the Blue card, $200 on the Obsidian, $300 on the Palladium).

The strongest redemption is also the most boring one: converting Bilt Cash into points on your rent or mortgage paid through Bilt. It costs $30 in Bilt Cash per $1,000 of housing payment, effectively buying points at a better rate than any other standing option. Bilt says this is where most members spend their cash, along with local restaurants and fitness studios.

Two other high-value plays are worth knowing. On "Rent Day" (the first of the month), Bilt sometimes offers transfer bonuses to airline and hotel partners, and you can spend Bilt Cash to bump your status tier for a bigger bonus — in one recent example, $200 bought Gold members an upgrade from a 45% to a 75% bonus to Virgin Red, worth an extra 30,000 points on a 100,000-point transfer. Then there's the Points Accelerator: $200 in Bilt Cash buys an extra point per dollar on your next $5,000 of non-housing spend on the Obsidian or Palladium cards, usable up to five times a year. You have to activate it manually each time.

For travellers specifically, hotel bookings through Bilt Travel let you apply up to $100 of Bilt Cash (depending on status) toward stays of two nights or more, once a month — and it stacks with the Palladium card's $400 in annual hotel credits, adding up to roughly $300 in savings across two stays a year.

There are flashier options too. Bilt Cash covers up to two Blade helicopter seats a year at up to $350 each — handy for the Manhattan-to-JFK or Newark run, or the hop out to the Hamptons. Up to $150 a year can go toward Blacklane chauffeured cars, $40 a month covers fitness classes like Barry's and SoulCycle, $10 a month works on Lyft rides, and another $10 monthly converts to a Walgreens gift card.

None of this matters if your balance quietly lapses, so check the app before year-end. Prioritise housing payments if you're choosing, keep an eye out for Rent Day transfer bonuses, and save the Lyft and Walgreens credits for mopping up the last few dollars.

Why travellers should care: even modest balances can knock real money off airport transfers, helicopter transfers and hotel stays — and everything resets fresh on January 1.

Story via The Points Guy.