Best Credit Cards for Rent

August 9, 2026 by Worldly Express

For most people, housing dominates their monthly budget. Everyone dreads paying their rent or mortgage on the first of the month. Housing is an aspect of the credit card game that most typically ignore, prior to Bilt. That is because most commercial rent platforms typically charge a 3% fee for any credit card payments, while mortgage lenders and local landlords might just only take checks or ACH payments. However, ever since the Bilt platform came out, they broke the game housing payment game. Bilt not only revolutionized the game with their own cards, they have also enabled other strategies to pop up. I have outlined 4 different ways to pay for rent using credit cards, with each subsequent method being more unheard of than the prior. Unfortunately, for mortgages, only the official Bilt credit cards will work.

Bilt Credit Cards

For anyone in the credit card game, Bilt is a household name. Pun intended. When Bilt first came out in 2022, it only required 5 credit card transactions a month to earn 1 point per dollar on rent payments. However, with the advent of Bilt 2.0, rent and mortgage payments (new addition) got a lot more complicated. There are 3 Bilt cards that have the same reward structure for rent: Bilt Blue, Bilt Obsidian, Bilt Palladium. Each of these cards allows Bilt to create a bank account for ACH transfers or a check that is mailed to your landlord. I am not going to rehash Bilt 2.0 (see this article for more details). To summarize Bilt 2.0, you can either earn up to 1.25x points per dollar on rent and mortgage payments based on non-rent spend or effectively earn an additional 1.33 points per dollar, up to your rent/mortgage payment amount each month when redeeming Bilt cash. Both options revolve around the 3 Bilt cards and rent/mortgage earn rates are the same across all 3 cards.

Bilt Rent Portal

Bilt 2.0 did not limit rent payments purely to the 3 Bilt branded credit cards. The Bilt platform acts as a credit card processor that is able to create bank accounts for any credit card you own. Bilt is not able to create a check using non-Bilt credit cards as payment. On top of processing rent, they reward 1 Bilt point per $2 of rent payment. The only downside is that they charge a 3% processing fee. Even using a 2x/2% everywhere card, you would only get 2.5x points. It is a cheap way to buy transferrable points at a rate of 1.2 cents per point, assuming you are using a 2x card like Capital One VentureX, Citi Double Cash, Wells Fargo Active Cash or Amex Blue Business Plus. Most people would find this option the most helpful when trying to spend towards a welcome offer, where the spend threshold might otherwise have been out of reach. Again, the 0.5x Bilt points are just a cherry on top when compared to their competitors, like Plasiq. But that's not all. The next 2 sections will outline how even more credit cards might be able to earn more than 2x/2% through Bilt.

Airline Credit Cards

This next method is uses official Bilt airline partnerships. As of writing this article, Bilt currently has 4 partnerships with airlines: Alaska, United, Air France & KLM, and Qatar. The personal Alaska Atmos, Air France KLM, and Qatar credit cards will earn 3x on rent payments while the personal United credit cards will only earn 2x. You will be paying a 3% processing fee and only ACH transfers are valid forms of payment, not checks. The limit for rent payment is capped at $50,000 a year. The reason why this method might be interesting is that each of these credit cards offer elite status for spend. By using one of, if not the largest, monthly expense towards these spend thresholds, it becomes a lot easier to reach elite status.

To me, rent payments on the Atmos Summit card and Air France KLM card are the most interesting. Meaningful elite status with partner lounge access becomes within close reach with a max of $50,000 rent per year with these 2 cards. Without getting too deep in the weeds, $25,000 a year of rent on the Air France KLM card will grant 160 xp. That is 89% of the way to or 20 xp short of retaining or upgrading to Flying Blue Gold status, equivalent to Skyteam Elite Plus. For Atmos Summit, $50,000 a year on rent will grant 25,000 EQM. This puts you at 87.5% of the way there, with only 5,000 more EQMs to reach Atmos Gold status, equivalent to Oneworld Sapphire.

In contrast, even spending the full $50,000 a year on the United Club card and Qatar Infinite will only reach 40% and 22%, respectively, of their lounge access equivalent status.

Bank of America

This last technique is honestly my favorite hidden tech. This method is "unofficial" and might get patched one day, but until then, it should be incredibly valuable to those not as into transferrable points. Bank of America has the most broad "travel" category of any bank I am aware of. Not only does it cover the typical airline, hotels, car rentals, but it also covers amusement parks, tourist attractions, parking, tolls, and most importantly, "Real Estate Agents and Managers — Rentals". Who usually falls under this category?

Landlords.

This causes rent to code as "travel" and earn bonus points and cashback on 3 Bank of America cards. When paying rent through Bilt, you are able to double dip on the 0.5x Bilt point per dollar from Bilt as well as the bonus points and cashback on BoA cards. How do I know this? I've paid with my BoA Customized Cash Rewards through Bilt and earned the following rewards:


As you can see, I've earned the base 1% cashback of $14.97, the additional 2% travel cashback of $29.93, and the additional 25% relationship bonus cash back of $11.23 for a total return of 3.75% cashback on my rent. I also earned 0.5x Bilt points on this transaction. Not bad at all.

For those confused when I mentioned the additional 25% relationship bonus above, Bank of America has a program called preferred rewards. This program takes into account the amount of assets you hold in Bank of America accounts. These accounts include checking, savings, CD, IRA, money market savings, cash management, 529 plans appearing on your Merrill statement, and revocable grantor trust. For more information, visit Bank of America's website. The key takeaway is that the Bank of America branded (not cobranded) credit cards receive boosts in their earn rate. The boosted rates are as follows:

• Member ($0-$29,999): 10%
• Preferred Plus ($30,000-$99,999): 25%
• Preferred Honors ($100,000-$999,999): 50%
• Premier ($1,000,000+): 75%

Customized Cash Rewards

The first of the BoA cards is the one I currently use, as seen earlier. The customized cash rewards card earns at least 3% cashback on travel, up to $2,500 a quarter. For most, that limit is too low. As long as the monthly rent is less than $2,500, you can alternate between 3 customized cash rewards cards each quarter. To obtain 3 cards, you can either apply for the numerous cobranded customized cash rewards cards or product change from other Bank of America credit cards. When participating in preferred rewards, the card earns a minimum of 3.3% (1% base + 2% travel + 10% relationship bonus) cashback and 0.5x Bilt points per dollar through Bilt. At the top end of Premier status, it could earn a whopping 5.25% cashback and 0.5x Bilt points per dollar through Bilt. Even subtracting the 3% processing fee, the base earn rate still nets 0.3% cash back and 0.5x Bilt points while the top end earns 2.25% and 0.5x Bilt points. This is the best option if you don't want to hold assets with Bank of America.

Premium Rewards and Premium Rewards Elite

I do recognize that higher cost of living areas will have rent that exceeds $2,500 a month. In those situations, Bank of America Premium Rewards and Premium Rewards Elite will earn 2x points (redeemable for cashback at 1 cent per point) on rent without a cap. Although not as rewarding, it is still a way to come out ahead on rent. At a base with preferred rewards, the cards earn 2.2x BoA points and 0.5x Bilt points per dollar. At the top end, the cards earn 3.5x BoA points and 0.5x Bilt points per dollar. I wouldn't consider the premium rewards strategy until the Preferred Honors tier, as that is when you earn 3x BoA points that are able to cover the 3% processing fee that Bilt charges. Otherwise, you would just be buying points.

The Bank of America Premium Rewards Elite card specifically actually comes with a super power of having point redemptions of 1.25 cents per point when booking flights through the Bank of America travel portal. If taken at face value, this would mean that the Preferred Plus tier would earn 3.125% cashback, which is where I would recommend to start with this strategy. At the Premier level, this effectively means that the card will earn 4.375% cashback on rent, or 1.375% after taking out the processing fees.

It is my opinion that the Bank of America cards are actually more rewarding for rent than the Bilt cards themselves are. The only exception is for those whose non-rent spend on the Bilt cards exceeds their rent/mortgage. You can earn a guaranteed 0.5x Bilt points per dollar every month without having to commit spending specifically on the Bilt cards. I cannot think of many situations where it is more advantageous to earn points on rent through Bilt than through Bank of America.