Bilt Rewards now lets you pay your student loans with points

Bilt Rewards, a points program best known for its Mastercard backed by Wells Fargo, lets people earn rewards on rent payments, which are often their largest monthly expense. Now, the company is trying to help make a dent in their customers’ next largest expense: student debt. 

On Wednesday, Bilt announced members can now use their points to pay off their student loans, with a redemption value of $10 for every 1,000 Bilt points. Eligible providers include Nelnet, Mohela, Sallie Mae, Aidvantage, and Navient, but Bilt said it would add more loan services in the coming months. Members can redeem their points toward eligible payments directly through Bilt’s website or mobile app. 

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Student debt is now the second-largest category of consumer debt in the US, just after mortgages; Black and Latino students carry a disproportionate amount of that total debt. Education Data Initiative found that the average public university student borrows nearly $32,000 to pursue their bachelor’s degree.

“By enabling members to redeem Bilt Points toward student loan payments, we’re addressing a critical financial need while continuing to differentiate our program as offering the most valuable and flexible points currency in the industry,” said CEO and founder Ankur Jain in the release. 

Points for student housing 

Bilt also announced it’s expanding its property network to include student housing through a partnership with American Campus Communities (ACC). Beginning next month, students 18 and older can earn points on their housing payments, letting them build rewards and credit before they’ve graduated to a formal lease. The program is beginning with Baylor University, but will add other properties run by ACC to cover 140,000 students in the next few months. 

You can find more information about student loan payments on Bilt’s website, where you can also become a member. 

How Bilt works 

You don’t need the Bilt credit card to earn points on rent payments if your home is within the program’s network of over $4.5 million participating properties. Even if it isn’t, Bilt mails a rent check on your behalf, so you still collect those one-to-one points. You can also link certain existing credit cards to the program to collect Bilt points on eligible expenses. 

Bilt also offers a credit card with no annual fee and one-to-one points on rent payments. Those points can add up fast since rent is the largest monthly expense for most people, especially young people. (As someone who’s been paying astronomical New York City rent on a Bilt card for almost three years, I can attest to this.) 

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The card also earns two to five times the points on other categories like travel, ride-share apps, and neighborhood dining. As with other cards, those points can be redeemed for flights, hotels, and shopping, but you can also save them for future rent or as a down payment on a home — and now toward student loans. 

Editor’s note: The original version of this article incorrectly associated the announcement with just the Bilt Credit Card rather than the broader program itself. It’s been updated to correct that error.