I have written extensively about the Bilt rewards program. You can find a review of my one year with the Bilt Mastercard here. If you are interested in applying for the Bilt Mastercard, I would greatly appreciate if you use my link here. I will get some bonus points as a referrer.
Also, just FYI, after you read this post, I understand the irony of saying, “Use my referral link for something I am actively criticizing as a customer-unfriendly move.”
As long time followers know, I have long been an advocate for the Bilt Reward program. I think they offer quite a compelling proposition, demonstrate interesting innovation, and reward their loyal customers quite well.
Back when Bilt first launched their credit card, you primarily went through their own Bilt app to apply for and manage your credit card. Evolve Bank issued this card, which is generally not a major player in the credit card rewards space. Given that I applied for this card in 2021, this is the card I have.
However, in 2022, Bilt made a major splash by switching their issuing provider to Wells Fargo. At the time, this was considered a big deal, although it does appear that Wells Fargo may be rethinking this relationship.
Interestingly, for those of us who had the old Evolve credit card, we were never transitioned to Wells Fargo. Instead, Evolve Bank continued to issue my card. I continued to manage my account in the Bilt app (which I was 100% fine with).
Bilt Depricates the Original Evolve Credit Card, Forces Customers to Reapply for Wells Fargo Card
On January 1st, 2025, the original Evolve Bilt Mastercard ceases to work. Instead, if you currently have the Evolve-issued card, and you want to continue your credit card relationship with Bilt, you have to apply for the Wells Fargo-issued credit card.
Note that there is a 10,000 point bonus for those applying for and approved for the card by August 15th.
I understand the point of moving on from Evolve Bank.1 It makes it easier for Bilt, in that they don’t have to manage two relationships, and, when there is an issue, they don’t have to figure out who they need to go to. Additionally, on the customer side, there really isn’t that much differentiation in the customer experience. In fact, you even get access to more features, as you can create a Wells Fargo online log-in and access all of those features, get other accounts, and actually become more entwined with Wells Fargo (if you wish).
This is a Bad Customer Experience
Forcing existing cardholders to reapply for the same card with another bank is a bad customer experience decision. Why would you force your first customers, who took a chance on an upstart company that no one even knew would succeed, reapply for a credit card? Why should I be forced to have another hard pull and lose my account history because of a business decision like that? Indeed, I’ve had a couple of people sign up through my referral link. This takes people to Wells Fargo to apply!
It’s frustrating because it’s not like moving books-of-business is impossible. Indeed, Hilton moved from Citi to American Express with no issues. More significantly, Costco moved from American Express to Citi, both of which the existing book-of-business moved automatically with no need to reapply.
I have sent them an email to see if this is accurate (just the normal support line, I don’t have any direct contacts). Their response was very clear. It will be both a hard pull on my credit and will go on my credit report as a new account.
My Plans
I’m going to be frank: I will still reapply for the Bilt card. I rent in a high cost-of-living area. I’m not giving up all of those rent points (shutters in DC-area rent prices), particularly if I can transfer these points on a Rent Day and get a bonus. The value proposition for the value of those points is just too great.
I’m going to time this towards the beginning of August for two reasons:
- I’m at 4/24 for Chase, and I want to apply for another Chase Ink Premier and get 120,000 Chase points. That’ll pay for our Miami trip when the new Andaz Miami Beach opens up.
- You get 10,000 points from Bilt just for applying. If Wells Fargo does not approve me, I’m not worried long-term about the hard pull. That’ll turn into 20,000 points on a Rent Day promotion.
Hopefully, Wells Fargo approves me. I am a long-time customer of Bilt. If I don’t, I’ll just continue spending on this card until the end of the year, after which I’ll transfer my points on a Rent Day and then abandon the program, as it’s not worth engaging with unless you have a Bilt card.
Conclusion
This really does leave a bad taste in my mouth in terms of the customer experience. I’m not really sure what to think about Bilt after this specific decision. I know there have been errors on Bilt’s end in the past, but, to my knowledge, Bilt has always rectified the situation. Hopefully, they’ll make this right and transfer people over to the Wells Fargo card automatically, without the need to reapply.
How would you respond if this was happening to you?
- I’ll also note that not once in any of their communications have they mentioned that they are ending their relationship with Evolve Bank. All of their communications have been around “retiring the beta version of the card.” ↩︎
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