PASSIVELY Earn Points! 6 Month Experience with the Bilt Mastercard

Back in May, I applied to the Built MasterCard, and not too long after, I've realized that I should have applied way sooner. I've seen so many benefits with this credit card, and today I want to share with you all my experience. So if you're interested in my initial reaction of the Built MasterCard and how to apply, you can take a look at this video right here as I just showed you the entire process there. But in this video, we'll be going over my six-month experience with the Built MasterCard, the benefits that I've received, and overall the pros and cons that I've witnessed. So let's get into it. Hey there, welcome to Venture with Jazzy. On this channel, I talk about credit cards and personal finance. And if you like the video, please feel free to leave a thumbs up and also consider subscribing. First off, let's talk about who I think can benefit most by owning the Built MasterCard. And for one, you're probably a rent payer. So if you're a renter, your biggest expense might most likely be paying for rent. Most people pay rent through direct deposit or maybe PayPal, but pretty much they don't use a credit card to pay for rent, as there's often added fees associated with that. So by using Built to pay for your rent, your process doesn't really change too much, but you get the added benefits of getting one point per every dollar spent. And by the way, if the place you're renting at says, oh, you will be paying fees with the credit card. Well, Built will actually waive all those added fees, so you don't have to worry about that. So Built is obviously geared towards renters, but if you pay HOA fees, Built might still be beneficial for you. And if you didn't know you could use Built to pay for your HOAs, well, now you know. I know quite a few people who pay $500, $800 a month just on HOA fees. So if you pay that kind of money and that's being paid with direct deposit, Built can help you at least get points on those expenses. And again, if your HOA says, oh, you have a processing fee if you use a credit card to pay, well, Built will waive those fees. But then again, I have to say that if your HOA fees are relatively low, let's say they're under $80 a month, well, after the course of a year, you're only going to be getting a thousand points. And that may not be worth it enough to own Built. It really depends on you because I know for most transfer partners, so if you want to transfer points over to Hyatt, there is a minimum transfer requirement of 2,000 points. So that may be something to consider. I can also see Built as being pretty helpful for those who are trying to build credit or who are new to the whole points game. A lot of people who are just getting started into credit cards are renters or they're paying for their college dorm fees. And yes, you can use Built to pay for your dorm, but these type of people are looking to build credit. And lucky for you, Built actually reports to the three major credit bureaus. A lot of credit cards out there, they only report to maybe two credit bureaus. So having Built report to three credit bureaus can make a difference in improving your credit score. Just note that you might need to opt into that as soon as you get the credit card. And if you're new to the whole points game, I think Built is really helpful and friendly in how to get into all of that because there are plenty of articles on the Built app that you can read and learn and understand how points work. And finally, I think there's not much to lose by actually applying for Built. Probably there is one thing to lose, and that is you will get a hard inquiry on your credit score, but having a hard inquiry is a relatively low impact to your credit score. Later on in the video, I will talk about some downsides to the Built MasterCard, so make sure you stick around for that. So now let's get into my experience of owning the Built MasterCard. So I've owned Built for about six months now. I am a renter, and this is my first time getting points on rent. So to start, I pay $2,100 a month on my two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment in Dallas-Fort Worth area. And then those expenses, they're not just paying for rent, but they also include garage fees, lifestyle fees that include our gym and the pool, as well as some other small things like pest control and garbage. So all those fees do get picked up by Built into my general monthly rent payment. So I am earning points on all of these fees as well as rent itself. So if you do the calculation, over the past six months, I have received 12,600 points. So these points can be used for a variety of things on Built. For one, I really like Built's transfer partners such as Hyatt. And if I were to transfer 12,000 points onto Hyatt, I could get about four nights stay on a Category 1 hotel. So that's really not bad considering that I would have to pay for rent anyway if I didn't have Built. So that was my main experience for paying for rent itself. Overall, it's been pretty smooth and I haven't run into any problems, I'd say. Another thing I have to mention is if you're concerned about credit usage for your credit score, you don't actually have to pay your rent on the Built MasterCard itself. Built has something called Built Protect where it kind of works like direct deposit so you're not actually carrying a balance on the credit card. And also so far, I haven't used the points on Built to redeem anything because I haven't gone on any vacations. Right now, I'm just pooling up the points and hopefully I'll be getting something interesting in the near future. Now let's talk about some of my experience on Built's added benefits. Probably the biggest one to mention is on the first of every month, Built has something called Rent Day. Built switches things up by adding quizzes and prizes and just additional things to help you earn more points. So for one, I really like the monthly trivia game that Built has. You basically just answer 10 multiple choice questions for a chance to get up to 250 points, but usually I miss one or two and only get up to 100 points. And as for the surprises every month, I know this month they had five times the points on buying sports tickets. And then last month they had a free SoulCycle class. And then I think a big one is a few months ago, Built had some transfer bonuses. So if you were to transfer your points onto Virgin Red. And talking about transfer partners, let's get into that a little bit. So these are all of Built's transfer partners and I'd say that my favorites personally are American Airlines, Virgin Atlantic, Flying Blue, and Hyatt. And on a more personal level, I'm usually using my Capital One Venturex card to pay for most of my purchases. Now Capital One does not have Hyatt as a transfer partner, which makes it kind of a bummer because Hyatt has been one of my favorite hotels so far. So I'm really glad that Built has Hyatt as a transfer partner. So I'm able to at least pool points through paying rent and have some way to transfer points onto Hyatt. Okay, now let's talk about dining. So Built has, I think, a strong dining aspect in their points program. So for one, you already get three times the points by using Built at restaurants. But in addition, Built has something called Built Dining, where if you live at one of these cities that I'll display here, you can get up to five times more the points by dining at certain restaurants on the app. Now I haven't personally actually dined at these restaurants, but I have taken a look and I've seen some restaurants that I've been to in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and I really like them. And you can get up to eight times the points for dining at these restaurants. But then if you happen to dine at these restaurants on the first of the month, then you can get up to 11 times the points. So you get double the points on your normal dining expense, which turns into six times the points at restaurants, plus that added five times the points because it's Built Dining. So that makes it 11 times the points. Next up, let's talk about tier status. So I haven't had much experience on Built's tier status because I haven't spent that much money on the Built MasterCard. But as you can see here, by spending a certain amount of money, you can reach gold or even platinum status. And some benefits that I've seen is during the times when Built has those transfer bonus days, if you happen to hold tier status, you get an extra added bonus. So you can get more benefit just by holding tier status. So I basically talked about all the positives that I've seen with Built, where all the benefits are at. Now let's talk about some of the downsides that you should be aware of when you apply for Built. Probably the biggest one is having to use the card five times the month. For some people, they are hoping that once they get the Built MasterCard, they could just use it once to pay for rent and never have to think about it. But that's not the case. Actually, you do need to use Built at least four more times in order to get that full points benefit on your rent. But for me, I haven't found it too hard to remember that as on the first of every month, you do get double the points by using the credit card. And then sometimes if I do get lazy and I don't want to go out, then I just refill my Amazon balance and then use the card that way. And then if you do happen to forget to use Built five times in a month, you'll at least be getting 250 points by paying for your rent. And then another con is Built can't pay for mortgage. So I have seen that Built is trying to get there where someday you can use Built to pay for your mortgage. But as of right now, that's not the case. Another thing to be aware of is if you use Zelle to pay for rent. So if that's the case for you, you may not be able to use Built. Also, Built has no sign up bonuses, which is kind of a bummer as a lot of credit cards out there do have a sign up bonus. Not the case here. Another big downside is Built is associated with Wells Fargo. Honestly, Wells Fargo has not been a good customer experience in my past. And again, I have experienced a little bit of that by owning Built. So when I first got the Built credit card and I had to pay for my payments, I couldn't actually pay them on the Built app. I had to go into Wells Fargo, create an account. And from there, I had to make my payment. It was a little bit confusing at first because on the Built app, it said that I had the ability to make the payment. But for whatever reason, either the site was down or maybe it was something forced where I had to go into Wells Fargo, create the account. And then from there, I could make my payment on Built. But it wasn't like that in my experience. But anyway, since then, I hadn't actually needed to go on to Wells Fargo. I just turned on auto pay on Wells Fargo. And from there, everything is just done on the Built app. So that was basically my experience with Built. Overall, I've had a really positive experience. And I do not regret having this card at all. I'd say it's been a pretty major game changer because what other credit card can help you pay with rent? And you don't need to pay that 3% credit card processing fee. Some suggestions if you are new to Built is if you want to use your points, for one, try to use them on those transfer partners because that's where you're going to be seeing most of the benefits when you transfer your points. And try as much as possible to not convert those points into cash. You do have the ability to pay your rent with those points. But the cent per point value is very low. Unless you really hate travel and you hate hotels, I'd say try not to do this. Anyway, I've left my affiliate link down below. If you are interested in getting the Built MasterCard. And if you have any more questions, you can feel free to leave a comment down below. Anyway, thank you all so much for watching this video. And I'll see you in another one. Bye!