EVERY Bilt Cardmember to be FORCED to Switch to THIS Card

So, Built, the popular credit card that lets you pay rent with no fee to any landlord and earn points, is switching their banking partner and releasing three new credit cards on February 7th that will let you pay rent and now mortgages. Built previously gave us the impression that they would just switch card members over and your account would convert to a new card, but it seems that is not the case. A friend of mine just sent me an image of this letter that he just received. And the letter explains that his built card will switch to a certain Wells Fargo card whether he likes it or not. Hey credit warriors, welcome to the show. My name is Ben Hedges aka the credit shifu. And on this channel I cover US credit cards, personal finance, and luxury travel. If you like the sound of that, please subscribe. But let's get into the video. So here is the letter that my friend receives. It explains that on February 6th, his Built card will be converted to a Wells Fargo autograph card. This means that Wells Fargo, who are Built's banking partner, but are splitting up with Built, is keeping the credit card portfolio, the interest earning balances, etc., but are just servicing it with a different product and different benefits and point earning rates on spending. When Built sent out their press release about a week ago about the new cards that they're coming out with, they were, it seems, intentionally vague. They made us think that once you choose your new Built card from the Built 2.0 lineup, your existing card will convert over and it will be the same credit line. We even made a video a few days ago under that impression. But as outlined in this letter, that is not the case. And I guess that must be why Built stress that it will only be a soft credit pull to transition to the new card because they are hoping that all of their current card members transition over and they want to make it as painless as possible so they don't lose people since this is actually really risky for them. Built doesn't seem to own these accounts itself. Wells Fargo does and Built could just lose most of its customers if a lot of people decide not to get the new cards. Undoubtedly, some people will not transition over. Maybe they found the Built card not that useful for them and they just been hanging on to it because they don't want to close an account. But built are probably hoping that they can entice a good portion or even the majority of current card members to get the new cards. The downside for the customer though is that you will be getting a new account on your credit report that could affect your credit score through the average age of open accounts factor and it affects your 524 status as well. If you don't know what that is, basically to open Chase cards, which are some of the best credit cards in the US market, you can't have opened five or more personal cards in the past 24 months. If you want to understand it fully, watch this video here. I'll put that on the end screen of this video. And then if you don't want the autograph card and you choose to close it, that could affect your credit score as well. So then you have a double whammy, right? A new account with a shorter history and then the closure of an old account which may have a really long history, all right, of several years. But to be honest, the autograph card isn't that bad. All right, it's three points per dollar on restaurants, travel, gas stations, transit, streaming, and phone plans. There's no annual fee. There's also cell phone protection and a load of other benefits. So, many people probably will keep it even if they don't use it that much. If you are a built member, whether you pick a new built card or not, you will have your current built card converted to a Wells Fargo autograph on February 6th. You will receive a new card from Wells Fargo and it will have a new card account number because they're actually switching from Mastercard to Visa. Okay. When you switch from Mastercard to Visa, you have to be issued a new account number. Your current card account number will stay with built apparently since I guess they're freeing up a Mastercard account number and Built maybe is continuing with Mastercard to issue these new cards. And apparently that card number can continue over can carry over to your new built card if you choose one. So, I guess when Built said that all built cards would stop working as of February 6th, they weren't lying, but they didn't mean that your account would stop being active. They just meant that the physical cards would stop working. In my opinion, this is an example of a company being kind of selective with the truth. Now, I do love Built, all right? They have one of the best reward systems out there, and I know they probably didn't want to advertise Wells Fargo or say what product that you would be converted to in their press release. All right? you don't want to do marketing for your competition. So, I guess it's just one of those things that there wasn't really an alternative to doing it this way, unless you want to give free advertising to Wells Fargo, but it is different to the impression that they originally gave. Anyway, guys, I'm still very excited for the new built cards, which will allow you to pay rent and mortgages, something I am especially interested in in because I have two mortgages. They're coming out in February. If you want to get a head start, why not join Built? All right, not the credit card, but just the Built Rewards program. And that means you'll then be able to apply for their new cards when they come out or when information about them is released in January. And also while you wait, you can actually use the built dining program with any credit card that you currently have and earn an average of three extra points per dollar on your spending. So if it was the MX Gold card, you earn four points per dollar on dining from MX and three points per dollar on built for a total of seven points per dollar at built restaurants. And there's loads of different restaurants in the program. There's a lot to choose from. So, link for that is below. I do thoroughly recommend it. We will have more information on the three new built cards in early January. So, make sure to subscribe so that you don't miss it. Bye for now.