Bilt adds NEW Partner + X Money 3% Cards Coming for All X Users?

In this video I want to talk about three things. First up, Bilt, the very popular reward system for earning points on rent and dining, has added a new transfer partner. Then we have Elon Musk's X money now live for all users of X, not just premium. Yes, you heard that right. So you can now get three percent cash back with the X card without paying a monthly fee. We'll tell you how to do that in just a moment since there is one thing that you actually have to do to get it. And lastly, there is now a way that holders of the old Chase Freedom card can switch to the newer Freedom Flex. And you're going to want to do this because the Freedom Flex gives you the opportunity to earn seven points per dollar on dining this coming quarter. Hey credit warriors, welcome to the show. My name is Ben Hedges, aka The Credit Shifu, and on this channel we talk about U.S. credit cards, personal finance, and luxury travel. If you like the sound of that, please subscribe. But let's get into the video. So Bilt is the hugely popular rewards program that lets you earn points on paying rent and mortgages. They have a dining program and you can earn extra Bilt points at Walgreens and a few other things. They do have three credit cards that let you pay rent or mortgages with no fee and earn points, but you don't have to have those cards to be part of Bilt. And there are other aspects of the program like the dining program and more things that you can use without holding the Bilt credit cards. Bilt points can be transferred to a load of great transfer partners including United, Southwest, British Airways, Hyatt Hotels, and many more. And Bilt has just added a new transfer partner to that list. This will be their 26th partner and that is Amtrak Guest Rewards at a 2 to 1 ratio. So that means 2,000 Bilt points equal 1,000 Amtrak Guest Rewards points. Now although obviously that is a bad ratio, the value of Amtrak points is quite high. Check out this post on Reddit from someone replying to another Redditor who just got 40,000 Amtrak points and is wondering what to do with them. In my experience Amtrak is almost universally 2.6 cents per point unlike many airlines where point redemption value varies dramatically. This applies to coach as well as sleepers in my experience. In your case 40,000 points is just over $1,000 worth of points. You can book reward trips for as low as 400 points. Okay that's probably like a 20 minute ride though. But you can definitely find some longer reward redemptions. I have been able to take the California Zephyr from Chicago to Emeryville and the Empire Builder from Chicago to Seattle in a roumette for points only. Those points can go a long way if you follow other guidance on this sub about getting the best fares. So anyway that value of 2.6 cents per point gives you 1.3 cents in value for your Bilt points. That's a little over what you would get through the Bilt travel portal and I'm not even sure you can book trains through the travel portal. I think it's just airlines and hotels. So maybe it's not the best use of Bilt points but it really depends on your personal goals if you really like traveling places by train or it's just more convenient than flying. Like if you go from Manhattan, New York to DC for example it's actually way more convenient to get the Amtrak Acela Express than to fly and in that case this could be for you. Amtrak also has two credit cards with bonuses of up to 30,000 points right now so you could combine an Amtrak credit card with Bilt and then you've got two sources of earning Amtrak points from spend. If you are interested in Bilt do check it out with my link below. The dining program is a great aspect of it to start off with. You can get an extra three points per dollar on dining at restaurants in the program. So with the Amex Gold that takes you to seven points per dollar, four from Amex, three from Bilt. With the Chase Freedom Flex next quarter that's going to be 10 points per dollar, seven from Chase and then three from Bilt. Then you can also explore using Bilt to pay rent etc. Link is below for those who are interested. Okay let's move on to Elon Musk's xMoney now being open for all x users. Alright so xMoney launched for all paying users of the x platform a few weeks ago and I did not hesitate to get the x debit card since it offers three percent cash back on all your spending and I was paying for x premium anyway so it didn't cost me anything extra. But the news we have for you today is that x has now opened up xMoney to all users even basic and non-paying users of the platform. And FYI this is according to Sawyer Merritt who has posted a lot of updates about xMoney. I guess he was one of the early adopters that got early access and he's posted the very official looking tables and graphics for the rollout to all users. Now some users have complained that they can't see xMoney in the xMoney tab on the left yet so maybe it's a phased rollout maybe we should treat this as a rumor for now but it seems like it is coming even if saying it's rolled out today for all users might be a little bit premature. When Elon posts about it we know it really is available. For non-paying and basic premium users you will get one percent cash back on the x debit card by default but there is a way to boost that to three percent and that is with a qualifying deposit every month. How much do you need to deposit? Well if you read the small print it is one thousand dollars every 34 day period so that's basically a thousand dollars per month although they give you a few extra days in case of uneven payment schedules I guess. So basically if you pay your monthly salary into your xMoney account and I'm sure most people who work full time's monthly salary is over a thousand dollars right per month I think it would be probably illegal if it wasn't but if you do that you'll get that three percent rate on the x debit card. You can also get the standard four percent rate on the funds in your account boosted to six percent with that same qualifying deposit currently not available to New York residents unfortunately although there is a 300 welcome bonus for New Yorkers if you put three thousand dollars into the account in your first 90 days. On top of those two things non-paying and basic users can get ATM fees up to four dollars per transaction waived twice a month and you can also use the card through your phone right away through mobile wallet but if you want the cool metal card you will need to pay 25 dollars. Personally I think this is such a no-brainer it's a debit card there's no credit pool it doesn't cost you anything all right you don't have to get the metal card you can use it through your phone for free I just wish they had a referral program and I could sign all you guys up but they don't so if you are interested do check it out go to your x account on the left hand side you'll see x money on the desktop or in the x app. All right guys now let's talk about how our viewers with the old chase freedom cards can switch to the new freedom flex and earn seven chase points per dollar on dining this coming quarter. So we've got another interesting update for chase freedom card holders. Chase is once again allowing people with the original chase freedom visa to product change directly to the now if you've only recently gotten into credit cards you might not even know the original freedom exists this is the old school chase freedom card that's no longer available to new applicants like the freedom frex it earns five points per dollar in rotating quarterly categories on up to fifteen hundred dollars in activated spending for the quarter it does not however earn three points per dollar on dining the old freedom is a visa whereas the freedom flex runs on the master card network and last year chase stopped allowing product changes between visa and master card products but well apparently chase has now reversed that decision doctor of credit reports that people are once again successfully converting their old freedom visa directly into a freedom flex master card and there are some good reasons why you might want to do this the freedom flex gives you three points per dollar on dining and three points per dollar at drugstores which the original freedom does not and dining is actually one of the five x categories for quarter four of 2026 and that stacks with the regular three x points on dining so the freedom flex card holders will effectively earn seven points per dollar on dining during quarter four because you've got the normal one point per dollar on base spend then they add two points per dollar which normally makes the three percent category and then they add four points per dollar which normally is added to one to make a five percent category but this time it's added to three so you get seven points per dollar the original freedom only gets five points per dollar from the category okay one on base spend plus four x on top of that chase has just refreshed the freedom flex with no foreign transaction fees and points boost on select chase travel hotel redemptions the one reason some people might not want to convert though costco the original freedom is a visa so you can use it at costco warehouses the freedom flex is a master card so you generally can't use it for in-store costco purchases in the us and if costco appears as a future 5x wholesale club category keeping that original freedom visa could suddenly become useful so weigh it up but if you convert to the freedom flex you'll get seven points per dollar on dining next quarter and you can then combine that with the built dining program for 10 points per dollar link is below thank me later all right guys that's the video for today don't forget to sign up for built and link your cards so that you can actually earn points also link your lyft account for extra points on lyft rides too please subscribe to our channel if you're new and we'll see you next time bye