Well, it appears the rumors were true. You’ll soon be able to earn Bilt points when you make your monthly mortgage payment.
Today, UWM and Bilt announced preliminary details regarding their partnership, which comes on the heels of a $100 investment in the housing loyalty program back in July.
While we only know a little bit so far, we do know that UWM customers will earn Bilt points when making on-time mortgage payments.
This extends the Bilt platform into mortgage, as it currently only rewards renters for making on-time rental payments each month.
UWM customers will also gain access to exclusive neighborhood benefits and special offers from more than 40,000 local merchants nationwide.
Earn Bilt Points for Simply Paying the Mortgage Each Month
As noted, we don’t know all the program specifics just yet, which the pair said will begin a “phased rollout” in early 2026.
But we do know that if you’re a United Wholesale Mortgage customer you’ll soon be able to earn Bilt points when paying the mortgage.
This seems to work similarly to their current Bilt points for rent, where you earn one point for each dollar of rent.
For example, someone who pays $2,500 per month in rent earns 2,500 Bilt points each month. However, that program requires you to open the Bilt Mastercard.
And you have to make a minimum of five transactions each statement period to earn the points on your rent. It’s also capped at 100,000 points max annually.
It’s unclear how the new Bilt/UWM partnership will work and if you’ll need to open a Bilt credit card.
But it wouldn’t surprise me if it’s a requirement beyond simply being a UWM mortgage customer.
In addition, you’ll probably need to spend X amount per month, or make X transactions per month to earn the points for mortgage payments.
The difference though is that rent is actually paid via the Bilt Mastercard, whereas you can’t make mortgage payments with a credit card.
Instead, there will probably be an arrangement where your monthly mortgage amount earns points, but is paid via your typical method such as a checking account.
This is how rival Mesa is doing it. They award you the points for the mortgage payment each month, but you pay it as normal, not with their Mesa Homeowners credit card.
You simply tell them your monthly mortgage amount, then as long as you spend at least $1,000 in non-mortgage spend each month, you earn one point per dollar.
So if the mortgage amount you enter (and verify) is say $3,000, you earn 3,000 Mesa points each month as long as you spend $1,000 on Mesa’s associated credit card.
I would imagine Bilt will set this all up in similar fashion to ensure they’re actually making money on the deal.
UWM Customers May Earn Bilt Points for Obtaining a Mortgage Too
The joint press release also said you’ll be able to “earn Bilt Points during origination.”
While it’s not totally clear what that means, it could be similar to Mesa Mortgage rewarding its customers with one point for every dollar of their loan amount.
So if you’re a Bilt member and you work with a UWM-approved mortgage broker to get your mortgage, perhaps you’ll also earn one point per dollar on the loan amount.
Just note that this partnership a little unique because UWM is a wholesale mortgage lender, meaning they don’t work directly with the public.
Instead, you must work with an independent mortgage broker who happens to be approved with UWM and who chooses to send your loan to UWM instead of another wholesale lender partner.
Assuming they do, you might be able to earn additional Bilt rewards points.
Aside from the point earning, every home loan originated via UWM will be embedded with Bilt benefits.
This includes access to exclusive neighborhood benefits and special offers from 40,000+ local merchants nationwide.
On the other end of things, Bilt’s home buying platform will enable its members “to instantly discover homes based on all-in pricing.”
So my guess is there will be a sort of lead funnel that sends Bilt’s rent users to UWM if and when they decide to make the jump to homeownership.
Somewhat similar to how Redfin users are now sent to Rocket Mortgage for a home loan.
Before creating this site, I worked as an account executive for a wholesale mortgage lender in Los Angeles. My hands-on experience in the early 2000s inspired me to begin writing about mortgages 19 years ago to help prospective (and existing) home buyers better navigate the home loan process. Follow me on X for hot takes.