Will the Next Bilt Credit Card Please Stand Up?

The Bilt World Elite Mastercard® Credit Card debuted in 2021 with an unprecedented value proposition: Earn rewards on your rent payments without incurring expensive processing fees.

Since then, the card has been filling that specific demand in a potentially vast market. There were more than 43 million occupied units paying rent in the U.S. as of 2023, the most recent data available based on the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey. In fact, the card has perhaps been a bit too successful for its issuer, Wells Fargo. According to The Wall Street Journal, the bank has been losing money on the card, in part because of how many people are using it and the way they are using it.

Still, financial technology companies, or fintechs, have taken note and are seeking to extend the Bilt card’s central premise — the ability to earn rewards on large, recurring expenses that historically haven’t been payable with a credit card. Think uncommon categories, like tuition, mortgage payments, auto loan payments, and even money sent to loved ones overseas.

But duplicating Bilt’s recipe and/or transferring it elsewhere may not be so easy. Some of these would-be pioneers have yet to officially debut, while at least one of them has already called it quits.

“The fate of a fintech model relies on a series of things that goes beyond being just a great idea,” says Brian Riley, a co-head of payments at Javelin Strategy and Research, an industry advisor to financial institutions. “They need funding, infrastructure and discipline to make it work.”

Here’s what to know about the credit card companies aiming to do the Bilt-possible.

Even if you’re not a renter, you probably still have major expenses that come due each and every month — and wouldn’t it be nice if you could get a little something back on that spending?

Various credit card newcomers hope to help with that. A sampling:

• Mesa Homeowners Card: Announced in November 2024 by fintech Mesa and Celtic Bank, this card does for mortgage payments what Bilt does for rent payments. Aside from earning rewards when you pay your home loan each month, it also offers points on various other spending, including home-related purchases. The card was initially on a waitlist but began accepting applications as of early 2025.

• Fasten Rewards Visa credit card: The waitlist for this card — which promises rewards on your qualifying auto loan, lease or insurance payments — opened in early 2025. It, too, is issued by Celtic Bank, in partnership with fintech companies Highnote and Fasten Rewards.

• Nibbles credit card: If you’ve got a furry friend, then you’ve got monthly expenses, and few credit cards are designed to help offset the costs of owning a pet. Enter the Nibbles card. Launched in January 2025 in partnership with Lead Bank, it earns bonus rewards on a variety of pet-related expenses — not just pet food, but biggies like vet bills, grooming, boarding, training and sitting services, and more. (To sweeten the deal, the card also offers pet insurance.)

• Pomelo Card: International money transfers can be expensive, especially via a credit card. And earning rewards on such transactions certainly has not been “a thing” — until fintech Pomelo and issuer Coastal Community Bank teamed up on the Pomelo Card. Aimed at U.S. newcomers, it can be used to send funds to people in the Philippines without paying money-transfer fees. As of early 2025, it began offering rewards on that spending.

For a brief time, there was even a credit card promising rewards on tuition payments, although it died in early 2025 before ever moving out of waitlist status. More on that below.

Every niche credit card’s journey is unique, although their starting points tend to be similar. For instance, as is evident from the products above, waitlists are common in technology businesses, and they’re a good idea because “you don’t want to play to an empty theater,” according to Riley.

It’s also safe to assume that in many cases, the product that’s initially waitlisted may end up differing from the product that makes it to the market, as companies explore how to maintain or scale profitability. Even Bilt has made changes and tweaks throughout its journey, such as decreasing the amount of bonus Bilt Points that can be earned on eligible purchases during the company’s Rent Day promotions.

If the overall value proposition of the card remains intact, as it has with Bilt, it can still be successful. And if the card can adapt and add features that customers want — if, say, Mesa’s card were to add travel transfer partners, much like Bilt has — then it might widen its appeal beyond its own niche.

“As someone who travels often, two months of rent can pay for a night at a hotel,” says Stephanie McKnight, a Bilt cardholder and New York-based content creator at the YouTube channel Points 2 Wanderlust. “There’s so many things I can do with those points.”

But sometimes the value proposition of a card changes so drastically that there’s little left to salvage in the end.

The short-lived Rise Tuition Card, for instance, initially promised rewards when using the card to cover tuition for K-12, college and graduate school. Shortly after the card was announced, however, it rebranded as a ho-hum starter card for college students, featuring a much more traditional rewards structure (not including tuition payments).

The company has since shut down and will no longer launch the card, said its chief executive officer, Matthew Taksa, in an email in early 2025.

Fintechs may offer interesting proprietary technology or an appealing business model. But to launch a credit card, they need a willing banking partner that will handle the underwriting to determine who should be approved for the card.

Ideally, there’s an upside for both parties in such a partnership, but they must align on matters great and small — from overall product vision down to who mails the monthly statements and who deals with customer phone calls, Riley notes.

It’s a big job that may, in some cases, require a big bank, and it’s reportedly what brought Bilt and Wells Fargo together. According to The Wall Street Journal, Bilt was seeking a major banking partner that could help scale its credit card idea quickly, while Wells Fargo was seeking to land a buzzy new brand that could help elevate its overall status as a credit card issuer, especially among younger customers. Yes, Wells stood to make money from interchange fees and interest charges via Bilt’s credit card, but it also got access to a profitable new base of Bilt loyalists, who might potentially be interested in the bank’s various other financial products.

It’s an open question whether smaller issuers — like the ones behind Mesa, Nibbles and Pomelo — can help those companies scale their products at the same rate, or whether those banks would enjoy the same monetary and cross-selling opportunities that Bilt can provide its partner.