Bilt Had to Change Federal Policy to Help Renters Improve Their Credit and Access Homeownership

Bilt Rewards helps its members turn their largest monthly expense, rent, into points they can use for dining, travel, paying off student loans, and even a down payment on a home. Bilt has millions of members, because it made accumulating and using these points easy. But building the infrastructure that made this possible was hard, as CEO Ankur Jain explained to Marina Mogilko (Silicon Valley Girl).

“When we first tried to get this off the ground, we said, okay, well, airlines aren’t playing ball. Maybe there’s a different way to create rewards. When you pay your rent on time, what if we could reward you by building your credit and by helping you get closer to homeownership? If you’re paying your rent on time every month, why doesn’t that build your credit history? It doesn’t make sense. But you have to connect with those credit agencies, and they had to accept it. To use [rent payment history] for a mortgage [application], the mortgage lenders and the Fannies and the Freddies have to say that’s an eligible source of data to qualify you. So we thought, paying your rent, and, by the way, you can earn credits you can use to cover a down payment. We then found out that the regulations didn’t specifically allow this, which was also mindboggling. So we spent 18 months in Washington, DC talking to the housing department, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, the lenders, the credit agencies, saying, “Guys, paying your rent is the biggest expense for this generation. Why is it not helping them move forward?” And it wasn’t until October of 2019, but we got the approvals, and for the first time, you could use rewards towards a future down payment, and the mortgage lender could use your rental history to help you qualify. But only if you pay through Bilt.”