New Bilt redemption option: Student loans for 1 cent per point (or possibly better)

Bilt Rewards has launched a new redemption option today that will likely be appealing for a subset of its loyalty program members. Those with student loans serviced by five major loan providers can now redeem points for student loan repayments at a rate of 1 cent per point. Depending on your situation, you might be able to get even better value than that by paying your student loans with Bilt points.

The Deal

• Redeem Bilt Rewards points towards student loan repayments serviced by the following providers at a rate of 1 cent per point:
  • Sallie Mae
  • MOHELA
  • Neinet
  • Navient
  • Aidvantage

Quick Thoughts

Being able to redeem Bilt points for student loan payments is an interesting new redemption option. At a redemption rate of 1 cent per point (cpp), it’s not a superb option seeing as you can get much better value than that when transferring to travel partners (especially during transfer bonuses), nor towards a down payment for a new home as that’s a fixed 1.5cpp rate. However, it is much better than many other options like redeeming for Amazon or Lyft, both of which are at a 0.7cpp rate.

It’s also significantly better than the main cashout option. Bilt lets you redeem points for statement credits if you have a Bilt Mastercard, but that’s at a 0.55cpp rate and so should absolutely be avoided. Redeeming for student loans is therefore almost twice as good. It’s not necessarily something we’d recommend, but it’s not horrible either.

Despite the redemption rate for student loan repayments being at a fixed 1cpp rate, it is possible to do even better than that. We’ve confirmed with Bilt that in addition to redeeming points for standard repayments, you can also redeem points to make overpayments on your student loans. That’ll have the effect of reducing your loan length and thereby the overall interest payable on your loan. It’ll therefore have the effect of getting you better than 1cpp of value if your redemptions go entirely towards your student loan principal.

At the time of this feature’s launch, only the five student loan providers listed above are participating. However, additional providers are due to be added in the coming months, so keep your eyes peeled for your loan provider if this would be an option of interest for you.

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