Earn Bilt Points with Rakuten
We’ve long loved Rakuten for our ability to earn cash back or American Express Membership Rewards just for using the Rakuten shopping portal – but now you’ll also have the option to earn Bilt points!
Earn Bilt Points with Online Shopping
Rakuten is an online shopping portal that allows you to earn cash back or points for your online purchases. It’s free to use and simply requires that you start your “shopping trip” on their site/app, and then click through to the website you want to shop at.
For years, most of us have used Rakuten to earn cash back or Amex points. But recently Bilt and Rakuten have teamed up so that now we can earn Bilt points via Rakuten. This is a fantastic way to earn extremely valuable points from your online shopping!
How to Earn Bilt Points with Rakuten
First, it must be said – you do NOT NEED a Bilt credit card to take advantage of this! You simply need to have a free Bilt loyalty account and a free Rakuten account.
Step 1:
Sign up for Rakuten if you haven’t already – (link gets you $50 new sign up offer)
Step 2:
Sign up for Bilt if you haven’t already – Email addresses need to match
Step 3:
Link your Bilt & Rakuten accounts via this link
As long as your email addresses match, this should take you to a page to easily link your accounts.
*That link appears to have issues working, here’s my best work around for you:
Go to Rakuten’s Instagram page
Go to the top where the bio is
There’s a link that says “Earn Bilt points with Rakuten” – click that and it should work 🙂
Step 4:
Go back into Rakuten account, under account settings, you should see Bilt as an option now for payout.
Step 5:
Start your online shopping either on the Rakuten site or app to earn those points. Remember – you can pay with ANY card!
Is Earning Bilt Points Best?
I’m getting a lot of questions about whether it’s better to earn Bilt points or Amex points – I think this will be a personal decision based on your transfer partner preferences. Bilt has the option to transfer to Hyatt, which I think gives it the advantage.
Bilt Transfer Partners
Airlines:
- Atmos Rewards (Alaska Airlines + Hawaiian Airlines)-1:1
- Avianca Lifemiles -1:1
- United MileagePlus® -1:1
- Air France/KLM Flying Blue® -1:1
- Virgin Red® -1:1
- Virgin Atlantic Flying Club -1:1
- Emirates Skywards® -1:1
- British Airways Executive Club -1:1
- Cathay Pacific -1:1
- Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles -1:1
- Aer Lingus AerClub -1:1
- Iberia Plus -1:1
- Air Canada Aeroplan® -1:1
- TAP Miles&Go -1:1
- Southwest Airlines -1:1
- Japan Airlines -1:1
- Qatar Airways Privilege Club Avios -1:1
- Etihad Airways -1:1
Hotels:
- Hilton Honors -1:1
- Marriott Bonvoy™ -1:1
- World of Hyatt® -1:1
- IHG® One Rewards -1:1
- Accor Live Limitless -3:2
Points Earning Long Term
For the first six months, all Bilt members can transfer Rakuten cash back to Bilt points at a 1:1 rate — meaning $10 in cash back = 1,000 Bilt points. 🙌
After that intro period, your transfer rate will depend on your Bilt status:
➡️ Blue members: 50 Bilt points for every $1 in Rakuten cash back
➡️ Silver, Gold & Platinum members: 100 Bilt points for every $1 in Rakuten cash back
So for the first six months, everyone gets the best possible rate — and after that, higher-tier members keep that same great 1:1 value.
My Take
As someone with Blue Bilt status (You automatically achieve Blue status by signing up for the Bilt Rewards program), I will definitely focus on earning Bilt points via Rakuten for the introductory period. After that time, I may decide to switch back to earning Amex points for the higher earn rate. But either way, it’s always exciting to have more choices! Earning extra points for online shopping you were going to do anyway is a win in my book!
