Senator Questions Bilt Rewards About Transaction and Payment Issues

One of the two senators of the United States who represents the commonwealth of Massachusetts — who is also a ranking member of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee — questions Bilt Rewards about transaction and payment issues as the company transitions between partners.

Senator Questions Bilt Rewards About Transaction and Payment Issues

Elizabeth Warren sent a letter to Ankur Jain — who is the current chief executive officer of Bilt — on Wednesday, May 27, 2026 concerning reports of significant transaction and payment issues that customers of Bilt Rewards experienced as the company transitions from Wells Fargo as a bank partner to Evolve Bank and Trust. The partnership with Wells Fargo was supposed to last until 2029; but the bank was losing up to $10 million per month from Bilt Rewards credit cards — primarily because the majority of users mainly used the cards from Bilt Rewards to pay rent and to earn rewards rather than carry a balance or use the card for non-rent purchases, from which credit card companies profit…

…so Wells Fargo announced that its partnership with Bilt would be terminated early rather than continue to hemorrhage significant amounts of funds; and the original version of Bilt Rewards credit cards were deactivated on Saturday, February 7, 2026.

Bilt was forced to find a new bank with which to partner — and that bank is Evolve Bank and Trust. A new version of Bilt Rewards credit cards were issued — known as Bilt 2.0 — with the premium version offering benefits of which were reportedly convoluted and confusing to take advantage.

Additionally, “Bilt users have reportedly made rent or mortgage payments that never reached their landlord or lender, were rejected or returned, or only were delivered after a significant delay; others have been unable to make payments on outstanding balances still held at Wells Fargo, or had their Wells Fargo balances transferred to the new cards without their authorization”, according to Warren at the beginning of the aforementioned letter. “Furthermore, consumers have reportedly struggled to reach Bilt representatives to address their concerns.”

A Brief Summary About Bilt Rewards

Bilt was founded on the premise of consumers earning rewards and benefits as a result of paying rent every month, which typically could not be done with a credit card. Greater than 44 million people in the United States live in housing where they pay rent every month. Mortgage payments were eventually added, which further expanded the potential market for Bilt. Earning benefits on a significant expense which people are already required to pay every month is a very attractive incentive to apply for a credit card from Bilt Rewards — as well as a way to boost their credit rating score.

One of those incentives is known as Bilt Rent Day, which occurs on the first day of every month. As today, Monday, June 1, 2026 is the first day of June, Bilt Rewards is currently offering a transfer bonus of up to 125 percent to TAP Air Portugal.

Bilt currently offers three credit cards:

• Bilt Blue Card, with no annual fee
• Bilt Obsidian Card, with an annual fee of $95.00
• Bilt Palladium Card, with an annual fee of $495.00

What Is Being Requested — And By When

Elizabeth Warren requested answers from Bilt Rewards to what she considers are the following items that are harmful to consumers:

• Bilt Rewards appears to have lost, delayed the delivery of, or rendered customers to access their rent or mortgage funds impossible.
• Bilt Rewards now partners with Evolve Bank and Trust, which was at the center of a major scandal involving almost $100 million in lost customer funds in 2024.
• Bilt 2.0 immediately debits rent payments, raising questions about compliance with the Credit CARD Act of 2009.
• The use of an artificial intelligence “chatbot” by Bilt Rewards has resulted in customers unable to contact and access Bilt Rewards and reportedly provides unsatisfactory customer support.

“Bilt has yet to provide a reasonable explanation for why its transition between bank partners caused such turmoil for its customers”, concluded Warren. “Further, Bilt has yet to clarify the extent to which customers’ rent payments were delayed, denied, or lost and how Bilt intends to rectify the situation for consumers.”

The requests from the aforementioned letter are as follows:

1. Provide the following information on a monthly basis between November 2025 and April 2026 for Bilt’s customers:
   1. The number of customers who had a rent or mortgage payment debited from their account that was not returned to the customer or delivered to their landlord or lender as of April 30, 2026, and the total dollar amount of such payments;
   2. The number of customers who had a rent or mortgage payment debited from their account that was later returned to the customer and the total dollar amount of such payments; and
   3. The number of customers who had a rent or mortgage payment debited from their account that was not delivered to their landlord or lender within 72 hours and the total dollar amount of such payments.
2. Please describe Bilt’s current understanding of what aspect(s) of the Bilt 2.0 transition may have led to customer rent and mortgage payments being allegedly lost, returned, or delayed. In your explanation, discuss how Bilt has responded to each specific issue, what Bilt has identified as the solution for each issue, the timeline for implementing that solution, and the progress made by Bilt in implementing the solution as of April 30, 2026.
3. Provide the following information on a monthly basis between November 2025 and April 2026 for Bilt’s customers:
   1. The number of customer service requests made;
   2. The number of customer service requests resolved by a chatbot;
   3. The number of customer service requests elevated by a chatbot to a human representative;
   4. The average waiting time for a customer to be elevated by the chatbot to a human representative; and
   5. Available data about customer’s satisfaction with the customer service they received
4. What steps does Bilt intend to take to improve its customer service? In your response, discuss if the role of Bilt’s chatbot will change, whether Bilt intends to hire additional customer service representatives—and if so, how many, and how Bilt intends to bring its customer service response times back in line with its times prior to the Bilt 2.0 transition.
5. Why has Bilt started a new partnership with Evolve in light of the public reporting on the various issues associated with the bank in recent years, including issues that directly impacted Bilt? How does Bilt intend to mitigate and manage the risks associated with:
   1. Evolve’s involvement in the fallout following the bankruptcy of Synapse,
   2. The 2024 data breach of Evolve’s systems, and
   3. The June 2024 Federal Reserve enforcement action against Evolve?
6. Describe how Bilt 2.0 cards are compliant with the Credit Card Act of 2009, particularly 15 U.S.C. §1666b(a). Describe how Bilt’s integration with Venmo is compliant with the Credit Card Act of 2008, particularly 15 USC § 1666b(a).

Written responses that detail the steps Bilt has taken — and will take — to protect consumers have been requested by Warren by no later than Tuesday, June 9, 2026.

Elizabeth Warren was one of the members of the Senate who grilled executives of Wells Fargo in 2016. She launched two brutally frank rounds of questions for John Stumpf — who was the chairman and chief executive officer of Wells Fargo at the time — and it was recorded on video. In 2017, she also launched a brutally frank round of questions for Richard F. Smith, who is the former chief executive officer of Equifax.

Final Boarding Call

I am not in the target market of Bilt Rewards; so I have never applied for one of its credit cards — nor have I ever been affiliated with the company itself in any way.

I am also not the ideal customer for banks in general with regard to credit cards, as I pay my balance off every month — with the exception of when the credit card has a rate of 0 percent annual percentage rate, as that costs nothing to carry a balance until that promotional rate expires. I pay off the credit card in full before that promotional rate expires…

…but I still take advantage of the benefits of credit cards, which can cost the bank money. Credit cards are one way which frequent travelers are able to accrue miles and points in order to enjoy reward travel — as well as take advantage of offers and benefits that help to reduce the friction points of travel that seem to be increasing every day.

Banks are heavily regulated in the United States — and, therefore, so are the credit cards that they issue. They must strictly follow policies from the federal government of the United States, as consequences can result if they do not do so. This means that entry into a financial market is not an easy entry, as many requirements must be satisfied to issue credit cards in general.

Hopefully, Ankur Jain will be able to adequately and satisfactorily respond to the requests and answer the questions from Elizabeth Warren — and that renters and homeowners who respectively pay rental payments and mortgage payments will be able to continue to benefit from doing so by earning rewards from their Bilt Rewards credit cards…

Source: Elizabeth Warren.