The Bilt Mastercard lets renters earn rewards on rent payments, and use those rewards points for down payments. For the first time, tenants can also pay rent through credit cards without transaction fees.

Why should we care?
Wells Fargo’s partnership with Bilt represents a major shift in how it deals with fintechs. Historically, it’s invested in—or outright acquired—smaller players that have promising products. Wells and Mastercard both chipped in $60M for Bilt’s fundraising round in September 2021. A partnership, rather than an acquisition, seems to make sense for all parties involved. For Bilt, Wells offers an extensive network, including reach into a third of U.S. households and more than 4,700 branches nationwide. For Wells Fargo, the branded card with Bilt helps it revamp its credit-card business, which, according to Dan Dougherty, Executive Vice President of Cobrand and Branch Cards at Wells Fargo, has historically “boxed below its weight class.” A partnership with Bilt also lets the bank eventually offer mortgages to Bilt’s pool of customers. But, especially given accusations that Wells Fargo discriminated against Black homeowners during the 2020 refi boom, we should be wary of a single bank controlling the bridge between renting and homeownership. Other banks may look to compete with this card moving forward.