Capital One Venture X vs. Bilt Palladium: Simplicity Beats Spreadsheets
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Written by
Dia Adams
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Edited by
Emily Gadd, CCC™
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Reviewed by
Jasmin Baron, CCC™
Bilt made a splash in 2021 by partnering with Wells Fargo to create a credit card that earned points on rent payments. The no-annual-fee card quickly became an industry darling because Bilt Rewards points offered some of the most lucrative transfer partners. So not only did Bilt Card 1.0 offer unique earning opportunities, but it also delivered solid rewards. When my college kid moved off-campus, I got the Bilt Card and earned enough points from his rent to fly him to London that summer.
Bilt combined the card with flamboyant Rent Day promotions each month — complete with a celebrity game show — to maximize attention for the program. However, the party couldn’t last, as the Bilt Rewards program proved too lucrative for members and not lucrative enough for Bilt and Wells Fargo.
So Bilt went back to the drawing board. Bilt Palladium Card, the premium card newly launched with Cardless, operates in Bilt 2.0. The card earns 2x points and 4% in a new currency called Bilt Cash, but its new ecosystem baffles even experts.
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Compare Bilt’s chaos to the simplicity of the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card. It offers unlimited 2x miles on everyday purchases, backed by an annual $300 Capital One Travel credit and airport lounge access for both Priority Pass and a growing internal lounge network. I’ve held the Venture X since it was released in 2021, and I still view it as the top-tier premium travel card.
Let’s cut hype from reality and take a look at both cards so you can decide which is better for you. Spoiler alert: it’s the Venture X unless you have both a large housing payment and an extremely high tolerance for hassle.
How the Cards Compare: Capital One Venture X vs. Bilt Palladium
Side By Side Comparison
Annual Fee
Purchase and Balance Transfer APR
Welcome Offer
Ongoing Rewards
Earn unlimited 2X miles on all other purchases.
Earn 2X points + 4% back in Bilt Cash on everyday purchases
Pros & Cons
- Earn bonus miles with a new cardmember offer
- 10,000 bonus miles each account anniversary
- Lounge access
PROS
- High annual fee
- No intro APR period on purchases or balance transfers
- No bonus categories outside of travel
CONS
- Earns points on rent and mortgage payments
- Upscale perks including airport lounge access
- Strong travel and purchase protections
PROS
- High annual fee
- Complicated rewards program
CONS
Learn More
Welcome Bonuses
Welcome offers set the tone for premium cards — both require substantial spend within three months of account opening, but deliver value in different ways. Capital One focuses on flexible miles; Bilt layers points on top of Bilt Cash, which is not equivalent to spendable dollars or statement credits. Bilt Cash lives in a gated ecosystem: redeemable only for rent offsets, ecosystem accelerators, dining credits, or rides — offering zero flexibility outside Bilt’s world.
Capital One Venture X Welcome Bonus
Capital One’s current offer is standard, but it packs a punch: 75,000 bonus Capital One miles after spending $4,000 on purchases in the first three months. Capital One miles are worth 1 cent each toward offsetting travel purchases, or you can transfer them to a long list of Capital One airline and hotel partners. Importantly, the welcome bonus miles have no expiration or ecosystem lock-in. Any purchase that is coded as travel can be offset with miles.
Bilt Palladium Welcome Bonus
Bilt splits the Palladium Card bonus across three buckets after spending $4,000 in the first three months. First, you earn 50,000 Bilt Points that offer strong 1:1 transfers to World of Hyatt, Atmos Rewards, JAL Mileage Bank and other appealing partners. Then, the card confers Bilt Gold Status, which gives you perks like Rent Day transfer bonuses, and crucially, you’ll receive $300 in Bilt Cash credited on account opening.
CardCritics™ Opinion
Leaving the Bilt Cash for now, it could be reasonably argued that 50,000 Bilt Points plus Gold Status beats 75,000 Capital One Miles. It depends on whether you want the flexibility to offset travel purchases or prefer Bilt’s travel partners. I’ll call this one a tie.
Earning Rewards
Here’s where the cards really diverge: Capital One Venture X keeps it dead simple with a flat 2x miles on every purchase, uncapped, while turbocharging through its own portal — perfect for folks who book flights and hotels there regularly.
The Bilt Palladium Card mirrors the 2x points baseline but adds 4% Bilt Cash on all spend, which sounds juicy until you unpack the housing tiers that require hitting 75% of your rent or mortgage on the card, plus strategic Cash unlocks to maximize points — spreadsheet territory that even credit card experts can’t eyeball instantly.
How To Earn Rewards With Capital One Venture X
The Venture X earns:
- 10x miles on Capital One Travel hotel and car rentals
- 5x on flights and vacation rentals through Capital One Travel
- 2x on all other purchases
How To Earn Rewards With Bilt Palladium
The Bilt Palladium earns two types of currency, as mentioned above: Bilt Rewards and Bilt Cash. The card earns:
- 2x points on everyday purchases
- 4% Bilt Cash on everyday purchases.
- Up to 1x points on housing (depending on redeeming Bilt Cash)
It’s important to know that Bilt Cash isn’t cash back you can pocket or credit flexibly — it’s a restricted rewards currency. The most valuable use cases are spending Bilt Cash to qualify for points on housing and to earn higher points per dollar on everyday spend.
If you just read the last paragraph and said, “What?”, you’re not alone. It’s unfair to call Bilt Cash Monopoly money as it has some value, but it calls company store scrip to mind.
One option for “spending” your Bilt Cash is to increase the rate on everyday purchases. Per Bilt: “Enable +1X bonus points on all everyday spend for the next $5,000 following activation; exclusively available to Obsidian and Palladium cardholders; Cost: $200 Bilt Cash; up to 5 activations annually; expires after $5,000 everyday spend or calendar year-end.”
There’s also an option on the Bilt Palladium to forgo Bilt Cash and earn tiered spending on housing as follows:
- 2x on everyday purchases
- 0.25x to 1.25x on housing, depending on non-housing spend
CardCritics™ Opinion
The Venture X earns clean — no Cash splits or tiers. Bilt’s dual system baffles; if pros struggle, average users don’t stand a chance. But if you’re an absolute points maximizer with high housing costs, you could win with the Bilt Palladium.
Redeeming Rewards
If earning on the Bilt Palladium is confusing, redeeming is equally so. True to form, Venture X keeps it simple.
How To Redeem Rewards With Capital One Venture X
- Transfer to travel partners, including Air Canada Aeroplan, British Airways Club and Virgin Red, among many others. This is generally your best bang for buck redemption.
- Redeem against travel purchases at 1 cent per mile. The purchases can be made either through Capital One Travel or any other travel vendor.
- Sub-par redemptions include statement credits and Amazon or PayPal purchases.
How To Redeem Rewards With Bilt Palladium
Bilt Rewards are now both easy and hard to redeem. The easy way is to transfer them to travel partners, including World of Hyatt and United MileagePlus, at a 1:1 ratio. Alternatively, you could redeem them on rent or a statement credit, but the rate is much less than 1 cent per point, so this is not recommended.
Now let’s add Bilt Cash into the mix. You can “spend” your Bilt Cash within the Bilt ecosystem, either on improving your perks or on selected partnerships. Among the options are:
- Unlock points on monthly rent or mortgage payments with no transaction fees; every $30 Bilt Cash redeemed earns 1,000 points, up to 1x of your monthly rent or mortgage payment. So if you have a $2,000 mortgage payment you earn points on, you need to spend $60 in Bilt Cash to earn 2,000 points.
- Use Bilt Cash to upgrade your Rent Day transfer bonus to the next status tier, especially useful if there’s a tiered transfer bonus.
- Redeem toward one group fitness class per month in the Bilt app (including SoulCycle, Barry’s and others); up to $40 per month.
- Redeem for BLADE airport flights, with up to $350 per seat and up to two seats per year (available March 1, 2026).
- Redeem for $5 to $10 monthly credits at a variety of vendors, including GoPuff, Walgreens, Lyft and Bilt Parking.
CardCritics™ Opinion
Bilt has taken everything we hate about the trend toward credit card coupon books and somehow made it worse. Capital One steers away from all of that mess.
Card Benefits
The benefits for both cards are what you would expect when paying top dollar. The many perks include the following:
- Airport lounge access
- Trip cancellation and delay coverage
- Baggage insurance
- Car rental collision damage waiver
- Extended warranty
- Cell phone protection
That said, there are some real differences hidden in the fine print of the benefits guides.
Capital One Venture X Benefits
These Capital One Venture X benefits stand out:
- Its car rental insurance is primary, while Bilt’s is secondary. The difference between the two can be summed up in one word: hassle. With Venture X, you only need to file one claim, whereas with Bilt, you have to go through your insurance company first.
- Return protection. This is a feature I use more often than I care to admit because Amazon packages have a habit of getting lost in my trunk.
- The $300 travel credit is easy to use on any Capital One Travel purchase.
On the downside: In response to overcrowding, Capital One Venture X recently changed its lounge access policy to cardmember-only access unless you spend $75,000 annually on the card. Importantly, even spending $75,000 on the card doesn’t unlock Priority Pass guest passes; only those for Capital One Lounges are available under the terms. That said, Capital One has its own lounge network, while Bilt relies solely on Priority Pass.
Bilt Palladium Benefits
In addition to guest passes on Priority Pass, the Bilt Palladium has a couple of benefits that the Venture X doesn’t:
- Price protection, meaning you can get a refund if the item goes on sale.
- Extended warranty is offered for two years instead of one on the Venture X.
The Bilt Palladium also has a hotel benefit advertised up to $400, but it’s actually limited in scope. You have to stay at least two nights at a hotel booked on the Bilt Portal to earn $200, twice a year.
CardCritics™ Opinion
In the credits category, the Venture X wins easily.
Both cards offer a large suite of perks. This one is a toss-up, depending on what matters to you.
Fees and Costs
Both the Capital One Venture X and Bilt Palladium Card sit firmly in premium-card territory. As travel cards, both offer no foreign transaction fees, but their price tags and interest structures don’t hit your wallet the same way.
The Venture X’s entire annual fee can be justified using the card’s benefits with minimal hassle. Bilt Palladium has a benefit that Venture X doesn’t — 10.00% Introductory APR applies to each New Card Purchase that posts to your account during the first 12 billing cycles after the date you open your account. After that, A 26.74% to 34.74% Variable APR applies to purchases. A 26.74% to 34.74% Variable APR applies to Balance Transfers, based on your creditworthiness. — but you’re better off getting a 0% promo APR card if you have a big purchase to finance.
Capital One Venture X Fees and Costs
The Venture X charges a $395 annual fee, with authorized user cards costing $125 each for lounge access. Free authorized user cards are also available, but they do not provide lounge entry.
While they are technically perks, two benefits confer real value that can offset the card’s carrying cost. The card gives a $300 annual (based on card anniversary date, not calendar year) Capital One Travel credit that is useful for airfare, hotels or car rental. The credit can be used all at once or spread across the year. You also earn 10,000 anniversary Capital One miles, which can be used toward travel purchases or transferred to travel partners for a minimum value of $100.
Bilt Palladium Fees and Costs
The Bilt Palladium has a $495 annual fee. While the card does offer some credits, they all come with significant strings, so I wouldn’t expect them to offset the fee in any way. Authorized user cards cost $95.
The card also has a promotional interest rate of 10.00% Introductory APR applies to each New Card Purchase that posts to your account during the first 12 billing cycles after the date you open your account. After that, A 26.74% to 34.74% Variable APR applies to purchases. A 26.74% to 34.74% Variable APR applies to Balance Transfers, based on your creditworthiness..
CardCritics™ Opinion
The Venture X not only costs $100 less per year, but its travel credits also make it the clear winner.
How To Choose Between Capital One Venture X and Bilt Palladium
The vast majority of users will likely self-select the Capital One Venture X once they try to decipher Bilt’s program, which invites memes using whiteboards and string. But if you thrive on solving puzzles and you have sky-high housing payments, go ahead and give Bilt Palladium Card a look-see. Absolute maximizers could come out ahead with the Palladium, but if you value your time at all, save it and get the set-and-forget Venture X.
It’s also important to note that Bilt Rewards is currently best described as fluid. The program launch was immediately panned by users, and it was significantly tweaked days later. So don’t get too attached to the current benefit program, as it’s well within Bilt’s purview to change it again.
To be fair, Capital One implemented a limit on its lounge guest access policy that takes effect in February 2026. But Capital One gave users months-long warning so they could prepare for the change. So while change is possible with Capital One, you won’t get whiplash from it.
For Capital One products listed on this page, some of the benefits may be provided by Visa® or Mastercard® and may vary by product. See the respective Guide to Benefits for details, as terms and exclusions apply.
The information related to the Bilt Palladium Card was collected by CardCritics™ and has not been reviewed or provided by the issuer of this product/card. Product details may vary. Please see issuer website for current information. CardCritics™ does not receive a commission for this product.
Frequently Asked Questions About the Capital One Venture X vs Bilt Palladium
Is Bilt Cash actually cash back?
No, Bilt Cash is a restricted currency locked to rent/mortgage offsets, dining/rideshare credits or $30 batches converting to 1,000 housing points. No statement credits, no portal travel, no pocket money; experts need charts to track it, average users won’t bother.
Are Bilt or Capital One travel points better?
While both Bilt and Capital One have a large selection of airline and hotel partners, Bilt’s alliance with Hyatt and United Airlines is generally considered more valuable than Capital One’s partners.
Is the Venture X worth it?
As long as you value lounge access and plan to spend the rewards on travel, the Capital One Venture X is well worth it for most.
