New Partnership: Earn Bilt Points With Rakuten For Online Shopping

Rakuten is my favorite online shopping portal, and it lets you earn bonus rewards for purchases you make online. Historically, Rakuten has offered the ability to earn cash back or Amex Membership Rewards points for online shopping, with the latter being a more compelling option (at least for those good at maximizing points).

There’s now an exciting update, as Rakuten has added a new rewards currency you can earn, and it might just be the best one yet… at least for some. I first wrote about this earlier when the announcement was made, but want to provide an update, as I’ve played around with this a bit, and have noticed some interesting things.

As of today (November 6, 2025), it’s possible to earn Bilt points for online shopping with Rakuten:

• For the first six months, all Bilt members will receive a 1:1 conversion rate, meaning every $10 in Rakuten cash back equals 1,000 Bilt points
• After that introductory period, Bilt Silver, Gold, and Platinum members, will maintain that transfer ratio, while non-elite Bilt members will receive 50 Bilt points per dollar in Rakuten cash back
• Those rates remain subject to change over time, and note that points earned through this partnership don’t count toward Bilt elite status

How can you start earning Bilt points with Rakuten? If you’re not yet a member of Rakuten, I’d recommend signing up through a refer a friend link before you set up your account for this partnership. That’s because the current refer a friend bonus gets you $50 in rewards (5,000 Bilt points) upon completing eligible activity, while Bilt’s offer only gets you 2,500 Bilt points in rewards.

So once you have a Rakuten account, you’ll want to either visit the partnership page on Bilt’s website, or go to the Bilt app. Once in the Bilt app, navigate to the “Rewards” section, and then select the “Everyday rewards” section. There you’ll see the “Earn points with Rakuten” heading, so click on “Get started.”

If you have an existing account (or even if you don’t), click on the “Create account & link” button. Make sure that the emails associated with your Bilt and Rakuten accounts match.

You’ll just have to click “Continue” on the next page, and then you should see that your account linking is successful.

Once you’ve successfully linked your accounts, you can log into your Rakuten account and go to the “Account” section, and you’ll see that the account shows that you’ll be earning Bilt points as your reward. All rewards amounts show in cash, but are then converted into Bilt points at the above rate.

What’s interesting is that all your rewards earned this “rewards cycle” (Rakuten pays out every three months) are eligible to earn Bilt points, even if you were previously supposed to earn Amex Membership Rewards points. So it’s awesome that you can retroactively switch that.

This is also why it’s great to use a refer a friend link if you’re not yet a member, to earn $50 upon completing qualifying activity, since that can then be converted into Bilt points.

Is earning Bilt points with Rakuten worth it?

As mentioned above, I’m a big fan of using Rakuten for my online shopping. I generally choose to earn Amex Membership Rewards points, given that you can essentially earn one Membership Rewards point in lieu of one cent cash back. Since I value Amex points at well over one cent each, that’s an advantageous rate of return.

Now it’s possible to earn Bilt points with Rakuten in the same way you can earn Amex points. For the first six months, everyone can earn one Bilt point in lieu of one cent cash back, so that’s a no-brainer. In the long run, only elite members can maintain that rate, while others earn one Bilt point in lieu of two cents cash back.

So, what’s my take on the value here?

• I’d rather earn one Bilt point than one Amex point, since Bilt points are generally harder to earn, given the lack of card welcome bonuses, and Bilt has some unique partners
• For the first six months that’s true across the board, while in the long run, I’d rather earn one Amex point than 0.5 Bilt points, assuming I were a non-elite member

So this is now my preferred way to earn rewards with Rakuten, and I’m very happy to see this development.

Bottom line

Bilt and Rakuten have launched a partnership, letting Rakuten members earn Bilt points for their online shopping. Initially, all Bilt members can earn one Bilt point in lieu of one cent cash back, which is a great rate of return. Meanwhile beyond the first six months, only Bilt elite members will earn that rate of return, while others will earn one Bilt point for every two cents cash back.

It’s nice to see Rakuten now partnering with two points currencies, as this is a nice alternative to earning Amex points with Bilt. And if you’re yet a Rakuten member, make sure you sign-up through a refer a friend link, given the current best-ever bonus. That can earn you $50, or 5,000 Bilt points.

What do you make of Bilt being added as a Rakuten partner?