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by Harrison Pierce Harrison is a full-time digital nomad and award travel writer who's visited or lived in more than 35 countries on six continents. He travels everywhere with his cat, Isabelle, and when he isn't traveling, he's cooking, reading, or learning Spanish.

Hi, Reader. What if the points you earn on rent could pay down your student loans — or even help you buy a house? Bilt Points can do both. Once you’ve earned rewards on your rent payments and day-to-day expenses, you have tons of redemption methods at your fingertips.

​Transferring your points to hotel and airline partners tends to yield the highest value, but there are many unconventional ways to redeem points through Bilt, including paying down your student loans or booking fitness classes. When do these options make sense? Let’s take a look.

Use Bilt Points for student loan payments

You can redeem your Bilt Points to pay student loans at a flat rate of 1 cent per point. In other words, 1,000 Bilt Points equals a $10 payment toward your loans. Bilt works with a variety of loan providers, including Nelnet, MOHELA, Sallie Mae, Aidvantage, and Navient.

Once you connect your loans to your Bilt account, you can select how many points you want to apply toward your loan, with a minimum of 1,000 points per transaction. However, your points will first be applied to outstanding fees, then to interest, and then to your principal.

You can likely get more value from your Bilt Points by redeeming them for travel, but 1 cent per point isn’t a terrible cap, either. If your priority is to pay off your student loans as quickly as possible, it’s great to be able to use your points to make additional payments.

Mortgage or down payments

You can actually turn your Bilt Points into a down payment on a house. You’ll receive a value of 1.5 cents per point, so 100,000 Bilt Points can turn into a $1,500 down payment. You’ll need to submit a request form to initiate the redemption, but timing is key. You must provide proof that you’re buying a home, such as a final sales contract, but submit the request before closing. You can only request one redemption per home purchase, so make sure you have enough points for the down payment you wish to receive.

Once you’ve bought your house, you can earn points on your mortgage payments. When you’re making your payment each month, you can opt to add an additional principal-only mortgage payment using points. However, this is generally a subpar value. A $50 payment toward your principal would require 9,090 Bilt Points, which gives you a value of around half a cent per point.

While using your Bilt Points toward a down payment could be a fantastic idea for first-time homebuyers, paying off your mortgage early is generally not a good option.

Fitness classes

If you have a handful of Bilt Points that you don’t know what to do with, you can book a fitness class to try out a new studio or get an extra workout in. Redemptions start at 1,600 points per class. Here are the current Neighborhood Fitness partners:

• SoulCycle
• Y7
• Pure Barre
• Rumble Boxing
• BFT
• CycleBar
• YogaSix
• CorePower Yoga
• Barry's

Depending on your location, one class at SoulCycle might cost anywhere from $30 to $40 out of pocket, so it can offer decent value with your points if you’re looking to try a new studio.

Your points work for you

Remember, your points work for you — not the other way around. Are there ways to extract greater value from your points with first-class airfare and luxury hotel suites? Sure, but not everyone has those goals.

If you are saving up to buy your first house or you want to pay down your student loans, getting creative with your credit card rewards can help you reach those goals faster. Similarly, if taking a Pure Barre class would bring you joy, but it’s not in your budget this month to sign up, it’s nice to be able to book it with points. Very few credit card issuers offer this ability, so don’t take it for granted.