Bilt’s Embrace of Agentic AI to Provide Customer Service Highlights Emerging Risks, Challenges for Enforcement Officials as Borrowers Allege Doom-Loops, Detours, and Dead-Ends

March 11, 2026 | WASHINGTON, D.C. — Following reports of widespread breakdowns involving the new “Bilt 2.0” credit cards, Protect Borrowers sent an urgent letter to the Trump Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), warning the hobbled consumer watchdog that its failure to address risks posed by Bilt could harm consumers and honest businesses. The letter urges the CFPB to employ its risk-based supervision authority over all covered parties, including Bilt and its issuer-processor Cardless, and, where appropriate, take public enforcement actions to protect borrowers. 

Since assuming control of the CFPB in 2025, Trump Administration officials have engaged in a sweeping effort to dismantle the federal financial regulator, leaving consumers vulnerable to the kinds of risks identified in Protect Borrowers’ letter.

The issues publicly reported about Bilt 2.0 include missed rent and mortgage payments and resulting late fees levied on Bilt cardholders. Bilt users also express outrage and frustration when trying to resolve these issues with the AI agents that handle basic customer service functions for the fintech, describing bots that cannot perform requested actions, provide basic information, or resolve problems.

Read the letter here.

Download a sample of Bilt customers’ testimonials, included as an appendix to this letter, here.

“I trusted Bilt to handle the basics of its job, which was just paying rent, but it totally failed,” said Christina, a law student in Boston whose experience with Bilt informed Protect Borrowers’ investigation. “Bilt paid my rent almost a week late, despite immediately charging me for it and saying it’d release the funds to my landlord within two business days. When I reached out, the text bot said they’re too busy and to email. When I did that, the email responded with a generic bot message that didn’t at all address my concerns. For next month, I don’t know if I can trust it to pay on time, or how much earlier I’d have to pay rent to account for its operational delays. For many, that’s not feasible based on bimonthly paychecks. I have totally lost faith in this card, especially due to all the recent fanfare with the new card benefits rolled out.”

The CFPB’s risk-based supervision authority allows the agency to examine entities that it believes is engaging, or has engaged, in conduct that poses risks to consumers with regard to the offering or provision of consumer financial products or services. The letter was also sent to the leadership of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs and the House Financial Services Committee, which have jurisdiction over and oversee the conduct of the CFPB.

“Public reports over the past week indicate that Bilt’s handling of its users’ transition to Column Bank has been disastrous. Reports indicate significant ongoing harm to consumers and surfacing a set of second-order risks across the economy. This includes harm to landlords that may not receive timely rent payments as a result of Bilt’s conduct and to merchants that may miss out on business as a result of Bilt’s reported processing issues,” reads the letter. 

The Bilt card drew attention in the financial marketplace for allowing cardholders to pay their rent without additional fees, and earn points that could be transferred to and redeemed with popular travel partners. However, the fintech’s original bank partner, Wells Fargo, exited the partnership after losing at least tens of millions of dollars from it, according to the Wall Street Journal. Earlier this year, Bilt relaunched its card lineup with its new bank partner, Column Bank, and processor-issuer Cardless, unveiling three separate cards offering a range of promised benefits and even the ability for cardholders to pay their mortgage with a Bilt 2.0 card. However, some Bilt 2.0 cards now carry a large annual fee and require borrowers who want to pay their rent or mortgage with the Bilt card to either pay a hefty fee or generate significant card spend on other transactions to offset the fee. 

Over the weekend, fintech journalist Jason Mikula rounded up a host of concerning social media posts from Bilt users, including failed rent and mortgage payments. Despite the fact that cardholders were beginning to incur fees for late rent and mortgage payments, cardholders were reportedly told that “live specialist support isn’t available due to high volume” and were repeatedly routed to useless AI chatbots that were unable to solve their problems. Social media posts, documented by Mikula, surfaced a host of other problems with the Bilt 2.0 cards that may point to violations of key federal consumer protection laws.

“The practices described above may violate specific, enumerated consumer protections guaranteed under the 2009 CARD Act and the Truth in Lending Act, including requirements related to the timing of billing statements and required notices related to the changes in material terms associated with a credit card. In addition to potential violations of the CARD Act and TILA, Bilt’s reported conduct, as described above, offers evidence of potential violations of the Consumer Financial Protection Act’s prohibition on unfair, deceptive, and abusive practices,” the letter continues.

Since taking over the CFPB last year, the Trump administration has sought to dismantle the agency and fire as much as 90 percent of its staff—actions that have been so far halted by federal courts. Despite the CFPB’s important role in supervising the consumer financial marketplace, Trump ally Russell Vought—who has been running the agency for more than a year—has made clear his intent to prevent CFPB staffers from carrying out their duties. The CFPB’s supervision team, which works behind the scenes to ensure that financial institutions are following the law, has been told by the Trump administration that it must recite a “humility pledge” before carrying out examinations, and in 2026, the CFPB has planned to carry out just a few dozen examinations, all of which will be virtual.

Further Reading

Protect Borrowers Substack on the Bilt 2.0 Troubles: https://indebt.substack.com/p/this-week-in-debt-392026 

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About Protect Borrowers

Protect Borrowers (formerly Student Borrower Protection Center) is a nonprofit organization led by a team of experts, lawyers, and advocates fighting to build an economy where debt doesn’t limit opportunity. We investigate financial abuses, take predatory companies to court, and push for policies to protect working people from debt traps. We aim to deliver immediate relief to families while building power, driving systemic change, and fighting for racial and economic justice.

Learn more at protectborrowers.org or follow us on social @BorrowerJustice.