- Venmo for rent and mortgage:PayPal (Venmo) is partnering with Bilt Rewards to let people use Venmo to pay their rent and even mortgage bills starting in early 2026 [1]. This marks the first time Venmo will be officially integrated for monthly housing payments nationwide.
- Earn rewards on housing costs:Bilt — a loyalty program for renters and homeowners — will reward these Venmo payments with Bilt Points, which can be redeemed for travel, fitness classes, home decor, and more [2] [3]. Renters can even split payments with roommates through Venmo and still earn points on their share of the rent [4] [5].
- Huge network of users and properties: Bilt’s network covers 5 million+ members and 1 in 4 U.S. apartment buildings, and it’s expanding into mortgages in 2026 [6]. Those members currently can pay rent via Bilt with no fees (when using a bank account) [7]. The new deal adds Venmo as a payment option alongside ACH transfers, debit, or credit cards [8].
- Part of Venmo’s evolution: The move “brings rent payments, mortgage repayments, and neighborhood commerce into the Venmo experience, marking a major step” in Venmo’s evolution from a simple peer-to-peer app to a broader everyday commerce platform, the companies said [9] [10]. Venmo’s nearly 100 million active users will soon find more places to use the app, as 45,000+ local merchants in Bilt’s network (from restaurants to gyms) will begin accepting Venmo as well [11] [12].
- Announced at Money20/20: The partnership was unveiled at the Money20/20 fintech conference in Las Vegas and is one of Venmo’s first steps into in-app commerce beyond person-to-person payments [13]. Industry experts see it as a bid to reduce payment friction and innovate how we pay for housing [14]. PayPal executives even hope “Venmo” could become a go-to verb for paying rent, underscoring the ambition behind this move [15] [16].
Venmo Moves Into Rent (and Mortgage) Payments
PayPal’s popular peer-to-peer payment app Venmo is making a big leap from splitting dinner bills to handling rent and mortgage payments. Thanks to a new partnership with startup Bilt Rewards, millions of renters and homeowners will be able to pay their housing costs through Venmo as soon as early 2026 [17]. This means tenants could ditch writing checks or using separate portals for rent, and instead pay their landlord via the same Venmo app they use to pay friends. According to PayPal and Bilt, the integration will work within both the Bilt app and the Venmo app – offering flexibility in how people make these large monthly payments [18].
Bilt Rewards is a fintech and loyalty platform that has grown rapidly in the real estate space. It lets members pay rent through its system (at over 5 million apartment units nationwide) and earn points with each rent payment [19]. Until now, Bilt members paid via bank accounts, debit, or the Bilt credit card, but Venmo is being added as a new option alongside those methods [20]. For renters, the appeal is clear: you could pay rent with your Venmo balance or linked bank/credit card, split the rent with roommates easily in-app, and rack up reward points in the process [21] [22]. Homeowners will benefit too – the program is slated to expand to mortgage payments in early 2026, so you might eventually Venmo your mortgage each month and earn points on that hefty expense [23] [24].
The partnership isn’t limited to just rent and mortgages either. Bilt’s platform includes a network of about 45,000 neighborhood businesses – think local restaurants, cafes, gyms, and pharmacies – that offer rewards to Bilt members. With this deal, those merchants will be able to accept Venmo payments once the rollout begins [25]. In other words, Venmo users could soon pay at many local shops just by using Venmo, extending the app’s reach well beyond peer-to-peer transfers. It’s a notable step showing how Venmo is blurring the line between social payments and shopping, much like super-apps in other countries. “The partnership extends Venmo’s payment capabilities to Bilt’s network of over 45,000 merchants,” the companies noted, giving consumers more ways to use Venmo in daily life [26].
Why This Partnership Matters
This first-of-its-kind tie-up could transform how Americans handle their biggest monthly bills. Rent is often one of the last holdouts of paper checks and clunky portals. By bringing Venmo into the equation, PayPal and Bilt aim to make paying rent as quick and social as paying a friend. It’s also about adding value: renters often get no perks for paying rent, but now those using Bilt and Venmo will earn loyalty points that can go toward travel or even a future down payment [27]. Bilt says its points currency is among the highest-value in the market for redemption options like flights or fitness classes [28], so these rewards are a meaningful bonus for something as unavoidable as rent.
For Venmo (and parent company PayPal), the Bilt partnership is part of a bigger strategy to expand beyond peer-to-peer payments. Venmo has over $90 billion in quarterly payment volume (as of recent reports) and about 100 million users, but growth has been slowing [29] [30]. PayPal is looking for new ways to drive engagement – and housing payments are a huge untapped category. “Our partnership with Bilt marks a pivotal first step in our journey to bring everyday commerce directly into the Venmo experience,” said Diego Scotti, General Manager of Consumer at PayPal [31]. Millions of people already informally use Venmo to pay rent or roommates, he noted, “now we’re making that experience even more seamless and rewarding” [32]. In other words, PayPal sees an opportunity to turn a common use of Venmo into an official service that could lock in users (and generate fees or volume) on a much larger scale.
Bilt, for its part, gains the cachet and user base of Venmo’s network. “Venmo is one of the most relevant and trusted payment experiences in America, so bringing it into the Bilt ecosystem is a game-changer for our members,” said Ankur Jain, Bilt’s founder and CEO [33]. Jain emphasized that Venmo isn’t just a payment app but a social experience for millions, and integrating it with Bilt’s rent and retail network gives renters “more flexibility with how they pay and more value every single month” [34]. In plain terms, Bilt hopes to make paying rent frictionless and even fun – potentially turning what was once a painful chore into something that feels as easy as sending a Venmo request. It could also spur more people to join Bilt’s program, since membership (which is free) would be the gateway to paying rent via Venmo and getting rewards [35] [36].
Industry watchers say this collaboration is a sign of the fintech and real estate worlds colliding in new ways. The announcement came at Money20/20, a major financial technology event, underlining how significant the move is in fintech circles [37]. By pushing into housing payments, Venmo is following a trend of payment apps trying to handle ever more of consumers’ financial lives. “Bilt & Venmo [are] aiming to reduce friction and bring increased innovation to payments,” observed Forbes in its coverage of the news [38]. If all goes as planned, paying rent could soon be as simple as tapping a few buttons on Venmo — and saying “I’ll Venmo you” might become as common for rent and mortgages as it already is for splitting a dinner bill.
Looking Ahead: What to Expect
The Venmo–Bilt integration is slated to roll out in early 2026, and both companies hint this is “just the beginning” of broader plans [39]. In the coming months, they are expected to iron out details like fee structures and reward earning rates for payments made via Venmo. (Notably, Bilt currently doesn’t charge fees for rent payments made from a bank account [40], but it’s unclear if using a credit card through Venmo might incur the standard 3% fee that Venmo typically charges [41]. Those specifics have yet to be announced.)
Consumers interested in this feature don’t have to do anything immediately, as nothing changes until the official launch. Early 2026 is when Bilt members will get the new Venmo payment option in their app, and likely when Venmo’s app will enable a Bilt rent payment workflow as well [42]. Both apps will presumably require a one-time link of your Bilt account with Venmo. Once that’s set up, paying rent could feel very much like any other Venmo transaction. Importantly, renters will continue to get their Bilt rewards even if they pay via Venmo [43] – a key incentive that could drive adoption among points-savvy users.
For anyone who dreads rent day, this development could bring some welcome simplicity (and maybe even a few perks). It’s also a reminder of how fintech is reshaping daily finances: the apps on our phones are steadily absorbing functions that used to involve paper bills, manual bank transfers, or specialized websites. Come 2026, “Venmo me the rent” might become the new normal, blending social payments with one of life’s biggest expenses. As the partnership kicks off, all eyes will be on how smoothly it works and whether it truly delivers the promised convenience and rewards. If it succeeds, Venmo’s venture into housing payments could very well set a new standard for how we pay rent and mortgages in the future [44].
Sources: Bloomberg [45] [46]; PayPal Newsroom/PR Newswire [47] [48]; Forbes [49]; Upgraded Points [50] [51]; StockTitan (PYPL news) [52] [53].
References
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