Brex Review

Services Offered By Brex

Brex began its life as a corporate card issuer for startups, but the company is so much more now. Besides its corporate card, Brex is positioning itself to be the sole financial services provider for businesses. Most notable is its cash management account offering called Brex Cash. While Brex Cash isn’t a bank account, it attempts to replace the traditional bank account by making banking simple, easy to use, and free.

Here’s a quick rundown of everything you can get with Brex:

• Cash management account
• Corporate card
• Instant revenue
• Expense tracking
• Automatic bill pay
• Spend controls

Note that while Brex provides financial services similar to a bank, Brex itself is not a bank. Instead, Brex partners with several banking institutions, including LendingClub, Emigrant Bank, and JP Morgan Chase, to offer its cash management account and corporate card products.

Brex Rewards & Perks

This Brex corporate card comes with some eye-popping points-earning on several spending categories. However, it’s important to note that you’ll only be eligible to earn points at these rates if you make Brex your exclusive corporate card.

If — and only if — you qualify for Brex’s exclusive program, and you make daily automatic payments using Brex Cash, you’ll get the following points bonuses:

• 8x points per $1 on ridesharing and taxis
• 5x points on Brex Travel
• 4x points on restaurant purchases
• 3x points on software subscriptions and eligible Apple product purchases
• 1x points on everything else

If you don’t qualify for Brex’s exclusivity program, all your purchases will earn you an unlimited 1 point per dollar spent. If you opt for weekly or monthly payments, you’ll receive 1 point less per dollar spent on each of the bonus categories (except for Apple purchases, which always net 3x points). Points earned never expire.

You can use your points to pay for flights, hotels, and Airbnb stays so long as you book through Brex Travel. You can also transfer your points to partner airlines or redeem them as cash back (as long as you’re enrolled in Brex Cash), statement credit, gift cards, or crypto, such as Bitcoin or Ethereum.

Brex customers can additionally enjoy exclusive signup offers from various products and tools worth over $150,000 in value. Example bonuses here include:

• Amazon Web Services: $2,500 in credit and up to $100,000 in AWS Activate, depending on eligibility
• QuickBooks: Get 40% off your first 12 months of QuickBooks
• UPS: Save up to 50% every time you ship
• Gusto: Get 50% off any plan for 12 months
• Slack: 25% off 12 months of eligible Slack paid plans

Brex Pricing & Fees

Brex is free to use — there are no annual or account fees, nor are there global ACH or wire transfer fees. You also won’t be charged for requesting additional employee cards. Plus, the Brex card carries no foreign transaction fee. Combine that with the generous points-earning for travel purchases, and you’ve got the makings of a nifty business travel card.

Brex Eligibility Requirements

Brex does not check your personal credit score when you apply for an account, and it won’t require a personal guarantee. However, Brex is available only to C-corp, S-corp, LLC, or LLP corporations. As Brex underwrites with Employer Identification Numbers (EINs) and not Social Security numbers, consumers, sole proprietors, and other unregistered businesses are not eligible (sole proprietorships are not eligible even if they have a valid EIN). Additionally, only companies incorporated in the US are eligible for Brex, and your business must not run afoul of the prohibited and restricted activities list.

According to Brex, when assessing your company for eligibility, “Brex analyzes a company’s business model, source of funds, spending patterns, and other areas that may pose a higher risk to Brex and our partners.” Those who wish to pay off their Brex bill weekly or monthly will need to have at least $50,000 cash in the bank. Those willing to pay their bill daily will have no minimum cash requirement.

Brex Features

Brex’s feature set is built around its corporate card and cash management account products. These tools enable businesses to more easily track where and how employees are spending money. Brex ultimately aims to help businesses streamline company spending cheaply — most features won’t cost your business a cent.

Brex’s current features — and potentially its future plans — mean that it tries to be the “all-in-one” financial solution for small and growing businesses. Brex’s co-founder and CEO, Henrique Dubugras, previously told The Takeoff, “We want to create something we call a financial operating system: everything you need to run your business from a financial perspective, all in one place.”

Let’s take a deeper look at additional features Brex bundles in:

• Cash Storage Options: You can choose to store your company’s money via Brex’s partner banks (eligible for FDIC insurance up to $250,000) and/or a government money market mutual fund. The money market mutual fund offers an estimated yield of 0.03%.
• Instant Access To Online Revenue Payouts: Connect your Brex account to your eCommerce sales platform and access instant payouts within minutes of getting approved for your Brex account. Supported platforms include Amazon, PayPal, Shopify, Square, and Stripe.
• Flexible Credit Limit: Your company’s credit limit for the Brex Card fluctuates automatically as your business grows.
• Receipt Matching: Upload receipts to the Brex mobile app, and they will be automatically matched to your company’s statement. Receipts can also be submitted via text and email.
• Fraud Coverage & Alerts: Brex keeps your account secure with 24/7 fraud monitoring.
• Travel Perks: 24/7 concierge assistance.
• Software Integrations: Including QuickBooks, Xero, NetSuite, Expensify, Concur, Gusto, and Rippling.
• Pay Invoices Automatically: Forward bills and invoices to Brex via email to pay vendors without additional data entry.
• Spend Controls: Set custom expense policies and manage employee spending with approvals for out-of-policy spending and limit increases, and alerts for unusual spending, duplicate subscriptions, or price increases.

Finally, you can add money to your Brex account via a number of different methods. Let’s take a look at the typical processing times for each method:

Brex Customer Service

After trawling through various websites such as G2 and Twitter for user experiences, we can say that Brex has generally well-received customer service. In fact, several users suggest that Brex’s customer service is better than that of traditional banks. Users appreciate Brex for having customer service that is quick, friendly, and helpful.

To contact Brex’s customer service, you will have two official options:

• Live web chat
• Phone calls, seven days a week

We’ve also noticed that Brex is responsive across its social media channels, including Twitter and Facebook.

Brex Reviews & Customer Complaints

Brex scores highly across user reviews. Brex receives an average of 4.7/5 stars (based on over 300 reviews) on G2 and an average of 4.8/5 stars (based on over 70 reviews) on Capterra. Brex does take a bit of a misstep, though, when looking at its mobile app reviews. The mobile app scores an average of 3.7/5 stars (based on over 150 reviews) on the Apple App Store and an average of 3.6/5 stars (based on over 140 reviews) on the Google Play Store.

Since bursting onto the scene in 2017, Brex has consistently been considered one of the top fintech startups. Brex credit card reviews reflect that Brex is a solid company that offers a quality product.

What Users Like

• Great rewards
• Smooth and easy onboarding
• Intuitive user interface
• Virtual cards
• Spending is updated instantly in real-time

What Users Dislike

• Uploading receipts can be a hassle
• Expense tracking is bare-bones (limited filtering options, no AI-driven analytics)
• Trouble receiving promotional bonus points
• The Brex mobile app can be slow to load and has login issues

Is Brex Safe?

Brex is not a bank and Brex Cash is not a bank account. However, Brex’s financial services are backed up by traditional banks. Specifically, Brex has partnered with LendingClub Bank for its banking services and with Emigrant Bank, to issue the Brex card. Brex also has a partnership with JPMorgan Chase Bank. LendingClub, Emigrant Bank, and JP Morgan Chase are all FDIC members, and Brex Cash is FDIC-insured for up to $250,000.

On top of its banking partners, Brex’s corporate card operates on the Mastercard network. This means that customers will have access to the World Elite Mastercard slate of benefits, which includes ID theft protection to help minimize fraud.

Put together, these factors mean that Brex should be generally safe to work with — at least, no less safe than working with a normal bank.

Final Verdict: Is Brex Worth It?

Brex is well on its way to building a one-stop-shop for business financial solutions. Between its cash management account and its corporate card, Brex will be well-suited for businesses that need to store cash and make it easy for employees to make purchases. Plus, the company offers solid expense tracking and receipt matching tools, ultimately helping businesses understand where and how money is spent.

Whether Brex is worth it to your business will depend on individual factors. That said, Brex will be a solid choice for many businesses out there — we feel solid recommending it for any business in need of a corporate card, a cash management account, or both.

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After hours of in-depth research and evaluation, we can confidently recommend this brand to our readers. Get started today and see Brex for yourself.

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