Brex Card review

If you’re the owner of a startup company, scrambling for funding and pulling your hair out over the lack of good credit options for managing your business’ cash flow, the new Brex Card is worth a look.

Brex describes itself as the “financial OS for the next generation of tech,” offering credit cards, bank accounts, payments, expenses and accounting all in one place, and the Brex Card is the issuer’s latest rewards card offering.

With its ongoing rewards and generous credits and discounts, the Brex Card is tailor-made for the buying habits of startup owners. It’s also easier to apply for the card than for the typical business credit card and offers completely automated expense management to free up more of your time for your growing business.

See related: Guide to Brex: The card for startups

Applying for the Brex Card

Brex goes outside the usual process for applying for a corporate or business credit card. Instead of requiring a personal guarantee, Brex requires you to link your corporate bank account to the card as a security deposit (and they guarantee that the process is very secure). This provides a couple of advantages:

• Your personal credit isn’t linked to the card. There’s no impact to your personal credit score when you apply, and your personal finances aren’t at risk in case you can’t pay your card balance.
• The approval process is much faster than usual. Rather than having to mail in paperwork and wait weeks for a response, Brex can approve your application instantly.

To apply, you will need to supply an EIN, which means general consumers, sole proprietors and other unregistered businesses aren’t eligible for the card. You’ll also need at least $50,000 in your corporate bank account to qualify for the card if your money is professionally invested (if not, you’ll need $100,000).

See related: How to get an EIN

Earning points

The Brex card can be highly rewarding for businesses that spend heavily on transportation, travel and dining. The card offers up to 7 points per dollar on ride-share purchases, 4 points per dollar on travel purchased through Brex Travel, 3 points per dollar on restaurants, 2 points per dollar on recurring software purchases, such as Salesforce or GitHub and 1 point per dollar on all other purchases.

You’re also rewarded for making daily card payments using Brex Cash. Opting for daily over monthly statements boosts your rewards rate to 8 points per dollar on ride-share purchases, 5 points per dollar on Brex Travel and 4 points per dollar on dining.

Note, you have to be an Exclusive Brex member to qualify for the category bonuses. In other words, you have to agree to use the Brex card exclusively for your business. The Brex Card automatically comes with Brex Exclusive benefits for the first two months, after which, if you have multiple corporate cards, you’ll only earn a rate of 1 point per dollar on all your purchases.

Furthermore, the bonus on travel purchases is fairly restrictive – it only applies to purchases via Brex’s portal. If you opt to purchase from other sites, you’ll only earn 1 point per dollar.

Redeeming points

Another plus of the card – your points are simple to redeem and fairly flexible. Points don’t expire and you can redeem any amount at any time. Your redemption options include cash back (i.e., statement credits against your purchases) and business travel through the Brex website at a value of 1 cent per point. You can also gift your points to your employees.

Transferring points

As a great value add, Brex recently added the option to transfer points to outside airline partners. Brex’s list of partners is on the small side – there are only eight airlines in total. However, they are all partners of major airline alliances, which means you can use your points to travel on a worldwide network of airlines.

If you are a Brex Exclusive member and qualify to transfer your points at a 1:1 ratio (regular card members only qualify for a ratio of 1.5:1), you can significantly boost the value of your points by looking for deals with Brex’s airline partners.

Two-tiered welcome offer

Brex recently upped its sign-up bonus to give new cardholders a choice between 30,000 points after spending $3,500 in their first 30 days as a card member or 50,000 points after spending $9,000 in their first 30 days. Those are solid sign-up bonus values for a no-annual-fee card and offer a nice incentive on top of the generous discounts that come with the card. However, the spending threshold required to secure the top sign-up bonus is very high given the 30-day window (most competing cards give you at least 90 days to meet a sign-up bonus spending requirement this high).

No annual fee

The Brex card is officially a no-annual-fee card and you get five employee cards included at no cost, but there is a $5 charge per month for additional employee cards. This amounts to $60 per year for each employee beyond the first five that you add to your account. Many business cards – such as the American Express Blue Business Cash™ Card – allow you to add employee cards for no fee. You should weigh your options if you’re looking for the least expensive way to dole out additional cards.

Easy expense tracking

One standout feature of the Brex card is automated expense tracking. It’s common for business credit cards to integrate with QuickBooks and allow you to upload and tag receipts on the go, but Brex one-ups all its competitors by automating the entire process. Whether you snap a photo, email or text your receipts, Brex will scan them and automatically match them to expenses on your statement, sparing you a lot of effort.

From there, you can easily download your expenses to your accounting software – including QuickBooks, Xero, NetSuite and Expensify – giving you more time to focus on other areas of your business.

Other features

The Brex Card offers a few other unique and useful features for managing a startup:

• Dynamic credit limit – Your credit limit is determined dynamically by the amount of capital you’ve raised/equity in your company and your company’s spending patterns. According to Brex, this enables them to offer credit limits that are 10 to 20 times higher than most business cards.
• Build business credit – Brex reports your payment history to both Dun and Bradstreet and Experian, helping you create a track record for your business.
• Instant virtual cards – You can issue virtual cards to your employees instantly and set individual credit limits on the cards.
• No foreign transaction fees – You can use your Brex card on purchases outside the U.S. without racking up the usual 3% foreign transaction fees that most cards charge.
• Fraud protection – Brex has you covered for fraudulent transactions – they will immediately suspend your account when an unauthorized transaction occurs and will credit you for all unauthorized transactions within five to 10 business days.
• Travel discounts – Cardholders receive enterprise travel rates for travel booked through the Brex travel portal.
• World Elite Mastercard benefits – The card is a World Elite Mastercard, with all the standard benefits, including travel and purchase protections.

Who should get the Brex Card

• Owners of startups and other new businesses looking for a quick application card that helps build a business credit history.
• Business owners looking for a business credit card that doesn’t require a personal guarantee.
• Businesses that spend heavily on dining, travel and transportation.
• Business owners looking for great savings on business software and services.

How to use the Brex Card

• Keep your payments timely to help create a positive track record for your business.
• Plan to use the Brex card exclusively for your business to qualify for the card’s bonus earnings.
• Assign virtual cards to your employees to earn points on their expenditures (plan to pay a $5 monthly fee for each employee card).
• Use the card’s automated expense tracking to save time for yourself and your employees.
• Transfer your points to Brex’s airline partners to get an even better return on your rewards.

Is the Brex card worth it?

The Brex is a great option for its target audience of startup owners and entrepreneurs. If you’re looking for a more accessible option for building cash flow and a credit history for your new business, and you spend heavily on typical startup expenses such as ride-sharing and travel, the Brex card may be the way to go. Plus, since the Brex card offers a large list of very valuable discounts and credits in the first year of membership, it’s worth giving the card a test run to see if it matches your business needs.

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