Brex is a user-friendly corporate credit card and cash management software for startups. For early-stage companies, Brex is the only cash management card they would ever need.
The card comes with a credit limit based on your company’s cash flow with no annual fee.
In this Brex credit card review, we’ll give you the details on Brex so you can decide if it is the right option for you.
Let’s start with a quick overview.
Brex is a fintech company. It offers full financial and cash management services for venture-backed startups.
Unlike other business credit cards, the Brex card has specific eligibility requirements making it available for certain startups and businesses.
There are no foreign transaction fees on almost any business transaction, including ACH or wire transfers worldwide. And your credit limit will depend on the Brex cash account balance. There is no personal guarantee or credit check required for a Brex card.
Other exclusive partner perks are also available. This perks include discounts on AWS, Quickbooks, and other tools used by software founders.
Brex only offers a charge card. It is required to provide your bank account details to Brex. Monthly payments are automatically made from your account, in full, on the due date.
With a Brex card, you can make transactions at office supply stores or any other. You can seamlessly handle all your business expenses without worrying about any fees.
Brex does not charge any fee on transactions, and there is no interest in any payment.
Then how does Brex make money?
Unlike traditional business credit cards, Brex doesn’t make money from its customers. Instead, every transaction made on a Brex card charges a percentage of the interchange fee.
This is the main reason we recommend Brex to all founders: it is completely free to use.
Merchants pay a fee to accept credit cards from their customers, known as the interchange fee.
This fee is paid to card-issuing banks acquired when a customer makes a transaction. The average rate of interchange fees in the United States is around 1.8% for credit cards – which is not charged by customers.
For Brex, this is the main way of making money. But it also makes some money through partner relationships and banking investments.
Brex offers a variety of cards, such as
Like any other credit card, Brex’s physical card can be used for daily transactions. Users can request their physical cards from the all-cards section.
It takes around seven days to be delivered.
If you need a contactless physical card, you can contact customer support and request the contactless capability enabled.
These are similar to physical credit cards but exist online. Virtual credit cards are considered a safer option for making online purchases.
On checkout of an online purchase, you can enter the 16-digit card number and process the transaction. The record will be kept in your account statement as it happens on a physical credit card.
Having a virtual credit card gives you peace of mind. Here is how:
Hackers render a virtual card useless because their security can’t be compromised via insecure connections or data breaches.
But still, a virtual card isn’t fraud-proof. You have to be attentive and monitor your statements regularly.
If your business needs more control over a credit card to make vendor or procurement payments, you can request a vendor card from Brex.
Brex vendor card comes with the following features:
These are short-term cards. You can make as many as you want.
Besides these, there is another type of Brex card, which is the metal card. Brex offers metal cards to selected users.
There is no eligibility criteria to request a metal card. The Brex team determines to whom they should issue the metal card or not.
If they decide to offer a metal card, they will reach out to you with details.
Brex offers multiple control options to let you use your complete ownership of a credit card.
Some of the card controls options in Brex are:
These features let you use your Brex credit card with authority while checking the security and safety of data.
If you want to stop using your card at any point, you can cancel it from your account. You can also request a new credit within a few clicks.
Rewards and perks on transactions give a good opportunity to win cashback and save money. Brex is known for mind-blowing credit transaction perks.
There is a welcome bonus of 50,000 points on spending $1,000 within three months. Besides this, if you want to earn points, you need to use Brex as your exclusive corporate card.
You also need to agree to make automatic daily payments using a linked Brex Cash account. Once you meet these conditions, you’ll earn points with the following rates:
To earn points at this rate, you have to make sure that :
You will earn points at a slightly lower rate if you do not meet any of the above-mentioned requirements.
Brex has partnered with several brands and offers exclusive signup offers to its customers. Here are some discounts you can avail of as a Brex user.
Brex offers automated options for bill payment. You can manage your bill in one dashboard.
Paying invoices on due dates is as easy as forwarding an email and making wires or ACH transfers anywhere in the world.
You can forward your bills to Brex or ask your vendors to send them. The rest will be taken care of.
Brex will sync your bills and invoices with the transaction details to help you have a better look at your expenses.
With all the automation, you would still be the one to choose your payment type and timing. You can also send fast payments from Brex Cash by any available options, such as wire, ACH, or domestic/international check.
You can keep everything in sync by integrating your accounting system within Brex.
Brex offers flexible credit limits that are mainly based on the balance in your linked bank account or Brex Cash account.
Brex uses three ways to determine a credit limit for a Brex card.
All these methods are used to determine your current credit limit. However, your credit limit won’t be more than the available cash in your linked account, which could be an external bank or Brex Cash account.
If you make daily payments, your credit limit can be as high as 100% of your balance.
Brex has advanced fraud monitoring features to help you secure your account 24/7. By staying at peace about account security and funds safety, you can pay better attention to finances and transactions.
Brex admin and card users can register a fraudulent transaction dispute directly from the dashboard. This will automatically cancel the card. Plus, Brex will flag any suspicious transaction.
Brex comes with all features you need to manage finances and cash.
You can avoid accounting errors and easily reconcile by integrating top-notch account software with Brex.
With one click of easy integration, you can integrate Brex with QuickBooks, Xero, NetSuite, Expensify, Concur, Gusto, Sage Intacct, SAP Concur, Oracle Netsuite, and Rippling.
These integration options let you sync your Brex account with any ERP to give you a real-time view. With that, you can access your financial data in a single dashboard.
Brex also integrates with HR and identity platforms. This lets you automatically issue cards and adjust spending amounts when new employees join.
Brex has a separate portal powered by TravelBank that uses real-time data to come up with travel cost and budget predictions.
As a Brex user, you will get access to this portal. Here you can find curated travel booking options with corporate rates.
Plus, there’s also a reward program to incentivize the cost-effective options. With that, you can take advantage of additional perks on bookings.
Brex also offers 24/7 customer support and travel concierge service.
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Your Brex account subscription gives you access to many other tools to facilitate finances. Here are some other services offered by Brex.
A cash management account offered by Brex functions similarly to a business bank account. You can securely deposit checks, send and receive payments, pay invoices and bills, and do everything a bank account lets you do.
Brex lets you issue cards, search transactions, approve payments or follow up, all in one place.
You can send receipts to the Brex team via email or text and get them matched with the right expenses. This facilitates easy data sync across systems and automates reconciliation.
Plus, you can create custom spending reports to identify any excess spending. This helps you in cutting down the excess and finding cost-saving opportunities.
Brex Empower is a card and spends management tool. It is 100% compliant with 0 receipts chasing in 100+ countries.
With Empower, you can automate the process of receipts generation, visual expense policies, and nested budgets, making it easy to do the right thing.
With this tool, you can easily handle global reimbursements, transact with cards in 100+ countries, and answer your questions 24/7 via WhatsApp.
You can easily connect it with any other app and automate your work with API integrations.
Managing budgets and financial data takes most of the founders’ time. Brex has an easy solution – Pry.
Pry is an intuitive platform that lets founders easily manage financial models, hiring plans, budgets, and runway.
With Pry, you can replace unreliable data spreadsheet templates with accurate forecasting in real-time. It helps you stay prepared for any scenario.
You can create your interactive dashboard and set KPIs for each dataset.
Here is a quick list of eligibility requirements.
The eligibility requirements to create an account with Brex are easy. However, Brex focuses on working with startups that have equity investments.
The equity investment could be any amount and any kind, such as from a startup accelerator, angel, VC, or web3 token.
Startups are also required to have a certain amount of yearly revenue. This revenue also decides the creditworthiness and credit limit of the Brex corporate card.
The Brex team also takes note of referrals by existing customers. If your startup is on track to meet the eligible category and an existing customer is referring to you, the Brex team will consider the referral.
However, it can take up to 15 business days to review your application and reach a conclusion.
Besides this, Brex also does an in-depth analysis of:
If you meet the eligibility criteria, contact the Brex team to create an account.
Brex is a member of the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC), and its card operates on the Mastercard network. If you are using a Brex credit card, you have access to all benefits offered by the World Elite Mastercard slate of benefits.
It has advanced ID theft protection features to minimize fraud. This advanced fraud monitoring and protection ensure a secure browsing experience, data privacy, authentication, and full PCI-DSS certifications.
All of these features prove that Brex is safe to use. You can manage finances and transactions without worrying about security and privacy.
Brex is a top-rated corporate card with above-average rewards. Almost none of its competitors are as good as Brex in offering
Here’s a quick comparison of Brex with its competitors.
Ramp is a traditional business credit card with as good features as Brex.
The ramp offers 1.5% cash back on eligible purchases, which is slightly lower than the rewards offered by Brex. But it still allows a business owner to build business credit while completing business expenses.
You can issue employee cards for free, access over $350,000 in partner rewards, and manage your spending and expenses with the expense management software.
All of these features are as good as Brex’s.
Plus, there is no requirement for a credit score, annual fee, or account fee, but the balance required in your bank account is $750K, slightly higher than the amount required for Brex.
The Ramp corporate card is available for corporations and LLCs, whereas Brex is available for C-corp, S-corp, LLC, & LLP.
If your business is eligible or close to the eligibility criteria of Brex, it is better to get a Brex credit card.
If you compare credit cards based on rewards and perks, you will find Divvy closer to Brex. Divvy offers 1.5x-7x rewards points closer to the rewards points range of Brex.
Brex is completely free. There are no annual fee charges or account setup charges. Divvy charges a late payment fee and a foreign transaction fee.
However, the bank balance requirement of Divvy is significantly lower than the Brex. To create a Brex account, you are required to have $50k in your bank account or more, depending on the business type. However, Divvy requires you to have just $20k.
Still, Divvy can’t win the Brex vs. Divvy battle.
Brex comes with additional features like Brex Cash, Empower, and financial modeling. Divvy doesn’t offer such features except for expense management software.
Divvy also expects applicants to have a good credit score — which is not even required in Brex.
For early-stage startups, meeting the eligibility criteria of Brex is challenging. Mercury serves all small and medium-sized startups.
Mercury charges no annual fee, no account set-up fee, and no minimum balance is required. You can send free domestic wires and free USD international wire transfers.
With Mercury rewards, you can earn points per dollar spent on a transaction.
Plus, if you need to exchange currency, you will pay a 1% fee on the total amount.
All of these features are pretty basic and easy. But Mercury requires you to have a fair credit score.
These features make Mercury a suitable option for startups in their initial stages.
Brex has been outranking many business credit cards with its great features. With multiple fee-free payment options, you can do almost anything you need to manage finances.
However, we also have other options, like Mercury, Ramp, and Divvy. But Brex has been winning the comparison battle for its advanced features, i.e., Brex Cash, Empower, and financial modeling.
If you are on track to grow your startup into a huge business, it is better to stick with a good finance management option.
Yes, Brex is a real credit card. Whether you have a physical or virtual credit card, you can use it like any other credit card. Plus, it operates on the Mastercard network, ensuring better safety and security.
Ramp is a good credit card option. However, Brex is better than Ramp regarding the reward system and minimum bank balance requirement. Brex also has advanced features like Brex Cash, expense management, and financial modeling.
You need to meet the following eligibility criteria and contact sales with the necessary documents to get approved for Brex.
Yes, Brex gives you a credit limit based on the total cash they have visibility into. This credit limit will change depending on the cash amount and is different for different business types.
Brex is a completely fee-free platform. There is no cost to using any of Brex’s services, including the corporate card. If you want a Brex card, contact the Brex team to help you get started.
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