Brex Card review: Elevated rewards for frequent payments

The Brex Card offers several advantages that may make it a good choice for business owners, including a high rewards rate on purchases involving food, travel, and business-related categories, flexible redemption options that can be used toward airline partners along with minimal fees.

Rates and fees: No annual fee or APR

If you’re looking for a credit card that will help you manage your expenses and save money on fees while avoiding high interest rates, this card is certainly worth considering. The Brex Card is a charge card, so it doesn’t have an APR you can compare to other cards. However, this card’s lack of fees is a major bonus. The Brex Card comes with no annual fee, no fee for employee cards, and no foreign transaction fees, so it could be a good fit for those who travel often.

Rewards: Highest rewards rate for those who make daily payments

For customers with a Brex Cash account that make daily payments, the Brex Card offers up to 8X points per dollar spent on certain purchases, so it can be fruitful for business owners who spend a lot in those top-earning bonus categories. If you decide to make daily payments, you can earn in the following categories:

• 8X on rideshare purchases
• 5X on travel booked through Brex Travel
• 4X on restaurants
• 1.5X on ads
• 1X on other purchases

Interestingly, companies that identify as Tech or Life Sciences can earn rewards tailored to their industry. For example, tech companies can also earn 3X on recurring software purchases. Life science companies earn 8X on conference tickets and 2X on lab supplies.

These are some standout rewards offerings that certainly carry value for businesses that fall into these categories, but its standard rewards rates are much less rewarding. If you pay your credit card bill monthly instead of daily, you’ll typically earn 1X points less in most categories. This is true for companies in any industry. Generally speaking, cardholders who pay their bill monthly will earn:

• 7X on rideshares
• 4X on Brex Travel
• 3X on restaurants
• 2X on recurring software
• 1X on other purchases

That said, individuals will need to choose whether they want to pay their card off daily (through a connected Brex Cash account) or monthly, and the highest rewards rates go to those who make daily payments. It’s a unique offer in the credit card landscape that rewards reliable cardholders and encourages good financial habits.

Redemption: Flexible choices, especially toward travel

The Brex Card offers quite a few ways to redeem rewards, including for flights and hotels booked through Brex Travel, gift cards, a statement credit or cash back into a Brex Cash account. You can also turn your rewards into Bitcoin or Ethereum through Brex partner TravelBank.

Brex even has airline partners, all of which let you transfer your Brex points to airline miles at a rate of 1:1. Brex airline partners include the following:

• Aeromexico
• Air France / Flying Blue
• Asia Miles
• Avianca
• Emirates
• Qantas
• Singapore Airlines

Brex points are worth the standard rate of one cent each when redeemed for options like statement credits or travel through Brex. However, you may be able to get more value for your rewards if you transfer your points to partner airlines and make high-value redemptions from there. This is a nice feature that can certainly help you stretch your points a bit further.

While a 1:1 rate is nice, there are better transfer rates available on travel credit cards. Typically, these cards also come with more expansive transfer partners. For frequent travelers, a card specifically designed for maximum travel rewards and convenience will certainly outpace the Brex Card. 

Despite the fact that the Brex Card offers a high rewards rate and a variety of redemption options, there are some unfavorable factors to consider, such as the lack of a welcome offer and minimal perks in comparison to other business rewards cards.

Welcome offer: Decent bonus, but high spending requirement

The Brex Card gives new customers the chance to earn either 30,000 points after they spend $3,500 in their first 30 days as a card member or 50,000 points after spending $9,000 in their first 30 days.

While that's a generous offer for a no-annual-fee card (especially the 50,000-point offer), these spending requirements may be intimidating for some small-business owners. Most competing cards give you at least 90 days to meet such a high spending requirement, and a few also carry comparable or even higher-value bonus offers. Still, if you have a large business purchase on the horizon or regularly spend over $9,000 on business expenses in 30 days, this tiered bonus offer is a nice perk.

Keep in mind, too, the value that comes with the card's other perks and features, which, combined with the bonus, could easily beat out the first-year value you'd get on other business rewards cards.

Cardholder perks: Solid value, but limited flexibility

The Brex Card comes with discounts on software and services that can amount to some healthy savings if you’re already using these services or plan to integrate them into your business operations. Benefits you get with the Brex Card include:

• Integration with bookkeeping software: The Brex Card integrates with QuickBooks, Xero and other bookkeeping software in order to help you track your business expenses and cash flow. This can help you save time and resources, putting more minutes in your pocket to work on what’s important.
• Expense tracking and bill pay: The Brex Card also has built-in expense tracking tools that help you monitor each individual employee’s spending. A bill pay feature lets you track business invoices and payments in one place without any transaction fees. Additionally, you can issue unlimited virtual cards for free to your employees, a convenient feature for you and them because you can open and close these cards as needed.
• Special partner discounts: Brex customers can qualify for special perks from partners. In the past, the card has offered discounts with Quickbooks, UPS, Gusto, Slack and more

Overall, the Brex Card is pretty light on perks, which is one of its major downsides. Other business cards come with benefits like travel insurance, annual statement credits or global airport lounge access. Considering the card has no annual fee, this is to be expected. 

Before you sign up for the Brex Card, it’s smart to compare it to other options on the market today. Consider the following alternative business credit cards before you make your decision.

It’s a great idea to think about a gap in your potential rewards earned with the Brex Card and try to fill that with a traditional credit card. This way you retain the option to carry a balance on larger expenses and make sure that you’re earning as much back as you can on every purchase. Plus, another credit card will increase your overall credit limit, in turn giving you more purchasing power.

The Brex Card has a complicated rewards structure that may or may not make sense for you and your company. Sure, the rewards rate is high in several categories, but your business has to make fairly specific purchases all year to maximize your points. For example, you only earn bonus points on travel when you book through the Brex Travel portal. Plus, the highest rewards rate is for rideshares, which you may not even use that often.

Also note that the Brex Card requires you to pay your balance in full every month at the maximum, which means you can’t rely on this line of credit when your business is suffering from a cash flow issue. All things considered, the Brex Card is best for cash flow positive businesses that spend a lot in the card’s bonus categories already. For businesses that spend more variably, however, a credit card with a more nuanced rewards structure might be the better option.

The Brex Card is actually offered in two different forms — a business card that is paid off daily through an attached Brex Cash account or a business card users can pay off monthly. Even though paying your card off daily through a connected business bank account qualifies you for the highest rewards rate, the business card option you pay off monthly comes with the potential for higher limits.

Whatever payment frequency you choose, rewards aren’t the only factor in the cards landscape. Consider the main pros and cons of this card before you apply because you might see that a traditional credit card with the option to carry a balance is a better fit for you.

Our proprietary card rating system takes into account a mix of factors when scoring business credit cards, including each card’s rewards rate, estimated annual earnings, welcome bonus value, APR, fees, perks and more.

We analyzed over 50 of the most popular business credit cards and scored each based on how its key features stacked up compared to those of other cards in its category.

Here are some of the key factors that gave this card its score: