Brex Cash is a business cash management account that comes with a linked credit card. The credit card works a bit like a debit card: you can only spend up to the amount you have available in your cash account (actually, with the Brex card, your credit limit is usually only 80% of your available cash). Even though the cash account is not technically a checking account, there’s no discernable difference that I can see. If you own an LLC, LLP, C-corp, or S-corp then this may be a good opportunity for you…
The biggest difference (in my mind) between this account and a regular business checking account is that this one is completely fee free and it offers the opportunity to earn awesome rewards. The current signup bonus (details here) offers up to 110,000 points. The Brex card also offers very good point earning rates for spend. You can cash out Brex points at a penny each (110K points = $1,100) or transfer 1 to 1 to a number of airline programs. The latter makes this opportunity even better than an $1,100 bank-like bonus. When booking flights, it’s often possible to get much more than 1 cent per point value by transferring points and booking award flights rather than paid flights.
Qualifying (and signing up) for the offer
To open a Brex Cash account, you have to own a business. Sole proprietorships don’t count. You must own a business that is registered in the United States as a C-corp, S-corp, LLC, or LLP.
Since the Frequent Miler business is an LLC, I was able to apply for Brex during the original 110K offer. The process was easy but quirky. A few times the screen just churned away with nothing happening, but by refreshing, clicking the email confirmation, or logging in again, the process moved forward. The only slightly difficult part of the application itself was uploading a picture ID to prove my identity. That part fortunately went smoothly. Altogether I had my account up and running in about 15 minutes and was immediately able to access my new card number.
Earning the full bonus
In order to earn the full 110K bonus, you’ll have to complete 3 steps:
1) 80K: Spend $9,000 within 30 days
This is undoubtedly the hardest part. You have to spend $9,000 with the Brex credit card. And, keep in mind that your credit limit will be constrained by the cash in your Brex account. So, it will be necessary to first add a lot of cash to your Brex account and then use your Brex card to spend $9,000 or more within 30 days of opening your account.
2) 10K: Spend $3,000 within first 3 months
There’s nothing to do here. If you completed step 1 and spent $9K in 30 days, then you’ll have more than met the requirement for this step.
3) 20K: Connect your payroll to Brex
The fine print says “*As well as connecting payroll, depositing sales revenue from ecommerce platforms or specific payment gateways may also qualify.” In our past experience, simply adding Brex to your PayPal wallet was enough to trigger this 20K bonus. See: Brex – How I earned 20K for depositing sales revenue.
Earning for spend
The Brex card offers the following rewards for spend:
- 8x on Rideshare (or 7x if you select the Card or Cash and Card option above)
- 5x on Brex travel
- 4x on Restaurants
- 3x on recurring software like Salesforce, Zendesk, Twilio, and more
- 3x on eligible Apple products like Mac and iPhone, via the Brex portal
- 1x on Everything else
Earning 8x for things like Uber (probably including Uber Eats), taxis, scooters, etc. is pretty incredible. Similarly, earning uncapped 4X transferable points for dining with a fee-free card is terrific.
Point Value and Transfer Partners
Points can be redeemed for 1 cent each or, better yet, can be transferred 1 to 1 to a number of airline transfer partners:
- Aeromexico Club Premier
- Air France/KLM Flying Blue
- Avianca Lifemiles
- Cathay Pacific Asia Miles
- Emirates Skywards
- JetBlue TrueBlue
- Qantas Frequent Flyer
- Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer
The most widely useful of the above transfer partners, in my opinion, are Avianca Lifemiles and Cathay Pacific. Avianca is an excellent option for booking Star Alliance awards since they do not pass along fuel surcharges. Cathay Pacific is good for booking flights on Cathay Pacific itself or OneWorld partners (like AA, JAL, Qantas, Qatar, etc.). Air France is also useful for booking SkyTeam awards (Delta, for example) and select partners (such as Virgin Atlantic), but the best use is probably to fly Air France or KLM when they offer good Promo Awards (discounted awards). Most of the other partners are also useful at times. For example, Emirates is a great choice for flying Emirates itself. JetBlue points tend to be most valuable for cheap JetBlue flights.
Q&A
- Is the Brex card a debit card? No, but it acts a bit like one. Your credit limit is determined by the amount of cash in your Brex Cash account.
- Is the Brex Cash account FDIC Insured? Yes, Brex Cash offers FDIC insurance up to $250,000 through Brex Cash program banks.
- Is my application approval contingent upon business revenue or years in business? No. Brex is designed to support startups. Simply provide your business name, address, corporation type, and EIN during the application process.
- Will I be taxed on the signup bonus? Will Brex issue a 1099? No.
Bottom Line
If you own a LLC, LLP, C-corp, or S-corp, signing up for Brex can make a lot of sense. It has no fees and Brex won’t issue a hard credit inquiry. Additionally, the credit card that comes with the account will not appear on your credit report (and so it will not affect your ability to get Chase cards). Unfortunately the current signup bonus requires a very large amount of spend in a very short amount of time. But if you can swing it, it’s worth a shot.
Want to learn more about miles and points? Subscribe to email updates or check out our podcast on your favorite podcast platform.
Is this deal still alive? Is there any recent experience on Brex, outside of the obvious closure of a number of accounts a few months ago?
No, sorry. It’s dead. Only 10K points now: https://frequentmiler.com/brex/
Thx for replying. I’m not seeing where you’re getting 10k points. This is the language I see at the landing page when I follow the link:
Brex and Get PEYD have partnered to give you a special offer.
Simplify your finances with corporate cards, rewards, banking alternatives, and spend management — all in one place. GetPeyd referrals get 30,000 points after spending $3,500, or 80,000 points after spending $9,000 on their Brex card within the first 30 days.
[…] Frequent Miler also wrote about Brex and how it was a great deal if you could get in on it. […]
Has anyone ever confirmed that Uber Eats gets 8x points? And does your type of business matter? Their website seems to say in the fineprint that only ‘tech’ related businesses get the advertised points structure.
@Greg, not sure which number to believe.
The 80k points after $9k in 30d that I saw before I opened the account or the 10k points after $3k in 90d as I saw after I completed account creation.
I believe the 80K number. Back when the offer was 110K total, the website only showed a tracker for 30K (IIR). You can try online chatting with them to confirm before spending the $9k. If you do, please let us know what they tell you.
[…] (HT: Frequent Miler) […]
[…] (HT: Frequent Miler) […]
Wow…9k in 30 days. Brex ain’t playin!
Be warned, this company doesn’t always pay out. It’s been months of back and forth and I still don’t have my 100k.
Wow, less than 24h after I post this I got my 100k. Still don’t trust them 100% though. 3 mo 9 days was way too long.
FYI, signed up via the Peyd offer around ~3pm on 3/1, I just chatted and the rep confirmed that the 75,000 point offer is attached to my account and should receive after spending $1000. I will report back when that happens.
We got approved with our LLC. Thanks for sharing!
Quick question: There is a virtual card and a physical card. Does it matter which one we use for the $1,000 spend? (We don’t have the physical card yet so wondering if we can knock this out real quickly with the virtual) The two cards have different account numbers but I’m assuming they’re tied to the same account so no difference.
Thanks guys!!
It shouldn’t matter which you use, but it can’t hurt to wait for the real card if you’re unsure about it.
My 80,000 for 1k brex card spend bonus posted to my account last week, but then it disappeared from my account this morning.
Has anyone else had their 80,000 OMAAT bonus removed????
We’re looking into that to see what’s going on
Another discrepancy (in this case, for the better): I have made one transaction with Brex, and it was for $500 at 1x (when I look at the card transaction on the website, it confirms that I earned 500 points). When I go to my rewards section, for some reason it says I have 3000 points (so, 6x). I immediately redeemed the 3000 points for cash. I am concerned about eventually getting the 80k, but in this instance I’m sticking with one of my golden rules: don’t ask questions you don’t want answers to.
I opened on Mar 1 for the 75k offer and I received an email on Mar 5 saying it’s taking a little bit longer to review the application, but they were offering 2500 points as a token of appreciation. That’s maybe where your extra 2500 points came from.
So I instead got the 77.5k offer 😀
I signed up and loaded/spent $3000. I only got a 10k bonus within two days of spending. Signed up through FM link. How long does the 75k bonus take?
It can take a few weeks. They generally add that component of the bonus on Tuesday or Wednesday but sometimes skip a week.
@Jason, did you end up getting your 75k bonus?
Funny. I did get a bonus, but it was 80k, not 75k. Took 3 weeks.
Haha – awesome.
FYI – the offer might be back?
Why do you say that?
the following link https://www.brex.com/partners/getpeyd/?ref_code=peyd_startup&groupcode=freqm
says
“Credit cards, bank accounts, payments, expenses, and accounting all in one place keep you in control of your growth. Peyd referrals get 75,000 points after spending $1,000, plus 30,000 more through in-platform Brex Cash milestones.”
Unless i’m missing something?
That might work but we were told that that promo was paused. So, I wouldn’t trust it to work.
But if you had applied before ~9pm on 3/1/21 you should be good you think?
We’re you told that by Peyd or Brex?
I ask because the Peyd website doesn’t say it’s paused and the Peyd referral landing page on the Brex website (linked above) still shows the promotion offer. That’s unlike the original OMaaT landing page on Brex (https://www.brex.com/partners/omat) that no longer lists the 80k portion of the bonus.
I’m really curious where you guys heard that it was paused from, because I am seeing conflicting information online but I can’t find Anywhere where Peyd says it’s paused. I’m wondering if the Peyd referral still works, but Frequent Miler’s commission through your original Peyd link has been paused.
Thanks. I really do feel like you guys have offered the best insight overall on this Brex Cash bonus.
We heard this from Peyd. I’m checking again with Peyd to see what’s going on.
Peyd says that Brex hasn’t pulled the offer, but they also haven’t answered any of Peyd’s communications for a while now. The Peyd people have no idea if the deal is being honored or not. My assumption is that it is being honored, but there’s obviously some risk here.
If anyone tries our affiliate link through Peyd, please let us know if you get the points!
https://www.brex.com/partners/getpeyd/?ref_code=peyd_startup&groupcode=freqm
it seems the link is still working? https://www.brex.com/partners/getpeyd/
That might work but we were told that that promo was paused. So, I wouldn’t trust it to work.
One thing I’m wary about with Brex is leaving points there for long. I realize they have some decent transfer partners and that is usually the best value, but this isn’t Amex/Chase/Citi. If these guys go BK when the venture cap money runs out, your remaining points are worthless. If they ever actually open my “approved” account, I will either transfer the points immediately or take the penny per. I don’t think the added flexibility of transferable Brex points is worth the risk of losing those points or having them devalued with little or no notice (bigger risk here than the big banks).
I agree!
@Greg just a nitpick but the OMAAT link had a landing page too, at least near the end of February when I applied 🙂 https://postimg.cc/jnxhf79S
Thanks. I just edited that part out. I don’t know how I missed that before!
When I posted that this company (BREX) is typically a disaster. I wrote this on the One Mile at a Time board and it was censored. I wonder why. They have a history of not stating the full and total requirements of a deal. I am in a group of big eCommerce sellers. Many were unhappy with the weird sign-up process and after the fact requirements not shown or stated. So I expect plenty of people wont get the bonus and wont get the account
Can anyone confirm is Uber eats earns 8x
I’ve had a pretty good experience with Brex. I have 2 LLCs and within about a week and a half I applied got my pseudo “you’re approved” and then my real “you’re approved” and my account was good to go. I use a feature called “direct pay” from my Wells Fargo business account which costs me $10 a month for all of my bank bonus direct deposit requirements and it always works. One thing I don’t think y’all have mentioned is what a great opportunity this is to build business credit so then you can get more credit cards and sign up bonuses under your business in the future that won’t show on your personal credit . It’s my understanding you need to create your own Dun & Bradstreet number for your business.
I find it interesting you mentioned D&B. Interesting as in I really wonder if say American Express checks for a D&B rating say on a business credit card application? Or any of the bank cards for that matter. My company of 30+ years has a D&B number and I think you are correct about applying. If I remember as a federal contractor (now retired, but still have the business), it was (is) a requirement. Seems there where more agencies than just D&B? However, I think most of credit card apps are almost all basis your FICO as when you type in your SSN, you just personally indemnified any/all liability.
PS: I tried using the card as a debit payment and was rejected. Subsequently used it as a credit card and it went through.
Applied in mid Jan. and it took about 3 weeks to get approval. I had to call the IRS and get a confirmation letter for my LLC. Customer service via email is the way to go. And the chat was helpful for a later issue. I linked a Square acct with the BREX acct and quickly rec’d the 20k bonus. A bank transfer of $250. took a while to clear the acct, but is now functioning. Hoping the big bonus eventually hits!
I’m not sure why people knock this. Even aside from the bonus, you could put $10k in your account, go buy $8k in Simon gift cards every few days, get a money order, and repeat every 2-3 days. Since it’s not Chase, Citi, or AMEX, I wouldn’t really care if I got shut down. THOSE are the valuable ones I wouldn’t wanna burn. Yeah there’s a gift card & MO cost of ~$40, but being able to earn 8k points every few days that I could transfer to those airline partners is a fantastic deal. Am I missing something?
Do we know if Simon gift cards generate points and/or count toward signup bonus?
My approval was instant. I made the deposit from my existing bank, and quickly met the spend requirement with the virtual card they issued me. Within days the bonus had posted and I transferred the 93,000 points to LifeMiles. Very easy to do. Now I’ll take a look – it does seem they offer some useful bonuses and services.
Hey Dave,
My Brex Card spend requirement posted on 2/27 – I know there are a few DP’s stating points usually hit on Tuesday. Any idea as to when yours hit? Thank you!
To be clear, all 110k points posted? On yesterday’s “ask us anything” segment, Greg said that his final 10k hadn’t posted yet. I’ve been debating if I should make sure to do all $3k spend on both cards (myself and P2) for the final 10k each, or just keep working our way through other signup bonuses. I could potentially just do simon mall gc’s, but that can be a bit of a hassle for a net of ~$90 per person.
I was thinking about using this card for any bill that gets taken from my bank account and therefore doesn’t generate any bonuses for me. Any problems you can think of for this? I’m thinking electric, gas, maybe even mortgage.
Biggest problem is they don’t make the payment in a timely fashion, you can’t reach their customer (NO) “service” and have to contact Tiffany at One Conversion at a Time to resolve your issue(s).
I don’t see how this would be any different since you won’t be able to use your Brex card either, right? As far as I understand, you’d just be linking your account number and having money withdrawn so you wouldn’t be getting any bonus points.
Sounds like there are too many people having problems with this to be worth messing with. The requirement to have an LLC, LLP, C-corp, or S-corp is enough to keep me away.
So, if I simply transfer some $ from Venmo to my Brex account, will that count as revenue to trigger the 20K bonus? Anyone know?
Probably. Another option is simply adding your Brex account to your Paypal wallet. When Paypal sends the test deposits to Brex to verify your account, those trigger the 20K
More here (and in the comments): https://frequentmiler.com/brex-how-i-earned-20k-for-depositing-sales-revenue/
Instant approval yesterday on a 30 year old S corp. However, I do not see the 80K mentioned on my site. The 30K is. So I have a chat message sent awaiting an email response about am I in for the 80K or not? That was yesterday and no word. Next I’ve tried to link my company PayPal account and thus far no luck. Used Greg’s steps. PayPal cannot verify so I’m wondering if my account is too new. I have the routing/account numbers A-OK as per Greg’s steps to the 20K. So for now I guess just wait. I don’t think I would give them either of my corporate banking account info. I prefer PayPal as my go through to fund Brex. I guess patience and see what happens.
Mine didn’t show anything about 80k either. As long as you went through the link it should post a few days after doing the $1000 spend. All I had to do was link my PayPal account and I got the 20k. Never even made a transfer.
Thanks Jeff that’s what I’m hoping on the 80K. And yes I used Greg’s link. Now to work out the bugs on linking PayPal and maybe I’m off and running. Otherwise the sign-up has been painless.
I was unsuccessful linking my business PayPal account to Brex but did have success linking my personal PayPal account.
Just applied P2 with an LLC. Got “could take 7 to 14 days”. I’m a bit concerned that I had to hit the refresh button after hitting the apply button and had to re-apply. Hope that if it is approved I will get the 80K. Also didn’t see where a choice between different types of accounts (cash or card or cash and card).
80K posted less than a week after the last transaction.
Hopefully mine will post tomorrow. DPs from OMAAT seem to suggest they do a sweep on Tuesdays. I have screen shots of the offer and have met all the requirements and received the 30k points already.
Thanks. Did a $1005 transaction on Friday and don’t have anything yet. Good to know it takes some time to post.
Hey Jeff — did your points eventually post? I my spend requirement went through on 2/27 — hoping they hit today.
Yep got it a day or two later.
I am seeing 3x on recurring software in place of the 1.5x on advertising. It could be because mine is a SaaS business. I spend about $700 a month on recurring software and I don’t know of any other card that has a bonus on this category. This could be pure gold if they also count AWS as recurring software.
Okay, I’ll be a guinea pig for the group (along with Nick).
I registered as a LLC last week with the IRS to get an EIN. Today I applied for a Brex account with just that EIN (we did this last week with P2, who has a legitimate, though not active, LLC. She was instantly approved). It appears as though I was approved, BUT they are asking for a certificate of good standing to activate my account (by Feb. 27). I was able to request that they mail my Brex credit card but I can’t actually add funds to my account until I submit the certificate.
So….it cost $130 to register as an LLC in my state, but I figured it was worth the gamble since I already appear to be approved. It’s good I have until the 27th, because my state appears to be nearly 3 weeks backed up approving requests. Fingers crossed I that I get approved (and in time), and that the certificate will get my account fully active without issue. I’ll be sure to update this post once I finish the process.
TBH, I think there’s no harm in trying what I did (sign up for an LLC through the IRS to get an EIN) and see if you’re approved by Brex with just that. Maybe I was flagged because my LLC is so new, but like I said, P2 made it through with just her old EIN.
Good info, thanks!
Following up, I got my certificate of good standing on 2/13 and uploaded it to my Brex account on 2/16. Yesterday they finally processed my upload and I’m free to load funds and use the card. I think I’m all set. Assuming the bonuses post without any issues, it’s a $130 investment for $1100. I’ll take it.
[…] FlyingBlue or Cathay Pacific as my transfer targets. If you want a more glorified write-up, see the Frequent Miler. Bad news: I cannot find an affiliate free link for signing up for this […]
I have a legitimate LLC that has generated income for the last three years. I was denied after 1 day of review. I wonder if they realized that the 80k points was a bit generous of them and are denying anyone who signs up through OMAAT.
Sorry to hear that. I have no idea why they are denying some applicants. I don’t think it has anything to do with the 80K bonus. Lots of people recently have been approved.
I spent $3000 paying my taxes on the card. I received the Spend $3000 / get 10,000 point bonus but not the Spend $1000 / get 80,000 point bonus. Do I need to spend another $1k to get that one?
Also as a datapoint, I deposited income from AirBnB and PayPal to the account – not sure which triggered it but that bonus posted quickly as well!
Thanks!
No, you don’t have to spend more. The 80K should post eventually. Give it time.
Anybody been able to link PayPal? I thought I set it up last week. Did the 2FA and all that, but cannot find it anywhere on Brex site.
This is what I am looking for as well.
Do it the other way – get your Routing/Account number from Brex and add them through the PayPal website.
Did this and it worked. Got the 20k bonus.
See this post for how I did it: https://frequentmiler.com/brex-how-i-earned-20k-for-depositing-sales-revenue/
Rejected my 10 year old LLC. No clear explanation, just you don’t meet our guidelines
I spent $1003 with my new Brex card and already see 1003 points posted. Do the 80k points post separately or does it sound like I have an issue with the OMAAT Bonus? Tried reaching them by chat and gave up after waiting over an hour.
The bonuses have posted separately for me – usually either later the same day or the next day. They send an email stating you received the points.
I received both the 10k for spending $3k and the 20k for receiving income via PayPal but I haven’t received the 80k yet. I have an email about the 80k into a support guy I’ve been working with on another issue.
I recommend giving it a couple of weeks before contacting Brex. So far I’ve only earned the 20K bonus despite having spend $3K, but I’m not worried. I’m sure it will post eventually. If not, then I’ll contact Brex support.
Just an update I was able to connect with customer service and was told 80k would post 5 business days after 1k spend. Today is exactly 5 business days for me and my 80k points posted as promised.
I got the 20,000 point bonus by attaching my business Venmo account. I talked to customer service to set it up properly, and you add the Brex routing and account number into your business Venmo account and then do the two small deposits to verify it’s your account.
And….was not acceptted. I have EIN. No payroll tho. Oh well.
Did you select to open just the Cash Account (recommended) or did you pick a different option?
I am not sure, but I assume I did that which was recommended. But I’m not sure. Is there a recon line I could call???
Signed up on Monday evening – wouldn’t let me confirm my bank account info via ‘login’ so I opted to do the ‘2 small deposits’ route to confirm it. Was waiting for a few days for that to process and I get an email just now saying they have closed my account. Email said this:
Unfortunately, we’re unable to continue offering your company an account with Brex. As a result, your Brex account has been closed.
You will continue to have read-only access to your account.
Complete your account closure in your dashboard, including downloading your records and claiming any funds currently in your account.
This decision is final. If you have any questions, please consult Brex’s Platform Agreement.
Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh, You can only get points by using the credit card and it limits you to 80% of the funds in the account. I tried the credit card and got denied, then did an ACH.
See this note from Brex:
I see that you have our daily card. The Brex 1-Day Statement card is a credit card with a single day servicing policy. These credit limits are tied to Brex Cash balance and is typically 80% of the Brex Cash available balance (noted as your ‘available spend’). Please note you’ll still have access to 100% of your Brex Cash available balance for transfers such as ACH, Wire, or Check.
For additional context the rewards will be applied typically within several days after the transaction is approved but the $1000 has to be spent on the card/credit limt not via ACH or wired funds.
I’ve updated the post to indicate the 80% thing. To spend $3K on the card, you would need to load $3,750 into your cash account.
I keep getting roadblocks, but I am sure we will get this worked out. This low hanging fruit is not quite as low as I thought. Working off a ladder now.
My next guess, they will saying paying the IRS is not a payment.
Here is a data point.
Moved $1050 from Chase and it is sitting in Brex. They give you a temporary card number and I used that to pay a $1000 invoice. DECLINED, Hmmm what gives.
Go online with Brex and do their help thingy and the lady tells me that only 80% of the funds can be used when using the card.
I did a wire transfer so only time will tell if that triggers anything.
No. Not awesome at all. It’s not a good deal. Remember this is not a credit card. It’s a cash account. Means that you have to pre-pay the money. Not many airline partners and who wants more airline points with travel down and devaluation quickly. No hotel partners. If redeeming for gift cards or cash it’s $1/100 points. Not a good deal. Also, this isn’t a bank. It’s a financial tech company.
I can understand not valuing transferable points, but how you can call $1,100 in free money not a good deal, I don’t understand.
Do you need $50,000 in the bank according to this nerdwallet article it seems to be the case https://www.nerdwallet.com/reviews/credit-cards/brex-card
No that’s based on an older version of Brex.
I got the “We’ll let you know in a couple of days”, response. Doesn’t look good. I do have a federal EIN and LLC. Now we wait…… Fingers crossed.
Same here. Applied yesterday and got approved today (virtual card). However, they have a “todo” step. I had to upload my IRS EIN letter. They said they’d “let me know in a few days.”
@john223 – exact same thing just happened to me… how long did it take for them to finish processing your EIN letter?
It took around 4 days and I got an email that I was ready to start funding. They didn’t ask for anything besides the EIN.
I have an S Corp with a partner. Do you know if they will ask me for my partner’s SSN and other data? Had that problem with Chase previously and that kept me from applying because I don’t want to get him mixed up in my personal accounts.
I don’t know. Why not try it and see?
It was too good to be true for me. I was approved yesterday (thru the OMAAT link), then got an email last night:
“Unfortunately, we’re unable to continue offering your company an account with Brex. As a result, your Brex account has been closed.
You will continue to have read-only access to your account.
This decision is final. If you have any questions, please consult Brex’s Platform Agreement.
The Brex Team
Can you somehow use a Brex account to make deposits to a SoFi Money account ? Would that be considered regular spend on the Brex card ? Could be an easy way to earn Brex points. Would love to hear your thoughts. Thanks.
You probably can move money from your Brex Cash account to your Sofi account, but that wouldn’t count for the signup bonus or for earning points. Points are earned when you spend with the Brex card that comes with your Brex Cash account.
Thanks Greg. I just read that only the initial funding of a SoFi account can be made with a debit card up to $500. So you can probably do half of the initial spend for first SUB. After that all funding of SoFi is by bank to bank transfer like you said.
Just to clarify, I have to use the Brex card to meet the initial $1K spend? I was thinking I could initiate an ACH to pay for my rent to meet that goal.
I’ll answer my own question based on a quick chat with Brex support:
“You must spend $1K on the Brex Card to receive the 80K signup bonus points. Only transactions placed on the Brex Card accrue rewards points.”
Does the bank account you fund with have to be in the name of the LLC?
No. Funded mine from personal checking.
No
As others have answered, no it does not.
Signed up and all went well. I have a small engineering business with LLC. Got a virtual card and moved money over from Chase. Will pay a $1000 bill today and see if 80K shows up. I do not see this as a long term thing, since I get other rewards that are good, but this is certainly a no brainer.
how did you move the money over from Chase? Via ACH or wire transfer?
You ask them to transfer money from your bank. In my case, I gave them the login information for Chase, Chase sends me a text giving a code to approve, and the money gets moved. Not sure the method. Did the same with Wells Fargo to put some money in my PayPal account that I will later transfer to Brex and see if that triggers a 20,000 point increase.
weird. I linked my Chase accounts. But it says I have to initiate an ACH or wire transfer. Not to worry. I can also do a check deposit via the app, so I may do that instead to avoid the ACH/wire transfer fee.
How would they know the money in a Paypal account is business revenue? Can I just move it from my LLC into Paypal? My revenue goes straight to my checking account.
I see they have a referral option, but I don’t see any benefit compared to the OMAAT signup bonus. The referral says “You both earn a $250 gift card after they spend their first $1,000”.
Right. If you use the referral, you won’t get the 80K portion of the bonus. I’d much rather have 80K points (worth at least $800) than two $250 gift cards.
I have two S Corporations. I’ve signed up with one of them and will see if I can sign up under the other as well.
As a data point, I was able to open a second Brex account with my other S Corp.
I signed up this morning per Greg’s Article and everything went through exactly as described. Initial Deposit will be in account in a few days. I will be doing the MSR at that time and will update as it processes
Halfway through the application it asks if I want to signup for Cash, Card, or Cash and Card. We just need to select cash, correct? They’re business credit card is a separate thing all together right?
You sign up for both. Have to spend $1000 on card to get bonus. You have to fund the Cash account. Money spent on Card is automatically withdrawn from Cash.
Do we have a front runner for deal of the year already?
P2, who has a (recently expired) LLC signed up. Interesting that when I go to Brex Travel, they advertise that I’ll only get 4x, but when I go to “view rewards” it says I get 5x. We probably won’t use Brex Travel much, if at all, but it’ll be interesting to do a few purchases to see what we actually earn. I’ll be more than happy with 8x on ride sharing and 4x on restaurants, but it will be interesting to see how long this gravy train lasts. All this with no AF seems unsustainable.
Success! The virtual card looks like a MasterCard logo on it. Is that what it is? Can I add funds then add this card to my Amazon account and start spending?
Yes, its a world elite Mastercard
What’s to keep someone from opening an account, getting and cashing out the bonus, then closing the account? I’m not suggesting this but if it occurs to me, it surely has occurred to other people.
Nothing. That’s how bank account bonuses work too. But why would you want to immediately close an account with no AF, 8x on ride sharing and 4x on dining?
Signing up tomorrow. Will buying $3k in money orders work?
Oh man, the magic question!
Only one way to find out…..someone’s got to be the data point.
The card isn’t a debit card — it’s a credit card that happens to act similar to a debit card in that your available credit is based on the amount of money in your account. You don’t get a PIN.
Damnit! So will need to buy GCs first. Just applied today and was approved. Too bad there is no Patriot payroll there, but will be able to divert some FBA earnings there.
Urgh. Applied and went to “we’re reviewing your application…” I have a legitimate LLC and have been in business for 15yrs.
Applied using my 30y old LLC very healthy rev, but then again I don’t recall it asking? (Did I miss that page?). Pending. My stuff is pretty clean so a bit disappointed it’s pending
How hard is it to start an LLC? (Or one of the other corp types)
LLCs are registered by states, so that depends on your state. LLCs tend to be pretty easy. There are fees involved and the amount of paperwork varies by state.
Corporations are more onerous to set up and maintain.
EINs (Employer Identification Number) are from the IRS. When they give you an EIN, they expect quarterly estimated tax payments and a tax return for your business. Check your state’s requirements for tax payments and filing.
P2 has an (expired) LLC, but she was approved without issue. I wonder if I can just sign up for a free EIN from the IRS as an LLC and apply for another card. I’ve done this before as a sole proprietorship without issue, so I wonder if it’s that easy to do with an LLC. If I remember correctly, the EIN was essentially all that was needed.
Is there a time limit on spending $1000 with the new debit card?
same question… do you know if one has to spend 1,000$ within 1 month? 2 months? 3 months? whenever?
No. Weirdly there’s no time limit on it.
Data point – I signed up for this offer through OMAAT in November. LLC, 1 employee, 2 years in business, 10k revenue. I was approved immediately. Transferred $1050 into the Cash account. Spent just over $1000. The 80,000 points showed up within a few days. I did not have anything on my account page that showed the link to the OMAAT offer. You will only see progress toward the 10K bonus. Honestly thought it was too good to be true and fully expected it to not work but it really is an easy, free 80,000 points.
is there an end date to this offer?
Just signed up for a Brex Account using the link. After I log in, under the Rewards Tab, it looks like there’s only a mention of the 10k offer after $3k spend and the 20k offer for running payroll (but nothing regarding the 80k offer). Is this normal for others who signed up using the OMAAT/Frequent Miler Link?
Yes that’s normal. The 80K portion isn’t shown but should still work. Ironically I just finished adding that question to a new Q&A section of this post.
Gotcha, thanks!
Could two owners, partners, managers etc. of the same business both apply for separate accounts and each be eligible for a signup bonus?
Essentially is bonus eligibility for this offer limited to one per EIN or one per SSN?
I don’t know. If you try it, please let me know what happens! I can’t think of any downside to giving it a try.
The application asks “Does any other individual own, directly or indirectly, 25% or more of the company?” (as many business applications do).
That is effectively one bonus per EIN then?
Update: I’ve heard elsewhere that it is limited to one bonus per business, but I’m not 100% sure about that.
Is an LLC with 1 person (me) enough for this? I’ve had it for years.
Yep
Cool thanks, no Brainer then. I also said that about that 1300 bank offer and didn’t do it yet.
Since this is a “cash management account”, is it FDIC insured? From the, “if it sounds too good to be true …” camp.
The Brex website says:
Greg, happen to have any tip(s) to quickly get proof for S corp, etc…?
edit: nvm, just looked up & seems that will take some time
They didn’t ask for proof when I signed up, so I think that it should be possible to setup an appropriate business and apply right away
How can I set up a business without any fees ?
You probably can’t: each state has different rules & fees.
They asked me to upload my EIN acceptance letter as proof of my S-Corp. Was given an account and card # instantly but took about a week for the full verification to complete and allow me to transfer in funds. I’m guessing they also search the Secretary of State to verify your corporate filings. I’ve heard they ask others for a certificate of good standing from the state as well.
Would this count turn the Chase 24/5 limit?
toward
This is a debit card, so no
It’s not actually a debit card, but it works a lot like one — including that there is no new credit account on your credit report.
No