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Editor’s Note: If you’re involved with the points and miles world, you’ve likely seen tons of chatter about Brex in the last few weeks. For good reason too – we’re highlighting this offer to you because it’s arguably the best offer in points and miles of 2021 so far. We don’t have any affiliate relationship with Brex, or anyone involved in this offer. It’s just that good of a deal that you should definitely take advantage of if you can qualify for it.
If you do qualify and choose to apply, checkout our friends Frequent Miler or One Mile at a Time who have links for this offer.
As a small business owner myself I’m always on the lookout for financial tools that help my business grow. If those same tools provide some additional benefits in the name of points and miles, then even better!
I know migrating the financial backbone of your business may be a hassle, but Brex has a new opportunity for both your business and your points balance. The good thing is you can try Brex and you don’t have to fully migrate over to it if it doesn’t fit your business’s needs.
Let’s take a look at what Brex is, how it can help your business, and why any business owner should be looking to take advantage of this opportunity.
What is Brex Cash?
Brex Cash is a financial management tool for businesses. It works similar to any business or corporate checking account, but it isn’t a bank account. You actually link your existing business checking account to Brex Cash and use Brex to manage your business’s financials. Everything from paying invoices to employee payroll can be managed with Brex Cash.
A Brex account brings everything together in one place. You’ll have cash management tools, accounting reports, business reports and even a Brex credit card. Of course, Brex Cash syncs with your favorite bookkeeping software including Quickbooks, Xero, NetSuite, Concur, and Expensify.
To really round out the suite of financial integration, your Brex Cash account also comes with a Brex Cash credit card.
The Brex Credit Card
I know I know, up to this point Brex has sounded more like a pass through checking account than a full financial system. What helps differentiate Brex from other financial management systems is the option of the Brex Credit Card.
The Brex Credit Card is more akin to a corporate credit card rather than a small business credit card. You can add employee cards and set individual limits on the amount employees can spend. Brex Credit Card users can use it for an all in one vendor payment card and centralized accounting control feature.
There’s more to the Brex Credit Card than just convenient tools since it really is able to differentiate itself from other cards on the market with how it operates. For starters, you get a much higher credit limit than you’d find with traditional small business credit cards. Brex Credit Card holders can expect limits 10 to 20 times higher than traditional small business cards. This can help you leverage your cash better throughout the month.
To make it even better, unlike other small business credit cards, the Brex Credit Card has no personal guarantee, no interest and no fees.
When you pair your Brex Cash account with a Brex Credit Card account, you can choose to have monthly or daily statements. At the end of your statement, whether daily or monthly, Brex will initiate an ACH from your Brex Cash account to pay for any cleared transactions.
Rounding off the Brex Credit Card, you won’t be sacrificing anything from traditional rewards cards by choosing to use the Brex Credit Card instead. The Brex Credit Card earns points, just like any other travel rewards card, that can be used for statement credits, travel or to transfer to mileage partners.
If you set your Brex Credit Card to daily statements, you’ll earn the following bonus points:
- 8X on rideshare including Uber, Lyft, taxis and scooters
- 5X on flights and hotels booked through Brex Travel
- 4X on restaurants and dining
- 3X on recurring software subscriptions
- 3X on eligible Apple products via the Brex Apple portal
- 1X on all other purchases
For business owners who choose to settle your Brex Card account with monthly statements, you’ll earn bonus points in the same categories but at a lower rate:
- 7X on rideshare including Uber, Lyft, taxis and scooters
- 4X on flights and hotels booked through Brex Travel
- 3X on restaurants and dining
- 3X on eligible Apple products via the Brex Apple portal
- 2X on recurring software subscriptions
- 1X on all other purchases
Keep in mind, these are uncapped earning rates. Even if your business spends one hundred million dollars a year on Ubers, you would earn 7X Brex points on every dollar spent. This differs from some companies which cap the amount of bonus points you can earn on certain categories.
Additionally, businesses who are in good standing and commit to the continuous and exclusive use of their Brex Card for their corporate use may be invited to the Brex Exclusive tier. This invite only tier comes with even higher bonus rates for businesses invited to the program.
Using Brex Rewards for Travel
As you build up your balance of Brex points, most readers of MileValue will be looking to redeem them for travel.
The easiest way to redeem them for travel is through the Brex travel portal. You can use them to make hotel and flight bookings through Brex Travel. This may be a pretty good deal, as Brex Travel gets your business access to enterprise rates. Enterprise rates are typically 30% off traditional retail rates, so you may be able to score a good deal.
Alternatively, you can transfer your Brex points to mileage partners at a 1:1 ratio. If you’d rather transfer your Brex points to mileage partners, you can transfer to any of the following:
- Emirates Skywards
- JetBlue TrueBlue
- Asia Miles
- Qantas Frequent Flyer
- Aeromexico Club Premier
- Air France/KLM Flying Blue
- Avianca Lifemiles
- Singapore KrisFlyer
While the value in each program differs, some of these transfer partners can be quite valuable. Some are a bit more exclusive, such as Asia Miles. Being able to transfer to these more exclusive programs really adds some extra value to your Brex points.
Additional Business Benefits
In addition to the ability to earn points through the lucrative Brex Card program, Brex Card members also have access to some substantial business perks.
Take advantage of the following offers available with your Brex Card:
- $5,000 credit towards Amazon Web Services
- 25% off 12 months of eligible paid slack plans
- Automatic 5% rebate on Microsoft ad purchases
- 20% discount on annual Zoom subscription
- 50% off all Dropbox Business, Standard or Advanced plans
- Up to $100 off intercom, each month, for up to 3 months
- 40% off your first 12 months of Quickbooks
- 20% discount on Carta for your first year and waived implementation fees
Brex is really trying to build a comprehensive business financial service, rather than just be another bank offering a business account.
Who Should Use Brex?
The obvious answer to “who should use Brex” is business owners. Of course, it is a bit more complicated than that.
One of the biggest limitations for Brex is determining who is eligible to open an account. Currently, only registered businesses can open a Brex account. This means that your business must be a C-Corp, S-Corp, LLC or LLP. If your business operates as a sole proprietorship, then you’re not eligible to open a Brex account.
There are definitely some benefits to these limitations. The biggest benefit is that applying for a Brex Cash account will not register as a hard pull on your credit. Don’t be put off when asked for the social security number of the business owners. This is required information for federal reporting purposes.
Because opening a new Brex Cash account doesn’t require a personal guarantee or a hard credit pull, it won’t impact your 5/24 status. That means even if you’re waiting for your 5/24 status to go down, or you’re new to points and miles, you’ll still be eligible for valuable Chase cards.
Of course, migrating to Brex may take some adjustments to your business’s operations, but there’s one big reason why it might just be worth it.
Limited Time Bonus for New Brex Accounts
Right now, through a promotion with One Mile at a Time, you can earn 110,000 Brex points for opening a new account.
When you open your Brex account using the link over at One Mile at a Time, or some of our other friends like Frequent Miler, you’ll be eligible for the following bonuses:
- Earn 80,000 bonus Brex points after spending $1,000 on your new Brex Card
- Earn 10,000 additional points after you spend $3,000 in the first three months
- Link your payroll to Brex to earn an additional 20,000 bonus points
Remember, you can transfer these Brex points to a variety of different airlines. Earning this bonus can earn you enough points for flights to Hawaii, or even Emirates First Class on some routes.
The linking of your payroll to Brex for 20,000 bonus points might sound cumbersome, but after further research, Brex shares that the following transactions qualify for this:
- Deposit sales revenue or run payroll with Brex Cash to earn 20,000 points.
- Payroll providers: ADP, Deel, Extensis, Gusto, Insperity, Intuit Payroll, Justworks, Paychex, Paylocity, Rippling, Sure Payroll, TriNet, WageWorks, Workday, Your People.
- Ecommerce platforms or payment gateways: Amazon, BigCommerce, Braintree, PayPal, Shopify, Square, Stripe, Venmo, Wix, Xoom.
Some of the MileValue team has done this, and actually the simple trial deposits from linking your Paypal account to Brex were enough to trigger the 20,000 bonus points for linking of payroll.
Brex Is Worth It For The Long Term
Opening a Brex account just for the bonus may be what draws you in, but you may find that the benefits of operating through Brex keep you using their service for the long term.
For starters, Brex truly operates fee free. There’s no fee for the account or for the card. But that’s not where the fees stop. You’ll find many things that your traditional brick and mortar bank charges fees for are also fee free. This list includes no foreign transaction fees, no ACH fees and no wire fees (including international wires).
The application itself reflects the ease of use, taking just a few minutes. What really makes Brex a no brainer for my business is just this. Everything is easy and makes things simple.
Final Thoughts
Opening a new Brex Cash account is practically a no brainer for any business owners out there. Through their partnership with One Mile at a Time, you’ll be eligible to earn a bonus up to 110,000 Brex points that can be transferred to a variety of airlines.
All of this packaged with no personal guarantee and no hard credit pull means it won’t impact your 5/24 status and your eligibility for other cards. At the same time, offering some of the highest rewards rates across the industry for some fairly unique categories.
Who knows, you may even come to find that Brex simplifies your business operations and allows you to focus on keeping your business growing and achieving success!
Just getting started in the world of points and miles? The Chase Sapphire Preferred is the best card for you to start with.
With a bonus of 60,000 points after $4,000 spend in the first 3 months, 5x points on travel booked through the Chase Travel℠ and 3x points on restaurants, streaming services, and online groceries (excluding Target, Walmart, and wholesale clubs), this card truly cannot be beat for getting started!
Editorial Disclaimer: The editorial content is not provided or commissioned by the credit card issuers. Opinions expressed here are the author’s alone, not those of the credit card issuers, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the credit card issuers.
The comments section below is not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser’s responsibility to ensure all questions are answered.
Can I qualify for a bonus on more than one eligible business ?
I’ve seen mentions that yes, this should be possible so long as they are different business entities.