Costs & Pricing

Metric	Brex Card	Engine X
Annual fee	$0 published for the card. Software is separate: Essentials $0/user/mo; Premium $12/user/mo; Enterprise/Smart Card custom. Do not treat Premium as a card AF unless the company elects that plan.	$0
Employee card fee	$0; unlimited physical + virtual cards advertised	$0; unlimited physical and virtual cards
Purchase APR	N/A — charge card, pay in full. Marketing “0%” is charge-card float (daily ~1 business day after clear, or ~30-day monthly statement), not an intro APR.	N/A — charge card. No purchase interest if paid by due date. No published purchase APR range. Marketing “0%” means no annual fee plus charge-card float until the due date, not an intro APR.
Intro APR (purchases)	Not offered	Not offered (not a revolving product)
Foreign transaction fee	Marketing: no FTF. Official: FX rate markup of up to 3% on conversions (Mastercard wholesale, adjusted daily). Local-currency cards can avoid conversion on local spend.	$0 (International Transaction Fee: $0 / None). Ordinary Visa FX conversion still applies (rate not separately itemized).
Late payment fee	2.99% of delinquent balance or $38, whichever is higher, assessed once per statement that is 30 days past due (Card Program Terms, Apr 7, 2026)	$40 per late payment

Rewards & Value

Metric	Brex Card	Engine X
Base earn rate	1x on everything else under Exclusive (1 point per $1 USD spend with a U.S.-based merchant). All customers enrolled in Exclusive unless the contract says otherwise. No published category caps. Non-Exclusive / second-card path may be flat 1x — source conflict with 2026 reviews; confirm on the live contract.	1.5% back in Engine points on Qualifying Card Purchases (everyday / off-Engine spend, including flights even if booked on Engine)
Welcome bonus	$1,000 USD statement credit after ≥$4,000 Qualifying Spend within 30 days of activation. Apply, be approved, and activate (first purchase) Sep 1–30, 2026 (legal offer revised Aug 10, 2026). Re-check Oct 1. Review sites still print 10,000 points after $3,000 in 3 months — not found as a current dated legal page.	20,000 Engine points after the company activates an Engine X card and completes $2,000 in Qualifying Off-Platform Purchases within 30 days of first Card activation. Off-platform = card spend not booked through Engine.com. Engine travel bookings do not count. Employee/additional-card off-platform spend does count (company-level). First-time Engine X customer; one bonus per company. Offer ends 11:59 p.m. ET, 31 December 2026 (incentive terms updated 1 Jun 2026).
Redemption value	Brex Travel portal: 1 point = 1¢. Cash to Brex business account or statement credit: 1 point = 0.6¢ (admin must claim). Headline 7x rideshare is 4.2% cash only if Exclusive + cash path. Do not use 1¢ for cash.	Official cents-per-point not disclosed. Points have no cash value and are redeemable only through the program. Checkout shows a point-to-dollar value before confirm. Secondary (TPG, 20 Aug 2026): statement credit described at ~50% of booking value — unofficial; do not hard-code 1¢ or 0.5¢ as issuer fact. Disclose user-selectable factor: 1.0× if redeemed for Engine bookings; 0.5× if using TPG’s statement-credit haircut.
Transfer partners	Emirates Skywards, Avianca LifeMiles, Singapore KrisFlyer, Air France-KLM Flying Blue, Aeromexico Club Premier, Cathay Asia Miles, Qantas Frequent Flyer at ~1,500:1,000. Crypto (BTC/ETH) appeared in older guides at 0.6¢ — not on the current official redeem page.	Not offered (no Chase/Amex/airline transfers)

Credit & Eligibility

Metric	Brex Card	Engine X
Personal guarantee	Not required in Brex marketing. Card Program Terms assign liability to the Company. Confirm the live issuer agreement at approval (Emigrant vs Fifth Third vs other).	Official apply page: “We also do not require personal guarantees.” Program terms: company is the liable party. Owner KYC still collected. Confirm no hidden guaranty in the Issuing Bank Terms accepted at offer.
Credit check	Brex states SSN is for identity verification and is not used to underwrite or pull personal credit. No advertised personal hard pull.	Official: no hard pull, will not impact personal credit score. Soft-pull vs none-at-all on a bureau file is not separately named. Last-4 SSN is for identity verification (CIP), not described as a full credit pull.
Employee cards	One employee card (physical or virtual) per user plus unlimited purchasing/virtual cards. Spend limits, merchant locks, policies, Apple/Google/Samsung Pay. Company liable. Auto-reissue on expiry.	Unlimited physical + instant virtual, including 1099 / temporary workers. Spend controls by employee, project, expense type, category, merchant, transaction. Physical cards ~8 business days. Company remains liable.
Product type	Corporate / commercial charge card plus spend-management platform (pay-in-full daily or monthly; not revolving; no published purchase APR)	Business charge card + spend-management card (pay-in-full each cycle; assigned line of credit; no revolving APR). Not a consumer credit card. Sibling: Direct Bill (credit line limited to Engine hotel/flight/car bookings — not this card).

Pros & Cons

Brex Card

Pros

• No personal guarantee and no advertised personal credit pull; company is the obligor
• $0 card annual fee and unlimited employee/virtual cards on Essentials
• Exclusive category points with no published earn cap; Brex Travel portal at 1¢/pt
• Native expense controls, virtual/vendor cards, and accounting integrations
• Local-currency cards in 50+ countries (plan-dependent); business-bureau reporting without personal-credit reporting (per Brex)

Cons

• Charge card: no revolving APR, no 0% working-capital window; late fee 2.99% or $38 after 30 days past due, plus possible 10% workout fee
• Sole props ineligible; funded startups commonly ~$50k cash; commercial revenue floors are messy
• “No FTF” marketing vs up to 3% FX markup
• Cash redemption 0.6¢/pt; airline transfers 1,500:1,000; Exclusive/contract multipliers are easy to misread
• Dynamic limits can fall with cash; Capital One ownership may change terms

Engine X

Pros

• $0 annual fee and $0 employee/virtual-card fees
• 6% (scaling to 10%) Engine points on Engine hotel and rental-car bookings — unusual on-platform travel earn at $0 fee
• No personal guarantee and no hard personal credit pull (official apply language)
• Charge card + Autopay + spend controls + unlimited cards for employees and 1099s; travel booking, policy, and folios in one dashboard
• $0 foreign-transaction fee in the fee table

Cons

• Elevated earn does not apply to flights or off-Engine hotels; marketing “up to 10% on travel” is broader than the legal category
• Pay-in-full charge card; $40 late / $40 returned-payment fees; no revolver
• Points have no cash value; official ¢/point not published; statement-credit value may haircut vs booking (secondary)
• Sole proprietors ineligible; U.S. entity + EIN required
• No published lounge, TSA/Global Entry, or card-insurance benefits guide; product is new (Mar 2026) so limit ranges and servicing quality are thinly documented

Verdict

Brex Card

Brex is a charge-card ops platform owned by Capital One as of April 7, 2026 — not Spark, not Ramp’s Visa SKU, and not a revolving bank card. Pick it for no-PG underwriting and policy tooling. Do not assume 1¢ cash, a guaranteed 7x, or true $0 FX. Sole props, revolvers, and simple 1.5–2% cash shoppers should use a traditional PG card or Ramp if the cash bar fits. The Sep 2026 $1,000 / $4,000 / 30-day credit expires Sep 30 — re-check Oct 1.

Engine X

Engine X is a TMC + charge card, not Direct Bill and not Ramp/Brex. Most SMBs stay Silver (6% / 1.5%). Skip it if travel will not move onto Engine, if you need revolving credit or transferable miles, or if you are a sole prop. Confirm the live 20,000-point offer (through 31 Dec 2026) requires $2,000 off-Engine spend within 30 days of first card activation.