Brex Card
No-personal-guarantee startup/corporate charge card with category points, virtual cards, and expense ops; pay in full daily or monthly
Costs & Pricing
Annual fee (primary): $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.
Employee card fee: $0; unlimited physical + virtual cards advertised
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.
Intro APR (purchases): Not offered
Intro APR (balance transfers): Not offered; no BT product disclosed
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.
Cash advance APR: Not permitted. ATM withdrawals not allowed (Emigrant issuer terms).
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)
Penalty APR: No revolving APR. Past-due amounts may accrue interest at the maximum legal rate plus collections. Extended repayment of delinquent amounts: fee up to 10% of outstanding delinquent balance if the plan lasts >6 months (collections workout, not Plan It).
Other fees: Possible card issuance/replacement, failed-payment, and misuse fees — dollar amounts not disclosed except the late fee and extended-repayment fee. 30-day notice to add/increase fees, or sooner if the customer agrees. Overlimit not disclosed as a fee (limits can be cut to $0).
Rewards & Value
Bonus Categories & Promotions
- ★ Exclusive + monthly (default): 7x rideshare (Uber/Lyft/taxi); 4x Brex Travel prepaid flights/hotels only; 3x restaurants; 2x recurring software; 1x else
- ★ Exclusive + daily [Software]: 8x rideshare, 5x Brex Travel, 4x restaurants, 3x recurring software
- ★ Exclusive + daily [Advertising]: 8x rideshare, 5x Brex Travel, 4x restaurants, 1.5x ads
- ★ Exclusive + daily [Life Science]: 5x Brex Travel, 8x conference tickets (registration only), 2x lab supplies from a lab supplier (not Amazon). Monthly LS track is 7x conference / 2x lab / 4x Travel / 1x rideshare-restaurants-software
- ★ Brex Travel 4x/5x does not apply to Navan or third-party TMC (falls to 1x or another category). Apple-via-dashboard 3x is not in the current official table — Unclear / possibly retired.
Partner Credits & Perks
- ✓ Sep 2026 $1,000 statement credit (see welcome bonus) — time-limited, not an AF offset
- ✓ Partner perks / Day Zero stack (AWS example $5,000 depending on Activate; catalog marketed $180K–$350K+). Claim in dashboard. Do not assume catalog value.
- ✓ No TSA/Global Entry or airline/hotel incidental statement credits
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.
Credit, Limits & Spending
Credit limit: Dynamic company limit from cash, revenue, funding, spend patterns, unbilled volume, projections, FX. Can change anytime, including to $0. Daily-pay limits track available Brex business-account balance. Marketing “up to 20x traditional cards” is not a guaranteed multiple. Not classic Amex NPSL.
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).
Credit check: Brex states SSN is for identity verification and is not used to underwrite or pull personal credit. No advertised personal hard pull.
Recommended credit: None official. No personal FICO bar; high business cash/revenue bar.
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.
Virtual cards: Unlimited purchasing virtuals; lock-to-merchant vendor cards; limit cards; expiration windows; accounting fields and policies on higher plans.
Product type: Corporate / commercial charge card plus spend-management platform (pay-in-full daily or monthly; not revolving; no published purchase APR)
Network: Mastercard (marketed as World Elite Mastercard)
Benefits, Protections & Tools
Travel
- ✓ Mastercard MasterRental CDW: primary collision/theft for rentals ≤31 days, paid on card, agency CDW declined. Loss-of-use up to $500; secondary personal effects $1,000/person, $2,000/rental. Excludes trucks/van-on-truck-chassis, off-road, motorcycles, antiques >20 years, commercial use, DUI, racing.
- ✓ Mastercard Travel & Lifestyle Services: 24/7 lifestyle concierge, hotel-rate guarantees for bookings through that program (1-855-802-1387) — Mastercard, not Brex Travel
- ✓ No lounge access, TSA/Global Entry, airline-fee credits, or trip-delay/baggage insurance listed on Brex’s cardholder-perks page (do not import generic World Elite or Venture X perks)
Purchase Protections
- ✓ Purchase protection / extended warranty / return protection: not listed on Brex’s public cardholder-perks page
- ✓ Cell-phone and event-ticket protection: not offered in public Brex materials
- ✓ Mastercard ID theft monitoring if enrolled at mastercardus.idprotectiononline.com (U.S. small-business cardholders)
Business Tools
- ✓ Native expense reporting, receipt matching, policy auto-enforcement; AI rules on Essentials; multi-policy / review chains / live budgets on Premium+
- ✓ Accounting: QuickBooks, Xero on Essentials; NetSuite / Workday / Sage Intacct-class ERP on Premium+ (confirm in-app); CSV always
- ✓ Brex Travel (free on Essentials); bill pay; reimbursements; API; HRIS; GL/tax tagging on higher plans
- ✓ Partner marketplace / perks dashboard (AWS, UPS, QuickBooks, etc.)
- ✓ Same app for card + banking + expenses (not the Capital One consumer app)
Eligibility & Application
Who can apply: U.S. C-corp, S-corp, LLC, LLP in good standing with U.S. operations and a U.S. physical address (no USPS PO Box / PMB). Sole props, consumers, unincorporated partnerships, and non-U.S. entities are ineligible. DBA alone is not enough. Nonprofits/holding companies not specifically listed.
Business requirements: EIN required. SSN or government ID for KYC of applicant / BOs (>25%) / controlling officers. Funded-startup cash ~$50k typical official floor. Prohibited industries list revised Jan 13, 2025 (payday lending, marijuana, guns/ammo, crypto dealing, money transmission, etc.) — re-read the live list.
Issuer rules: No Chase 5/24 or Amex once-per-lifetime as application filters. Capital One ownership closed Apr 7, 2026 — underwriting could change. Exclusive custom rebates may require 50+ users + spend commitments.
Application impact: No advertised personal hard pull. Business reporting after booking. Exact bureau inquiries not disclosed.
Best for: No annual fee No personal guarantee Employee cards + spend controls Accounting / expense software Startup / funded-business UW Charge card
Pros & Cons
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
Buy (funded-startup spend platform)
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.