How to Open a Brex Account Online

Brex is a financial technology company that offers corporate credit cards to startups and early-stage companies.

Through Brex, businesses are entitled o create a bank account known as 'Brex Cash' for their company's expense management.

Brex has great potential to expand and offer more innovative banking services as the company has raised over $1.2 billion in venture capital funding to date.

How Does it Work?

Brex specializes in offering financial services to early-stage technology startups that are looking for quick and reliable access to capital.

In addition to startups, Brex offers bank cards to e-commerce, life science, or late-stage enterprise companies as well.

While other banks issue credit limits based on a company's credit score, income, and on-time payment history, Brex issues credit limits based on a company's cash flow.

This includes a review of the company's financial backing, sales volume, and spending patterns.

Most importantly, there is no personal liability for the cardholder.

As a charge card, Brex will also have to gain access to your corporate bank account to make automatic payments to ensure the card is fully paid off every 30 days.

A major benefit is that a Brex Card does not charge an annual fee, and no personal guarantees or credit checks are required to be approved.

Additionally, new cardholders can also earn 50,00 sign-up bonus points after spending $9,000 in the first 30 days of getting their card.

Additional Features

A Brex account comes with a set of innovative features to help you manage and understand your businesses' expenses.

These features can be accessed either through the company's website or their mobile application. 

Brex's expense management feature provides an overview of the firm's spending habits, instant receipt matching, and integrations with other software and account tools like Expensify or QuickBooks.

Along with such spend analytics, Brex has fraud and theft protection as well as customer support to settle any problems arising.

There is also a rewards program where you earn a bonus for spending money with a Brex card.

Reward partners include Uber, Lyft, and Starbucks, to name a few.

The more you spend on a Brex card, the more points you earn, which can be redeemed in exchange for any of the goods and services provided by the reward partners.

Opening a Brex Account

The process to apply for a Brex card is extremely simple and easy.

There is also a chatbot function on the website called the 'Brex Concierge', where a Brex Concierge bot will help guide you through the process if you have any questions.

Step 1: Enter Personal Details

The first thing you need to do is visit the website here and fill out your personal details.

These details include your:

• Legal first name
• Legal last name
• Work email
• A password
• A Referral code (if you have one)

After filling in these simple details, you can move on to the next step.

Step 2: Provide Business Structure Information

After entering your personal details, you need to provide information regarding the structure of your business.

These questions are extremely simple multiple-choice questions and include the following:

• Is your business incorporated? (including LLCs)
• What is your business called? (Company Name)
• What kind of business is your company? (Choose from a list provided)
• Which space is your business in? (Tech, Life Sciences, E-Commerce or other)
• What's your primary source of funding? (Crowdsourced, Venture Capital/Angel Investor/Accelerator, Initial Coin Offering, Family or Self-Funded)
• How many employees do you have?
• What is your monthly revenue?
• What is your company website?
• How can Brex help you? (Open a business account, get a credit card, build business credit or manage team expenses).

Your business needs to be incorporated as Brex only works with incorporated companies.

However, suppose your business is not incorporated.

In that case, there is no need to worry as you can do so with LegalZoom, where Brex will cover the formation fee, enabling you to complete your application right where you left off!

Brex will recommend which one of their services is the best option for you based on your answers.

If you are happy with what they've suggested, you can move on to the next step.

Step 3: Enter Business Details

After the Brex team has developed a good understanding of your business structure and what you are looking to get out of Brex, you have to provide your business details.

These include the following:

• Legal Business Name
• Employee Identification Number
• Incorporation Type
• Details on your services, customers, and countries served (Applications with detailed responses are more likely to be approved).
• Business physical address (Building number, city, state, zip code)

Step 4: Provide Employee Identification Number (EIN)

You will need to have applied for an EIN as part of your application (the IRS issues EIN to identify legal entities operating in the United States uniquely).

You need to have an EIN as Brex only processes applications that do. You can apply for a free EIN on the IRS website.

Once you have your number, you can complete your application right where you left.

You are eligible to apply for an EIN online if your principal business is located in the United States or U.S. Territories.

The person applying on behalf of your organization must have a valid Taxpayer Identification Number (SSN, ITIN, EIN).

Keep in mind that you are limited to one EIN per responsible party per day.

The responsible party is the person who ultimately owns or controls the entity who exercises ultimate effective control over the entity.

Unless the applicant is a government entity, the responsible party must be a natural person.

Step 5: Answer Compliance Questions 

All you have to do is answer a few questions regarding cash handling & business ownership before moving on to the final step.

This is known commonly as a compliance call or Know Your Customer (KYC).

Transactions

• How much cash do you accept or handle each year on average? Card payments, bank transfers, and wire transfers are not applicable.
• Do you anticipate sending international wires?
• Do you own, directly or indirectly, 25% or more of the company? If so, as per federal law, you will have to provide additional personal information, including the following:

Yourself

• Relationship to the company
• Phone Number
• Date of birth
• Country of Citizenship
• Social Security Number
• Country of Residence
• Home Address

Shareholder and Directorship

• Confirmation of the applicant's position in the business and phone number
• Does any other individual own, directly or indirectly, 25% or more of the company? If yes, all their details need to be provided as well.
• The controlling officer's (CEO, COO, or CFO) personal details include the following:

Shareholder and Director Information

• Legal first name
• Legal last name
• Relationship to company
• Phone number
• Date of birth
• Country of Citizenship
• Social Security Number
• Country of Residence
• Home Address

Step 6: Terms & Conditions 

The last step is to review and answer a few regulatory questions.

Before you submit your application, you will also have to confirm a statement mentioned by Brex on behalf of your company.

The regulatory questions include the following:

• Is your company a registered brokerage firm or securities exchange, or an investment advisor, investment company, or investment fund of any kind?
• Is your company or any of its beneficial owners or controlling officers a 10$ or more shareholder of a public company?
• Will you be using your Brex cash account to hold or process funds on behalf of anyone else (for example, on behalf of your customer or employees)?

After answering these questions, Brex will send a verification email to your email address!

Brex will verify and authenticate the details you provided in your application and let you know if you have been successful.

Final Words

Remember that Brex is a bank account alternative and not a traditional bank account like the traditional brick and mortar banks.

However, it serves the same purpose and offers the same if not better banking services.

Alternative banking methods for corporate banking are on the rise, and it's about time your business should take advantage of this!

If Brex isn't what you're looking for or you need more currencies in one account for your cross-border transactions, Statrys may be more your thing.

Sign up today and get a Statrys account in under 48 hours.