Brex Card $250 Referral Bonus – Step By Step Guide

Brex is a free business cash management account that is currently offering new users a $250 Amazon gift card if you sign up using a referral link and meet certain requirements. To earn the $250 Amazon gift card, you have to do the following: 

1. Open a Brex Cash account using a referral link (here is my Brex Cash referral link).
2. Once you open your Brex Cash account, spend $1,000 on the Brex Card that comes with your Brex Cash account. 
3. After you meet this spend requirement, Brex will send you a $250 Amazon gift card.

While Brex is not technically a bank account, for all practical purposes, it acts like a bank account and has the same features and protections as any other bank. Your Brex Cash account comes with a routing number and account number that you can use to link your account to other bank accounts. The funds in your Brex Cash account are also held in FDIC-insured partner banks, so your money is safe and FDIC insured.

What makes Brex particularly good is that opening a Brex Cash account and getting the included Brex Card does not result in a hard credit pull or impact your credit in any way. This makes Brex a great way to earn a signup bonus on a credit card without having to worry about adding a new account to your credit report or otherwise impacting your credit.

In this post, I’m going to go over what Brex is, why it’s worth getting the Brex Card, and walk you through the step-by-step directions on how to earn your $250 Brex referral bonus.

What Is Brex? 

Brex is a business cash management account that bills itself as an alternative to traditional business checking accounts. It’s important to note that while Brex looks and acts like a bank account, it is technically not a bank account.  This would normally be concerning, but Brex partners with FDIC-insured banks to hold your funds, which means any money in your Brex Cash account is safe and FDIC insured.

When you open a Brex Cash account, you’ll also receive a Brex Card. This card is a secured credit card that is tied to the balance in your Brex Cash account. Since it’s secured to the balance in your Brex Cash account, the Brex Card really acts more like a debit card than it does a credit card.

Here’s how the Brex Card works. First, the credit limit on your Brex Card is 80% of the balance in your Brex Cash account. Thus, if you have $1,000 in your Brex Cash account, the credit limit on your Brex Card will be $800.

Second, any balance on your Brex Card is paid daily from your Brex Cash account. In other words, if you spend $100 on your Brex Card, Brex will pull $100 out of your Brex Cash account and pay off the balance on your card. This essentially makes the Brex Card act like a debit card – anytime you spend money on your Brex Card, that same amount will get pulled from your Brex Cash account.

Third, getting the Brex Card does not result in a hard credit pull or have any impact on your credit history. Indeed, the account will never appear on your credit report. This is a huge plus because it means you can open a Brex account and earn your signup bonus with no downside. I opened my Brex account while I was in the middle of applying for a mortgage. It had no impact on my mortgage application and gave me a card signup bonus at a time when I otherwise couldn’t apply for new cards.

Finally, the Brex Card offers points when you spend on the card, similar to any rewards credit card. You can redeem your Brex points at 1 cent per point or you can transfer them to certain travel partners.

There is one important limitation that you need to know about Brex. The account is a business account and Brex will only approve you if you apply with an LLC, LLP, S-Corp, or C-Corp. Sole proprietors are not eligible for this account.

Brex Card Referral Bonus Step By Step Directions 

Here are the steps to follow if you want to open a Brex account and earn your $250 sign-up bonus. 

1. Open A Brex Cash Account Using A Referral Link. The first thing to do is open a Brex Cash account using someone’s referral link. Here is my referral link if you would like to support this blog (I’ll receive a referral bonus if you use my link). 

The signup process is very quick and should only take you a few minutes to complete. It can take a little time to approve your account after you submit your information. My Brex account was approved within a few days when I applied. It was the same for my wife when she applied for her Brex account. 

On the first screen, you’ll see an option for entering a referral code. You can leave this field blank. I’d recommend you screenshot the initial offer page just in case there are any issues. 

Later in the application, you’ll have a choice to apply for the Brex Cash, Brex Card, or Brex Cash and Card. The Brex Cash account comes with the Brex Card and is the easiest account to open, so that is the account I recommend you open. 

Remember that Brex will only approve your account if you are applying with an LLC, LLP, S-Corp, or C-Corp. You’ll also need to have a business email address to apply for your account. My wife has an S-Corp for her business and I have an LLC for mine, so that’s how both of us were able to open this account. 

2. Once Your Account Is Open, Fund Your Cash Account With Some Money. After you open your Brex Cash account, Brex will send you your Brex Card in the mail. You’ll also get a virtual card that you can use to make purchases immediately if you don’t want to wait for the card. 

To use the card, you’ll need to fund your Brex Cash account. Your Brex Card has a credit limit that is 80% of the balance in your Cash account. So, if you want to spend $1,000 to earn your signup bonus, you’ll need to fund your Brex Cash account with $1,250.  

3. Spend $1,000 On Your Brex Card. This is straightforward. After you fund your Brex Cash account, you’ll be able to use your Brex Card to make purchases. Whenever you spend any money on the Brex Card, Brex will pull that same amount from your Brex Cash account. Think of it like a debit card – whenever you spend money on your card, that same amount gets pulled from your Cash account.

4. After You Spend $1,000, Brex Will Send You Your $250 Amazon Gift Card. Once you spend $1,000, you’ll earn your $250 Amazon gift card. I’m not actually sure how long it takes for you to receive the gift card after you hit the spend requirement, but I imagine it’s pretty quick. After you hit the spend requirement, you can also withdraw any remaining funds that you have in your Brex account (assuming you don’t plan to use Brex beyond earning the signup bonus).

Caveats 

Brex is an easy account to use because it has no fees. But there are some important caveats to consider before you open this account. These include the following:

You Need An LLC, LLP, S-Corp, or C-Corp To Open A Brex Account. The limiting factor for most people will be the fact that Brex will only approve you if you have one of these business entities. In effect, you can only open a Brex account if you have a real business with a separate legal business entity.

I will note that when I applied, Brex did not ask me for any documentation to prove that I have an LLC. That said, I would not recommend applying without actually having your business set up as one of these legal entities. My guess is that you’ll either get rejected if you try to apply without one of these types of businesses or your account will be closed before you can earn the bonus. 

The short of it – only apply for the Brex account if you have a real, legal business entity.

The Bonus Could Potentially Be Higher. Right now, Brex is offering new users a $250 signup bonus. However, back when I applied for this account, Brex offered 110,000 Brex points which effectively was worth $1,100. This was a limited-time offer that was only available for a month via a link from the travel website, One Mile at a Time.

This 110,000 point offer was one of the best offers ever for any card or bank account. I highly doubt that this offer ever comes back, especially given that the 110,000 Brex points offer was only available for a month and you could only get it via the referral link from one specific website. In my opinion, that was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that will probably never come back.

Still, the fact that Brex once offered such a large bonus for this account is something that you will have to consider if you are thinking of signing up for this account. Is it better to wait for this bonus to possibly return or is it better to get the bonus while it’s there? I think it’s more likely that the bonus goes down over time. I assume that Brex is currently using venture capital funding to pay out these referrals and I have to imagine that the marketing budget for these referrals will run out eventually.

Final Thoughts 

The Brex Card is an easy $250 bonus that I think anyone with a qualifying business entity should get. I’m not likely to use this account long-term, but opening it simply to get the bonus is well worth it to me. This is a particularly easy signup bonus to earn too since there are no fees and opening the account has no impact on your credit report. 

If you have any questions, feel free to leave them in the comments below. I’ll do my best to answer them.