saaveraward

Recently, I jumped on the OMAAT referral for Brex cash. My intention wasn't to "cut and run" with the sign-up bonus. This looked like a very appealing product for my business. My business does a lot of hotel and F&B charges, so the bonus points would earn a greater return than the current products the business uses.

What follows is the nightmare I've endured with Brex where nearly nothing goes right, support and follow up is non existent and the time involved is all-consuming.

I transferred funds to Brex and received my cash mastercard. I activated it and called Brex to notify them of upcoming international travel.

I attached the Brex card to my rideshare account and booked a car to the airport. For some reason the app was having a problem, so I switched to my prior card. As it turns out, Brex claims "rideshare apps take 24 hours to work after applied to your rideshare account." OK, that's strange, but I let it go.

I arrived at the airport and made a purchase under $10 with Brex card just to have a domestic transaction before I flew internationally. If you read OMAAT, it was suggested by Ben/Tiffany that I had not done this prior to travel and that's what would cause my future problems. I had indeed made a domestic charge.

I checked in to my international hotel. A Hilton property in Asia. Declined.The pre-auth was for around USD $40

I called Brex. They assured me this was a one-off and re-activated the card.

The next evening I went to dinner at the signature restaurant of a different hotel. Declined.

What followed next was a flurry of calls to Brex at all hours of the day because they indicated they "locked" my account. Not the mastercard, the cash.

It took seven attempts to get someone to put in writing that the cash was not frozen.

I was also told that in order to use the product, I should get declined, call Brex, whitelist the merchant and then try the charge 24 hours later. Good luck with that.

Later, Brex would change their story and say I should call Brex before making a charge to whitelist the merchant and then the charge would process.

Either way, this makes the product unworkable.

So after finally getting an answer that: my account was not locked, the mastercard was one again active, I informed Brex of my next hotel and when I was checking in. Now Brex said there was no way to whitelist a merchant and to just go ahead and give it a try.

I checked in to a Marriott branded hotel. Declined.

I once again called Brex and this time, they refused to authenticate me and the "manager" said that the other 10 times I called in, I was verified improperly. I refused to log in to the dashboard and generate a dummy virtual card over international wifi for verification purposes. I had no problem reading the six digit authentication code off my mobile. I told the manager I wanted the CMO to contact me because this card is being marketed heavily to a segment of high-end travelers and it simply doesn't work. He informed me "I'm not doing that. Your problem doesn't rise to that level." Really? I would think the CMO might be interested in what I'm posting here. I told Brex, "Look. I played by your rules. I did everything you asked me to do. Your product doesn't work. Period."

Now, I know what you're thinking. I should have cut my loses and just closed the account after the first, second, third or fourth problem. And I did demand an account closure form. But while I was traveling, I wasn't going to do an ACH over international wifi (and I didn't have my banking info with me on where to send the funds). So I was basically "stuck" until I returned home.

Now here's where I'm a complete idiot (if you weren't already thinking that from my previous Brex interactions). I had a stable internet connection for doing some work so I logged in to Brex. The mastercard, as we all know was locked again, so I cleared the lock. I waited 24 hours and went to the front desk of the Marriott and curiously asked them to switch my credit card on file for the stay.

SUCCESS!

Brex actually ran a successful international transaction!

I returned home.

Instead of paying out 5x on the hotel stay, Brex payed out 1x. The transaction is listed as a Marriott and is in the "lodging" category. Per Brex: "you will receive the travel points on anything that is travel related including the hotel stays. You can do this either through our portal or booking yourself. The points will be automatically."

So Brex can't even code a travel purchase correctly. I put in a complaint, but will just give up on the points.

But wait.... there's more.....

The pre-auth from the Marriott for nearly $1500 is stuck on the card and tying up my cash. The Marriott keeps trying to get it released but is getting NO response from the processor. Brex is "passing it along" to support but front line CS says it's not their fault and there's nothing they can do. So now I'm going back-and-forth between the hotel and Brex with my hands tied. I spent 15 minutes explaining to Brex CS what a pre-auth is and how it works at hotels.

Will it drop off in 30 days like a credit card? I have no idea, but it's tying up my money.

Believe it or not, this is the short version of my story. I tried to include the salient data points so you can make your own decision about Brex and international purchases, especially in the travel space.

mia

This, and some other parts of the story, suggest that their operations are largely outsourced. Examples:

Source (2021): https://www.brex.com/privacy/

Source (2019): https://www.spglobal.com/marketintel...shduhzjcajojq2

SanDiego1K

What a frustrating experience. Thank you for taking the time to share this cautionary tale with us.

JHake10

BREX always felt a bit odd to me so I stayed away. I do like OMAAT but was bit put off on how hard they were pushing BREX with their partnership.

CoffeeTraveler

The relentless touting of BREX has depleted the last bit of credibility OMAAT had, in my mind.

ovacikar

Is this a debit card? I won't expect much success using any debit card internationally for in store purchases.

saaveraward

"Your Brex account always includes a credit card to spend funds, with no personal guarantee."

GratefulSmile

I signed up 2 weeks and still waiting to get account approved. Strange they give you the card number and everything even when "final checks" are being done.

I was just going to try spend the $3k in one go and get my bonus points over to EK and run.

Xyzzy

I'd never heard of BREX before reading the stories about it on FT ... but I wn't be taking "advantage" of their fine offer...

gpapadop

Why did it take so long??

CoffeeTraveler

It wasn’t much credibility prior to the BREX touting, just the last sliver that is now depleted.

HadesNL

Thanks for the headsup, hope you can recover the money thats tied up in the brex account.
Find it quite ghastly that Brex doesn't know how the handle the pre-auth. It really ties up the spending limit which is unproffessional.

OMAAT should be wiser and should come clean with a devoted post of all problems occuring and explaining how to solve them. Keeping the peppy " Brex is the nextbest invention since sliced bread" does make his credibility questionable.

jimcoddington

Lets not just post the bad, here is some good. I have 3 separate companies with 3 different EIN's. All 3 EIN's make money. I opened 3 separate Brex accounts, and I have had no problems. The process does require patience, so hopefully you are using money you do not need to live on a daily basis. Just my two cents.

saaveraward

Do you think BREX is holding on to my grocery money? Typing up ANY of my cash without a mechanism to release it is inexcusable. Period.

Congratulations on having three business that "make money."

mia

Have you used any of the accounts outside North America?