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Why am I no longer qualified to be a Brex customer?

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Re: Why am I no longer qualified to be a Brex customer?

#111

Post by ch4s3 »

hadlock wrote: post #109
ROTMetro wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I moved across state lines Wells Fargo required me to go back and close my account in my previous state and open a new one in my new state. Left and never went bank. When BoA moved from San Fran to the South and started doing questionable practices it was time to move. US Bank has been amazing, and my immigrant friends all say US Bank has overcome hurdles/issues that Chase, BoA, and WellsFargo refused to help wi…

I have never ever heard of a bank requiring you to close your account and reopen at another branch. Are there additional details?

That definitely used to be a thing. I'm 35 and I've done that twice in the past and it was a huge pain.

Re: Why am I no longer qualified to be a Brex customer?

#112

Post by em-bee »

ROTMetro wrote: post #58
csomar wrote: post #38

So customers have less than 2 months to find new banking partners, migrate their data, inform their partners about banking changes, etc... This is one reason why I'm avoiding all fintech/startup/neo banks in the future. My most solid experience was with a top 5 US bank. They have a shitty customer service and a plethora of offers; but my direct deposits go faster, I don't get pestered over 5 figures amount going in/o…

When I moved across state lines Wells Fargo required me to go back and close my account in my previous state and open a new one in my new state. Left and never went bank. When BoA moved from San Fran to the South and started doing questionable practices it was time to move. US Bank has been amazing, and my immigrant friends all say US Bank has overcome hurdles/issues that Chase, BoA, and WellsFargo refused to help wi…

if it's not to personal, what kind of legal BS might someone throw at an estate and how would the bank protect against that?

Re: Why am I no longer qualified to be a Brex customer?

#114

Post by wombatpm »

anonymouse008 wrote: post #29
pedrofranceschi wrote: post #10

Brex founder here. We've made the difficult decision to no longer offer services to the small business market. Back in April we launched Empower, and we decided to put the full weight of Brex towards building the best global payments platform for tech startups and larger companies. With that, we realized we couldn't do a great job serving the small business community at the same time. This has been an incredibly diff…

So current costs vs. revenue mean you can't service your current customer base? Specifically, the customer base that punched the growth numbers to achieve many millions in funding?

Always a sign of questionable strategy when step one is fire your existing customers.

Re: Why am I no longer qualified to be a Brex customer?

#115

Post by nemothekid »

ncallaway wrote: post #107
MaxGabriel wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There has got to be a better way for us to accomplish this. One path forward is Oauth, which several major institutions use on Plaid (Capital One, Wells, Chase are ones I know of). This definitely solves “entering login information into random forms”. I’m pretty sure I have seen these institutions offer you some control over what data you share when you link, but it was minimal control, and didn’t work well. Ideall…

There should be a law for this. The EU as an open banking API law, that requires banks to make this data available electronically over an API. The US needs an open banking law. This should not be an optional feature for banks to offer. It should be an absolute requirement. I think it's insane to enter your credentials into Plaid. Almost every banking agreement I've ever seen disclaims liability if your account is bre…

Plaid is almost 10 years old and I think there are probably several verbatim comments on HN since the introduction of Plaid. Unfortunately I don't think we will ever see a such a law; the landscape has changed from 10 years ago and:

1. Plaid has been pretty much been blessed by the largest player in the space (the , now blocked, acquisition from Visa).

2. The banks are glad to outsource development of banking apis to one single customer. Even CapitalOne who seemed horrified at the integration built an Oauth endpoint.

3. The queue of banking regulations is a mile long and is deeply politically controversial among those who vote.

4. Our geriatrics in congress will never see this as an important issue.

It's just easier to not use Plaid.

Re: Why am I no longer qualified to be a Brex customer?

#116

Post by heretogetout »

ch4s3 wrote: post #111
hadlock wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have never ever heard of a bank requiring you to close your account and reopen at another branch. Are there additional details?

That definitely used to be a thing. I'm 35 and I've done that twice in the past and it was a huge pain.

I wonder if it depends on which states you're moving between.

Re: Why am I no longer qualified to be a Brex customer?

#117

Post by FireBeyond »

vxNsr wrote: post #95
jnwatson wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Zelle should be avoided for almost every transaction. There is no fraud protection.

Not really, there is as much fraud protection as ACH. If you’re will to make use of direct deposits and ACH transfers, you can use Zelle. Just don’t expect to be handled with kid gloves.

No, there really isn't. And the banks themselves say so.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/06/business/payments-fraud-z...

> Zelle’s immediacy has also made it a favorite of fraudsters. Other types of bank transfers or transactions involving payment cards typically take at least a day to clear. But once crooks scare or trick victims into handing over money via Zelle, they can siphon away thousands of dollars in seconds. There’s no way for customers — and in many cases, the banks themselves — to retrieve the money.

> The banks are aware of the widespread fraud on Zelle. When Mr. Faunce called Wells Fargo to report the crime, the customer service representative told him, “A lot of people are getting scammed on Zelle this way.”

Even Zelle says so:

> Zelle® does not offer a protection program for any authorized payments made with Zelle® - for example, if you make a purchase using Zelle®, but you do not receive the item or the item is not as described or as you expected.

Source: https://www.zellepay.com/faq/im-unsure-about-using-zelle-pay...

Re: Why am I no longer qualified to be a Brex customer?

#118

Post by mbesto »

TylerE wrote: post #59
csomar wrote: post #38

So customers have less than 2 months to find new banking partners, migrate their data, inform their partners about banking changes, etc... This is one reason why I'm avoiding all fintech/startup/neo banks in the future. My most solid experience was with a top 5 US bank. They have a shitty customer service and a plethora of offers; but my direct deposits go faster, I don't get pestered over 5 figures amount going in/o…

Any typical user choosing a big corporate bank over a credit union for a personal account is insane.

I desperately want to use a credit union for all of the presumptions you're making, however:

- I've moved to 12 in 15 years across 3 countries and 8 states. Credit unions are terrible for this.

- The non-profit credit union I used for my car loan was quite possibly the worst and most painful technology interfacing experience I've ever encountered.

- There are all sorts of out of state and international benefits by using a national provider - for example, I regularly send international wires for an international STR property I own.

- You simply can't beat big banks for their CC rewards.

FYI - I've used BoA, WF and Chase blows them all out of the water.

So, no, it's totally not insane.

Re: Why am I no longer qualified to be a Brex customer?

#119

Post by mizzao »

pedrofranceschi wrote: post #10

Brex founder here. We've made the difficult decision to no longer offer services to the small business market. Back in April we launched Empower, and we decided to put the full weight of Brex towards building the best global payments platform for tech startups and larger companies. With that, we realized we couldn't do a great job serving the small business community at the same time. This has been an incredibly diff…

Mmm... if we're an early-stage startup, is that a small business?

And if the answer is no, then does that mean if we're not growing fast enough / raising money fast enough, you will kick us out?

Please clarify.

Re: Why am I no longer qualified to be a Brex customer?

#120

Post by eins1234 »

trhway wrote: post #90
eins1234 wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While it's great to maintain good enough unit economics to not have to pull stunts like this one, it's not necessarily always a plus from a customer perspective. Comparing Mercury and Brex/Ramp specifically, Mercury is notably missing rewards on transactions, while Ramp has unlimited 1.5% cashback, and Brex has a bunch of multipliers ranging from 7x to 1x points. If I have access to all of the options above, it would…

> Brex has a bunch of multipliers ranging from 7x to 1x points. sounds like Brex has been losing money on unit economics while making it up on volume, and now with VC money tightening ... Wrt. small business vs. startup - i'd guess that any company older than 3-5 years which hasn't become big enough (in spending or revenue) and not showing fast growth can be considered a small business :)

If I had to guess, I'd say the biggest contributor to poor unit economics for small business vs startups is credit losses.

Startups usually have tons of cash in the bank to underwrite against, which made them actually very safe to lend to, unintuitively enough (that underwriting model was Brex's original innovation, remember?).

Whereas small businesses usually don't, but still need a reasonable credit limit to spend with, so they end up having to underwrite using traditional data sources like credit scores and whatnot, and they probably haven't been able to develop a sophisticated enough model quickly enough to curb losses, and the recession certainly isn't going to make things any easier.

So, anticipating further accelerated credit losses down the line, this is them throwing in the towel on that whole experiment.

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