Live data from Hacker News

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

brex.com

51–60 of 350 posts

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

#51
post #48

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…

AKA they lose money on smaller customers to customer support requests and most likely wire transfer fees since they offer wire tranfers for free. They almost definitely lost money on my LLC I bet they only made $5 in interest after a year and probably spent $100s investigating my various customer support requests. Plus I made several thousand off of their rewards program. So yeah, bummer, but it makes sense. It's too…

[deleted]

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

#52

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…

> We're doing all we can, and working with other financial service providers to make this transition as smooth as possible.

The biggest thing for us would be if you could support Plaid's Identity product by returning names and emails when someone links a Brex account with Plaid.

When someone links an account using Plaid, having this data available means we can compare that to the names/emails we have on file and have verified. If it's a match, this makes it _dramatically_ less likely someone is trying to commit ACH fraud against a Brex customer.

This makes it safer for us to offer higher ACH pull limits to that customer. Even for customers who never switch away from Brex, this would significantly increase protection from ACH fraud.

- Max T, CTO Mercury

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

#53
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…

Does any of those traditional banks support remotely opening accounts for U.S. companies with non-U.S. owners (so without an SSN, only with EIN)?

You'll want to open a business bank account with them if you have an EIN. You might need trust or estate services depending upon the nature of your financial service needs.

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

#54
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…

Does any of those traditional banks support remotely opening accounts for U.S. companies with non-U.S. owners (so without an SSN, only with EIN)?

Some (or all) may have branches in your country. But they may not be free but they can probably get it setup.

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

#55
post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nice to see you taking feedback seriously.

Okay. We don’t have a credit card right now, only debit. For small businesses doing high reward credit cards is not a sustainable business. Which is why Brex is shutting them down.

That's totally understandable, for the small business segment.

I was just saying that for a VC-backed tech startup, the lack of rewards is a huge turn-off, compared to some of the other options for spending available to us.

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

#56
post #39
post #2

So... what alternatives are people moving to? I really liked the dynamic credit card generator, and Brex Travel was luxurious... Also, I'm curious what the new cut off is, and who their new customers are. Is the new downturn causing their "strategy change"?

[disclaimer: I work at Brex, but am not speaking on behalf of the company] I think one thing being lost in translation here is that Brex considers small businesses to be different from startups, and it's an important distinction internally that is likely getting lost externally. For example, we just acquired Pry to help with founders at small startups figure out financial projections and needs. If you're an early sta…

How do you actually make that distinction? My flippant guess is that the difference between the two is that a "traditional" small business is profitable

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

#57

> This decision cannot be either changed or delayed. Your account will be closed by August 15. We’ve appreciated your business and wish you all the best in the future. I get that corporations couldn't care less about us as people but the phrase "we appreciate your business" and its variations will forever rub me the wrong way.

"We appreciated your business so much we want you to get off of our platform and never come back."

Seriously though "appreciate your business" is the "thoughts and prayers" of crappy customer service.

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

#58
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 with (often just refusing to take them as customers). When my mother died, US Bank was amazing with protecting her estate from legal BS, to the point that they ended up going to court and paying out of their pocket to do what was right (and this was not a large estate to profit them). Seriously never seen a bank (or large corporation) so willing to see/accommodate individuals and their situations instead of just providing cookie cutter services that if you didn't fit you were excluded. At this cynical point in society I didn't think a bank could impress me, but they have.

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

#59
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.

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

#60
post #2

So... what alternatives are people moving to? I really liked the dynamic credit card generator, and Brex Travel was luxurious... Also, I'm curious what the new cut off is, and who their new customers are. Is the new downturn causing their "strategy change"?

I work at Divvy and it may be worth your time. Not sure if they're exactly the same product, but we are often calling Brex a competitor, so I assume we're similar.
Post reply on HN