Other than using Money Market accounts instead of FDIC-insured accounts, what specifically is better about banking with Brex? And for those factors that are quantitative, how MUCH better are they?
1) 1.6% or more yield on your cash balance. (Savings accounts in the US offer 0.06-0.16% interest on average.)
2) Zero fees on ACH and wire transfers. (Average wire fee is $23.)
3) Get Brex reward points every time you do a transaction. (Haven't seen an account give reward points for each transaction but I could be wrong.)
4) One account for all your deposits. (Typically have two accounts -- checking and savings -- with checking typically earning less yield and savings accounts having a transfer limit of 6 transactions/month).
5) Easy-to-use online interface designed to give you back time to run your business. (Of course, very easy for me to say this so I'll let the customer feedback do the talking as we roll Brex Cash out).
Living in Europe, if this is really true then the US banking system sucks even more than I thought.
What you describe is basically a normal (northern) European bank from the sound of it.
The only difference is the interest rate, in my own bank I get lower rate until I hit a certain threshold, but it's the same account and there are no limitations on withdrawals etc. If you offer 1.6% from the first dollar than that is slightly better.
Predatory lending and fraud isn't really a feature of business banking. Predatory and fraudulent lending isn't restricted to business - though perhaps may be more lucrative. Banks do rather have the deserved reputation of lending an umbrella to ask for it back should it rain.
The bullets the GP lists were standard features of the high street business accounts I've had. Didn't care about reward points, but I don't seek those on personal accounts either. :)
