Corporate Credit cards
Discussion
For the last 3 years we have been forced to use Amex credit cards for company business, prior to that we had a normal bank visa credit card which the company paid on your behalf, but as usually a few people abused it and everybody suffered, they didn't put their expenses in and eventually swamped the finance department with 12 months worth of receipts etc.
With Amex we paid the bill in full monthly and reclaimed it back off the company. We always had the money in the bank prior to having to pay the credit card back. Considering most expenses are travel related and most of this is done in Europe, Amex wasn't accepted at many places. So eventually they have changed this to a more acceptable Visa credit card. The problem is that the CC company insist that we set up a direct debit from our personal bank accounts. Which in normal circumstances is fine but there are risks associated with it.
1) Sometimes I can have up to £5-6K for a months worth of expenses, especially if I have paid for other peoples travel.
2) If the card was cloned I would have the money coming out of my bank without the ability to stop it. maybe miss my mortgage payments or have no money as a result of the fraud. If it was a bill/invoice and not a direct debt the company would have to resolve it. We just have fears of the money not being in the bank on time and having to pay by DD.
Do you think they are being unreasonable considering they are insisting we use the corporate cards and not our own CC. The only issue we have is the direct debit. We would be happy with a bill that we pay and claim back but not DD, our bank accounts are private and we don't want company related bills being paid from them.
With Amex we paid the bill in full monthly and reclaimed it back off the company. We always had the money in the bank prior to having to pay the credit card back. Considering most expenses are travel related and most of this is done in Europe, Amex wasn't accepted at many places. So eventually they have changed this to a more acceptable Visa credit card. The problem is that the CC company insist that we set up a direct debit from our personal bank accounts. Which in normal circumstances is fine but there are risks associated with it.
1) Sometimes I can have up to £5-6K for a months worth of expenses, especially if I have paid for other peoples travel.
2) If the card was cloned I would have the money coming out of my bank without the ability to stop it. maybe miss my mortgage payments or have no money as a result of the fraud. If it was a bill/invoice and not a direct debt the company would have to resolve it. We just have fears of the money not being in the bank on time and having to pay by DD.
Do you think they are being unreasonable considering they are insisting we use the corporate cards and not our own CC. The only issue we have is the direct debit. We would be happy with a bill that we pay and claim back but not DD, our bank accounts are private and we don't want company related bills being paid from them.
Romanymagic said:
Extremely unreasonable. I have a business cc, and all payments to that card come from the business account not my personal account. Which is the whole point. Otherwise you may as well not have the corporate card, you may as well claim cash expenses instead.
That's the way many corporate cards work, we have Amex and while it's a corporate card, it is personally in my name. Our company will pay them direct as long as my expenses are submitted on time.Adrian W said:
From memory all corporate cards state the user is responsible for payment and not the company, meaning if the company went pop they would go after the user.
One of the reasons why I refused to have one some years back. Turned out to be a good move, the compnay went down the pipe 8 months later.I wouldn't be happy having a direct debit from my personal account. I got given a corporate credit card when I was doing my apprenticeship because I had to stay away from home a lot whilst at college and on training courses. The other apprentices and myself were responsible for the credit cards and they were registered to us. We paid for hotel bills and meals, claimed the receipts back and the money was paid into our personal accounts. We then paid off the bill, but using either an electronic transfer or giro slip but never direct debit!
We nearly had them taken off us when some 'tard bought a holiday on it and then couldn't pay it off!
We nearly had them taken off us when some 'tard bought a holiday on it and then couldn't pay it off!
Edited by IrockZee on Friday 13th February 22:33
Turbo5 said:
2) If the card was cloned I would have the money coming out of my bank without the ability to stop it. maybe miss my mortgage payments or have no money as a result of the fraud. If it was a bill/invoice and not a direct debt the company would have to resolve it. We just have fears of the money not being in the bank on time and having to pay by DD.
Do you think they are being unreasonable considering they are insisting we use the corporate cards and not our own CC. The only issue we have is the direct debit. We would be happy with a bill that we pay and claim back but not DD, our bank accounts are private and we don't want company related bills being paid from them.
The Direct Debit Guarantee scheme means that if you notice a DD coming out your account/has come out of your account when you contest it the bank must refund the money to your account the same day so would not impact on other bills.Do you think they are being unreasonable considering they are insisting we use the corporate cards and not our own CC. The only issue we have is the direct debit. We would be happy with a bill that we pay and claim back but not DD, our bank accounts are private and we don't want company related bills being paid from them.
Honestly I don't think they are being particularly un-reasonable unless the payment of your expenses claim usually takes a long time, then they are asking you to use your own money to subsidise the company's cash flow. I have experienced all the mentioned expenses systems (Corp card you pay with expenses, Corp card they pay and Private card you pay with expenses) and I much prefer Corp card paid by me from my expenses. As you don't have to tally up the receipts to the right bill and send it off, you just submit the claim at a time that suits you and pay it, never had a problem with having to use my own money to fund the business.
Just by having a DD set up doesn't mean the company have any access to your accounts, just that the credit card company can request payment of the outstanding amounts. Can you not ask them to set up a minimum payment DD then you ad-hoc pay the rest. Although what may have happened is they have given you a Charge Card not a Credit Card meaning the full balance MUST be paid off at the end of the month.
HTH
Chainguy said:
Adrian W said:
From memory all corporate cards state the user is responsible for payment and not the company, meaning if the company went pop they would go after the user.
One of the reasons why I refused to have one some years back. Turned out to be a good move, the compnay went down the pipe 8 months later.I don't have a company card but some of our guys do, and I'm sure we got around the personal liability clause by paying a deposit of £3K against each card.
Deva Link said:
Chainguy said:
Adrian W said:
From memory all corporate cards state the user is responsible for payment and not the company, meaning if the company went pop they would go after the user.
One of the reasons why I refused to have one some years back. Turned out to be a good move, the compnay went down the pipe 8 months later.I don't have a company card but some of our guys do, and I'm sure we got around the personal liability clause by paying a deposit of £3K against each card.
When I used to travel a lot, I was offered a corporate Amex card, which I turned down.
I just set up a seperate credit card in my name, and also had a seperate account into which my expenses were paid. I then used this money to pay off the credit card each month, and if for any reason my expenses were not paid in time, I could then present the bank statement with overdraft charges on it, and get them paid by the company as well.
After a couple of times of this happening, they made sure my expenses were paid on time.
For the record, I had nearly 15k of hire car charges on my credit card at one point (quite a lot of travelling, considering this was for a focus sized car, back in the late 90's), and also used this to suggest that I got a company car.
I just set up a seperate credit card in my name, and also had a seperate account into which my expenses were paid. I then used this money to pay off the credit card each month, and if for any reason my expenses were not paid in time, I could then present the bank statement with overdraft charges on it, and get them paid by the company as well.
After a couple of times of this happening, they made sure my expenses were paid on time.
For the record, I had nearly 15k of hire car charges on my credit card at one point (quite a lot of travelling, considering this was for a focus sized car, back in the late 90's), and also used this to suggest that I got a company car.
Payment of expenses is a real nightmare, from the employer perspective you don't want to give employees a card that the company is liable for but from the employee perspective you don't want to be liable for the expenses if the company doesn't pay.
The simplest way is to set up an account purely for your expenses and then set up the DD from there, the only problem is that you are still liable if the company folds and if they keep not paying and the DD fails it is in your name.
We pay as many expenses (airfares, hotels etc) direct from the company leaving employees to only have to claim the expenses we can't pay direct. Still not ideal but better than people having to put in four figure expense claims.
The simplest way is to set up an account purely for your expenses and then set up the DD from there, the only problem is that you are still liable if the company folds and if they keep not paying and the DD fails it is in your name.
We pay as many expenses (airfares, hotels etc) direct from the company leaving employees to only have to claim the expenses we can't pay direct. Still not ideal but better than people having to put in four figure expense claims.
We've pulled company credit cards after the pss was taken out of us by everybody who had one (you'd be amazed how many 'off-site meeting' took place at nearby restaurants). If people need upfront money they get an prepay debit card and we load it with the 'float' they need. Much better solution than company Amex's etc.
Edited by audidoody on Saturday 14th February 09:33
siscar said:
from the employee perspective you don't want to be liable for the expenses if the company doesn't pay.
I don't know whether these things are ever enforced, but the traveller tends to be liable if bills aren't settled. So in theory, even if the employer had direct booked then went bust, you could still end up being pursued for the cost. It seems the buck stops with the employee however it's done. Perhaps the best thing would be to have a float to cover 1-2mths expenses - one company I worked at in the past did that on request, but didn't volunteer it.
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