Company Payment Card

Question

What are the risks of having having a company payment card? Is there any reason to have a card if I can float my expenses until they're reimbursed?

Answer 1

Most corporate policies strictly prohibit the card's use for personal use, even if the intent is to re-pay in full, on or before the due date. I'm certain it has something to do with limitation of liability, i.e. the monetary risk the company is willing to put itself at, in order to offer a corporate card program.

In my experience, AMEX Corporate Card Services is the most widely-used card, and in my experience, it is your employer that determines and administers the policy that outlines the card's appropriate use, not the credit card provider, so you're best to check with your employer for a definitive answer to this.

Answer 2

From the other point of view (company use) it makes sense to segregate expenses incurred on the company's behalf away from an employee's personal expenses. This way if there were any requirement to prove that certain expenses were for the company's benefit it is not intermingled with an employee's personal expenses.

From an ethical point of view:

• It can be unfair to the employee: you are giving the company a no-interest loan even though it's probably not a large amount.
• It can be unfair to the company: if you use a personal rewards card to cover the expense, does this mean that the company is entitled to a share of the rewards/rebate?
• It can violate privacy: If a company for tax purposes needed records that were on an employee's personal credit card statement, what prevents them from glancing at the other purchases?

To avoid these types of confusing and conflicting issues, most employer's prefer to have a segregated expense process especially if an employee is regularly incurring expenses on the company's behalf. As YMCbuzz mentions you should check with your employer about their expense policy.