DP and credit card

[Hp737]

Is this CF? Dp is on a work trip. His company expect him to pay for the hotel and other expenses upfront (on a debit or credit card) and claim it back, they don’t give out company credit cards. On this week long trip to a very expensive European city it will be in the region of £2k+.

Dp does not have a credit card, he is an additional cardholder on my credit card which I have for e.g. when we need to rent a car overseas. I have a long/good credit history and got offered a good credit card with a decent limit. he hasn’t found it easy to get offered credit because he has changed addresses 3 times in 3 years (pretty normal for our age group/city.) however he otherwise has a high salary and an excellent credit score, so no financial demons- I’ve seen proof recently.

Dp wants to pay for his work expenses on the credit account in my name for which he is an additional cardholder. He will pay me back when his work reimburse him (not sure when, at my work this takes about a month.)
However dp has over £15k in accessible savings. He only doesn’t want to touch this for the work stuff because it will “affect the interest payment on his savings”.

AIBU to think that you have savings for when you need them? Interest payments on savings are a bit of a luxury, he’s the one who has to travel for work. I have dipped into my savings (about half the size of his) several times when I have needed to for any reason, and yes it might affect the interest I get, but that’s just tough?

I think he should pay me back as soon as my credit card gets charged since he has the money available. I have a minimum payment that goes out from my current account as I am paying off a big personal expense on my credit card right now and his work expenses will put my minimum payment up. Also I manage my finances very carefully and I jsut don’t want random amounts on my credit card which I use in very specific circumstances only.

I know I probably sound money obsessed but Aibu? I think he needs a reality check.

Hi Op,

Firstly I'd recommend he gets a pre-paid card (e.g Monzo) which he can transfer his savings to use for these trips . No credit checks needed so he should have no issue getting one. If he refuses to do this then I would just say no to the credit card.

Secondly, my dh company works the same way- you organise and pay for trip and expenses and you then get reimbursed. My dh uses his personal cc. He (we!) have benefitted loads from doing it this way. He has racked up loads of air miles and gets 1 free hotel night through hotels.com for every 10 nights he buys. We have had some lovely free hotel stays :-). The only benefit of him working away!

It wouldn’t bother me. I’d ask him to pay his part of the minimum payment though.

He has plenty of options that aren't your credit card.

1. get his own credit card - most applications are pretty much immediate, and will only take a few days for the card to arrive.

2. transfer his savings into his current account and use his debit card.

3. get a pre-paid debit card like Monzo as per a PP suggestion.

You are not married, so I would not take on a debt of £2K+ for his work's convenience. No thank you. I'd actually be tempted to get rid of him as additional cardholder and tell him to get his own card now.

How much would he actually lose in interest

Some savings accounts have rules about how many withdrawals you can make in a year (which is sometimes 0). So it's not as simple as saying taking £2000 out for 2 weeks won't affect his interest - we need to know what type of account he has.

When you say he's "on a work trip" do you mean he's already gone? Awful planning not to have sorted this if so.
But surely you don't mean that because the flights etc would already have been booked.

places I have worked - hotels, flights, airport parking and where possible airport transfers etc have been prebooked and prepaid where possible
if the person doesnt have a company credit card then they can be advanced cash/foreign currency to cover predicted costs.

I agree with PPs that it seems odd. In our company we'd either be given an advance for big expenses or they would be pre-booked. If he has a bank account presumably he has a debit card, why can't he use that?
I don't think either of you should be subsidising the company he works for but if he thinks that's appropriate then he should use his own finances to do so.

Surely the interest on the credit card will be a lot more than the interest on his savings for the £2000.00.

Time for him to get his own credit card, I think.

This is irrational - you are already paying off a debt on your CC, which will go up if he uses it for his travel expenses.

The rate of interest you will be paying will be far higher than the interest he's earning on his savings.

Unless he can remimburse you immediately for the payment, so it doesn't incur any interest, he shouldn't use a credit card at all for this trip.

Debt always costs more than you can earn on savings.

There must be a credit card that he could get? He should have one that he uses solely for this purpose to keep things clear. It’s an opportunity to gain a good amount of points if you can get one with bonuses, ie the John Lewis CC.

Agree that he needs to get his own credit card. Even if he only gets a pitiful credit limit at first it will soon be extended if he shows a few months of faithfully making payments.

I find it suspicious that simply moving house a couple of times would make him completely ineligible for any type of credit card - are you sure he’s not hiding other debt that would affect his credit score?

OP, your DP shouldn't be making this your problem, it is his problem or the company's problem. If he doesn't have a CC then he needs to tell them that he has no means to pay for anything. and let them sort it out.

He should also get a CC purely for work trips for future use. Try money supermarket and see which ones are available. According to Clearscore, moving can affect credit because it might indicate difficulty in paying rent etc, but if his score is great , then he should be able to get something from somewhere.

Worst case scenario is that he has hidden debt, in which case you do NOT want any of his debt in your name.

sorry, I missed the bit that you are paying off a balance on your CC. In that case he is being totally UR expecting you to accrue interest just so he can save his?

How long have you been with him? You say "he" has moved home 3 times in 3 years, not "we" so is this a fairly recent relationship?
I wouldn't let him use your cc, and as other pp have suggested I'd remove him from your cc. You say this came about to facilitate hiring cars when on holiday & now it's progressed to him wanting to use it for work as well. What will be the next stage? He may well have an excellent credit score but how does the score of his previous GFs look if he was in the habit of using their cc as well?
He's a grown man who needs to sort his own financial problems out, not side step them.

I think it's very unlikely he cannot get any credit card because he has moved three times in three years...Are you quite sure that is the case and there isn't more to it?

I would say he has to get his own CC/use savings/tell his employer he doesn't have a CC so they will have to pay up front.

As PP have pointed out, if this goes tits up you will be liable to pay.

I hate it when company's do this. It's utterly unreasonable. Why on earth should anyone be out of pocket like this (even temporarily) for doing their job

This. He should tell them he's not in a position to give them an interest-free loan. He shouldn't need to use savings or your credit card for work expenses! His employer needs to find a solution

If you're carrying a balance on this credit card, your interest payment for the time his expenses are on the card will go up, possibly significantly. I'd not be happy about this and ask him to sort himself out.

Even if he has moved around a lot, his own current account provider should give him a credit card, unless he's not paid debt on time in the past. He might have to start with a low limit, but he can ask for it to be increased once he's used it responsibly for a few months.

Alternatively, he should be able to ask his employer to pay for the bulk of the expenses, eg flights and accommodation directly - what about the people who don't have credit cards, spare money, are in debt etc, some people simply wouldn't be able to pay that sort of money.

Failing that, he should use his savings, it's going to be much cheaper than paying interest on your credit card, as it's probably 2% at best vs 20% on the credit card.

2% pa for a month on £2k is about £3 in interest, so virtually nothing.

But I disagree that credit cards should be for emergencies only, or are automatically a bad thing, there are many advantages and sorting out work expenses are one of them.

As long as you pay it off in full every month, they can be very useful and make money rather than cost it (cashback, no need to pay overdraft fees, better credit rating giving access to lower mortgage rate etc, bigger choice of hire car providers plus probably other advantages).

Right now - then yes he should pay for it himself.
Longer term I’d suggest getting a credit card with high air miles. I pay for all work expenses on my AMEX BA card and last December it paid for flights to the Bahamas for myself and my son!

I am in a long 0% interest period on my credit card balance so he isn’t expecting me to get charged more interest per se. I think he just isn’t very clued up about money (despite earning a lot more than me). He didn’t realise it wasn’t “our” credit card because he’s an additional cardholder I had to explain it to him. However I feel that he is not motivated to look harder for a credit card of his own because “we” have this. I won’t (touch wood) be charged any extra interest if he puts stuff on the card, but it’s not for this use, I don’t want it used except for emergencies/holding deposits from car or hotel stay/paying off the personal expense I mentioned. Because the reason I got it was because I don’t have the cash flow every month in case of those things. I guess I feel like he is being CF about his savings interest because his savings should cover his unforeseen expenses.
The only reason I even got another card for him is that we sometimes hire a car and only he drives and it saved buying an additional driver each time when it was solely in my name.
Gahhh. I have tried to talk around this a bit and he’s just pleading ignorance and I don’t see why I need to explain this to a high earning thirtysomethibg with the wherewithal to a)accrue large savings and interest and b)achieve senior role at work where stuff like this comes up

DH spends about £300 a month in expenses and then claims it back.
The money comes from our joint account.
I don't think he should have to do this, but it's a very small company and they don't give him a credit card.
Luckily we have enough in the bank that it's not an issue.

Does he not have a debit card for his current account? If he does then tell him to use that. He can transfer enough savings to cover it and then put the funds back into savings when he's gets paid. Tell him that is the only option available as your cc account is not an option. He's a CF for asking when he has money sitting in savings. As suggested, the interest accrued on your cc would probably be more than he'd get in interest on his savings account.

pleading ignorance ? educate yourself man about money matters you' re supposed to be a fully functioning adult !

Why can’t he use his debit card? It sounds as if he’s choosing not to have a credit card. He can used his debit card and transfer funds to his bank account from savings online... or go temporarily into overdraft.

If he wants a well paid job with all the perks, he pays and sorts himself out. He has savings of 15k and you haven’t expected to help you out with your credit card debt yet he expects you to accrue a load of interest on a because he doesn’t want to lose, what will be a lot less interest on his savings. No no no.

Sod the minimum payment. He MUST repay the 2k as soon as it appears on your bill otherwise his work trip is costing you money!

Yes he does have a debit card. He just doesn’t want to dip into his savings as he is worried it will affect his interest. For me interest on savings is a nice to have not a right.