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.

Using debit cards for traveling (or really ever but that is another thread) creates huge problems. The hotels don’t like debit cards and generally require large charges against them that can take time to get refunded after check out. Plus won’t you get the points from the charges?

Charging on a card and paying it off in full is the better approach. He needs his own card though. It might have to be an incredibly small limit, but if he uses it appropriately each month that will raise quickly.

At my old job I traveled frequently. I had a limit of 500 on my first card. The first week of work, I actually had to have colleagues buy my plane tickets and cover my hotel because the travel bill was 6000. I very quickly built up a much higher credit limit and then got the benefits of the points from the large charges.

Lots of firms don't do company credit cards and expect staff to claim expenses retrospectively. Prepaid cards can work but some of them have hefty admin fees if you use them abroad.

It is unfair to use your card, especially as he has savings. it would actually be easier for him if he took out a credit card and used it solely for work. That way it would be easier to sort out personal and work expenses or he could use it exclusively for work. Even if he can't get a low rate credit card (and actually there are not many of those these days), the APR should not matter as presumably he will get his expenses within 56 days. Perhaps sell the idea to him on the basis that he could apply for a card with air miles or cash back?

@Hp737 If he doesn't want to dip into his savings, he could arrange an overdraft on his current account. I did this, (not because I needed it, but wanted it as a safety net) and even though my only income is disability benefit, they gave me a £1K overdraft, the same evening I applied, and now they keep telling me that I can increase it to £2K. With his wages, he will be able to get £2/3K easily, I'd have thought.

Take him off your card.

Take him off your card and tell him to get one of his own that he can use for all his business expenses. Why should his business expenses be your responsibility? I would be concerned how long you would have to wait for those expenses to be reimbursed.

You said it was an interest free credit card.
We have one and balance transferred into it to pay off some debts. You could find yourself with a much bigger bill than expected as the rules on our one is that interest free for the money you already have transfered at the time of taking out the card..
What is not interest free is when you start using the card for purchases - the interest on that is punitive and this is the most important bit- even when it is paid off and you put the £2k back into the account. The cc company takes that as a repayment of the initial amount borrowed... not of the £2k you spent on his trip - you might still be paying high interest on that.

If that is the case (and I'm only telling you what our card does) then your Credit card is only designed for interest free repayment of your balance transfer. It is NOT designed for low interest purchases. You would need a different card offer for that.
For that reason and it is a compelling reason which he cannot really argue with it would be a no from me.
But also...
It is unethical of his large global company and of him, to expect you to subsidize that company to the tune of £2 for any period of time. That's just too much money, more than a month's salary for some people. It would still be unethical but not such a big ask if it was £100 for one night in a hotel. It's not just the interest, its having £2k out of any of your accounts for at least a month or more.
You say he has a high paid job and savings. It's up to him to sort it out with his company.
Good Luck

I totally empathise OP, my DH's company does the same, no company credit cards, paying for trips that cost £3k+ on our joint credit card which I manage - I'm finding it a nightmare, as I normally budget carefully and know how much we generally spend etc but now I've got all sorts of amounts going out and coming in which have nothing to do with our family expenses, I have totally lost control of what's happening. I'm thinking of telling him to get a different credit card to use solely for work expenses, as it's too confusing mixing it in with the family spending.

So he shouldn’t lose his interest because of his company but your budget should be screwed up? No. His company either pays for hotels or flights upfront, he uses savings or he gets his own credit card. The fact he’s moved is a bizarre reason to not get one? It sounds like he hasn’t even applied if he doesn’t know how they work and doesn’t like filling out forms!
I’ve got a credit card mainly for work expenses and the protection for buying online etc. My company pays for flights or hotels upfront (mainly so they can make sure it’s cost effective) but subsistence, rail travel etc is covered by me and I get it back once a month. And it’s a lot smaller than his by the sounds of it! I’d be saying no unfortunately.

He just doesn’t want to dip into his savings
That's the crux of it.

He's the one choosing to blur boundaries.
You're not a named account holder for his savings - and he's got £15k of them yet doesn't want to lend himself 2k.

Instead he wants to borrow 2k from YOU that you don't actually have.
So what if it's zero percent interest on your CC?
You're still borrowing from one place to lend to DP.

He's being a sly fucker and i'd tell him to get to fuck.
He should use his own savings and suck up the feather light impact it makes on his 'interest' rate

He needs to grow up and sort it out. 2 credit cards - one for work expenses and one for personal expenses. Makes life going forward a lot easier admin wise. I’ve worked for 2 global corporates who use a similar process. He needs to be on the ball in submitting his expenses promptly. It’s common practice. If he has bad credit, he needs to address that issue himself by using his debit card or by making inroads to improve his credit score.

Before I was even a manager, anyone who stayed away frequently was issued with a company credit card. If I had to pay my own bills, sometimes in the region of £800 a week, I would have been royally screwed!

OP, read what @DuckbilledSplatterPuff said. I recall Martin Lewis mentioning this, and if it's the case with your credit card, then it's a very good reason not to use the card at all, not even for yourself.

But, whatever, get your partner off your card, asap, or he'll have no reason to sort himself out, if he knows he's got your card to fall back on.

@Haffiana , the difference between your example and the OPs situation is that you are married and the OP is not.

Generally, once you are married your finances are pretty much tied in the eyes of the law. Your debt is also his debt, and his Savings/ISA is also yours.

Here, there is actually nothing stopping the OP’s DP from accumulating debt on OP’s credit card and then buggering off into the night, leaving OP solely responsible for the debt. Yes, the OP could probably pursue him in court for some of the costs, but that is costly, lengthy, and in the meantime it’s still only the OP’s door the bailiffs are beating down.

I don’t think haffiana’s example with an isa is the same as this with my dp’s savings anyway because of the rules governing ISAs eg withdrawal/deposit/bonus rules around ISAs. We both have ISAs which are affected negatively by any withdrawals and if this was what dp was having to dip into I might well feel differently. However as I stated in my OP, his savings are substantial accessible cash savings. There isn’t a practical reason for him not to dip into them if he really can’t sort this out another way with work. Or at least I don’t think that I should pick it up if he won’t.

No one told me, I figured it out myself, and he says he hates filling out forms but it’s just a part of life and I don’t want to to only have to do it for him but also have to explain it all for him

Are you planning a future with this person? Because if that is what he is like now, it needs to change pronto or you will be stuck with it after marriage.

If he is on a high salary with a big name company its unlikely to be an intellectual defecit. That leaves laziness and/or being happy for expect you to manage his life admin.

He needs to grow up, get a card and manage his own work bills.

It's only the existing balance that will be interest free. Making new purchases will cost you. Tell him that and ask why it's ok for his work trip to cost you money, but not him?

I checked in to a very expensive hotel in Dublin recently which was booked by by client company (I'm freelance) and due payable by them on checkout and they wouldn't allow me to go to the room without a credit card. I don't use a credit card as I have no need to, but I had a debit card with plenty of money in my bank and have stayed there several times. They wouldn't budge. I had to go and find my client and get him to go to reception, which would have been embarrassing if I hadn't known him well.
In my experience you need a credit card for business travel, so he should get one.
I have moved 7 times in the past 10 years and have no trouble getting credit cards.

How cheeky and he will not dip into savings but he could get work to pay interest lost but chances are he wants on the card to claim the interest off work for the card and I would bet he wont pass that on to you and the reimbursement he may get before he admits and put it on his savings. I can see him paying the credit card monthly min payment that he wont pay ur owed bit or ur interest! He is taking the piss!

Something smells off to me.Hes 30 something and hates filling in forms.Doesnt want to dip in to his savings but uses your cc.

Either hes [a] huge debt and cant get a cc
[b] he doesnt have the savings he says he has.

This sounds a bit bizarre. Is it a tiny company?

DH used to work away from home - generally the company would organise hotels and flights but he also had a company credit card.

In this job he only occasionally flies/stays elsewhere and they book it or he has the option to book and get reimbursed if he doesn’t want to use their standard system (I.e. to collect points or stay somewhere that’s not a large chain). £2000+ is a lot to expect someone to float on credit at any wage bracket.

In my smaller company you’d find someone with a company credit card.

If this is legitimately the only option he should get out his own line of credit for future trips...preferably one that gets points or rewards for spending!

Or could he pre-pay your CC with the balance, book the trip, then work will refund him directly. That way he pays out of his savings, he has a CC to satisfy the hotel and you’re not waiting for reimbursement.

My credit card has a 0% balance transfer and 0% on purchases in x months, I am not incurring additional interest on purchases and am on track to clear the balance well within the time period.

Agree that this seems to be laziness on his part and I do not want to set a precedent here to sort his life out for him.

He’s a CF. Of course he should pay for it out of his savings. I actually can’t believe the gall he has to suggest using your credit card
The impact it will have on his interest is minimal. Cheeky bugger!

I smell a rat.

How many people in well paid corporate jobs dont have a credit card by their thirties.

Even if he didnt have one, he should be getting one to build up his credit score. If he wants a mortgage one day it will be much easier with a well managed credit card on his credit scoring and one he uses for expenses is an easy way to build up that credit history

That made no sense and grammer terrible too. I meant he could ask work to pay interest he would lose through using his savings and they would surely agree to reimburse the interest accrued through any costs that he has had to pay for unavoidable expenses that are reasonable and this would be flights, hotel, agreed reasonable food costs but if meals and drinks r put on card for bottles of exp wine etc then they wont pay that and if ur card bill is showing per centage with ur bill 4 what u will use then they will either calculate the percent of ur part and if he gets away with it then u get the debt, stress, he gets the benefit of ur usage, will definitely not pay what bit he can blame u 4 and u will be at risk that they will refuse to pay 4 full charges and he could easy use card 4 meals, drinks, any other expense that he can use credit card for and may even share a meal and put on card but get cash from other person for their share. Dont risk it!

He is BU.
He has instant access to own money.
Get him to set up own CC or Revoult online banking CC or set up like pre-pay credit card using own money.
Get his name off your card. Ye not married so not entitled to access your card he does not even pre load your CC with his own money to prove he being above board.
Just nope.
You got this CC off your back.
Other option is to go into bank and set up a completely new joint CC.
BUT why the heck can't he get one on his own, in full time employment easy peasy to get approval - something up.