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.

OP you haven't commented on the option of an overdraft.

An overdraft of that size is likely to be expensive. He needs to get a credit card seeing as this sort of thing is exactly what they're for.

Bang all the work expenses on it and nothing else and pay it off when the bill comes, which will be after he's been reimbursed, providing he claimed his expenses promptly.

He should also look into a corporate credit card or having flights, hotels, hire cars booked centrally to reduce the amount of expenses run up. I would have thought a big company would have this sort of facility.

He doesn't like filling in forms and he doesn't get the difference between a joint CC and being the additional card-holder on someone else's.... Hmmm.

Yet he's sharp enough to prefer you to take the risk and protect his savings.

I call BS on him and his exploitative ways. He knows how many beans make five and he knows which side his bread is buttered, too.

Smells of entitled CFery to me!

I personally think its VVU of his employers to expect him to pay for such a big trip upfront out if his own pocket. If it's part of his job then they should be footing it upfront themselves.
It almost comes across to me as paying to work even if he does supposedly get reimbursed,he had better make sure they don't try to slither out of paying him back....!
If he doesn't want a credit card fair point, not everyone has or wants one,but he should be taking it out of that money has instead.
Or is his company kind of assuming or implying everyone should have one or does?
But no it's his problem not yours.

Our company has only recently changed so now we don't have to pay the airfare and hotels from our own pockets and then be reimbursed. I agree it stinks as a policy and is unfair on employees, particularly as claiming expenses in our place is a mammoth, time consuming exercise which usually has to be done more than once due to some minor error.

That being said, it's his company policy and it is what it is. I'd say no to what he's proposing as well OP, particularly as someone who doesn't like filling in forms won't be in a rush to claim expenses which aren't impacting him in any way.

It's a while since I applied for a credit card, but I find it hard to believe that he wouldn't be able to get a credit card from somewhere. Much better for everyone- well mostly you - if he keeps his expenses totally separate.

I have this issue with DH's company - it's a global company but they still can't have company CCs 🙄. I run our finances (mainly joint) and get fed up with him submitting his expenses late, so our bank account had been debited before he gets them reimbursed.

If I was in your position, I would definitely tell him to get his own CC. Even if he could only get one with a very high rate of interest, it wouldn't matter because he should always get his expenses paid in time to pay it off in full.

Has he actually worked out how much interest he'd be losing? If he's earning 1% on an easy access account, he's only earning £20pa on £2k!!!

The interest I guess is calculated on the large lump savings sum which as I said is over 15k.. so withdrawing would affect the overall interest.
However talk about first world problems...!

Do you get any benefit from the interest that he would save?

His other option is to transfer some money to a high interest current account and use his debit card. I'd love to know what savings product he has that makes him so reluctant to move money from it temporarily.

Time he got his own credit card and you cancelled the one he has on your account if he thinks it's ok to (ab)use it for his business travel expenses.

I wouldn't agree to this. He should get work to book it for him in advance. If he can't do that, he pays from his own account or doesn't go.

I would take away his additional card too, but only because I wouldn't share a credit account with anyone.

Honestly, it’s better to charge travel costs to a credit card for several reasons:

1. currency exchange- he would not only have to one withdraw cash but would have to convert it to euros/other currencies
2. safety- if mugged or robbed or pickpocketed cash is gone for good but a credit card can be cancelled with zero liability for fraudulent charges
3. most credit cards come with free travel insurance for death in airplane crash to lost luggage to rental car damage.
4. some places only take cards....eg the toll roads in France you cannot pay the tolls in cash
5. some places (rural restaurants) do not give receipts so using a card automatically generates receipts with currency conversion.

Check out FairFX OP. They are U.K. based and what your DP can do is a bank transfer to them and they will issue him a preloaded Mastercard in whatever currencies he needs and tells them to load on it. It’s not a credit card because he’s already put the money on. Whatever he doesn’t use, they can transfer back to him or he can leave in his account with them until next trip.

www.fairfx.com/?&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=ps-uk-en-exact-brand_pure&utm_content=brand_-_generic_exact&utm_term=%5Bfairfx%5D&gclid=EAIaIQobChMItZ2onrrX5AIVjbTtCh3BDgPbEAAYASAAEgLUf_D_BwE

DP will also have done some sort of cost sheet for his business trip to get it approved. He should ask for an advance from work to cover the airfare and hotels. Then just get reimbursed whatever they allow for food and incidentals.

He needs to get his own credit card. Get him to download the clearscore ap and it will tell him if he’s likely to be accepted before the application.

He needs to keep these expenses in his own name- he definitely shouldn’t pay cash out of his savings on a debit though if he’s booking hotels etc.

It never ceases to amaze me that businesses assume that their employees have the wherewithall to pay these costs upfront.

I had a similar situation with DH - he has a CC as an additional cardholder on my account (which was historic from the days when there was an annual fee for credit cards and I got mine free as I worked for the bank). He changed jobs and started needing to buy train tickets (often into hundreds of pounds) and was using my card. I never knew when he was getting re-imbursed or if he had been re-imbursed (as all expenses were lumped together) so found it hard to tally with our own payments. I made him get a card in his own name so that he could keep his work expenses separately. He is also in a senior position and whilst he holds a budget at work he leaves all household finances to me (as an ex banker). Even he managed to apply for a credit card on line pretty quickly!

Your DP is being ridiculous. Interest rates are low. £15k down to to £13k for a month is going to make close to zero difference to what he gets in interest. In fact I am concerned that he is saying this. It sounds like he is being a bit underhand about why he wants you to cover the expenses for now. It's a bit odd as it really can't be about the interest on his savings.

So, have you told him OP?

This is definitely one of those Just Say No situations.