Partner has used Work Credit Card for Personal Expenses!

[Charcol]

Hes been called in for a disciplinary meeting to explain himself.

I have advised him to co-operate and tell the truth as best as poss. Its several transactions, including cash withdrawals. Although he has never tried to claim them as a business expense to recoup the money from work, and has paid the monies back after use.

However, the policy is no personal expenses!

What are the best options to avoid dismissal? Has anyone witnessed or seen similar scenarios? Advise would be much appreciated. thanks!

I'm with you @Redcrayons - any other way seems odd.

Thanks for this explanation.

As I was reading the OP I thought this was one of those first example scenarios, which makes way more sense than if the company automatically pays the monthly bill.

What do you mean you ask the company? Do you mean you submit a claim and they settle directly or you pay it and gney reimburse you?

it’s very unusual for a company to use an employees line of credit to get a credit card, rather than their own.

I thought second as they habe stated no personal expenses and it’s clear the person risks dismissal

My guess is the cash withdrawls will be a step too far and he could be dismissed for gross misconduct.

I hope I am wrong OP

Plus cash withdrawals charge large amount of interest. Even if he paid back the cash it won't have been enough

We had work credit cards in a previous company. I refused to have one after someone did online gambling on mine from the US and the credit card company were appalling at dealing with it. Threatening letters from the card company addressed to me personally to pay the balance even though they were investigating the unauthorised usage.

I found out in the end that the company got a kickback from the spend on the car hence the keeness for us using one. Kickback was only for company spend though. They pushed hard for me to get another one but eventually the pressure all faded away. we were of course expected to pay the bill in full. If we didnt we got one month leeway then company was expected to pay. I worked with someone who ran up big debts and then didnt pay and he was fired. He blamed his wife for the spend!

This company was obsessed with spend though. Got us to stay at scummy Travelodges often at the side of motorways on our own which was not particularly safe (someone tried to get into my room once) so most people would just drive there and back in a day to business meetings. I remember once doing circa 500 plus miles in one day. Company knew this - the buggers. Glad I am out of the bean counting.

He's an idiot.

Completely breach of rules.

Definitely gross misconduct- disciplinary at best but most likely he will be sacked.

My old company has a strict no personal spending rule, but have been more lenient where it has been a one-off error or where the line between personal and business have been blurry. For example one woman used it while on a business trip to pay for a meal when her own card was declined. She flagged it immediately and no action was taken. If he has done it persistently and withdrawn cash, it's hard to find a justification. From their point of view, how do they trust him after this? I understand that he repaid the money, but it's a bit like taking cash from a till when you're short, with the intention of paying it back.

Did you know he had no integrity before this happened?

Why did he do it?

The cash withdrawal is particularly bad. He will have to grovel and try to explain. It is probable he will be fired though.

Do you live with him? How enmeshed are your finances?

Was it a genuine mistake and he paid the money back immediately? My work credit card looks a lot like my own one and I once used it to buy cat food! I told my boss who laughed at me and said just pay it back and put on the system what happened and no more was said.

Our policy is also no personal expenses but accidents happen and if you own up and sort it, it’s not a massive issue.

I’d be amazed if he keeps his job if they’ve called him in for a disciplinary meeting. It sounds like they are walking him down the path of dismissal. Admitting it is not going to make any difference at all. Denying it is going to make it worse. He’d be better off resigning.

I hope you have your own job OP.

Bar the kick back my old company got for spend on the card... if you use it and pay back would anyone know or why would it be an issue?

Is it only if you cannot pay back that its effectively stealing? Why you would want to use a company credit card rather than your own is a mystrey though especially if you are paying it back at the end of the month.

I did this once in error - I was abroad for work and using that card for everything, and without thinking bought myself a jumper in Zara using it. It was a genuine mistake, and I messaged my manager and our team finance secretary straight off to flag it. I had to fill out a form and the jumper cost was deducted from my wages I think, it was a previous job. I think it’s quite easily done as a one-off mistake if you are on a work trip and that card is your default for a week or whatever.

Judy - that is diferent because you werent expected to pay the cc bill. We were and then you claimed back from the company. All on you to do but the company collected all the lovely cashback! You had to do expenses in time otherwise you were in trouble and the card bill still needed to be paid by YOU.

Haven’t RTFT but am a HR professional.

I’ve supported someone that was dismissed for 2 points of misconduct. One was taking £40 out of a charity collection to take their team (charity staff) for drinks.

Sounds like this is multiple incidents of using the cards as though they are an open payment option.

To be fair, it is unusual for a FTSE 100 company to rely on it's employees credit rating for their corporate cards. I thought AMEX had stopped pushing this route years ago...obviously not! The usual way it works is company card / company credit rating / company pays / employee submits expenses. But there's an ID / address check run against the indivudals details with a credit reference agency with the card application.

But it can work any of the following ways as well, just far less often:
company card / company credit rating / employee pays / employee submits expenses and is reimbursed
company card / personal credit rating / company pays / employee submits expenses and reimburses any personal spend
company card / personal credit rating / employee pays / employee submits expenses and is reimbursed for business expenses.

Or, just keep it simple as I always did and just used my personal card for everything!!

I’m sorry but I’d sack him if he worked for me. The trust would be gone. Once I could forgive but multiple times including cash withdrawals sounds like it was intentional.

Yes - our bills were paid by the company, all we did was filled out a form with receipts which were matched to the statements by the finance secretary. I’m sure I wasn’t the only person stupidly tapping away in some foreign city with the wrong card. It was a good jumper!

I would be worried he hasn’t been paying it back…

In any event he is likely to be dismissed which will be a result, as he could be prosecuted.

I would prepare for the worst.

I'm an Operations Director and responsible for our expenses, my team have a corporate credit card each that is paid in full by the company every month. Very occasionally somebody does put a personal expense on here in error, but it's usually flagged immediately by the user, profuse apologies are offered and the amount is immediately repaid. It's a pain, but these things happen and it only happens once or twice per year (by different people each time) at most.

This doesn't sound like that though...

OP, you’ve posted on a number of other threads about money issues and being in debt. Have you both been using this card as a way to borrow money? If it’s been desperate usage when you’ve had no money left, and he’s honest about that, a sympathetic employer might take that into consideration when deciding what action to take. Obviously, this isn’t going to fly if the personal transaction are for the local pub or shit from Amazon.

Do you know why your current boyfriend did this? I would be trying to get to the bottom of it unless he wants a lifetime of dishonesty and scrambling around when caught.

I personally think he should resign rather than be sacked if your boyfriend expects to get another job with theft and gross misconduct on his record.

Do you live together?