Does your job make you pay your own expenses and file for reimbursement?

[Anonymous]

I wasn't sure if this should go here or in money and finance, but I think it's a job question.

How many of you have to incur job-related expenses on your own credit card and file for reimbursement? I used to have a company card but we were recently bought out and not only have we not gotten new cards OR reimbursements for previously filed expenses, we don't know when we will get either. In the mean time, I'm racking up expenses on my own high-interest credit card. DH is freaking out and saying I have to put my foot down and refuse to charge anything. We are getting ready to buy a new house so I can't have my credit card balance super high.

I have put up a big fuss and gotten some things taken care of that others haven't (like airfare for work travel put on company president's purchase card), but I can't exactly refuse to do my job either. I have a work trip coming up and I'm dreading the fight that's going to inevitably come from charging incidentals and possibly the hotel (that's another fuss I'm making and may get covered in advance).

So I guess I'm asking, in addition to my original question, if anyone has any advice for me. It's rather stressful. My boss is understanding but can only do so much -- the company card and reimbursement issues are not her doing nor problems she can solve herself, but she also is making a fuss on my team's behalf because we all are incurring expenses on personal cards.

[Anonymous]

I'm a little unclear on the problem. It sounds like the problem is that they're not reimbursing you quickly enough, is that right?

I work from home and travel and put all of my business expenses on my personal card. I get reimbursed within two to three weeks if I put it in straightaway.

[Anonymous]

Yes, I work at a very big company and we have company credit cards in our names that we have to pay off and then claim expenses back from the firm. So essentially we are loaning money to company interest free for a few weeks.

I can claim back fees etc but it's never come to that bc I always pay my balance in full by the due date.

It works like this everywhere. The only exception I can think of is Google where my husband works. They have an in house travel agent that you book with and you never have to pay and claim back, except for meals on the road, but never for big things like flights and hotels.

[Anonymous]

My husband's work does this and it drives me coocoo also. But there wasn't much we could do about it either. He ended up getting an AmEx (personally) just for work expenses, b/c before, there was just too much mingling of work + personal expenses on our personal credit card. This seems to work better. Each time he gets a reimbursement, he forwards the info to me right away and I pay the AmEx bill.

I know this would not help you re the "getting ready to buy a new house and wanting to keep balances down" issue, but it did help us a bit and made me feel less stressed when I saw huge amounts going onto our personal credit card (flights, etc.).

[Anonymous]

Eh, we had this with a transition from one operating company to another at work and nothing got resolved until management collectively lost their $hit on the new HR and got them to take action. However, they were "helped" by the fact that HR screwed up payroll several times in a row as well so management told HR they would be contacting the state dept of labor which got the ball rolling.

[Anonymous]

Put the stuff on a card you get points on. Have them pay any fees associated with carrying a balance until they reimburse you.

[Anonymous]

OP +100 to PPs who recommended you get a separate credit card to use for work expenses. Reimbursement accounting is a nightmare if you don't do this. As the last PP said, if you are traveling for work, get a card that earns points to the airline or hotel you use most frequently.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm a little unclear on the problem. It sounds like the problem is that they're not reimbursing you quickly enough, is that right?

I work from home and travel and put all of my business expenses on my personal card. I get reimbursed within two to three weeks if I put it in straightaway.

OP here. That's part of the problem, currently. Since the buyout A&P has been totally screwed up. I filed my expenses a month ago -- some people even longer, like right before the buyout 2 months ago -- and there have been no reimbursements issued yet. In the meantime, the interest racks up, and that is not something we are allowed to expense, to my knowledge. But maybe I'll push back on that too.

The other part of the problem is the mixing of personal and work expenditures on the credit card. I incur a lot of small expenses weekly that add up (mileage, parking, meals out for work, etc) even when not traveling. They just get bigger when traveling. It drives DH nuts because he's trying to get everything paid down and keep track of all expenditures. OCD + control freak...so no bueno there.

Thanks for the advice, PPs. I can't see him agreeing to me getting another credit card when we're trying to boost our credit ahead of the new home purchase (not that we have bad credit, we both have very good to excellent), but I'll run it by him. Maybe he'll agree it's better than the current setup. But then again, he thinks this can be resolved by me refusing to incur any expenses whatsoever until I get a company card (which could be never, who knows?). Of course, it can't, because I do have to do my job. Oh, he does also think I need to find a new job, like, yesterday...but that's another thread.

Thanks for the advice so far!

[Anonymous]

Both of our jobs require this, but DH's takes months to reimburse and some months he's charging 10% of his salary on our credit card (which we have to pay off long before we get reimbursed in order to avoid interest). It's really maddening.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, I work at a very big company and we have company credit cards in our names that we have to pay off and then claim expenses back from the firm. So essentially we are loaning money to company interest free for a few weeks.

I can claim back fees etc but it's never come to that bc I always pay my balance in full by the due date.

It works like this everywhere. The only exception I can think of is Google where my husband works. They have an in house travel agent that you book with and you never have to pay and claim back, except for meals on the road, but never for big things like flights and hotels.

Says who that it works like this everywhere? I work for a small company and people are issued company credit cards they are not required to use their personal credit cards.
On the other hand, my husband works for a large company and is required to put travel expenses on his own personal card which I think is a whole lot of BS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Yes, I work at a very big company and we have company credit cards in our names that we have to pay off and then claim expenses back from the firm. So essentially we are loaning money to company interest free for a few weeks.

I can claim back fees etc but it's never come to that bc I always pay my balance in full by the due date.

It works like this everywhere. The only exception I can think of is Google where my husband works. They have an in house travel agent that you book with and you never have to pay and claim back, except for meals on the road, but never for big things like flights and hotels.


Says who that it works like this everywhere? I work for a small company and people are issued company credit cards they are not required to use their personal credit cards.
On the other hand, my husband works for a large company and is required to put travel expenses on his own personal card which I think is a whole lot of BS.

The big company I work for does issue us company CCs however they are in our names and all liabilities on those cards are personal and it is our own credit on the line. However we get paid back our expenses in a very timely way (3-5 business days) and the whole thing is a well oiled machine. Majority of big companies do approach expenses in the this way, I should know, I'm a career consultant!

[Anonymous]

Husband works for a huge company and travels pretty much weekly to biweekly. All expenses go on a personal credit card and are reimbursed. We like it as we are point hoarders. It can total 7,000 or so per month, but its all on him to do his expenses in a timely manner, his boss usually approves them within the hour and he gets a check within a week. We don't mind it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, I work at a very big company and we have company credit cards in our names that we have to pay off and then claim expenses back from the firm. So essentially we are loaning money to company interest free for a few weeks.

I can claim back fees etc but it's never come to that bc I always pay my balance in full by the due date.

It works like this everywhere. The only exception I can think of is Google where my husband works. They have an in house travel agent that you book with and you never have to pay and claim back, except for meals on the road, but never for big things like flights and hotels.

This is what we have too. I have to pay off the work credit card balance. It easily can be 7-9k a month. And we aren't reimbursed for months sometimes (due to Dh still being gone) We just have a larger savings account. Dh travels 3-4 weeks a month internationally. He's a fed btw. Doesn't work like this at my fed agency though. He gets his plane paid for but nothing else. And if he gets to the airport and doesn't have a plane ticket we pay that too.

When Dh went back to school they only reimbursed at the end of the semester. So that was 15k we had to float until the end of each semester. That did get tight because we weren't making too much.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a little unclear on the problem. It sounds like the problem is that they're not reimbursing you quickly enough, is that right?

I work from home and travel and put all of my business expenses on my personal card. I get reimbursed within two to three weeks if I put it in straightaway.

OP here. That's part of the problem, currently. Since the buyout A&P has been totally screwed up. I filed my expenses a month ago -- some people even longer, like right before the buyout 2 months ago -- and there have been no reimbursements issued yet. In the meantime, the interest racks up, and that is not something we are allowed to expense, to my knowledge. But maybe I'll push back on that too.

The other part of the problem is the mixing of personal and work expenditures on the credit card. I incur a lot of small expenses weekly that add up (mileage, parking, meals out for work, etc) even when not traveling. They just get bigger when traveling. It drives DH nuts because he's trying to get everything paid down and keep track of all expenditures. OCD + control freak...so no bueno there.

Thanks for the advice, PPs. I can't see him agreeing to me getting another credit card when we're trying to boost our credit ahead of the new home purchase (not that we have bad credit, we both have very good to excellent), but I'll run it by him. Maybe he'll agree it's better than the current setup. But then again, he thinks this can be resolved by me refusing to incur any expenses whatsoever until I get a company card (which could be never, who knows?). Of course, it can't, because I do have to do my job. Oh, he does also think I need to find a new job, like, yesterday...but that's another thread.

Thanks for the advice so far!

I got Dh his own cc that I make him use just for travel. I even put a picture of a plane on the capital one card so he knows. Makes it very easy for him to voucher since all the parking, rental car, hotel and gas fees go on there.

[Anonymous]

Definitely push back on the interest charges if you are paying them as long as you submitted the expense report in a timely fashion. Our accounts payable department went through a major overhaul and there was a few months where expenses were taking FOREVER. I just submitted an additional expense reimbursement request for the interest incurred as a result of their slow processing times. But to answer your question, my company offers travel advances for up to 75% of the expected travel costs (we have set per diems and hotel limits based on city/country). I usually don't request travel advances though because you can only have 1 at a time and with frequent travel or back to back trips it's just not possible to submit the paperwork and have it processed in time. So I mostly just expense things and then submit for reimbursement as soon as I get back. It usually takes 3 weeks to get reimbursed by my company.