Paying for Travel for Work
 

I am going to be doing a work related trip later this fall. Our organization rarely even deals with travel, so we don't have many good policies in place. I am not issued a company credit card.

I will be staying for several nights in a hotel. I can book a group rate for the event I am attending, but the hotel does not charge the credit card until I actually arrive. They will need to see the credit card to place the charge.

My organization thinks the easiest thing to do would be for me to charge the stay on my own card and they will pay me back. I am quite uncomfortable with that to begin with, and don't really have a spare $1000 on my credit card to do that anyways. How does your company handle this? Is there an easier way?

Ask the firm for a 'reasonable' cash advance. Prepay your personal credit card so the funds are available. Or put the cash advance on one of those pre-paid/gift branded cards. Of course, you should expense the costs for such transactions to the business.

Your best option, in my opinion, is to express your concerns to your management. If they are reasonable people they will understand that you may not have ready access to the needed funds/credit and should be willing to work with you. On the other hand, what was the expectation set by management when you took your current position?

That's how all of my employers have always handled it. I charge it to my card and then submit my reimbursement form as soon as I return. It generally only took 2 weeks for reimbursement. Often times I'd get a check before my statement came in the mail.

Are you close to your credit limit and that's why you are worried? Or are you worried that you won't be reimbursed?

OP's employer is doing what a growing # of employers do. It can be uncomfortable to explain to an employer that you have poor credit and can't really sustain having $1,000 on your card while the reimbursement is processed.

As a first step and before discussing with the employer, I would suggest calling the CC issuer, explaining that you will now be travelling for work and would appreciate it if the issuer would raise your credit limit to acommodate the amounts you will need.

If that doesn't work, you will need to approach the employer. Note that while your card won't be charged before you arrive, that many place a "hold" for the amount of your stay + some % for incidentals at whatever the cutoff for cancellation is.

There wasn't. This is perhaps the third out of state travel I have done for them in 8 years, and the first two (as is this) are arguably not critical.

I guess it is a combination of several things - yeah, I carry very low revolving credit due to past experiences, so tying up a grand is a substantial amount. Reimbursement for our organization is a slow process - we are talking a couple of months (we are not private). So that means I also have to carry the interest as well.

Our purchasing department is being good about working with me on this. We just aren't sure what to do. As an organization we probably only do a dozen or so out of town travel trips a year, and even fewer are done by non-executive employees like myself. so this is in a way trying to find a better process.

So maybe the question is more how does your organization handle travel, and how would you LIKE them to handle it?

It is not uncommon for employees to pay for travel on their personal cards and then get reimbursed. I'd do a couple things.

First, talk to your employer and make sure you get a commitment as to the reimbursement timeframe, as well as what is needed to process the reimbursement (e.g., all receipts or just receipts over a certain amount, what's covered and not, meal limits, etc.). You don't want to get into a situation where it takes your employer a month to pay you back, or where several of your submissions are not considered valid after the fact. Also, if they can accommodate it, a direct deposit setup can be nice so you're not dealing with physical checks. The idea of a cash advance is also a good one, if you can estimate out certain expenses (hotel + taxes/fees, average meals, ground transportation, etc.).

Second, if you need to, talk to your credit card issuer and get your limit raised (if necessary) and inform them that you may be making some large travel-related purchases (if out of the ordinary - sometimes there will be holds placed if you make large atypical purchases, like out of your home area).

If OP's employer can't get its act together on timely reimbursements, it's entirely appropriate for the employer to pick up the interest. That need not be calculated to the penny, but it's easy enough to come up with a simple formula which brings the calculation close enough.

Alternatively, it may be that the interest is pretty minimal and not worth fighting about with the employer.

If the organization is not good about paying expenses in a timely manner, I would estimate expenses and ask for an advance. No need to incur interest, possible late charges, etc.

I'm in the opposite position to the OP. Previously all my travel and expenses were paid on my personal CC (BA Amex), earning me extra Avios.

In the current job all travel is booked through corporate TA, and expenses paid on corporate card - so no more "free" easy earning

more's the pity

We do something similar (actually even more restrictive) and I hate it. Reimbursement turnaround is usually not bad but if I incur sizable interest, I will submit a second request later on to pay that. By policy, that's not supposed to be allowed but I have managed to swing it in a couple of cases by pointing out the cost I incur due to AP not hitting their expected processing times. A few things I would recommend considering:

-The person in charge of finance or accounting at your organization should understand the reality of having employees with tight credit lines in this age. It's not worth putting yourself in a rough spot to avoid potential embarrassment. If it's a small organization, there may be some flexibility on their part. I would just have a direct conversation with whoever acts as the controller to discuss options. You don't need to involve everyone from your manager to the AP clerk, just go directly to someone with oversight of that process. Whoever you speak to just needs to know the situation at hand, not the circumstances that caused the poor credit.

-You can call your CC and ask for temporary limit increases. They should be more willing to accommodate this than a permanent increase.

-If it's a frequent issue about being paid back on time, I would recommend keeping track of how much you're incurring and pointing that out. You may be able to work out a process where you can submit for expedited processing if you can point out the hardship.

-The ideal situation would be to just move to corporate liable cards. They will have a higher limits than employees with otherwise poor credit. It also forces compliance with corporate rates, policies, and lets the company leverage travel volume for discounts. It ties up corporate funds instead of employees' and requires more management oversight but IMO worth it. If you're going to be traveling frequently, it may be worthwhile to have a conversation about having a corporate card issued to you.

-For your situation, a more likely solution may be to have the company issue you a re-loadable gift/debit card. The card is to be used only for travel expenses. You'd use the debit card to pay for charges and then use your personal card to cover incidentals or deposits. It's similar to petty cash but does provide some better oversight or comfort for your org. It's also more fraud proof than having an employee responsible for holding and handing out cash. Obviously you would need one that allows you to pull transaction histories. You would need some "room" on your personal card but any temporary holds would still fall off faster than you are being reimbursed.

The OP said his company can be expected to take more than a month to reimburse, so I agree that an advance is appropriate - why should an employee be required to pay late fees and interest?

To the OP, you should discuss all of this in advance. First step as several have said is to get an advance to cover the travel, hotel, car, and your daily per diem. This way you would only be on the hook for the extra taxes applied by the hotel and rental car companies.

If your company refuses the advance, then get an agreement that they will cover your interest and late fees.

If they refuse an advance AND refuse to cover interest and late fees, then you work for a jerk of a company. I wouldn't resign over this, but I would let them know how I feel.

To answer your question, I travel often for work so I have a company credit card.

All of our employees have at least one, no-fee personal card that is dedicated only to work expenses. As a group, we earn thousands of dollars every year in award points when we charge spending to our personal cards. It's a little perk for the work of purchasing items for the company.

I'd certainly ask your supervisor or payables person to confirm, even verbally, that the company will reimburse all costs. Put it on them to say what they won't cover.

If they have a different idea of meal costs or travel or out-of-pocket expenses, it's better to know that now than later.

If OP carries a balance on the primary card, this would be a good time to get another no-fee card, with a modest limit, that can be used.

I've worked either as staff or contractor for a variety of public and private companies, including a few governments where travel expenses are subject to freedom of information requests. I've probably worked under every possible permutation and I haven't found a perfect one yet.

Long ago I resigned myself to losing a little money whether through expenses that can't really be receipted, currency fluctuations, interest charges, etc. These modest amounts are the price I gladly pay not to deal with pettifogging accountants who believe every expense report is an attempt at grand theft larceny. :rolleyes:

In the OP's situation I would ask for an advance on expenses and an increase in my credit card limit to avoid having to bill cc interest which I've found an exercise in frustration. It can be tough to determine the exact amount when there are other charges on the bill and with a slow payer the interest keeps accumulating. What you eventually get will probably not cover the entire interest charge.

Currently I run a sole-proprietor consulting business with substantial travel. I have my own corporate card and enough liquidity to pay off the bill when it arrives. That's as close to perfect as I can get. No interest charges and I get all the points.

There is one more strategy the OP's company may consider that I've seen but hasn't been mentioned here. They can get a corporate credit card issued to one of the executives or office managers. Then all travel by those employees who rarely travel on business is charged to that card. I've seen it where the office manager made all the bookings so the traveller never touched the card, and I've also seen it (a more trusting environment) where the traveller was "loaned" the credit card for a couple days. Either way it keeps the business expenses on the company card and there is no later hassle with expense reports.

I wish my company would allow me to use my own card. All those bonus points and I get none of them :(