Company Credit Card

[BillHicksRIP]

Have went through an application for a company credit card. For info, I've got a good daily rate coming in and have a fair warchest in the company savings account. Aside from a couple of questions about the business, the chap started asking numerous questions about me personally relating to mortgage, personal debt, monthly outgoings etc.. I'm probably mistaken, but I've had it drummed into me that the business financial affairs are not related to my personal finances, with the exception that I am the company director. I've made sure my personal credit is always in order and have nothing to hide, but I spat the dummy out when he asked me how much I spend on household bills a month and put the phone down. Should I have sucked it up and handed this info over for a business credit card?

[SueEllen]

I was never asked that to get my company credit card. Mind you mine is from the bank I have my business account with and has a low limit.

It maybe the limit that is causing the issue or the fact that you don't have more than one personal credit card.

[BillHicksRIP]

Hi. I don't have a personal account with the bank my business account is with and I've got about 5 personal credit cards which are all sitting at nil currently. The business credit card limit was for £5k which is isn't a huge amount considering the funds going into, and being held, in the company savings account. He described it as "financial information gathering" and when I questioned it, he put it as they have to be a responsible lender, which is fine, but they can see how much the business is turning over and how much reserves are there. Rightly or wrongly, I'd like to understand if I was right to tell him to get stuffed or should I have just got on with it. Thanks.

[Greg@CapitalCity]

Yes, this sounds familiar. Where the credit limit is over a certain level, some banks will put the financial responsibility of the credit balance to the director - so if the company can't pay it off, the bank then go after the director (which means they want to know about the directors personal financial position).

[eek]

Yes, this sounds familiar. Where the credit limit is over a certain level, some banks will put the financial responsibility of the credit balance to the director - so if the company can't pay it off, the bank then go after the director (which means they want to know about the directors personal financial position).

Going back to the Boo.com stories from yesterday. One of the shock for people with corporate credit cards was when they discovered they were jointly liable for the purchases on their cards. I don't think the bank pushed very hard in many cases but some of the more senior people had large sums of money to find.