Business Credit Card

[BillHicksRIP]

I bank with Lloyds currently but they charge £32 a year for their business credit card which is a bit rich considering the amount of money I have with them earning hardly any interest. Anyone recommend an alternative? Need it for travel this year for flights, hotels and meal etc. and want to make things a bit easier than paying for these myself and claiming it back. Thanks.

[Craig at Nixon Williams]

I'm not sure which credit card providers charge fees and which don't (many of the credit cards used by our clients do charge a fee though). Could you use the business debit card instead to make these purchases and therefore get round having to pay additional fees for using a credit card?

Craig

[CheeseSlice]

Could you use the business debit card instead to make these purchases and therefore get round having to pay additional fees for using a credit card?

WCS

[BillHicksRIP]

I was looking for the insurances you usually get when paying for things via credit card rather than debit card.

[Jessica@WhiteFieldTax]

I looked at this for my business 18 months ago. Its difficult to get business cards away from main banker, and certainly not free.

TBH I would consider having a personal card and allocating it for business only, and paying it from business account.

Sounds counter intuitive if you are getting into pecuniary liabilities, NI and so on, but if its only used for allowable business items then there is no issue.

Interestingly AFAIR the TCBs on most corporate business cards place a personal liability on the user if the company defaults, so the pecuniary liability issue is, in my view, illusory.

Plus you can get some Tesco points or whatever

[Bellona]

I was looking for the insurances you usually get when paying for things via credit card rather than debit card.

You do have insurances for Debit Card purposes, the main difference being that while credit card providers are under a legal obligation to refund you because of the Consumer Credit Act, debit card providers are not legally required to honour your refund request: so it may be a little more persistence is be needed when claiming a refund for a debit card transaction.

You are protected by Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act whenever you make a purchase for goods or services worth between £100 and £30,000 using your credit card.This is because Section 75 states that you and your credit card provider are ‘jointly and severally liable’ for your purchase, meaning that if something should go wrong, your credit card provider must refund you if the retailer won’t.

As such the way in which your credit card purchases are protected is very black and white, but when it comes to debit cards, it’s more of a grey area.

Debit card purchases don’t qualify for this protection simply because they don’t form part of a credit agreement.

However, most debit card providers are starting to offer a form of protection when you make purchases using your card. You have some protection for purchases made using Visa, Visa Electron, Mastercard, and Maestro debit cards, through something called Chargeback. (There is a similar purchase protection scheme in place for Amex charge cards.)

The scheme makes it possible for you to claim a refund if a purchase made using your debit card is unsatisfactory, if you are billed multiple times, if you don't receive goods you've paid for, or if your card is used fraudulently.

For a chargeback you’ll have to contact the card provider within 120 days of when your goods should have been delivered. If the goods are faulty or your card was used fraudulently, contact your bank within 120 days of when you are first made aware of this. Ask them to initiate the Chargeback process and a dispute will be opened by your bank, who will investigate the matter and refund your money when this is settled. If your Chargeback claim fails, you can take it to the Financial Ombudsman Service within six months of being notified.

It isn’t a legal obligation (like Section75 for credit cards), but an in-house rule: this means that the exact rules for chargeback schemes vary by card provider, so it may be worth you checking your debit cards chargeback rules to see if it gives you enough of the type of protection you are looking for.

HTH

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[northernladuk]

How often have you ever claimed against your personal card which you probably use a lot? Is that really a benefit for a company card that you will hardly use?

[Wanderer]

For a chargeback you’ll have to contact the card provider within 120 days of when your goods should have been delivered. If the goods are faulty or your card was used fraudulently, contact your bank within 120 days of when you are first made aware of this. Ask them to initiate the Chargeback process and a dispute will be opened by your bank, who will investigate the matter and refund your money when this is settled. If your Chargeback claim fails, you can take it to the Financial Ombudsman Service within six months of being notified.

Good post. Chargebacks have been around for donkeys years though. I've done a number of them over the years. Mostly because of fraud (just phone up and say you didn't authorise that transaction) and a few times in disputes with merchants which couldn't be resolved amicably I've requested a chargeback and that gets the merchant's attention and the problem is magically resolved VERY quickly.

When it comes to buying stuff, why not use your own cashback/airmiles/nectar/whatever credit card and then charge it to the company books as a "cash expense" then reimburse yourself. I can't see that it's such a problem.

[SpontaneousOrder]

Good post. Chargebacks have been around for donkeys years though. I've done a number of them over the years. Mostly because of fraud (just phone up and say you didn't authorise that transaction) and a few times in disputes with merchants which couldn't be resolved amicably I've requested a chargeback and that gets the merchant's attention and the problem is magically resolved VERY quickly.

When it comes to buying stuff, why not use your own cashback/airmiles/nectar/whatever credit card and then charge it to the company books as a "cash expense" then reimburse yourself. I can't see that it's such a problem.

I was looking at chargebacks & disputes in production data the other day as part of a CR I was working on. They were 80% blokes who wanted their money back after signing up for fake dating websites

[Wanderer]

I was looking at chargebacks & disputes in production data the other day as part of a CR I was working on. They were 80% blokes who wanted their money back after signing up for fake dating websites

I've been rumbled then!