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American Express has both "Business" and "Corporate Business Cards." The "Business" ones require a personal guarantee. For some color, I've signed up for multi

by tempsy 7y ago

American Express has both "Business" and "Corporate Business Cards." The "Business" ones require a personal guarantee. For some color, I've signed up for multiple Amex Business cards in the past as a "sole proprietor" even though I was really just churning the cards for the rewards. You just input your SSN for the EIN. The Corporate Amex cards don't require a personal guarantee.

myalphabet 7y ago
The AmEx card I used was 100% a Corporate card (not a Business card) and definitely did require a personal guarantee. edit: After some searching, it appears AmEx offers corporate cards both with and without personal guarantees, and it's up to the company to decide which they want to do. In my case, at one of the largest consulting companies in the world, they required personal guarantees.
- tempsy 7y ago
  Who is the guarantor? The employee? That seems like a very shady thing to do given every expense put on that card is for work.
  - myalphabet 7y ago
    Yes, the employee. Why do you think it's shady? In my years of working in and around people with the same setup I've never heard of any complaints, and I know most of the other large consulting companies do it the same way. AFAIK the thought behind it is that not every expense on the card is for work - as a consultant, I travel every week and I put all kinds of expenses on the card (not all of which are strictly "for work" or allowed to be reimbursed by the company). This way, my company still pays the bill for whatever expenses I mark as reimbursable, but the company doesn't have to worry about being on the hook for when I use my card to buy a pair of pants. To me, it's basically the same as having a personal CC and my company reimburses me for the expenses - except in this case, it's a lot easier for my company to pay part of the bill directly (instead of me being an intermediary) and I also don't have to worry about hitting a credit limit.
    - tempsy 7y ago
      The point is you're trusting the company to not screw you over and refuse to reimburse you or pay the bill, for whatever reason. Everyone has some horror story of waiting months to get reimbursed for something from an employer. It's less annoying if it's very occasional or the amount is small, but when you're racking up thousands a week there's a non-zero risk.
      - myalphabet 7y ago
        I suppose that's true and I would probably be worried about that if it was a smaller company or a company that had a real possibility of not being able to pay the bills. At my company that pulls in billions per year and has hundreds of thousands of employees that use this expense system that I've never heard one case of someone having an issue getting reimburses, it's not much of a worry to me.
        tempsy 7y ago
        We live in a post Lehman Brothers world...anything can happen. Personally would rather keep my personal expenses to my personal card and refuse a personal guarantee for any corporate spending, especially if it's going to average thousands a month.
        rurp 7y ago
        Seriously, how hard can it be to bring both a personal and corporate card on a trip, and use each as appropriate? I've never had an employer issued cc but it's baffling to me that some employees have no problem personally guaranteeing company expenditures. I can imagine all sorts of scenarios, including a complete unexpected collapse, that would leave the employee out to dry.
    - astura 7y ago
      >it's basically the same as having a personal CC and my company reimburses me for the expenses The company collects all the rewards for the spend but you take on all of the risk of repayment. If you used your personal card you'd collect the rewards. Using personal cards and being reimbursed is a nice perk for many.
anthonybsd 7y ago
> The Corporate Amex cards don't require a personal guarantee. I have Amex corporate and it absolutely required a personal guarantee. Social Security number and all.

by tempsy 7y ago

myalphabet 7y ago

The AmEx card I used was 100% a Corporate card (not a Business card) and definitely did require a personal guarantee. edit: After some searching, it appears AmEx offers corporate cards both with and without personal guarantees, and it's up to the company to decide which they want to do. In my case, at one of the largest consulting companies in the world, they required personal guarantees.

tempsy 7y ago
Who is the guarantor? The employee? That seems like a very shady thing to do given every expense put on that card is for work.
- myalphabet 7y ago
  Yes, the employee. Why do you think it's shady? In my years of working in and around people with the same setup I've never heard of any complaints, and I know most of the other large consulting companies do it the same way. AFAIK the thought behind it is that not every expense on the card is for work - as a consultant, I travel every week and I put all kinds of expenses on the card (not all of which are strictly "for work" or allowed to be reimbursed by the company). This way, my company still pays the bill for whatever expenses I mark as reimbursable, but the company doesn't have to worry about being on the hook for when I use my card to buy a pair of pants. To me, it's basically the same as having a personal CC and my company reimburses me for the expenses - except in this case, it's a lot easier for my company to pay part of the bill directly (instead of me being an intermediary) and I also don't have to worry about hitting a credit limit.
  - tempsy 7y ago
    The point is you're trusting the company to not screw you over and refuse to reimburse you or pay the bill, for whatever reason. Everyone has some horror story of waiting months to get reimbursed for something from an employer. It's less annoying if it's very occasional or the amount is small, but when you're racking up thousands a week there's a non-zero risk.
    - myalphabet 7y ago
      I suppose that's true and I would probably be worried about that if it was a smaller company or a company that had a real possibility of not being able to pay the bills. At my company that pulls in billions per year and has hundreds of thousands of employees that use this expense system that I've never heard one case of someone having an issue getting reimburses, it's not much of a worry to me.
      - tempsy 7y ago
        We live in a post Lehman Brothers world...anything can happen. Personally would rather keep my personal expenses to my personal card and refuse a personal guarantee for any corporate spending, especially if it's going to average thousands a month.
        rurp 7y ago
        Seriously, how hard can it be to bring both a personal and corporate card on a trip, and use each as appropriate? I've never had an employer issued cc but it's baffling to me that some employees have no problem personally guaranteeing company expenditures. I can imagine all sorts of scenarios, including a complete unexpected collapse, that would leave the employee out to dry.
  - astura 7y ago
    >it's basically the same as having a personal CC and my company reimburses me for the expenses The company collects all the rewards for the spend but you take on all of the risk of repayment. If you used your personal card you'd collect the rewards. Using personal cards and being reimbursed is a nice perk for many.

anthonybsd 7y ago

> The Corporate Amex cards don't require a personal guarantee. I have Amex corporate and it absolutely required a personal guarantee. Social Security number and all.