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My company incurs a relatively large IT hosting cost every month. I provided my personal credit card to pay it when I joined because otherwise our service would have stopped.

The company does reimburse me, but I have to set aside funds every month on which I could be earning interest. They are also slow to reimburse me and require me to send various evidence that is time consuming to provide. The company is very large so I'm not worried about not getting the money back - it's just very annoying to have a large credit card bill every month. Eventually I might not be able to cover it, even.

I have no issue paying for things like travel expenses, but there is no reason why this expense has to be paid with my card. I approached various departments in my company, but I guess it's not important enough for anyone.

I'm specifically looking for advice from legal perspective - are there any rules in Germany that says employees can't be asked to pre-pay general company expense, or over a certain amount etc? I'm thinking if I can make it a compliance issue I can eventually get somebody's help.

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    You sure you have exhausted all other alternatives before going through the legal way and file a compliance issue? What does your boss say about this? Can the company give you a Company Credit card? – DarkCygnus♦ Jan 14 '19 at 21:00
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    Pick the right credit card and the rewards points value will far outweigh what you could/would be making on interest in a savings account, or even a CD. As long as they're paying you back within the month, there's no real cost to you except for the lost opportunity of the available credit. – dwizum Jan 14 '19 at 21:05
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    @dwizum yeah, I can already see that such credit card is surely gaining several Travel Miles :) – DarkCygnus♦ Jan 14 '19 at 21:07
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    There are cards that pay 3 - 4 % in cash back. Being allowed to pump company expenses through your own rewards-earning card is like getting a raise. – dwizum Jan 14 '19 at 21:10
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    What happens if you quit/get fired? Who pays for IT hosting then? This is not your problem to deal with. – Peter M Jan 14 '19 at 21:18
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This is one thing you should NEVER do.

There is no legitimate business reason at all why a company cannot pay their own charges directly.

If a company has to borrow money from their staff (which is EXACTLY what they are doing), then you should not be at this company. Their are either not financially solvent or not financially competent. Either case bodes badly for you.

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  • And this is the better answer. My answer is only a way to strongly nudge them, to change what has already happened. – thursdaysgeek Jan 14 '19 at 22:40
  • This. It is one thing if it is a one-off expense (work-related travel comes to mind), but you should NEVER be paying for your company's subscription-based services. The fact that it is your details being used to pay the bills means that it is your account, and this can land both you and them in a legal quagmire if things ever go south. – 520 says Reinstate Monica Jan 15 '19 at 16:28
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This is insanity.

  1. Cancel the service

  2. simply tell your boss these words:

"Say Boss. I turned off that card of mine for that service."

No further explanation is needed.

End of story.

Just turn it off and state that you have turned it off.

Do not "explain" why you have done so or go in to it in any way at all.

Never, ever ever do this.

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    I would simply write an advanced notice like, "Dear Boss, I'm writing to say that in 15 days, I'm terminating services at [insert whatever the name of]." No explanation needed, and giving enough time for them to put it on their account. – Dan Jan 15 '19 at 17:46
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    Peter and Dan, on AWS, etc., if you click "remove payment method" today .. everything still runs fine for some weeks. It does not stop "that day". The situation is so absolutely outlandish, that, there is no need whatsoever to "give notice". Just remove the payment method, and then in passing say to someone "Oh, I removed that credit card of mine from the AWS service we use." And done. – Fattie Jan 15 '19 at 18:09
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    And "Not done". Saying something in passing like that leaves the company scrambling and is not the polite thing to do, and will unnecessarily lower managements opinion of you (even if nothing else untoward happens). This needs to be dealt with explicitly and upfront. – Peter M Jan 15 '19 at 20:21
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    what abou tthis @PeterM . "I removed that credit card from the AWS account. It looks like the current payment will run until { date about 3 weeks in the future, which is how AWS works }. Cheers Biff". EVERYONE'S HAPPY ! – Fattie Jan 15 '19 at 23:49
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    nah, it would be insanity to allow it to be billed for another cycle. It must not hit another billing cycle. – Fattie Jan 16 '19 at 11:56
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Others said this before, you should have never done this before. I hope you did order the service in name of the company, not in your name.

You said you already talked to various people, but nobody seemed to care. You could take one last chance to talk to your boss in person, that they need to change this immediately.

If that doesn't work I would set up an email (to have it in writing - also for the credit card company) stating the following:

  • you provided your personal credit card for whatever reasons
  • this is a company expense you expect the company to set up another way of paying with the third-party
  • you already talked to accounting, your boss, purchase, IT, whatever (add dates, if possible), but nothing changed
  • in two weeks (or whatever seems reasonable for you) you will cancel any further charges on your credit card without notice
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I would suggest approaching HR / Manager for payment method replacement, stating that its current status is your personal card that is expiring.

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Just get a new credit/debit card with new details to force the issue.

To prevent it happening again, do not provide other people with your credit/debit card details.

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    Well ... this would surely trigger the issue... what you propose should be done to prevent it from happening again? This is actually what could happen (change card) but I am not sure it's the most tactful approach there is... – DarkCygnus♦ Jan 14 '19 at 21:02
  • This can be risky. If there is some sort of error, the company could end up billing substantial charges to the now-closed card, which can (Rube Goldberg-style) damage the OP's credit and cause other financial problems. The fix would be to inform the company and get written verification that the billing under the old card would stop, but that's functionally identical to just talking to the employer about the issue in the first place. – Upper_Case Jan 14 '19 at 22:41
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Talk to your boss and let them know that you plan on changing to a rewards card that gets cash back, so there will be a better benefit to you. If the boss doesn't like that, they will find a way to get that changed quickly to the company paying. If the boss doesn't act, then at least you'll be getting some benefit from those charges.

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  • There is no reason at all to give an excuse or reason for stopping the billing. Simply (1) log in to the service and cancel the use of your card (2) send a 2-word email to management stating "I have stopped using that card on service ABC". – Fattie Jan 15 '19 at 12:58
  • This is a bad move and not a solution: you propose to continue to pay company expenses updating payment method with a new personal card. Made a mistake once, don't do it again!! – Paolo Jan 16 '19 at 20:12

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