Help! Eeek!

polski81

Hi all

I'm a long time lurker, long time since I posted poster! (on a different username).

I'm in debt, to the tune of £5k and am currently paying this back on a DMP (with CCCS). I should be debt free in the next 18 months or so - hurrah!

I never want to get credit again - I don't have an overdraft anymore, and budget with my cash every week (I have learned well from the Debt Free Wannabe board!)... BUT I have just started a new job which requires a lot of travel (up to two nights away each week, plus driving/train journeys throughout the week) and does not provide a company credit card. This means that I will need to pay for my own travel/hotels and claim back. Not a problem after the first month or so as I'll have the expenses from the previous month. But until I get to that stage I'm stuck! Every penny I have is budgeted for - and goes to paying off my debt.

So... does anyone have any suggestions as to what I can do? I'm prepared to talk to my boss, but am worried about doing this as the job is so new and I don't want him to think I'm not trustworthy... I'm fine with anyone else's money, just terrible with my own!

Thank you for reading...

Polski81

KingElvis

The only option I can see is a small loan maybe from family to get you going or maybe a low % credit card which you can pay back entirely using your expenses each month. I use a Virgin Credit card, put all my claimable costs onto it and then pay of the balance entirely each month when expenses are paid.

Easy peasy :-)

polski81

Thank you... the only problem is that my credit rating is horrifically poor - being on a DMP means I'm unlikely to get a credit card...

Tixy

Hi

Could you speak to your new boss, ask if they will give you an expenses advance before you have to incur these costs - I think its reasonable to say you don't have a credit card and hadn't budgeted for these costs. You don't need to tell him about the DMP necessarily. I think it will make you sound like you are sensible with money.

Even if you could get a subprime credit card this would be against the terms of your DMP so definitely don't try that route.

What sort of cost do you think you will be incurring on a monthly basis?
To be honest I think its really unfair of them to expect you to be paying this out, a firm I worked at used to do this, even expecting senior staff to pay the hotel bills of more junior staff, eventually they worked out arrangements for the hotels to be paid directly by the firm and opened an account for train costs.

Maybe they will agree to a set advance (£500?) that you could sign for with the agreement that if you left your job for any reason that amount would be deducted from any wages they owe to you.

polski81

Thanks for your reply! I think an advance is a good idea... I'll run that by them and see what they think. I certainly don't want to be going down the credit route just for my job! (or for anything else!)

I think it's unfair too - I hadn't expected this to be the case - in my previous company, for all their faults, would at least pay for my hotel and train costs, and the company before that gave me a company credit card. How can they expect people to have hundreds of pounds spare each month?!

josephine82

Hi!

Might be worth investigating if your company has an account with thetrainline.com or whether they would happily set one up? Mine does and so I pre book all my tickets and they just get invoiced.
Hotels etc they must have a company credit card that they can use to pay for a hotel for you.
I only ever end up spending my own money on bus or taxi fares, which I always claim back, but seeing as this is usually under £10 its a bit easier.
Worth asking how long they take to pay back expenses- if its the friday of the next week for example then you might be ok covering £10-£20 but if its a month like mine- they definitely need to help you out.
Some companies will give you petty cash and then you will have to return your receipts and the change etc.

i think it is ridiculous that if you are expected to travel for work that it isn't paid for- i get so irritated that I'm expected to fork out for a hotel for 3 nights and then wait a month to get that money back. I put all mine on my Tesco clubcard credit card so at least I get the clubcard points :rotfl::rotfl: