Should I snitch on cashback 'womble'?

Former_MSE_Debs

Money Moral Dilemma: Should I snitch on cashback 'womble'?

I recently learned my colleague who looks after staff hotel bookings does it via a cashback website, after she boasted she can get up to £80 back per booking. I don't know what the rules are, but surely the company should be getting the benefit of this? Should I report her to management?

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double_mummy

hmmmmmmmm a weird one this week

is the card in her name and then she is refunded or is it in the company name?

if it is in her name i see no problem as it is her choice how she uses her card

if it is in the company name then there could be a case for missue or unapproved use of the card as she would have had to register it on a cashback website

also is this being accessed at work or at home?

if at work is she allowed to access these types of websites?

at home she can access whatever she likes

Account Holders must not enter into, or attempt to enter into, any transaction with a retailer or to gain Cashback (a) by providing personal information of someone else, or a payment method which they are not entitled to use, - taken from quidco

there is an argument that she is using another entities details and a card she does not have permission to use on the site

so after all that if it is the companies card used yes i would report it if it isnt then no i wouldnt

princess_loki

I would love to know how she gets £80 cashback for a hotel booking!!

In my view then whatever money is made back on things like this should go towards treats for the whole office.

Money earned from company spends is in my opinion still owned by the company. If agreed with Financial Director then where I work it could be spent on the department or office involved - as long as overall savings could be shown compared to other hotel prices....

Dodgy ground!!

I would never ever even consider doing this unless it was agreed and approved in writing by a director.

Company money is company money whatever form it is in!!

aaronb74

Very questionable in my opinion and she could be in breach of company policies (I actually got in trouble for breaching expenses policy by using a M&S coupon when buying lunch for an office meeting). Even if she's not officially breaking company rules, I suspect management wouldn't be too happy if they found out.

elsien

I think our company would definitely view it as fraud/misconduct.
If it's considered fraudulent to use a personal nectar card to get a few points whilst buying things for work (which it is in our place) then that amount of cashback would certainly be triggering some sort of action.
Perhaps (giving the benefit of the doubt) she hasn't given much thought to the implications of what she's doing, and needs a bit of a nudge to understand the strife she could be getting herself into.
Either that or she's being spectacularly stupid by boasting about it if she knows it's not acceptable practice.

gloriouslyhappy

elsien wrote: »

Perhaps (giving the benefit of the doubt) she hasn't given much thought to the implications of what she's doing, and needs a bit of a nudge to understand the strife she could be getting herself into.
Either that or she's being spectacularly stupid by boasting about it if she knows it's not acceptable practice.

Absolutely as Elsien's posted above - I think she should check with her boss what the company policy is on this sort of thing, and agree she's being an idiot boasting about getting the cashback, whether or not it's acceptable practice in her organisation. However, to answer the OP's question "should I inform management', I think the best thing is to stay out of it - it's none of your business, and whichever way it turns out, you'll just look like some nasty type of snitch trying to get a colleague in trouble. If she is boasting openly across the office, it will come to management attention sooner or later, let them deal with it.
Should you ever be asked to buy things on behalf of the company, that would be a good time to clarify the situation, but keep mum until then. Office politics are a minefield!

brendanego

I'd be interested to know whether the T&C's of the cashback site allow for this - surely they're for personal use?

nightsky224

It's an interesting one this week, all responses seem to be that she shouldn't be doing it. I wonder if its to do with the £80 figure. What about if it was a more realistic £2-£3 for hotels etc? If I'm honest I don't know what I think...

MacMickster

MSE_Debs wrote: »

I recently learned my colleague who looks after staff hotel bookings does it via a cashback website, after she boasted she can get up to £80 back per booking. I don't know what the rules are, but surely the company should be getting the benefit of this? Should I report her to management?

I wouldn't report your colleague, but maybe suggest to the company boss that the company should start using cashback sites when making bookings.

If they take you up on your suggestion then it puts an end to your colleague's sideline, plus you get the kudos from presenting this money-saving suggestion.

AngelsMadv

Not in the slightest. I use Visa Electron and Prepaid Mastercard to avoid fees (saving my company £5 per ticket). I also traveled to HongKong economy to save the company £1K.

And what thanks did I get? Actually the reverse. The company couldn't be bothered faffing as they send it to a travel agent to book costing them often up to 15% more. They would have prefered me to fly business as I may "upset the apple cart" as other employees think I'd spoil it for them.

It's almost like a right to spend money just because you can. So if you're booking people's hotels, covering them for loss if they don't make it, and not actually costing the company anything (I'm sure the company to be fair couldn't give a monkey's about cashback) then go for it.

You're hurting no one!

EDIT - On the flip side of this you'll probably get some Jobsworth like the OP who will grass you up purely because they didn't have the brains to do it themselves!

Greavesy

I think cashback is classed (for tax purposes) as a discount on the price paid for the hotel. Therefore, if she's booking the hotels for other colleagues who are travelling for work, then the cashback belongs to the company. By keeping it, I guess it could be classed as theft. It is a grey area though.
And £80 for hotel bookings is about right. If you're spending £80/night for 10 nights, and get 10% cashback (which is typical), then that would give £80.