work credit card

poppin_2

Hi,
I have been advised to pick myself up a credit card from my new work collegues, for which to charge all company outings costs, such as fuel, dinner and hotel bills, so therefore I wont be short in my own bank account. Was wondering which one would be best for me to pick up extras, such as cash back or points. I've never had or considered getting a credit card before so am a bit clueless as to how to use them to my advantage.

Cheers for the advice in advance.

netlang

Surely the company would arrange this with their own bankers with you named on the card. If you get one off your own back and the company goes bust you will end up having to pay the bill.

poppin_2

no, no body has a company credit card. We are expected to pay for the expenses and then put in a claims form for which we are reinbursed, they do these reienbursaries every two weeks, so the longest you have to wait is two weeks for the money.

sjc_2

Companies are great at this sort of thing, you fund them on your Credit Card. My last place expected the same, current employer bills everything back to the Company and you just pick up small out of pocket expenses to claim back but all travel, hotels etc is covered by the Company.

At the end of the day it becomes your risk, what happens if you only get given a small credit limit which isn't sufficient for your needs. They pay you every fortnight by cheque or Bank Transfer? I personally would want Bank transfer so it's cleared funds.

And assume they only pay out if your expenses form is authorised and completed fully with valid receipts etc. If they pay late who foots the interest payments?

Are we talking significant amounts here or not as if it was significant I'd expect the Company to fund everything direct.

Finally don't be tempted to use their money paid for your expenses personally and let the CC mount up even if on 0% as that's an easy way to get into debt.

poppin_2

They pay us every two weeks by bank transfer and they seem quite lax on the receipt thing and dont mind if you dont have them for smallish amounts, like £10 or something. Would prob be talking about £200 pound an outing and should be out at least twice a week. so £400 a week minimum.
Aint got a choice really as i am expected to pay for the expenses out of my own pocket, so need one and just want one that will give me something back.

msubbu

There are 2 options for you (as I can see)
Quick gain:
1) Choose one with a good freebie for joining up like the sony card or something.
2) Get onto quidco and sign up for an MBNA card or an egg card and earn upto 40 quid.

Long term gain
1) Pick up a cashback card like Morgan stanley or something. The current issue of Martin's highlights has a 4% cashback card that is damn good. links on the right of this page.
2) pick up a reward card like ones that earn nectar points etc.

To summarise, decide whether you want freebies or cashback/rewards.
Select the appropriate article from Martin's card/loans forum for the best card in your selected category.

Hope this helps. happy money saving.

poppin_2

Thanks for the advice, looked at the Capital One Platinum Cashback Card as suggested and it looks good, however as ive never had a cc before just a few things I don't understand;

1:Purchase interest rate per annum variable 15.94%

2:[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Balance transfer interest rate per annum variable 15.94% [/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]3:Also can I stop using the card and cancel it when I want and start using another say after the three months, if another card starts doing an offer? [/FONT]

Thanks again

sicker

Go for Egg Money and get the 1% cash back paid yearly in March. In your case it will be money for nothing as long as you clear the balance each month.

msubbu

poppin wrote: »

Thanks for the advice, looked at the Capital One Platinum Cashback Card as suggested and it looks good, however as ive never had a cc before just a few things I don't understand;

1:Purchase interest rate per annum variable 15.94%

2:[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Balance transfer interest rate per annum variable 15.94% [/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]3:Also can I stop using the card and cancel it when I want and start using another say after the three months, if another card starts doing an offer? [/FONT]

Thanks again

Ok, let me clarify this with an example.

You have a card starting today(21st June). You make purchases using the card for the next month or so and then the bill arrives.(approx 21st July). You have a due date to pay the balance by.(approx 10th Aug).

If you pay the bill by the 10th of Aug, you incur no interest and pay just the amount you spent on the card. Effectively this is called the interst free period on the card. If you part pay the bill by the 10th of Aug, the remainder amount starts accruing interest at the 15.94% rate.

The balance transfer rate is when you have existing loans and you use the card to pay off those loans. The BT rate applies in this case.

Again to summarise, you dont have to worry about these if you pay off the balance as soon as the bill arrives.

sicker

But don't forget if the pay by date is 10th August and you pay it on 10th August you are too late. It takes between 3 and 7 days to process your payment so you will be charged interest as you did not allow for this lag in payment. Many are caught out by this.

King_Weasel

msubbu wrote: »

Long term gain

1) Pick up a cashback card like Morgan stanley or something. The current issue of Martin's highlights has a 4% cashback card that is damn good. links on the right of this page.
2) pick up a reward card like ones that earn nectar points etc.

To summarise, decide whether you want freebies or cashback/rewards.

Yes, 4% cashback's brilliant, but it's only temporary. Yet even when it reverts to 1% it's still a good long-term rate, though it's matched by others such as Eggcard.


I would go for cashback every time - Nectar sucks.

If your company is reasonably quick at processing claims you shouldn't have a cashflow problem. And if you can't get a high enough credit limit you can always go for a second card - so long as you still get that cashback.