Amex supplementary cardholder

lon_don

Just wondering why Amex doesn't want the supplementary cardholder to make payment to the card. Sometime he/she uses the (supplementary) card for a purely personal purchase and wants to clear it asap so he/she makes a payment as soon as the charge appears in "Recent charges". Well Amex apparently doesn't like this, and wants only me to make any payment to the card.

DullGreyGuy

Which is the same as every other card issuer... AmEx is the odd one out allowing supplemental cardholders to have their own log in and being able to see their own spend. 

Its your account and you're the one liable for all the spend irrespective if its your card or a supplementary card and if its "purely personal" or anything else. You could imagine complexity arising if the other person could make a payment but that payment then bounced meaning you get hit for a charge for their mistake. 

If they want to "pay it off" straight away they can just give you the funds.

la531983

In what way have they told you they "dont like this"? Anyone can make any payment to a credit card if they have the sort code and account number and uses the correct payment reference.

lon_don

DullGreyGuy said:

Which is the same as every other card issuer... AmEx is the odd one out allowing supplemental cardholders to have their own log in and being able to see their own spend. 

Its your account and you're the one liable for all the spend irrespective if its your card or a supplementary card and if its "purely personal" or anything else. You could imagine complexity arising if the other person could make a payment but that payment then bounced meaning you get hit for a charge for their mistake. 

If they want to "pay it off" straight away they can just give you the funds.

I have a DD to pay full amount, so regardless of whether the extra manual payment bounces or not I don't see why that would affect me. If somehow the DD (initiated by Amex not by me) fails to take into account the extra payment and causes me to accidentally overpay (not from my own action, but from Amex failing to reconcile in time the extra payment to reduce the DD amount), I would assume that it's Amex problem not mine, and I don't see why Amex would charge me anything for this. Also I don't see why the fact that the supp cardholder makes an extra payment (or not) should increase or diminish my liability..? 

la531983 : well they wrote and said don't do this again or else.

DullGreyGuy

la531983 said:

In what way have they told you they "dont like this"? Anyone can make any payment to a credit card if they have the sort code and account number and uses the correct payment reference.

Presumably they mean it's not possible for them to make a payment online or over the phone via debit card etc. They could do a bank transfer

lon_don

DullGreyGuy said:

la531983 said:

In what way have they told you they "dont like this"? Anyone can make any payment to a credit card if they have the sort code and account number and uses the correct payment reference.

Presumably they mean it's not possible for them to make a payment online or over the phone via debit card etc. They could do a bank transfer

The supp cardholder made the manual payment by bank transfer using their card number.

lr1277

Users of the forum/website Headforpoints note that Amex is cracking down on the account owner paying with their bank account.

So a personal card holder would have to pay from their own account or a joint account in which they were one of the account holders.

This means spouses can't pay off the account. I suspect Amex also had a problem with their business cards. In that some business spend was paid on the personal card but the business account paid the bill. Or vice versa for whatever reason.

One reason might be business cards charge a higher fee for a retailer to accept a business card as opposed to a personal card. So if you pay for a business expense with a personal card, Amex are missing out on the higher fee. But to keep things straight in your head, you pay off that bill with your business current account. Some speculation from me. But it doesn't change the fact, Amex want their cards paid off with a bank account with the same name as the card holder be that a person or a business.

lon_don

lr1277 said:

Users of the forum/website Headforpoints note that Amex is cracking down on the account owner paying with their bank account.

So a personal card holder would have to pay from their own account or a joint account in which they were one of the account holders.

This means spouses can't pay off the account. I suspect Amex also had a problem with their business cards. In that some business spend was paid on the personal card but the business account paid the bill. Or vice versa for whatever reason.

One reason might be business cards charge a higher fee for a retailer to accept a business card as opposed to a personal card. So if you pay for a business expense with a personal card, Amex are missing out on the higher fee. But to keep things straight in your head, you pay off that bill with your business current account. Some speculation from me. But it doesn't change the fact, Amex want their cards paid off with a bank account with the same name as the card holder be that a person or a business.

Yes that kind of makes sense, thanks for the insight.
Barclaycard doesn't seem to have this kind of concern. I have a DD set up to pay off a Barclaycard (Visa), where the bank account holder name (where the DD is taken) is <> the Barclaycardholder name.

DullGreyGuy

lon_don said:

lr1277 said:

Users of the forum/website Headforpoints note that Amex is cracking down on the account owner paying with their bank account.

So a personal card holder would have to pay from their own account or a joint account in which they were one of the account holders.

This means spouses can't pay off the account. I suspect Amex also had a problem with their business cards. In that some business spend was paid on the personal card but the business account paid the bill. Or vice versa for whatever reason.

One reason might be business cards charge a higher fee for a retailer to accept a business card as opposed to a personal card. So if you pay for a business expense with a personal card, Amex are missing out on the higher fee. But to keep things straight in your head, you pay off that bill with your business current account. Some speculation from me. But it doesn't change the fact, Amex want their cards paid off with a bank account with the same name as the card holder be that a person or a business.

Yes that kind of makes sense, thanks for the insight.
Barclaycard doesn't seem to have this kind of concern. I have a DD set up to pay off a Barclaycard (Visa), where the bank account holder name (where the DD is taken) is <> the Barclaycardholder name.

How old is it? Only since OpenBanking can the card issuer check who the account holder is if it's not an account from one of their brands. Most appear to only be using their enhanced abilities on new DDs/ BTs etc rather than retrospectively looking at long standing arrangements. 

saajan_12

Some of the responses/objections here are strange or misinformed.

Amex do indeed not like others making payment, even if it's the personal account of the supp card holder. Yes you can physically do it but after 1-2 times they'll likely reach out saying they'll cancel if you do it again. 

The primary account holder can already be held liable for everything, including charges on the 2nd card, any bounced payments etc, all of which aren't actions by the primary. That doesn't inherently cause an issue with the 2nd person making voluntary payments.. 

lon_don

DullGreyGuy said:

lon_don said:

lr1277 said:

Users of the forum/website Headforpoints note that Amex is cracking down on the account owner paying with their bank account.

So a personal card holder would have to pay from their own account or a joint account in which they were one of the account holders.

This means spouses can't pay off the account. I suspect Amex also had a problem with their business cards. In that some business spend was paid on the personal card but the business account paid the bill. Or vice versa for whatever reason.

One reason might be business cards charge a higher fee for a retailer to accept a business card as opposed to a personal card. So if you pay for a business expense with a personal card, Amex are missing out on the higher fee. But to keep things straight in your head, you pay off that bill with your business current account. Some speculation from me. But it doesn't change the fact, Amex want their cards paid off with a bank account with the same name as the card holder be that a person or a business.

Yes that kind of makes sense, thanks for the insight.
Barclaycard doesn't seem to have this kind of concern. I have a DD set up to pay off a Barclaycard (Visa), where the bank account holder name (where the DD is taken) is <> the Barclaycardholder name.

How old is it? Only since OpenBanking can the card issuer check who the account holder is if it's not an account from one of their brands. Most appear to only be using their enhanced abilities on new DDs/ BTs etc rather than retrospectively looking at long standing arrangements. 

Fairly old I guess. The card itself is the successor to the old Morgan Stanley/Goldfish card, and the DD was also set up long ago and has migrated 1 or 2 bank switches (latest switch more than 5 years ago, pre-covid).