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I recently took a business trip for my company and was given a corporate credit card, issued under my name (meaning all else fails, I am responsible for the bill).

Our finance people have made a lot of mistakes in processing my receipts/paperwork from the trip and are going to be late in paying off my cc bill. They assured me I do not need to pay it myself and that if the payment is late, it will be ok.

I am concerned, I have never been late on a credit card payment for any of my credit cards in my life. I pay my balance in full, on time, every time.

Do I have cause to be concerned? My boss told me "don't worry because corporate credit cards are not like personal credit cards, they are more lienient"

It is a citibank visa credit card, if that matters.

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  • You should be able to see if the account is listed on your personal credit report and if late payments have been issued on your report. – draksia Apr 11 '16 at 17:20
  • @draksia Worst case scenario, the payment is missed, and this cc is on my credit statement, how much would that affect my credit score? – James Wierzba Apr 11 '16 at 17:36
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    That will depend on way too many factors, the formulas used to determine credit scores are proprietary and updated frequently so it is impossible to tell. – draksia Apr 11 '16 at 17:39
  • In OP's case I am 99% sure late payments will hurt their credit. I have a similar arrangement with my company and they made it very clear that if we don't submit timely expense reports it will result in late payments on the card and hurt my credit. – JohnFx♦ Apr 11 '16 at 22:08
  • @JohnFx At this point the Bill is due in 3 days, and they are no further in processing than they were 3 weeks ago. it will be late. On the last day, should I just pay it off myself and try to get re-reimbursed? They told me not to pay it but a bad mark on my credit it not acceptable to me. – James Wierzba Apr 12 '16 at 13:33
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According to an article on Bankrate.com from 2011, yes, it can hurt your credit:

With individual liability accounts, the employee holds all responsibility for the charges, even if the company pays the issuer directly. Joint liability means the company and employee share the responsibility for payments, says Mahendra Gupta, author of the RPMG survey.

In both cases, if the card isn't paid and the account becomes delinquent, it will pop up on the employee's credit report and dent his or her credit score, says Barry Paperno, consumer affairs manager at myFICO.com.

It doesn't matter if the company was supposed to make the payment; the repercussions fall on the employee.

"It will impact your score no differently than if you were late on one of your own accounts," Paperno says.

Usually, with corporate credit cards, the employee is liable along with the employer for charges on the card. The intent is to provide the employee with an incentive not to misuse the card. However, this can be a problem if your company is late in paying bills.

In the distant past, I had a corporate credit card. I was not supposed to have to pay the bill, but I did receive a bill in the mail every month. And occasionally, the payment was late. In my case, these late payments never showed up on my credit report. I can't remember now whether or not this card was reported on my credit report at all. And I remember being told when I got the card that I was jointly responsible for the card with the company.

However, your experience may be different. Do the on-time payments show up on your credit report? If so, that may be an indication that a late payment might appear.

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  • This a newly issued (and my first) corporate credit card. This will be the first payment that is due, so there is no way to determine that. – James Wierzba Apr 11 '16 at 19:48
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After doing some investigating, my employers contract with the credit card company has a clause that basically specifies that despite my name being on the credit card, and bills being sent to me, all liability is on the company. Additionally, the employer reserves the right to garnish wages in the event of a balance on the card.

So it looks like it won't affect my credit score.

I appreciate all of the advice.

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