Platinum Business – personal payments

[Dean_K]

I received the email from American Express yesterday about the variation in their terms on the Platinum Business card. What concerns me is that I need to pay the card from my personal account, but the account is registered to a limited company.

When making a payment it must be from either a personal account in your own name or if there are joint cardmembers under the agreement:
an account in the name of your limited company or limited liability partnership; or
an account in the name of the director or member that signed the agreement on behalf of the limited company or limited liability partnership

The whole point of having the card is that is it for company use, to be paid by the company. I am not going to pay it from my personal account and then have to explain to the accountant (or HMRC) why this wasn’t personal expenditure.

Either I close the account or I find someone who I can trust as a joint card member. Seems daft that a business card needs to be paid from a personal account.

[JDB]

The question of Amex ‘business’ cards (as opposed to company cards) is quite messy as the credit liability rests with you, not the Ltd for obvious reasons. Therefore Amex wishes to ‘test’ payments from a personal account rather than an Ltd account where things can happen behind the scenes without Amex being aware. It shouldn’t make any difference to your accountant to HMRC that you use the business card to segregate company expenditure from personal expenditure, however it is ultimately paid. That is particularly the case when a respectable provider requires you to do it in that manner.

Amex does seem to be under a bit of pressure from other business card providers about its lax/generous practices.