Job layoffs are a common occurrence these days, and employees are scrambling to find new jobs. But those who have traveled, entertained, or purchased office supplies on a company credit card have one more thing to be concerned about.
If your previous employer doesn’t pay that credit card bill, it just might end up on your personal credit report.
As you know if you’ve added a child to your own credit card account as an authorized user, your good credit can help them build their credit scores. But if you default on your credit card, you’ll be harming their credit rating as well.
Thus, the manner in which you were authorized by your employer to use a corporate card will play into whether your credit can be damaged by his or her failure to pay. One loophole that employers can use to shift the blame and the credit harm to an employee or former employee is to claim that the employee didn’t file expense reports on time.
As you might expect, filing expense reports might become difficult if an employee has been laid off – but if this has happened to you, you need to call and find out how to do it. Then document the fact that it has been done.
Another is to claim that the former employee used the corporate card for personal expenses. Thus, it is in your best interests to keep copies of every charge made on a corporate card – along with notations about the reason for the charge. If the card shows charges at a restaurant – document the reason why you were entertaining along with the names of the guests.
Any employee using a corporate credit card should check his or her own credit report to see if that card is shown. If not, then they probably don’t need to be concerned. However, since the economy is in a state of flux and confusion, and since not every company is operating within ethical standards, continuing to check after a layoff is important.
Should that former employer decide not to pay charges incurred by the employee, responsibility for those charges could transfer to the employee. The only safe route is to check your credit report monthly, and to read it carefully.
In the event that charges made on a corporate account do show up, it becomes the former employee’s responsibility to contact the credit bureaus and dispute the account. That’s when the employee’s careful record keeping will pay off.
Author: Mike Clover
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