Filed Chpt 7 today and have a large pymt to Corp Amex card on Monday - what to do?

[diggy]

Hi all

I'm new to the forums... I filed Pro Se today and it went more smoothly than I imagined. I received 341 meeting date right then and there instead of having to wait for the mail - yeah!

So question... I listed my personal Amex as one of the debts to discharge but did NOT list my Corporate Amex account to be discharged. I get reimbursed by my company for business charges I incur on their behalf and then I in turn pay the bill (my name is on the card but so is the company's). I have a fairly large amount of expense reimbursement due to me from my employer that I in turn will need to pay the card in order to pay it off. Will this send a red flag to the trustee if I do this? I have back-up receipts and T&E reports to show that these charges are legit. I'm concern this will be seen as preferential payment to a creditor even though it is not for anything personally related and I did not discharge this specific debt. Will the trustee take this money back from my Corp Amex and try to redistribute the monies to the other creditors? I'm concerned that somehow it will get back to my company (via Amex) and my companyt will be on the hook again for monies they already reimbursed me for.

Are most trustees reasonable when it comes to situations such as this? I assume there are plenty of folks who filed Chpt 7 and have a corp card they absolutely have to pay...

[music12]

this debt is your company's debt, not your personal debt. i think you can safely pay it. but i have no experience with this, maybe someone else can chime in.

[backtoschool]

As someone who has had corporate amexes for my jobs, here is what I know:

1. Your credit score and credit history matter, unless the company is completely guaranteeing the card, but most companies do not guarantee the card, they just want you to have one so that they get rebates and kickbacks from amex, and can negotiate prices and also track employee usage. Some really large companies have fully guaranteed cards, but that is rarer these days.

2. You are responsible for the debt. It's a catch 22 because the corporate amex will not report positively on your credit report when you pay on time, but it WILL report negatively when you are late or default.

3. Since it is used for legitimate business expenses, it is not a luxury and will not be a red flag to the trustees. The trustee does not want you to not be able to travel for work, etc. Paying the amex will not be a red flag or a preferential payment in my opinion. Also, amex corporate cards are charge cards that have to be paid in full each month, not credit cards where you can carry a balance for years. It is in your amex agreement that you must pay it in full each month, and so it is a different type of payment than a visa or mastercard or an amex blue card or one of the amex credit cards.

4. And lastly, here is the bad news. Amex has a black list and amex is not bk friendly. If you are putting your personal amex on your petition, they may cancel your corporate card.

[jadams]

Can you get your company to issue the reimbursement directly to American Express for credit to your account?

[diggy]

Thanks BTS... that was what I kind of gathered from the old threads here but it seems everyone had a different experience. I personally don't really mind if they close the Corp Amex card if they did as I do not use it to travel and am not 100% reliant on it. Business expenses on that card are mainly for catering and booking hotel meeting rooms - which in the future I can use someone else's card to do... frankly I don't have much need for it these days given the tight budgets our company's been operating on anyway. As for being blackballed from Amex... they've been pretty crappy lately anyway so it's fine if I don't have anything to do with them.

I was more concerned about the red flag for preferential treatment when the expenses were legit and I didn't want to pull my company into this sticky situation if I didn't have to.

[diggy]

Can you get your company to issue the reimbursement directly to American Express for credit to your account?

No, The company will not pay the Amex directly - it's not set up that way but it might be worth it to look into. The way I look at it is: if the trustee questions it, I will bring copies of receipts and T&E reports to explain it. Like I said before, and not to work myself into a bigger tizzy, I believe trustees see this everyday so I assume they would be reasonable about this particular line item. It is not like I got reimbursed by my company and then turned around and used the funds to pay my personal creditors and NOT pay the Corp Amex card. But of course this is IF I get a reasonable trustee and not someone who is having a bad day!

[music12]

amex may be bk unfriendly, however i filed bk 3 months ago yet my amex cc is still up and running, no problems, credit line still at $14,000. go figure.