www.iva.co.uk

Hi -

I have a situation in that I am currently in the process of applying for an IVA, and one of my creditors is Amex.

For my work, I am regularly asked to travel to the US, and have a Corporate American Express Charge card. The agreement that I signed for this card is for "Individual" liability, NOT "Joint and several".

Given that info I have some questions:
1> Can I continue to use this card for my work and travel expenses?

2> Will Amex see my IVA application and request that this card be stopped?

3> This card and account has never shown up on any credit report or search against my name, so should it be part of the IVA?

Incidently, the expenses are paid direct to Amex from my employer via our expense system. It is only non company transactions that would not be paid in that way, and these are not permitted via our internal policies anyway.

I'm due to travel quite soon, and am getting concerned that I cannot use this card.

Any help/advice/guidance is appreciated.

You should possibly have a word with your IP to clarify but charge cards are not really credit cards as they must be paid in full each month.

Personally, I see no problem although there is always a danger that Amex could pull the plug but unless you give them a reason I do not see why they would need to get an up to date credit search.

Welcome to the forum Dave.lm. I had (I'm in a different job so no longer need it) a corporate Amex card when I started my IVA and there was never any problem with it being used solely for reclaimable expenses whilst in an IVA. My IP had absolutely no problem with it. So the answer to Q1 is definitely yes, the answer to Q3 is no (although you should of course tell your chosen IP about the arrangement).

I don't know about Q2. My suspicion is that they won't notice but I guess one of the experts might provide a better answer.

In my case the monthly bill varied from a few pounds to a couple of thousand, and like you the bill was paid for by my employer and I was responsible for submitting a monthly claim to match the bill.

There should be no problem in continuing to use this card, so long as it is your employer's responsibility to pay the bill. If you are required to pay the bill, then it may still be permitted to fund essential expenditure, but this is more risky for your IP to sanction.

The best thing to do will be to put forward a business case for the card, and see what they say.