@Anonymous wrote:Hi folks!
I have a green AmEx Corporate card through work to pay for business trips. Once the trip is over, I can auto-import transactions to the company's expense system, and the company will pay the card off directly. A great system in theory. Only problem is the CL: $3000, which doesn't even cover two weeks of travel. Half way through the trip, the card will max out and I'll have to quickly pay the balance from my checking account. The company will then reimburse my checking account instead of paying the card off directly, but it annoys me to have to lend the company thousands of dollars of my own money.
The card is tied to me personally - the company doesn't back it in any way - but it doesn't report to credit bureaus. I've asked AmEx via chat about increasing the limit. They categorically deny having anything to with the CL, referring me to my company's program manager. So I asked my company's AmEx program manager about this. He denies having any influence over my CL since the company doesn't guarantee the card. One of these parties is obviously full of s... My feeling is that the AmEx reps don't know what they're talking about. I say this because other employees at the company with the same card, but with longer credit histories, have much higher limits. Anyone know how this system works?
This is interesting... unfortunately my own experience with an Amex Corporate card was quite different, so I don't have any info that would pertain directly to your situation.
I can provide data points, though. In my own case, my Corporate card was guaranteed by my company (big, national company), and it didn't even show up on my credit reports. I was only responsible in the event that I used it improperly, i.e. for personal expenses, in which case they could do a transfer of responsibility and it would reflect on my credit report (or so it was written in the HR guide).
My card was a 'true' charge card in that there was no pre-set limit. Once when I needed to cover a lunch at a steakhouse for the entire office I did call them ahead of time and they had to make some adjustments behind the scenes since a $3k meal wasn't in my normal spending pattern, but whatever they did worked and the charge was approved with no problem.
I agree with you that I think there's an issue with the front line Amex rep not understanding that in your case, the card is personally guaranteed. You might try calling them back again (hopefully to get a more experienced rep) and if you continue to get push-back from them you might even suggest them calling your HR person for a three-way conference call to work it out (I would give HR a heads-up before doing this, though - one clueless person is bad enough, you don't want a three-way call with two clueless people).
There could be a silver-lining around the cloud, though. My old company insisted on employees using the Corporate card if they had one; in your case, you might consider getting a personal card that has rewards and use the situation to your advantage. I understand your feelings about not wanting to loan your company personal funds each month, but as long as you feel confident about being paid back you might as well be benefiting from the situation. Since you're already credit worthy with Amex you might even consider one of their cards. Normally it's not recommended to put business charges on a personal card, but it doesn't sound like your spending levels are high enough to warrant concern.
I hope it works out for you in any case... let us know how it goes! 
Thanks for your take on this. Figured the misleading factor here was likely to be the AmEx rep.
Yeah, we can pay for expenses any way we choose, any those of my colleagues with good personal credit cards typically use them instead of the rewardless green AmEx card. I would do that same. Unfortunately for me, I don't have much in the way of personal credit cards with sufficient spending power to cover a business trip. I'm new to the US (9 months), so I'm slowly building credit from scratch. My personal cards still have tiny limits at this point (the highest being $500). So I may as well use the crappy AmEx corporate card - my only alternative with sufficient spending power is a debit card. Not much fun in that. 
I'm not sure why AmEx was willing to grant me $3000 of credit in November when I had no credit score at all, but there you go. Perhaps because my employer sent in the application, so AmEx at least knew that I had a job to cover credit cards bills.
As for what will happen now: I'll probably just live with the situation and wait for an auto-CLI. Even if I could get a competent rep on the phone, the last thing I need is for AmEx to be running a hard pull just for a higher corporate card limit.
@Anonymous wrote:Thanks for your take on this. Figured the misleading factor here was likely to be the AmEx rep.
Yeah, we can pay for expenses any way we choose, any those of my colleagues with good personal credit cards typically use them instead of the rewardless green AmEx card. I would do that same. Unfortunately for me, I don't have much in the way of personal credit cards with sufficient spending power to cover a business trip. I'm new to the US (9 months), so I'm slowly building credit from scratch. My personal cards still have tiny limits at this point (the highest being $500). So I may as well use the crappy AmEx corporate card - my only alternative with sufficient spending power is a debit card. Not much fun in that.
I'm not sure why AmEx was willing to grant me $3000 of credit in November when I had no credit score at all, but there you go. Perhaps because my employer sent in the application, so AmEx at least knew that I had a job to cover credit cards bills.
As for what will happen now: I'll probably just live with the situation and wait for an auto-CLI. Even if I could get a competent rep on the phone, the last thing I need is for AmEx to be running a hard pull just for a higher corporate card limit.
FWIW, Amex CLIs are almost always (as in, 98%) SPs, so the chances of getting HP would be quite small if you wanted to see about getting a CLI on your existing card. I suspect you would get push-back in any case, though, since the Amex reps seem convinced that your card is a 'true' corporate card, and that your credit line is up to your account manager.
I still think it might be worth checking into this a little bit deeper... if another Amex rep (and perhaps a supervisor?) were to continue to insist that the limit is set by your company, it might be worth going back to your HR person... perhaps they are mistaken? I mention this since you state the account doesn't show up on your credit reports, which seems odd for an account that's pseudo-personal.
I'm sorry I don't have any more 'pertinent' information that could be of help... hopefully somebody will come across this thread who will have specific knowledge with the particular type of corporate account you have and will be able to share their wisdom.
In any case, I hope it works out for you!
