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Question about collection agencies and who's responsible?

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Cuda1447

Cuda1447

Lifer
I ran into an interesting scenario yesterday and it got me thinking about my current position.

I received a call on my business phone from a collection agency, asking for a guy that no longer worked with us. This guy apparently had setup a google adwords account under our business name to do some marketing. (That was part of his responsibilities in the job he had). The guy emailed the information over to me and I forwarded it to my boss. The boss asks me about it and I tell him about the call. He then goes on to inform me that he's not paying this debt (about $200) and that this guy was doing marketing and trying things on his own. He made this purchase with his personal debit card (which ended up not going through, thus the reason for the collection agency calling) and it was supposedly not authorized by the business. At the time though, I know the company did not have any corporate cards so it is within the realm of possibility that the owner would have agreed verbally to reimburse the guy for these marketing efforts. He's saying the collection agency doesn't have their tax id, so they won't be liable, but they also don't have the original guys social, so that's really a moot point.


Here is a hypothetical situation it got me thinking about though.

I handle the marketing for our small business. I have a card under the business name with my name listed on it. I use this card to pay for newspaper advertising etc... Let's say I leave the company and the card/account gets canceled by the owner. Some newspaper advertisement was scheduled to run, it does and then the card doesn't work anymore. My company is contacted and the boss says that he did not authorize this purchase and he isn't paying for it and instead gives my personal information to the collection agency (which is what he's doing with the above situation) is there anyway that I could be held accountable for this debt? It doesn't seem like I should, but I'm not entirely sure now after the previous situation. I guess the big difference is that I'm using a company card with my name on it versus my own personal card?
 
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Corporate card? No. That's the company's responsibility and if the charge was already made it's the company's responsibility to directly deal with you to recover any unauthorized payments.

Now given your hypothetical situation - you say the card/account was cancelled prior to the ad running, therefore it's the advertiser's fault as they should have never ran the ad without payment or proper billing. In that case, nobody is liable.

Finally, should your previous employer give out your personal information to a collection agency, your previous employer would be in a huge-ass world of hurt once you get done in court with them over privacy laws.
 
Cuda1447 said:
I handle the marketing for our small business. I have a card under the business name with my name listed on it. I use this card to pay for newspaper advertising etc... Let's say I leave the company and the card/account gets canceled by the owner. Some newspaper advertisement was scheduled to run, it does and then the card doesn't work anymore. My company is contacted and the boss says that he did not authorize this purchase and he isn't paying for it and instead gives my personal information to the collection agency (which is what he's doing with the above situation) is there anyway that I could be held accountable for this debt? It doesn't seem like I should, but I'm not entirely sure now after the previous situation. I guess the big difference is that I'm using a company card with my name on it versus my own personal card?
Click to expand...

Sounds like something you need to clear up. I would be worried if the card had my name on it, as that seems to indicate that I have some responsibility for it. Whereas if you are just an authorized signer, then you have no liability. Probably best to go ask around or dig up the paperwork on it. But I really don't have any idea...

edit:
http://www.bills.com/business-credit-card-liability/

It seems like it can go either way. If you signed paperwork to get that card then it may be possible that you could be liable.


Some more info http://www.bankrate.com/finance/credit-cards/how-a-corporate-card-can-hurt-your-score.aspx
 
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blinblue said:
Sounds like something you need to clear up. I would be worried if the card had my name on it, as that seems to indicate that I have some responsibility for it. Whereas if you are just an authorized signer, then you have no liability. Probably best to go ask around or dig up the paperwork on it. But I really don't have any idea...

edit:
http://www.bills.com/business-credit-card-liability/

It seems like it can go either way. If you signed paperwork to get that card then it may be possible that you could be liable.


Some more info http://www.bankrate.com/finance/credit-cards/how-a-corporate-card-can-hurt-your-score.aspx
Click to expand...


Damn, good information. That definitely concerns me a bit more. A bit more backstory, after working for this guy for a period of time, I have come to not trust the owner very much at all. He does have my social as I filled out a W2, but I don't know what else he used it for. In short, it sounds like I most certainly could be on the hook for charges, so how do I go about protecting myself without setting off any red flags with my boss. Also, I plan on quitting soon. When I do, what things should I do before I give my notice to ensure I won't get stuck with any charges after I quit.
 
wow what a fucked up situation. the company SHOULD pay for it and its slimy they are willing to ding the guys credit over it. I would be worried about them doing such bullshit to me.
 
waggy said:
wow what a fucked up situation. the company SHOULD pay for it and its slimy they are willing to ding the guys credit over it. I would be worried about them doing such bullshit to me.
Click to expand...

Exactly. To be fair, this is how it was explained to me.

The employee was basically contracted and gets trained on a headcount of people who purchase our service. He wanted to increase the amount of people he was 'servicing', thus increasing his commissions. He was trying this marketing on his own, without authorization from the company.

I don't know if this is true or not. But I do know that most employees are contracted and I am one of only a handful that actually work for the company. Because of this I feel like I'll be treated more fairly, but this situation still scared me a bit and now I'm concerned about protecting myself.
 
Get the company card that is in your name canceled before you step out the door.

Call the bank/Amex if needed.

I had a card with an employer used for business purposes.
Surrendered the card and paid the charges due the following month when the expense check arrived.

2 months later, I get a statement showing 6K worth of charges made after I left the company.

I disputed and that was it.
However, those charges should not have gone on - someone used the card instead of closing the account. If the card # was hijacked; had the account been closed, it could not have been used.
 
Can I close a card to an account when I'm not listed on that account? He put my name on the card without my authorization, so what is stopping him from doing it again? Not saying he would, just playing devils advocate here.
 
1) Get your name off the account if possible prior to leaving

2) Get it in writing that you have surrendered the card to the employer as of date/time
 
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