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Hi All,
I’ve been using American Express for many years now and have managed to use accumulated points on several occasions.
I have a free personal card with my wife as an additional card holder.
We use these cards daily for buying everything from groceries, fuel, household bills and some business purchases.
Balance is paid off in full every month from 4 different bank accounts via bank transfer.
Today I received a letter stating that all balance payments must now be from an account that is either in my name or my wife’s name and not from a company named bank account.
The letter doesn’t state a deadline date and reads that payments from a different bank account may take longer to clear, so maybe I can just pay the balance earlier?
This really doesn’t work for us and I don’t want to start carrying several cards for different purchases.
Anyone else have this problem and if so , have you just carried on as before?
Appreciate any constructive replies.
MarkSee my post immediately below this one.
I really don’t see the issue here? Pay off a personal credit card with a personal bank account. Seems perfectly reasonable. What is the use case to do anything else?
As mentioned by @JDB on the other thread on this subject, if it’s business expense pay the personal card off personally and get reimbursed by the business.
Thanks for the replies,
I agree that is is perfectly reasonable, however I don’t see that where it’s paid from should be an issue to AE.
Claiming the expense from the company is just another faff that I’d like to avoid.My wife received one of this letter as well but I did not.
The only thing that we think could have caused this is that her Direct Debit comes out of a shared account we have, and cannot think Amex could penalise this as it is perfectly normal in the UK for couples to have shared account and a shared account may be the only account an individual has (not the case for my wife but again not up to Amex to dictate this).
Any view?
Hi All,
I’ve been using American Express for many years now and have managed to use accumulated points on several occasions.
I have a free personal card with my wife as an additional card holder.
We use these cards daily for buying everything from groceries, fuel, household bills and some business purchases.
Balance is paid off in full every month from 4 different bank accounts via bank transfer.
Today I received a letter stating that all balance payments must now be from an account that is either in my name or my wife’s name and not from a company named bank account.
The letter doesn’t state a deadline date and reads that payments from a different bank account may take longer to clear, so maybe I can just pay the balance earlier?
This really doesn’t work for us and I don’t want to start carrying several cards for different purchases.
Anyone else have this problem and if so , have you just carried on as before?
Appreciate any constructive replies.
MarkPay Amex total from your personal account, and send the 3 payments from the naughty bank accounts to your main personal account.
Still have to make 4 transactions, total payments are the same, but keep Amex happy.
What is the issue ?Hi All,
I’ve been using American Express for many years now and have managed to use accumulated points on several occasions.
I have a free personal card with my wife as an additional card holder.
We use these cards daily for buying everything from groceries, fuel, household bills and some business purchases.
Balance is paid off in full every month from 4 different bank accounts via bank transfer.
Today I received a letter stating that all balance payments must now be from an account that is either in my name or my wife’s name and not from a company named bank account.
The letter doesn’t state a deadline date and reads that payments from a different bank account may take longer to clear, so maybe I can just pay the balance earlier?
This really doesn’t work for us and I don’t want to start carrying several cards for different purchases.
Anyone else have this problem and if so , have you just carried on as before?
Appreciate any constructive replies.
MarkPay Amex total from your personal account, and send the 3 payments from the naughty bank accounts to your main personal account.
Still have to make 4 transactions, total payments are the same, but keep Amex happy.
What is the issue ?Hi,
Thanks for your reply.
I’ll give my accountant a call and see if this works for me.
Enjoy your day.
MarkReceived this today as well. does it mean a supplementary card holder can pay? Also what does it mean for a business card? Will all payments need to come from business account if a limited company? Again what about supplementary business cards
I don’t think this letter was targeted, I think it has gone to everyone as I have had it too and it’s only me that has ever paid off my Amex cards from my accounts in my own name (I wish someone else wanted to pay them off for me!)
My wife has a supplementary card on my BA PP account. All the household spending goes on there and she frequently makes payments to it which don’t tally with the spend she makes. I’ve only been contacted about the Plat Charge Card – at least so far… (in response to @Gothbe)
- This reply was modified 55 years, 4 months ago by .
Because you have a personal Amex card, it would make sense that any linkage to business expenses being put on the card, or paying from a business account could raise flags – not sure how strict they are but it could be linked to that? Could you not get a business amex for the business expenses?
Because you have a personal Amex card, it would make sense that any linkage to business expenses being put on the card, or paying from a business account could raise flags – not sure how strict they are but it could be linked to that? Could you not get a business amex for the business expenses?
Hi,
Yes I could, but I’m not paying for a business card when they already earn commission from the current spending.
CheersThanks for the replies,
I agree that is is perfectly reasonable, however I don’t see that where it’s paid from should be an issue to AE.
Claiming the expense from the company is just another faff that I’d like to avoid.It’s “an issue to AE” because the law requires them to identify the source of funds that pay your card, in case that source is in any way dodgy. It looks as though Amex compliance/risk people or an FCA check has identified deficiencies that they are trying to remedy.
This kind of thing keeps popping up, and it’s all down to legislators writing rules without taking into consideration the UK’s diverse population and historic naming conventions.
In particular it’s hitting women who choose to retain their professional name for work, but use their married family name for everything else. Suddenly they hit a “Computer Says No” when they send money from their personal account in their professional name to their Premium Bond account in their married name. There’s also the issue with Scots/Celts who might use different names from what’s on their birth certificate. Jack, Jock, John, Ian, Iain are often interchangeable.
Of course, with all the hand-wringing about company names, someone could could quite easily be sending the money from a SLP or regular sole partner account with the same name as on a personal account.
This kind of thing keeps popping up, and it’s all down to legislators writing rules without taking into consideration the UK’s diverse population and historic naming conventions.
In particular it’s hitting women who choose to retain their professional name for work, but use their married family name for everything else. Suddenly they hit a “Computer Says No” when they send money from their personal account in their professional name to their Premium Bond account in their married name. There’s also the issue with Scots/Celts who might use different names from what’s on their birth certificate. Jack, Jock, John, Ian, Iain are often interchangeable.
Of course, with all the hand-wringing about company names, someone could could quite easily be sending the money from a SLP or regular sole partner account with the same name as on a personal account.
The thing is that by law, once you want to take your husband family name, you need to do so by deed poll and therefore acquire a new legal name, which should be used everywhere where such a name is required. If you want to be “known as” at work or LinkedIn, the HR system (and LinkedIn
) may allow that but they should also be able to capture your legal name.This raises a somewhat different question for me. I always pay the BA amex in full, normally from my main bank account but occasionally if I have a large amount and another credit card gives a 0% transfer offer, I will pay off some of the balance using this method.
This will no longer be possible if all payments have to come from a bank account in the future!
@Luca M, that’s completely wrong – there’s no such thing as a “legal name” in the UK and anyone can quite legitimately be known by any name/s they choose. I use my maiden and married names in different settings and there are plenty of (often) high profile women who do the same e.g. Cherie Booth/Blair.
UK banks absolutely recognise this and will allow you (for example) to pay in a cheque in the other name as long as you provide an explanation for the discrepancy. For instance, my late grandpa never managed to understand that I kept my maiden name for personal banking and always used to write his generous Xmas cheques to me in my married name but my bank was fine with this if I presented a covering letter with the paying in slip!*In fact, I am perfectly legally Dr AAAA BBBB in my academic life, Mrs AAAA CCCC in personal life and AAAA BBBB DDDD on my Spanish passport as Spain will only recognise the first surnames of each of your parents!
- This reply was modified 55 years, 4 months ago by .
Oops. They obviously don’t like a metal bendy card beginning being used then… my avios earnings will drop considerably then… when is this starting. Haven’t received the email yet, but another member of our family has.
@Northern Lass there is a difference between using both maiden/married names that can be evidenced by a marriage certificate (or divorce decree) and, as you say, banks are fine with this, but @Luca M referred to changing a name by deed poll which is different.
You sign a declaration that says: “I absolutely and entirely renounce, relinquish and abandon the use of my former name of XXXX XXXX … I shall at all times hereafter in all records, deeds and documents, and in all actions and proceedings, as well as in all dealings and transactions and on all occasions whatsoever use the said name of XXXX XXXX in substitution of my former name of YYYY YYYY”. The name change is also gazetted.
No they didn’t. They said, “The thing is that by law, once you want to take your husband family name, you need to do so by deed poll”. You don’t need to use deed poll to take your husband’s name, or indeed any other that you choose to be known by.
IME people only resort to deed poll changes when they want to be known by something specific and compel the authorities to recognise this. There is, for example, an individual who changed his name by deed poll to Naughty Rascal so that the police and courts would be forced to address him as such in their dealings with him.
The “legal name” thing is a very common misconception – I’ve even heard of bank staff telling people they can’t use two different names, and having to escalate the issue to management (not me, my bank is first rate).
- This reply was modified 55 years, 4 months ago by .
This raises a somewhat different question for me. I always pay the BA amex in full, normally from my main bank account but occasionally if I have a large amount and another credit card gives a 0% transfer offer, I will pay off some of the balance using this method.
This will no longer be possible if all payments have to come from a bank account in the future!
I tried to do just this 2 weeks ago and Amex refused the balance transfer request from my other credit card provider so I couldn’t move my Amex balance…I wonder if this is connected to the letters received today
No they didn’t. They said, “The thing is that by law, once you want to take your husband family name, you need to do so by deed poll”. You don’t need to use deed poll to take your husband’s name, or indeed any other that you choose to be known by.
IME people only resort to deed poll changes when they want to be known by something specific and compel the authorities to recognise this. There is, for example, an individual who changed his name by deed poll to Naughty Rascal so that the police and courts would be forced to address him as such in their dealings with him.
The “legal name” thing is a very common misconception – I’ve even heard of bank staff telling people they can’t use two different names, and having to escalate the issue to management (not me, my bank is first rate).
The fact deed poll was mentioned suggests something else eg joining the two surnames of the couple. There are also all sorts of very legitimate reasons other than the ones you suggest for people to change their names.
My point was simply that if you change your name by DP as opposed to by marriage/divorce you can’t revert back and forth to the old name as you can with maiden/married. I think you knew that though, but more fun to criticise.
- This reply was modified 55 years, 4 months ago by .
@JDB, criticism doesn’t come into it, it’s just a question of what is correct here. Even if you changed your name by deed poll, you would still be within your rights to call yourself anything else you wanted to, including married and/or maiden name. The decision lies solely with the individual. The OP’s statement is quite clear, it’s a statement and not a suggestion.
@JDB, criticism doesn’t come into it, it’s just a question of what is correct here. Even if you changed your name by deed poll, you would still be within your rights to call yourself anything else you wanted to, including married and/or maiden name. The decision lies solely with the individual. The OP’s statement is quite clear, it’s a statement and not a suggestion.
I would think the text I quoted above, from someone’s deed poll certificate, makes it rather clear you can’t, but you know best.
I have a statutory declaration that says “I, John X, am also known as James X.”
I made it in Australia, but it has been accepted everywhere in the UK I’ve shown it.
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