Billing & Liability

American Express offers Combined and Corporate liability options. Combined liability ensures your Company is only liable for business charges, while personal charges are the responsibility of the employee. With Corporate liability the Company is liable for all charges incurred. However, the Company and Card Members are not liable for any unauthorised use of the Card.

Download Combined Liability Application

Download Corporate Liability Application

Increase your liquidity, whilst ensuring that your vendors are paid on time. Pay suppliers with your Corporate Card and get up to 51 credit-free¹ days without any added credit interest to pay your statement. This gives you the ability to pay your bills in a manner that is timely enough to maintain and strengthen relations with suppliers, whilst giving you the breathing space to await incoming flow of funds. You might even consider negotiating a discount for your prompt payment with key suppliers.

1. Credit-free days: Actual credit-free period will vary based on the date of charge and the billing cycle cut-off date.

Central billing combines all Card Member statements into one group that is sent to a central contact. Your Company remits payment for all charges on all Card Accounts.

The benefits offered by the centrally billed, centrally paid option include:

• Allows a single cheque payment, a single electronic transfer transaction or a single direct debit
• Improves cash flow
• Increases Card Member convenience

This option lists each transaction on a Card Member basis. Each Card Member receives an individual monthly billing statement that identifies all charges. Once Card Members have submitted their expenses, your Company has a choice of paying by Autopay, cheque payment by post or collection box, variable Direct Debit, bank standing order, telegraphic transfer, Payment by Phone Service or Electronic Transfer. Cheque, telegraphic transfer and electronic remittance payments need to be accompanied by a remittance advice including backup information on how to allocate the funds.

Managing billing and payment in this manner has benefits for your Company, including:

• Improving cash flow
• Retaining control over payment
• Encouraging accurate documentation of expenses
• Reducing the number of reimbursement cheques written

With this option, each Card Member receives a monthly billing statement from American Express. The Card Member is responsible for submitting expense reports to the Programme Administrator for reimbursement and remitting payment back to American Express.

The benefits of this approach include:

• Reducing the amount of change for the Card Member and your Company at implementation stage
• Encouraging timely submission of expense reports, as the Card Member is responsible for reconciliation and payment
• Encouraging accurate documentation of expenses
• Reducing corporate administrative workload and cost since employees reconcile and pay monthly bills
• Allowing Card Members to put personal expenditure on their Card if this is permitted under company policy

Your Corporate Card Account may be approved in a number of ways:

• On the basis of a relationship limit. This is a combined expenditure limit, where a maximum limit is set for all Card Members. This limit cannot be exceeded either individually or collectively. The relationship limit applied to your Account may be a revolving limit that enables your Company to incur charges up to the limit stated. Should your charges reach the limit at any time, you will be required to make a payment before further charges can be made
• On the basis of a monthly limit where the available funds are refreshed at the beginning of each new statement cycle. If your charges reach the limit, no further charges can be placed on the Cards until the new statement cycle begins
• On the basis of a global limit. This is a spend limit or control that you can apply at any level of your hierarchy. This enables you to set different controls based on your Company's internal policies and procedures. This includes the opportunity to apply individual spend limits to each Card Member so you can control either their monthly spend or limit the size of each transaction

Please click here to apply limits and controls.

American Express accepts a number of methods for paying a Corporate Card statement. The payment methods available depend on whether your Company or the Card Member pays the statement. If remitting payment centrally, your company may use:

• Interbank GIRO
• Cheque
• Electronic funds transfer (EFT)