Credit card purchase

[Veronica97]

Is it okay to lend my store credit card to someone else so that he/she can get a 15% discount on a purchase, for which he/she will pay me back? I have read that it’s against your credit card agreement to allow someone else to borrow your card. What if I purchase the item myself for this person, and then he/she pays me back? Is that a form of cheating? It’s not an employee discount or anything like that…it’s just a discount given to card members if they use their credit card to purchase certain items on certain days. I wouldn’t have thought twice about doing this in the past, but I’m not so sure now. Am I being scrupulous or is there something wrong with doing this?

 

[WKW_69]

Merchants do this because in the long run they make much more money by buyers that don’t pay off their CC balance and it brings loyal CC customers into the store where hopefully they will also buy more items that are on ‘sale’. You can read your CC account agreement online at the retailer’s web site.
It is not wise to loan your CC to another person because they may use it to charge up more then what they say they are going to charge on your card. And they can use your card numbers later to order merchandise to be delivered to their home.
There is nothing wrong with the person paying you the cost of the item then using your CC to obtain the discount and this would be the safest method.
Have you discussed why she doesn’t just obtain her own CC from the merchant? If she has bad credit that would be a red flag to me not to let the person use my CC.

 

[1ke]

It would be imprudent to give this person your credit card to use. If they are not a signer on your card, they cannot use it anyway and they could get in trouble trying to do so.

It is no problem at all for you to use your card any way you like. They certainly can pay you for the purchase. Make sure they can do so.

Also, they could get their own card.

 

[seagal]

As the other posters said, it’s not a good idea to lend your card to anyone. All they need is the number, expiration date and security code (all printed conveniently on the card) to charge things online.

Having said that, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with you making the purchase to get the discount and your friend paying you back.

 

[CatholicSheila]

I’d ask who you are lending it too before I’d say don’t do it. I regularly have family members credit cards in my wallet and wouldn’t think twice about passing mine onto them.

I don’t think it is a sin. The discount is there to entice people to buy the product. Sounds like it’s working exactly as it is supposed to.

 

[otjm]

On occasion, I am asked for ID when I purchase using a credit card.

Lend your card to someone else; they get asked for ID, and at the minimum they may be denied the purchase.

That is the minimum. Your card may be taken at that point, so you now have lost your card.

In trying to get the card back, you will have to explain how someone else was using it - good luck with that!

You may have the loss of the card show up in a credit report.

And that is on top of the fact that your friend may not really be a friend, and you may end up with charges they do not pay back, but for which you are responsible.

A really simple answer is that you go with them to make the purchase, and at the time of the purchase, they pay you cash. Why cash? You may trust a check if they write you one, but if the check is no good, you owe what is on your card. They don’t pay you after the transaction, but either when it is occurring, or before. On the way to the store is fine.

If you don’t do that, that is certainly your choice, but realize that you are risking purchasing something for them out of your own funds, as they may have all sorts of excuses as to why they cannot pay you back.

This is not so much a moral issue as it is an issue of common sense.