When the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum needed some upgrades to the sound system, Finance Director, Ronald Lederkramer, decided to pay for the equipment and shipping costs with his personal Chase Visa card. He charged the over $270,000 in installments to his Visa and made the payments with government checks. Needless to say, he managed to earn a lot of points with the purchases–over a quarter of a million points–and because he had a personal stake in the purchase, the question was raised whether there was a conflict of interest. When asked what he did with the points, Lederkramer said he used the points to travel to conferences on Coliseum business but did not have any documentation of those trips.

Bottom line: If you own a business or are employed by a company that reimburses your expenses that you pay for with a personal credit card, then rack up as many points as you can with your credit cards. But if you are not allowed to use personal credit cards for expenses, we recommend you follow established protocols.