We did the debit card thing only once, when the carnival chair really wanted a committee member to be able to go all over town buying prizes at the best prices, and the member didn't have the means to absorb the purchases herself until reimbursement. I was prez at the time, and both my trez and I were uncomfortable with the idea, but tried it just that once. I wouldn't do it again due to the lack of financial control (ex: 2 signatures). There were no problems, and the committee member turned in all her receipts. But we were left with a gift card with a small balance that we felt we should spend to zero somewhere. And the notion of handing over PTO "cash", even if it's a limited amount, just didnt' sit right. I'm all for going the reimbursement route, and would recommend that over the gift card approach 99.9% of the time.
We looked into getting a debit/credit card for our organization through our bank. The problem that we ran into was that we have a 2 signature policy on our account. I am putting things on my credit card and getting reimb. since we could not find a way around it.
You might be able to purchase a pre-loaded "gift" card at your bank and use that in place of a credit card. I think they function the same way as a credit card when you go to purchase something. That would be far better than gttting a real credit card for the PTO. Your risk exposure is limited to the amount you pre-load on the gift card. You probably will have a fee to purchase the card, and still might have to give a personal id # (we did when we bought one), but it's a simple solution for your problem.
Our PTO purchases many things on-line via Discount Mugs, Postivie Promotions, etc. and for those companies that don't allow us to order and then be billed later, we are using our v-president's credit card and then reimbursing her via a PTO check.
PTO would like to establish their own business credit card, however all of those we have looked into so far, ask for personal information on one person, such as social security number, income, etc.
Is there a credit card company out there that allows PTO to have a credit card based on their income and information such as Federal ID number and tax exempt number?
Thanks.