History Main / CompanyCreditCardAbuse

* ''WesternAnimation/RocketMonkeys'': The episode "May the Best Monkey Win" has Wally and Gus driving G.A.S.I. into bankruptcy by going on an expensive shopping spree with the organization's credit card after blowing their weekly allowance, which becomes finalized when they accidentally incinerate all the purchased goods in a nearby sun trying to return them via cannon. When G.A.S.I.'s now-almost nonexistent budget [[CuttingCorners only allows for one of the monkeys to remain an astronaut]], Dr. Chimpsky sentences the other to be sent away for "[[UnfortunateImplications repurposing]]", leading to Wally and Gus individually trying to one-up each other in buttering up YAY-OK (whom Chimpsky put in charge of deciding who goes and who stays) to avoid the latter fate. Fortunately, an inadvertent discovery of a huge supply of the rarest mineral in the galaxy manages to not only restore G.A.S.I.'s budget but also makes them rich enough to buy the same kinds of luxuries the brothers did in the beginning.

* ''Series/{{Borgen}}'' kicks off when the current Prime Minister tries to resolve his wife not being able to pay for something, but the only method of payment he has on him is a government-issued credit card. After using it, he tries to get his PR man to cover up the payment, but the PR man winds up dying while in the process of doing so, and the record of the payment makes its way into the hands of the Prime Minister's political enemies. The resulting scandal paves the way for Birgitte Nyborg Christensen becoming Prime Minister after the next election.

Administrivia/NoRealLifeExamplesPlease

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}: In "The Impossible Stream", Hermes warns that Fry had better not be using the Planet Express corporate credit card to purchase the products from the Fulu targeted ads for All My Circuits, however he casually admits that he uses it for his one-man business dinners. Professor Farnsworth tells him to quit his low-stakes embezzling to pay attention to the situation at hand.

A subtrope of CreditCardPlot. Crosses into ConspicuousConsumption, StealingFromTheTill, and WhiteCollarCrime. If the credit card abuser is related in some way to an executive at the company/organization they might be a SilverSpoonTroublemaker.

-->--''WesternAnimation/{{Archer}}'': '''[[Recap/ArcherS1E1MoleHunt Mole Hunt]]'''

* This provides Jonathan Zarus' motive in murdering Bernie Silverman in the ''VideoGame/CriminalCaseSupernaturalInvestigations'' case ''[[Recap/CriminalCaseSICase26DeathAtAFuneral Death at a Funeral''. Jonathan went on a spending spree with Larry's company credit card after Larry died in a car accident, buying things up to a sports car. Bernie, being Larry's business partner, was of course outraged by this, and demanded the money back or he'd go to the cops. Jonathan is revealed [[spoiler:to not be the killer.]]

-->--''WesternAnimation/{{Archer}}'': '''Mole Hunt'''

->'''Archer''': Okay, operations account. Just how deep in the red am I- OUT OF MY MIND!? Oh no! How?! How did I spend that much money?!

->'''Archer''': Yeah, I know it's sexy, Woodhouse, that's why I bought ten. Now arrange those by color.
->'''Woodhouse''': These are... all black.
->'''Archer''': Oh, are they? Or are five dark black and five in a slightly darker black?

->'''Archer''': And now I'm short a... slightly darker black one.

[[folder:Film - Live Action]]

-->'''Mad Max''': What kind of hooker takes credit cards?
-->'''Donnie''': A rich one!

-->'''Bane''': Because I am this credit card's reckoning!

* ''Series/{{Borgen}}'' kicks off when the current Prime Minister tries to resolve his wife not being able to pay for something, but the only method of payment he has on him is a government-issued credit card. After using it, he tries to get his PR man to cover up the payment, but the PR man winds up dying while in the process of doing so, and the record of the payment makes its way into the hands of the Prime Minister's political enemies, paving the way for Birgitte Nyborg Christensen to become Prime Minister after the next election.

* In an early season episode of [[Series/DeadliestCatch]] Phil Harris's sons Josh and Jake rack up a large amount of money on the boat's credit card on rain gear while the ship is in dry dock for costly repairs. Phil is nearly unintelligble in his anger and mimes getting sick for the camera.

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* ''Series/{{Borgen}}'' kicks off when the current Prime Minister tries to resolve his wife not being able to pay for something, but the only method of payment he has on him is a government-issued credit card. After using it, he tries to get his PR man to cover up the payment, but he winds up dying while in the process of doing so, and the record of the payment makes its way into the hands of the Prime Minister's political enemies, paving the way for Birgitte Nyborg Christensen to become Prime Minister after the next election.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Archer}}'': Sterling Archer has a habit of making extravagant purchases on his agency expense account, to the point where Malory admonishes him repeatedly for treating ISIS/The Agency as a personal ATM. This comes to a head in "Mole Hunt" when she tells him to settle his accounts under threat of being cut off. His attempts to hide his hacking into the system as a mole hunt accidentally reveal that one of his colleagues is indeed a mole, which he blames for the purchases.

A subtrope of CreditCardPlot and StealingFromTheTill. Crosses into ConspicuousConsumption and WhiteCollarCrime. If the credit card abuser is related in some way to an executive at the company/organization they might be a SilverSpoonTroublemaker.

A subtrope of CreditCardPlot. Crosses into ConspicuousConsumption and WhiteCollarCrime. If the credit card abuser is related in some way to an executive at the company/organization they might be a SilverSpoonTroublemaker.

* ''Film/TheWolfOfWallStreet'': "Max Max" Belfort storms into his son Jordan's office waving an American Express bill totaling $430,000, demanding an explanation regarding certain purchases including a $26,000 dinner and a charge for what he easily determined to be a high-class prostitution ring. Jordan and Donnie's weak excuses do nothing to placate his fury.

->'''Archer''': Yeah I know it's sexy, Woodhouse, that's why I bought ten. Now arrange those by color.

->'''Archer''': Oh, are they? Or are five dark black, and five in a slightly darker black?

In some workplaces, certain employees are given a credit card account for work related expenses. These are usually for travel, lodging, meal stipends, etc. The expectation is that the card is to be used ''only'' for those work related expenses, and in rare cases, an emergency. Furthermore, in order to ensure the organization's accounting books are level, receipts are expected to be kept.

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* In ''Literature/{{Scoop}}'', William Boot is given an expense account for his trip to Ishmaelia. He mostly avoids abusing it, except that he keeps sending his reports in full-worded English rather than using abbreviations, and when the paper suggests that he use more abbreviations to save money, he thanks them for their concern, but notes that it's not costing ''him'' anything.

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* ''Series/InventingAnna'': In the Moroccan ''riad'', journalist Rachel Williams is unknowingly misusing her newspaper credit card. Anna Delvey having claimed to have forgotten her card home during a visit, the manager of the ''riad'' needed a guarantee and Anna pressured Rachel into using her card as guarantee, promising it wouldn't be used since Anna would use the one she claimed to have. Since Anna didn't had any way to pay for this visit, Rachel's card was debited, leading Rachel to be fired from her newspaper.

* ''Series/TrueJacksonVP'': "Keeping Tabs" features an semi-unintentional example. True is invited out [[AlphaBitch Amanda]] and several other Mad Style employees to a fancy restaurant for a "business dinner", where she learns she can charge things to her company credit card. Not realising its only supposed to be for official purchases True assumes this to be just another perk of working at the company, and makes a series of extravagant purchases as well as taking her friends out for dinner to the same restaurant. This extreme expenditure is quickly flagged and leads to Mad Style's Chief of Finances [[TheDreaded Rose Pinchbinder]] being after her, with [[OnlySaneEmployee Oscar]] only managing to explain to True the card's actual purpose too late, and that if she can't make the money back [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome she will be fired and likely face criminal charges for embezzlement]]. True returns all the stuff she bought, but unable to get back what she spent at the restaurant she's forced to come clean. Thankfully Pinchbinder takes pity on her, as she knows True is legitimately a good person and would never knowingly steal, agreeing to simply deduct the cost from her salary.

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--> '''Bane''': Because I am this credit card's reckoning!
* ''WesternAnimation/RocketMonkeys'': The episode "May the Best Monkey Win" has Wally and Gus driving G.A.S.I. into bankruptcy by going on an expensive shopping spree with the organization's credit card after blowing their weekly allowance, which becomes finalized when they accidentally incinerate all the purchased goods in a nearby sun trying to return them via cannon. When G.A.S.I.'s now-almost nonexistent budget [[CuttingCorners only allows for one of the monkeys to remain an astronaut]], Dr. Chimpsky sentences the other to be sent away for "[[UnfortunateImplications repurposing]]", leading to Wally and Gus individually trying to one-up each other in buttering up YAY-OK (whom Chimpsky put in charge of deciding who goes and who stays) to avoid the latter fate. Fortunately, an inadvertent discovery of a huge supply of the rarest mineral in the galaxy manages to not only restore G.A.S.I.'s budget, but also makes them rich enough to buy the same kinds of luxuries the brothers did in the beginning.

-->--''WesternAnimation/{{Archer}}'':'''Mole Hunt'''