Business credit cards

Thanks for using Avvo. I am Mark Britton, the CEO at Avvo. I am also a lawyer. Bc we are receiving so many questions right now, it may take longer for some of our loyal Avvo lawyers to get back to you. In the meantime, I wanted to offer some preliminary help. Please keep in mind that I am not a FL lawyer, and to get a definitive answer on this you should consult a top Avvo-rated lawyer in your area, even though the state law of the credit card issuer may be controlling.

It depends what it says in the credit agreement. Most small business credit cards require a personal guarantee, which means the bank can come after you if the business fails. There are some credits lines and cards without the personal guarantees, but I am guessing yours are not those. If the bank told you something different when you took out the line and cards, then you may have a misrepresentation issue. But pursuing such an issue against a bank would be time consuming and expensive - especially if you do not have written evidence of them telling you that you would not have personal exposure on the credit.

Here is an interesting NYT article on the subject:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/11/business/smallbusiness/11sbiz.html?pagewanted=print

Without reviewing the credit agreement I cannot give a definitive answer. Quite often the business credit agreement requires a personal guarantee. If you signed one, you are probably personally liable for the debts. You should have an attorney review the docs for you.