Posted on Jan 26, 2015
Government travel credit card; what's the best way to make sure you are not forced to pay out of pocket?
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I understand that now this is mandatory for all pcs and tdy moves. I've recently been hearing of alot of soldier not being paid on time and being forced to pay out of pocket. Also, it's my understanding that you can be demoted for this even though, technically, it's not your fault
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Posted 10 y ago
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I think you're right, SGT(P) Daniel McBride. The government travel card has been required for TDY trips for quite a while (http://www.defensetravel.dod.mil/site/govtravelcard.cfm).
And this article says that it's now being used for PCS moves as well:
http://www.military.com/daily-news/2014/10/23/troops-issued-government-travel-cards-for-pcs-expenses.html
You do have to pay your bill on time, but I've been doing this (traveling with a government charge card) for many years, and I have not encountered a problem. If there's a delay in processing for some reason, it's important to keep in touch with Citibank (for the GOVCC), your servicing finance office, your unit, DTS, etc. It has been my experience that Citibank has been reasonable about it and granted extensions for legitimate "excuses" (i.e., delays in payment) that are beyond your control.
If you are conscientious about it, there's no reason to worry about use of the government travel card.
And this article says that it's now being used for PCS moves as well:
http://www.military.com/daily-news/2014/10/23/troops-issued-government-travel-cards-for-pcs-expenses.html
You do have to pay your bill on time, but I've been doing this (traveling with a government charge card) for many years, and I have not encountered a problem. If there's a delay in processing for some reason, it's important to keep in touch with Citibank (for the GOVCC), your servicing finance office, your unit, DTS, etc. It has been my experience that Citibank has been reasonable about it and granted extensions for legitimate "excuses" (i.e., delays in payment) that are beyond your control.
If you are conscientious about it, there's no reason to worry about use of the government travel card.
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SGT(P) Daniel McBride
You can still use your own credit card for any expenses and then wait to get reimbursed; only thing different now with PCS is that if you don't use the government credit card, you will not get any advances.
You can still use your own credit card for any expenses and then wait to get reimbursed; only thing different now with PCS is that if you don't use the government credit card, you will not get any advances.
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SSG (Join to see)
SFC, I have to disagree on your second part. If a person has a GCC then they cannot get advances, not the other way around. Every time I went TDY or PCSed over the last 10 years of my career I was asked by finance whether I had a card or not. They told me every time that if I did have a card I could NOT get an advance.
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SSG (Join to see)
I am going with what my finance office has been telling Soldiers departing DLI for the past 2-3 months, they might tell me something different when it's my turn to PCS next month
I am going with what my finance office has been telling Soldiers departing DLI for the past 2-3 months, they might tell me something different when it's my turn to PCS next month
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SSG (Join to see)
Understandable. Definitely best to check with the finance office. Granted, things could have changed within the last year too.
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Thank you. I've recently seen people demoted over it. . . Would hate that to happen due to someone else's mistake or some kind of glitch
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