You Now Need a Credit Card in Most Cases to Get Access to DoD, VA Benefits Websites

All for it.

You don't NEED a Credit Card to get a DS Login account - it's another option to create an account if you don't want to use a CAC (while you're in the Service) or go to a RAPIDS site location.

DS Login is supposed to be a Tier 2* authentication source, so you have to prove your identity, and doing soft credit checks is something has been done for years (i.e., asking those questions such as "which of the four options listed is where you lived in 2010?" or "What bank did you open a credit card with in 2015?").
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A Tier 1 is something like Google. You create an account and it can be completely fictitious information (I have a couple I use for "Spam signups")
A Tier 2 is something where you must prove your identity (in this case, DS Login) for the account.
A Tier 3 is where you must prove your identity AND have an additional security device (Example: CAC login)