Alot of the different Military Publications are getting the real story behind these "Debt Trap Cards", and Military Personnel are getting screwed BIG TIME.
Here are some facts;
Over 1.4 million cards were issued.
Cards are issued broadly, not to just "officers".
With-in the active duty, reimbursements are chronically behind schedule, and individuals are expected to make up the difference. (we are not talking about trips to Toys R Us, or casual dinners.) Service Members are only authorized to use these cards on official business. TDY, etc.
Some of us felt that this card was A BAD Idea, but we are forced to use it anyway, because now it has been mandated that ALL official travel must be paid for with the government-issued card. So for those of us, who would rather pay say cash and avoid this fiasco completely, turn in our receipts for travel reimbursement, no longer have that option. Some Units, Military Members have been threatened with legal action under UCMJ if they don't use the travel card, while other units have been known to pour over the receipts, threatening not to reimburse ANY bill that wasn't paid with a travel card.
There has also been cases where a service member has charged their airline tickets (for official travel) and with-in one week (since it was at the end of Bank of America's billing cycle) They receive the bill at home while they are away. Service members cannot file for reimbursement until after the tdy/assignment is completed.
Service members are required to pay this "government card" bill within 30 days of receiving it. (We have to pay for official government business expenses, regardless of the amount, and regardless of whither we have been reimbursed.) And if we do not, or cannot? It is reported to our TRW's to ruin our credit histories for years.
Out of the 1.4 million cards (in the past year) there have been between 22,000 to 38,000 cardholders classified as delinquent. typically carrying $650-$750 in overdue balances.
The Pentagon and bank of America have responded to this by not changing the flawed system, but getting tougher on cardholders.
Cardholders are expected to pay the full amount once they received the bill, regardless if finance has reimbursed them or not.
Defense Secretary Rumsfeld reportedly hit the ceiling in March after the Pentagon IG told law makers about travel card delinquencies. Rumsfeld ordered comptroller Dov Zakhiem to launch a taskforce to look into all gov-issued cards. The report will be out by June 1st.
DOD Officials do not foresee significant changes in how the travel card program is run. For example, they do not anticipate requesting a change to the law mandating that all federal employees must use these cards when performing official government business/travel.
However, officials do anticipate requesting an automated process that would allow government pay offices to directly reimburse Bank of America. (we pray this happens soon)
This biggest problem with this current system is that the reimbursement process becomes very flawed for some service members. It's one thing to expect your employees to pay for Official travel business, but even worse when you do not reimburse them in a timely manner (60 days or more), and expect this same employee (service member) to pick up the tab, and float a (basically interest free loan) to the government until they get off their butts and process your paperwork.
We (military) are not rich people here, this is very much a hardship. Especially if your the one of the few unlucky ones, that the finance decides to lose or delay your reimbursement paperwork. This is a very flawed system, and as usual the service members will get screwed big time before it's corrected. Alot of us sit here getting really tired of being guinea pigs for these programs. It's amazing how we can jump right into these programs with-out much thought, but it takes special investigations just to figure out whats going wrong, and who knows how long to fix, while service members hung out to dry.
Service members are having their credit reports absolutely ruined over this. Granted there are a very few that may abuse this card, but thats when you take it away, prosecute under UCMJ, and report to their TRW's. But what of the E-4's, or E-5's or hell even CPT's that cannot afford to say a $4,000 "official" government assignment? Remember these cards are like American express, it is completely due in 30 days, sometimes less if you left right before B of A's billing cycle is about to end. It's ok to also treat them like a dead beat who is not paying their bill?? Funny thing is, it's the government that's really the delinquent deadbeat here.
*Oh, one more interesting note, This program has saved the Pentagon between 100 million, up to 450 million, and DOD has received about 1.5 million in rebates from the B of A based on the Travel Card usage.
If you would like to know more, log on to Armytimes.com, Navytimes.com, Marinetimes.com, etc etc. They are now actively, and more accurately reporting this fiasco.
A person who is fighting in a war shouldn't be worried about paying a bill that they have been saddled with, or that they don't know when they're going to be reimbursed for"
As a note - any time I could not pay the bill out of pocket, I was always able to call up the credit card company and get an extension when it was due to late government reimbursement. Some members however never bother, instead they just hold on the payment. When we accept the card for travel, we accept the responsibility that goes along with it.