Govt Travel Card and the IRR

[insanebikerboy]

There's no reason for the YNs to even care - it's all transparent to them and there's no requirement or mechanism to explain whether or not a Govt CC was used. Despite the rhetoric/party line, the only thing you really have to use the Govt CC for is when they put airline tickets, lodging or rental cars directly on your card. Everything else is up to you as a practical matter. I have never used my Govt CC "as intended" and nobody has ever said a thing. I ran my squadron's program for a year as the Admin O and there's really no reason to fuss about it as much as some of you seem to be. Use it as you see fit within the bounds of common sense and 99% of you will not have issues.

The provision is "exempt from mandatory provisions of the JFTR" on the orders. If the traveler is exempt than they can freely use their own card for whatever necessary for travel. If the traveler is not exempt, they are required per the JFTR to use the GCC for all transactions associated with their official travel.

That said, and as you know, what goes on in real life is completely different.

 

[Brett327]

I hear you. I know what the regs say, I'm just saying there isn't any consequence for not using it. As long as all the bills are getting paid (through whatever card one might choose to use), I can't imagine any command caring. None of mine ever have.

 

[PropAddict]

The real reason GTC use is mandated is the rebates the government gets from the card (same thing as your personal card cash back/rewards/etc). For most bases it can be several hundred K a year in no-strings-attached money (i.e, more flatscreens), depending on travel spending and delinquency rates.

Source?

I just can't believe a scheme so diabolically-brilliant as this is at work.

I mean, we're talking about the people who brought you NMCI and NKO, here.

 

[Uncle Fester]

I hear you. I know what the regs say, I'm just saying there isn't any consequence for not using it. As long as all the bills are getting paid (through whatever card one might choose to use), I can't imagine any command caring. None of mine ever have.

Command won't care. It'll take you a while to get your balance paid back from Citi, though; oddly enough, they're in no rush to give it back. In the meantime you're paying the interest on your six weeks' hotel and rental car on your personal card. I'd think that would pretty much offset whatever benefit you got.

 

[scoolbubba]

Not if I'm getting some fucking sweet airlines points and have the cash to pay my bill in full.

 

[Brett327]

Command won't care. It'll take you a while to get your balance paid back from Citi, though; oddly enough, they're in no rush to give it back. In the meantime you're paying the interest on your six weeks' hotel and rental car on your personal card. I'd think that would pretty much offset whatever benefit you got.

That's not even necessary. You can tell whomever processes your claim where the money goes. Unless there's a rental car or airline ticket on my claim, it all goes to my bank account.

The more posts I read in this thread, the more I realize about some of you: "Govt Credit Card... You're doing it wrong. "

 

[phrogpilot73]

"Govt Credit Card... You're doing it wrong. "

Maybe in the Navy, but the Marine Corps issued MARADMIN 600/07 which states: "TRAVELERS ARE REQUIRED TO USE SPLIT DISBURSEMENT TO PAY ALL GTCC CHARGES AT THE TIME OF SETTLEMENT WHETHER DTS OR THE LEGACY PROCESS IS USED."

Why did they do this? Back in the old days, your travel claim and the GTCC were separate entities - and Marines were getting their balls crushed for carrying a balance, when the root cause of the problem was the timeliness of travel claim settlement. The MARADMIN is designed to protect Marines from charges for Abuse under the UCMJ. How does it protect them? According to MCO 4600.40A: "Accounts delinquent due to a pending travel settlement on a claim which was properly submitted prior to the point of delinquency and electing split disbursement for the delinquent amount, are not considered abuse."

Ergo, if you travel, use the card, and submit your travel claim - then you can't be charged with abuse. Unfortunately, Citi still makes report to HQMC if you're delinquent, and HQMC still sends nasty grams to your command if you're delinquent, and your card still gets cut off if you're delinquent. But because of the MCO and the MARADMIN, we can't be charged with a violation of the UCMJ - and turning our cards back on is a breeze - because the instructions tie the two together.

Because of the MCO, there is no option in DTS for us not to do split disbursment if there is lodging/rental car/rail or air travel, etc on our travel claim. Even though my APC has defined me as an "infrequent traveler" in the Reserves (which is true, I only do the AT then maybe one det a year), how much do you want to bet my squadron is still going to follow MARADMIN 600/07 and do a split disbursement REGARDLESS of me checking the other box... Never underestimate the arrogance and incompetence of an admin warrant officer that thinks all pilots/officers are idiots - because he's been doing this for <insert period of time here>...

It'll take you a while to get your balance paid back from Citi, though; oddly enough, they're in no rush to give it back.

Not anymore. You can request the refund of your balance online, and can do direct deposit to a checking/savings account. Took 2-3 business days to make it into my account once I requested the refund. If you're interested in the website to do it, I'll dig through my email and post the link here. If not, I'm too lazy to do it...

 

[Gatordev]

Maybe in the Navy, but the Marine Corps issued MARADMIN 600/07 which states: "TRAVELERS ARE REQUIRED TO USE SPLIT DISBURSEMENT TO PAY ALL GTCC CHARGES AT THE TIME OF SETTLEMENT WHETHER DTS OR THE LEGACY PROCESS IS USED."

Why did they do this? Back in the old days, your travel claim and the GTCC were separate entities - and Marines were getting their balls crushed for carrying a balance, when the root cause of the problem was the timeliness of travel claim settlement. The MARADMIN is designed to protect Marines from charges for Abuse under the UCMJ. How does it protect them? According to MCO 4600.40A: "Accounts delinquent due to a pending travel settlement on a claim which was properly submitted prior to the point of delinquency and electing split disbursement for the delinquent amount, are not considered abuse."

Ergo, if you travel, use the card, and submit your travel claim - then you can't be charged with abuse. Unfortunately, Citi still makes report to HQMC if you're delinquent, and HQMC still sends nasty grams to your command if you're delinquent, and your card still gets cut off if you're delinquent. But because of the MCO and the MARADMIN, we can't be charged with a violation of the UCMJ - and turning our cards back on is a breeze - because the instructions tie the two together.

Again, forgetting the potential extra layer of Reserve filling.... What you're saying doesn't negate what Brett is saying. The ONLY time I have ever used my GTCC is for airline tickets, and I've done a ton of TAD travel over the last 7 years (yes, mostly by GP, but there's been other trips). I pay everything else with my own credit card. In doing so, I pick split disbursement, which would meet your MARADMIN needs.

Now, if you're not in DTS, I get where that can become a problem, as it takes longer for the claim to get liquidated, but at least through DTS, as long as I have the money to afford the TAD in my checking account, I roll with my card and then get the liquidated claim w/in a week or two of coming back.

All of this is moot if you just have someone in Admin who wants to be a douche and not let you "make it work." I haven't run into that, but I also ran Admin for a while in my last squadron, which helped, since they would always take care of me.

 

[Uncle Fester]

You can do it, yes. Whether it's worth signing yourself up for extra pain to get the airline points, that's personal preference. Me, I think it's hard enough getting my travel claims liquidated as it is without having some drone bounce it back to me three or four extra times for "not doing it right".

 

[Brett327]

GDev makes a good point. I understand that the Corps tends to take a more micro-managerial approach to a lot of things, especially money. Marine anal-retentiveness notwithstanding, some of you seem to be making this whole thing a lot harder than it needs to be. My experience has been like much like Dev's has been.

 

[phrogpilot73]

I understand that the Corps tends to take a more micro-managerial approach to a lot of things, especially money.

Yep. Although, tying the two together (so young Marines who are living paycheck to paycheck don't get their balls crushed when Uncle Sam takes his sweet time paying you back) was probably one of the best things they did. I routinely put ONLY the stuff that will automatically trigger a split disbursement (lodging, rental cars, etc) on my GTCC. The rest gets me points towards a cruise on Norwegian Cruise Line!

My attitude has always been - you've removed my ability to manage my finances, so fine. I won't. (Hence the reason I was overdue by almost 90 days because of them taking 3 months to settle a travel claim).

My experience has been like much like Dev's has been.

So has mine, with my civilian job - reserves? Exact opposite. I think you're completely underestimating Marine anal-retentiveness...

 

[Gatordev]

You can do it, yes. Whether it's worth signing yourself up for extra pain to get the airline points, that's personal preference. Me, I think it's hard enough getting my travel claims liquidated as it is without having some drone bounce it back to me three or four extra times for "not doing it right".

So has mine, with my civilian job - reserves? Exact opposite. I think you're completely underestimating Marine anal-retentiveness...

Sounds like the Reserve pay system is universal across our beloved Naval Service.

 

[phrogpilot73]

Sounds like the Reserve pay system is universal across our beloved Naval Service.

It seems ours is completely in the hands of whichever WO is in the Admin O office... Brief history of my reserve pay (and timeline for payouts):

First Admin O: Reserve pay would hit 3-4 days after drilling, travel claims paid in 10-14 days.
Second Admin O: Reserve pay would hit 14-21 days after drilling, travel claims paid in 7-10 days.
Current Admin O: Reserve pay hits 1-3 days (seriously, last drill weekend the pay was in my account Monday afternoon), travel claims paid in 6 days - 3 months.

For their credit, the travel claims are not fully processed locally. They are sent to 4thMAW/MARFORRES. That's the great black hole. This last one it went from us, to 4thMAW, to MARFORRES, to Camp Lejeune, to Camp Pendleton, back to Camp Lejeune, back to us, back to MARFORRES, back to Camp Lejeune, then paid. I wonder why it took 3 months?!?

 

[Spekkio]

I hear you. I know what the regs say, I'm just saying there isn't any consequence for not using it. As long as all the bills are getting paid (through whatever card one might choose to use), I can't imagine any command caring. None of mine ever have.

I don't know why the YNC on my ship was so hard-up about its use. The fact that squadron cared was merely speculation, since I got paid either way. It didn't stop me from using whatever card I wanted on travel.

 

[Gatordev]

I don't know why the YNC on my ship was so hard-up about its use.

Because the instruction says so. And if the instruction says so, it must be done. Never mind that it doesn't actually matter.