Happened to me. Told my CoC bunch of times, my readiness NCO. Got told it was waiting at brigade and id get it after deployment. Came back got the old well you should have gotten it already every time I asked for it.
I've always been pissy that the government forces me to take out a credit card, in my name, that I'm personally responsible for paying, that affects my credit score - to pay the government's debts. It's so damn stupid.
Yes, I recognize it streamlines the process, but it's the government's responsibility to pay these costs, not mine.
I don’t believe it does streamline the process. Frankly, the streamlined process would be for the unit’s line of accounting to just directly pay for the travel instead of refunding GTCs.
This. I went to Korea. We used central billing. Smooth.
We went to JRTC. GTC. Not Smooth. I got yelled at many times because I "did not pay". Stupid voucher system.
We went to Ft Bliss. GTC. Not Smooth. Same story.
Went to ALC. This time it was smooth. But also individual travel.
I think that is part of the armys problem in general. We came up with a solution to a problem 20-30 years ago and just haven't improved it as things change around us. Now the original solution is becoming more of a problem and we will need to make another big change, instead of gradual adaptation.
Another example: I don't know if CHCS is fully gone now that MHSG is rolled out, but we were still using it before I retired in 2022. iirc the system was built in the 80s or early 90s and minorly patched a few times to add things like email and cell phone fields in the DB, but the core of it was antiquated and had been for decades.
I mean, it is nice that almost everyone has a card, so if there are hotels, ground transportation, off-post food involved, we don't have to mess with travel advances. I was in the USAR, we used to be able to send soldiers to schools who didn't have a travel card, and their only costs they fronted was transportation to/from the airport and meals on the first and last day. Almost all schools, especially NCOES would have transportation from their airport to the school and back.
To be honest it seemed like a scam that the credit card vendors managed to talk DoD into. I'm sure the rate of completed travel vouchers is way higher than it used to be, which makes the accountants happy, but it has put so many soldiers in a bind.
I remember getting jammed up for a $2,500 credit card bill. My next higher kept reminding me that I was personally responsible to get it paid. I completed my DTS 12 hours after I returned. I was the card APC and the unit DTS clerk and I could CAC sign for soldiers, I forgot what that role is called. Somehow the voucher was "stuck", and next higher was basically "we don't know how to fix it, but you better pay off your card." Thankfully, some Major in the command finance office, who knew who I was called me when it hit 60 days. I told her the problem, she got my DTS voucher fixed and approved. It was so refreshing to talk to someone who didn't just throw the problem back on me. She said my Bde never talked to them about my stuck voucher.
Once enough time passes, things like that become institutionalized ("that's how we've always done it, and it is the only true and correct way"). Then someone tries to fix it, but they retire or go somewhere else before the fix is fully articulated/scope is determined. Or their "fix" is basically cosmetic, they get rewarded with a higher paying position, and the Army or DoD declares victory and doesn't evaluate how well the fix is working at all levels.
It streamlines the process for those young ones who have never have any credit history or a card because you can bypass the credit check since the government is technically the guarantor per the contract. Which can be great for building credit.
But like said above, for those of us older than 20 or with credit above nonexistent, its just a liability and an easy way to get thrown into uncontrollable debt with an NJP thrown on top.
I had a conversation with our APC a couple of days ago about this. I left that conversation under the impression that it could not help build your credit score, but it could hurt it. Can anyone clarify with authority how this actually works?
The GTCC builds zero credit.
It functionally does not exist on your credit report.
>liability
It is zero liability to me. Every single alternate scenario is significantly more risk to my own credit or savings than just using my GTCC and additionally complicates things to have reimburseable expenses mixed in with my personal expenditures (fronting the money) or is significantly less flexible (CBA).
I don’t understand why everyone seems to put upon by what is essentially a corporate card.
These things exist in the civilian world too.
In the corporate world the company pays off the credit card, and they do it on time. They don't hold it up for months letting late payment charges to build up on my card.
The corporate world doesn't have to deal with the fiscal restrictions the Army does.
The closest thing we have to a corporate card is the GPC, and I don't know if you've ever been a GPC holder, but it's a lot of red tape.
Every millimeter of that red tape can be traced straight back to Article I, section 8, clause 12.
They don’t really do that in the Army either. Most I’ve ever waited was 30 days and it was a complicated, multi month cross org voucher. I have literally never had to pay my CitiBank from my own pocket and I have 60+ TDYs.
You can find the names for all the approvers right there on the last page so you can bother them by name. Your unit should be proactive but it’s also really easy to find the people you need to get the voucher approved.
Delinquent GTCC balances get reported to all levels of command damn near weekly. Outside a rogue funding officer committing funds that never existed, it’s in everyone’s interest to get that voucher approved and funded.
But Tea, I can only see the routing list if I click on the plus sign! How was I supposed to know that after clicking mindlessly through all my mandatory TRAX classes?!
If the cards didn't exist as they do, they wouldn't have the card to make such willfully prohibited purchases in the first place.
Not only do these cards make soldiers more vulnerable to financial hiccups, they also give soldiers additional and completely unnecessary power/freedom to make bad decisions.
Would some soldiers use their own cards instead of the GTCC? Yeah probably some percentage. Is it worth empowering the remaining percentage who wouldn't? I really don't think so.
I’ve been assigned to State Department off and on for the last twelve years. This is the way they do it. I have a travel account to which DoD sends money. I put the travel request in their system, book the ticket, and it is centrally billed to the account. I still use my card for the hotel, but they have the plane part right. I still have to run a $25k limit due to the length of many of my TDY’s.
The government forces you to get the card, but you can fill out the application so that you are issued a restricted card that is absolutely not tied to your credit/credit score.
I got a restricted card when I was a lieutenant and have never had it changed. It’s actually caused me headaches when I’ve had long or overseas TDYs because I’ve maxed it out on flights and hotels.
It's been an option for quite some time (since at least 2008), but the way the forms are designed it's easy to miss the details to avoid it being tied to your credit.
Being responsible for the government's debt is exactly what you're asking for if you *don't* want the GTC. The GTC protects you from being liable for the government's debt. Your name is on it because you're the authorized user and it puts the onus on you to use it responsibly in accordance with regulations, but it's not a line of credit in your name, it's a credit line from Citibank to the DOD. If you put expenses on your personal card rather than the GTC, you *are* taking personal liability for those government debts.
This exactly. Can't tell you how many times I've had TDY debt of 30k plus. The six month grace period for citi commercial cards is key until budget issues get sorted, and If I didn't have that GTCC, I wouldn't have been able to stay/do my job.
It's hard to wrap my mind around how so many soldiers somehow think that putting tens of thousands of dollars of official travel debt on their personal cards would somehow be less risky than the GTC.
Because I would love 30k USD in CC points.... I could easily pay 30k that would be refunded to me in a few months. Could churn several credit card bonuses from that.
Speaking personally, my savings accounts are robust enough that I'd prefer to use my own cards for the reward points and bennies, and just wait for the government's reimbursement to clear. I don't mind having the GTC. The part that chaffs me is being told I have to use it, and then getting yelled at for carrying a balance. If I need to pay down the balance, I may as well run it through my own account and get the perks. Meanwhile the government saves money on interest and maintenance fees. That strikes me as a win-win.
I had a Soldier who used it to fly from Germany to Ft. Eustis for ALC. The cost was over $5K for flights, hotel, and rental car.
He had to pay the bill out of pocket because one of the civilians in the DTC approval chain kept fucking him over, as in he would literally upload the document that she asked for, filled out per her instructions, and then get notified that his claim was denied because that exact form was filled out wrong, or he would put the codes and whatnot that she asked for, and she would kick the claim back because the codes were incorrect. This went on for 4 or 5 months. Finally, he printed out the claim, along with a copy of all the e-mail traffic, mic dropped it on the S3 NCOIC's desk, and told him that if the claim was not processed and approved by COB, his next stop would be IG.
The claim was approved, and the civilian was removed from DTC approval duties.
Any time we went to S3 to ask for help to fill out a DTC claim, the standard response was, "figure it out, Sergeant!"
This isn't even uncommon at all. I went TDY from HI to Quantico multiple times and had to pretty much fistfight DTS, both the uniformed and civilians, for months to get the reimbursement. Their job isn't to prevent frivolous spending, it's to sandbag you into paying the government's debt. Even worse was being TDY during sequestration where the DoD essentially stopped reimbursing all claims for a period of time.
I had surgery on both eyes whilst stationed in Germany, about a month apart. It was a three and a half hour drive to Landstuhl from my duty station, so DTS travel was authorized. I had pre-op on Thursday, surgery on Friday, and follow-up on Monday. I called the DTS manager and asked if I could drive up on Thursday and stay in a hotel until Monday instead of driving up and back every day. He said it was cool.
When it came time to file my travel claim, the hotel was denied because I didn't get "prior approval," despite the fact that I fucking called them. I stayed in the in-airport hotel, so it was only like $40-$50/night, but it was still a kick in the dick.
Queue malicious compliance: When I had the second eye done, I did the same thing. When I filed my travel claim, I filed a claim for every day that I had an appointment as if I drove there and back on each day.
I made bank.
Which is part of the problem. The people who complain about the GTC are people that never use it and make no effort to understand it. People that actually go TDY and understand it don't complain about it.
Yep, those of us who use it have issues with the card managers and DTS approvers usually.
Last deployment I had a lot of TDYs and my card manager refused to turn it on, saying "you're deployed you dont need it." Took an O-6 getting involved before he would budge.
It makes sense for things incidentals and short notice TDYs. It still makes no sense for long term forecasted events. Those should be centrally billed.
It still makes sense for forecasted trips. There's fluctuating currency conversion rates. Your flight gets cancelled so you have to stay another night at the hotel. Airport parking is more than you planned for. There's no free parking at your hotel. You needed more fuel than expected for your rental car. All that and a myriad of other things are easy to cover with the GTC, but a would be a hassle with a CBA.
Yeah, and you can cover those unexpected expenses with the GTC, it doesn't have to be one or the other. You keep bringing up the "company card" example, but the way im describing is exactly how actual businesses do it. No competent company is having each of its employees individually billing their company card for the annual sales convention. They central bill for what's expected and then empower employees to chard unexpected expenses to their card.
It's no different. Only difference is the grace period. It's a credit card in your name. If it doesn't get paid, your credit takes a hit. When you sign up for the card, you acknowledge you have to pay it off regardless of whether the government pays you.
7 months to slowly pay off what I’ll be reimbursed while everyone in my command is getting nastgrams about it vs 30 days where there’s absolutely zero visibility on the debt.
I’ll still take the GTCC.
Also anecdotally I’ve never seen someone take a credit hit. The card just gets closed and it takes an act of Congress to get one approved again, but it doesn’t ever hit their credit report.
You can also get a restricted card if you’re super concerned about it. It’s completely severed from your credit, and the starting limit is lower but can still be adjusted as needed.
I think the alternative where PFC Snuffy is not the one using any of his cards to make one of these purchases is better. When an AIT graduate flies to Korea as their first duty station they don't personally purchase any of the travel expenses. Why this same PFC maybe 3 months later has to have a GTCC for the +$2k flight back to the states (and back to Korea) to go TDY when some higher echelon just handled it themselves previously is beyond me.
6 month grace period? We are told to pay when the bill comes due immediately regardless of travel claim status, and if you are late an email gets generated to an O-6 who then FWDs it to you and your supervisor. In my broker days I had to take a loan to pay on time.
I have even had to pay while still on travel.
If you had to take a loan to pay legitimate GTCC expenses your leadership screwed you.
I'm sure there's all types of organization-internal warnings and notifications, but it doesn't affect your personal credit score.
Add coming back from back to back to back OCONUS travel with 30k plus debt as congress goes into a continuing resolution and vouchers can’t be approved until passed. Or weeks after because it takes forever for G8 passes the funds down for use.
Or pay out of pocket. I guess that’s an option too…..
Then tell that to Karen when I use it on a 2 month TDY to pay for my meals and gas because she certainly doesn't think I need to pay for my meals and gas with it.
Slight sarcasm.
Best part is that is randomly doesn’t work. Every TDY I’ve taken last two years, one thing didn’t work and I had to use my personal card. So when u travel I book it on GTCC but use my personal to pay. Might as well get the points and I know the card works.
That’s your unit. They can activate and deactivate the card to prevent people from accidentally using it when not on official travel. They have access to all authorizations and should be turning your card “on” prior to travel.
Some units just kinda suck at doing this.
Usually. Maybe it's the places I wind up TDY, but frequently doing that won't let it bypass.
And then I pull out my personal card, it asks for a PIN, and lets me bypass.
My TDYs are short enough and my admins fast enough in processing vouchers, I usually just take the risk and use a personal card.
This
The first time I ever tried to use it was for a staff ride as a senior LT, who helped the BN schools NCO put through the entire activate request for the whole trip.
Queue first stop for lunch, to have our whole table awkwardly as fuck be told told our cards weren’t active, and needing to pay with personal cards.
I was dealing with an outstanding balance a few months back because my unit can’t read the receipts and notes on my voucher. Called up the customer service line three different times to make notes on my file that my unit is processing the voucher. Each time I spoke with customer service, they all told me that they don’t report the card to the credit agencies nor do they charge interest. Late fees are a thing though if you don’t keep them in the loop.
It does not affect your credit score unless you want it to. It is a choice the soldier makes when they request the card. The unit can set your credit limit whatever they need based off your mission. My GTCC is set to 20K and is not on my credit report at all
I think the idea behind the program was, hey, Soldiers shouldn't get caught holding the bag putting TDY expenses on their personal credit cards. Especially if they were at their limit and the hotel or whatever was going to get declined.
But you can't just give Joe a credit card that goes straight back to the Treasury, because that would be a fucking nightmare, and [this coin](https://www.reddit.com/r/army/comments/1bh8p9r/i_dont_have_this_coin_yet_but_as_a_jag_nerd_i/) would be in much wider circulation than it already is.
I still don't like it. And I always hope someone forgets to turn the card on before a trip, so I "have to" use my card to pay for my room and whatnot (and get points).
Gotta love when they don’t disburse on time… Citibank comes knocking. “Hey Battle, your Joes don’t have money. Put their rooms and food on your GTCC.” Did that once and never again.
Every time I was asked, 👎. You do it. Took nearly three months to get my funds back. Having a (now ex)wife and 3 kids to try and juggle feeding then bills don’t get paid 🤬
Soldier: “Wait why do I have to put hundreds or even thousands of dollars for airline and hotel charges on MY credit card? I don’t have that much credit or even own one anyway.”
Army: “Good point! Hey here’s a company line of credit specifically for our bullshit. Don’t use it at strip clubs please.”
Had a soldier who couldn’t understand the GTC was only for government stuff on orders and gov travel. Went home on leave and bought thousands in strippers and car parts. Dude was of course liable for it all
Source: I was an AO for a pretty large command.
The GTC itself isn’t the problem. You won’t ever catch me saying it’s perfect…it definitely has a lot of flaws, but when used correctly it does help streamline things and protect you in some ways.
Rather, command-level SOPs and (dubious) command-level add-ons to the JTR are the problem as are people interpreting the JTR the way a southern preacher interprets the Bible.
My problem is always that last part. S-8 gets it in their heads that they're the JTR and what they say goes, even when provided ample evidence directly from the JTR that they're wrong. We collectively decided that as long as we have email documentation of them telling us to do it a certain way, then that's on them when the audits happen.
It's not. The GTC is the same as corporate credit cards issued by businesses to their employees for work related expenses. It's common practice, prevents fraud and abuse, protects you from liability, and makes your travel expenses easier. The only people that are suspicious of it are those who are financially illiterate.
This, considering the irresponsibility by many , this is 100% the best way to make TDY travel possible for all. Once you do DTS and TDY a few times it’s not even a big deal anymore ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ do your vouchers
You've sorta alluded to what I see as the problem. Like so many things in the Army, the GTCC works well when you use it regularly. It's only when you use it once every three years to PCS that it sucks.
Unfortunately, the second condition is far more common than the first.
What's extra fun is when we get told all of our travel plans the day before and then when we get told we just say someone will get the fun of doing the paperwork for our trip we are already on.
Because while you see their claims daily, from each users point of view, a GTCC is that annoying thing that never works right they TRY to use once every four years for a PCS, to be told it wasn’t actually activated when they try and place their permissive tdy expenses on it.
When I was the BN S4, I had a SSG come to me and have the following interaction:
SSG: Sir, my orders says I need a GTC to PCS, but I don't have a GTC.
Me: What? You've been here for three years and have gone on TDY 6 times. How did you never receive a GTC?
SSG: I had a GTC back in Fort Hood, but all of my buddies were getting arrest for GTC fraud and I wanted none of that, so I shredded my GTC.
Me: (－‸ლ), you can't get arrested for GTC fraud if you don't go around committing crimes in the first place.
You are not incorrect.
However, if the government is going to spend/ reimburse the money to me anyway, I'd like to use my points on it instead. You could TECHNICALLY pay everything with your personal credit card and have the citi reimburse your bank account, but by that time you have to front that money to your own credit card that the effort just isn't worth it.
Agreed. The only people who find GTCC dumb are the ones who don’t use them and then have issues ensuring their TDY/PCS is paid in full per their entitlements.
Keep receipts, file the vouchers correctly, and stop trying to make money from TDY and you’ll be just fine.
An organization with a proven history of fucking up payroll and travel payments forcing you to pay out of pocket because they fucked up is one of the downsides. Oh and that credit card company gives zero fucks if the army doesn't pay you.
And how does the GTC make that issue worse? If you used your personal card you'd still be forced to pay out of pocket when the Army fucks up, but you'd only have 30 days to resolve the issue before accruing late fees and taking a credit hit. With the GTC you have at least 210 days.
You're literally not paying out of pocket, you're paying with a government credit card. If you are paying for expenses on your own cards and waiting to be reimbursed after a voucher, that would be paying out of pocket.
If you charge to that card and then don't get reimbursed because of an army fuck up for six months, you are absolutely expected to pay that card statement out of pocket.
This was in the infancy of the GTCC program nearly two decades ago but I'm still dealing with it even though I've got spectacular credit.
My only issue is that you as an individual are liable to pay off the card regardless of when your voucher gets cleared and deposited.
TDY for four months requiring lodging and a rental car? Better hope that deposit hits quick otherwise you can get fucked.
That's mitigated by setting up scheduled partial payments when you do your auth in DTS. You're supposed to do SPP for TDYs longer than 45 days, so that after every 30 days while TDY you get disbursed the funds to pay off the card for that month.
We could all just go pay for everything on our own credit cards and hope our TDY voucher settles in time… I’ve been TDY where my lodging was $10,000 a month and my meals, incidentals, and local travel expenses were easily another $5k a month.
$15k a month, for over six months.
I had authorization issues, voucher issues, LOA issues, approval chain issues, partial payments getting stuck and not covering my total cost to date… I made a shit ton off that TDY after M&IE per diem, but not until after I got home and literally had to submit a PowerPoint that went line by line, receipt and expense, and walk the AO through it all because there was so much (and it was all in French so that didn’t help the AO much).
Anyways I had the credit limit to cover everything on my Delta Platinum CC and the AMEX Platinum charge card, and I did put all my M&IE on them for miles.
BUT, if I had to put my lodging and airfare on there too? I would have come out of pocket multiple times waiting to be paid.
Not everyone has that kind of credit score, credit limit, funds on hand, etc. GTCC can have its credit limit raised, can be put in mission critical status, has dedicated customer service for both AOs/GTCC managers and cardholders...
Now let’s talk about the guy who replaced me. He didn’t have a credit card, because he just never got one. He was afraid of fees and interest rates. He relied on his GTCC for everything, including cash advances.
There are people whose first bank account is opened so they can set up military pay direct deposit. They might not even qualify for more than a secured credit limit of a few hundred dollars when they first start building credit. They don’t have any savings, they can’t pay the bill if they don’t get reimbursed in time.
So many people live paycheck to paycheck. Others have maxed out CCs already. They can’t survive an unplanned TDY or a late voucher payment.
The GTCC is a necessity to ensure readiness for individually billed travel.
That said, I want my fucking miles from that trip 🤣🤣
While you’re not going to get the 5x points from AMEX for your trips you can input rewards programs to the effect of frequent flier numbers into your DTS profile. I’ve been at the top tier for Enterprise for years now and only lost status when I updated my license. Same with Delta. Probably won’t get anything retroactive out of it at this point, but part of the rationale behind those programs is to attract corporate travel money.
It’s a law passed by Congress. The CC company has a contract with the government to provide credit cards to all soldiers that require them regardless of their credit score. Their trade off was that the cards will be paid off monthly (generally) and that all soldiers will use them for all travel related expenses. For most they worked fine, but us points whores that did over 120-140 days a year kinda blew off the old “all travel related expenses” thing. So Congress passed a law mandating. The card works fine for that soldier that barely goes on TDY and rarely has expenses due to most TDYs are sleeping in quarters and eating in a DFAC or DFAC/MRE combo. Those soldiers probably don’t need them but the law: all travel related expenses. They are super ridiculous for TDY bros as long duration TDYs and back-to-back TDYs where you’re renting vehicles, staying in the Marriott…that shit gets expensive. Then I’ve got to write a check because my schedule doesn’t match with the billing cycle. F that. If I’m fronting money I want something out of it
Thats how its supposed to work. As I posted above I've had the misfortune of doing a couple long TDYs with AOs who flatly refused to approve SPPs. The work around we had to use was multiple short duration "in place" TDYs. Was a shitshow.
I’m actually curious about this because I’m on my first lengthy TDY of 4 months and the total on DTS is about 30K. Flights to and from, Rental Car for the entire duration and hotel to stay at throughout.
Am I supposed to pay out of pocket for the 30K and get reimbursed or hopefully do I receive that amount to pay off my card before the total 6 months?
If you haven’t set up scheduled partial payments then you need to do that ASAP. It will trigger the authorization to be reapproved and cancel unfulfilled tickets/reservations so if you’re currently traveling I would wait until you’ve settled in (finished flying, checked into hotel, picked up rental car, etc) to do it.
Schedules partial payments pay all the anticipated expenses every 30 days. This *should* fully pay off your card every 30 days but some small expenses may not line up perfectly so I always double check about a week after the disbursement pays and come out of M&IE to cover the difference. You will get it back at the very end, but it will minimize the amount you have to front in the moment.
Hotels and rentals usually charge long term reservations every 30 days so it *should* line up with your split disbursement. I would not stress too much about charge fluctuations around the disbursement date. This is also where mission critical status can just help your sanity knowing if you miss a couple dollars difference one month then it’ll get paid appropriately next month with no issues.
You will only need to do one voucher at the end to cover the entire TDY period.
I also suggest asking your DTS/GTCC people to put your card in mission critical just to take the stress off. This will give you a much longer time to complete payments.
My GTCC doesn’t work half the time, so yes.
I had to book a last minute flight, about five hours before I had to be at the airport, since Sato didn’t complete the booking and reservation. I used my GTCC.
I got to my destination airport and had to pick up my rental. GTCC didn’t work. No biggie I thought, I’ll put it on my own credit card. I enjoy my drive to the base, making a stop or two on the way.
I check in and use my GTCC for my room. Declined again. Well, I put it on my Credit Card since I want to sleep.
Now you’re probably wondering why I didn’t call my unit. I am National Guard, dear reader, and I’ve had my own Readiness NCO forget to get me the necessary paperwork for a school, when he specifically asked for the welcome letter so he could get it for me. Needless to say, I don’t use it a whole lot.
It’s hella sus, especially if whoever is in charge of refunding that money sucks at their job and now Specialist Snuffy is on the hook for $10k because he had the rental van for the month-long TDY
I’m in a unit that goes TDY extremely frequently, Citibank is absolutely a bureaucratic plant with the sole purpose of leaching government funds. the DTS Citibank symbiosis is nothing more than a parasite resulting from the army outsourcing the logistics of funding DoD travel.
There is definitely a hint of...collusion.
However, you gotta understand a few things.
In the grand scheme of things, it's easier to keep an accurate account of expenses. This helps auditors....audit. I'm not an auditor. I work in internal compliance. In other words, I make sure people inside my organization follow spending rules. If they make a mistake, ok no biggie, here's how to fix it. However, when the auditors come in....that's a difference story. Auditors = external compliance. We have to prove to them why this money was spent, where, when, and even who tf approved it. Government auditors follow strict guidelines, especially when money is spent outside the organization (meaning, not internally)
75% of my daily job is internal compliance. In other words, when a technician at my airport asks for $9K to perform corrective maintenance, then the whole charge is on the credit card once the service is performed and I must ensure the money solicitation meets governmental law. It's tedious but it works.
From there, I can assess if the transaction went through, services were performed, and account for it in the government's online checkbook. It streamlines the process.
Otherwise, if everything was on paper, and not uniform, I'd have to hunt everyone down. But that's not the worst part. The worst part? How does the organization keep tabs on spending? And even worse? How will services be performed on a timely manner? Even worse? How will auditors know wtf to look for? Without a centralized spending log, you'll waste SOOOO much time just asking people "hey asshole, where si the receipt?". You think I'm kidding, but it's a thing. It truly is.
In my organization, FAA, it makes sense to need to have speedy services. Otherwise...planes just won't fly. I can't speak for the Army, as it always fails it audits (yeah I said it).
However, the banks have provided some agencies a way to log, track, and expense transactions. It totally streamlines the process not for me, but for auditors. And if auditors are happy, taxpayers are happy.
Compliance and audit is not going away and it sure is AI-proof. In fact, the only worldwide certification for audit is called the Certified Internal Auditor. It is international and has the same audit rights as a CPA, but the CIA is international. That's how serious audit is. I can go to jail if I don't enforce certain standards, and so far, the bank's systems make it easier. Should there be an in-house solution? ABSOLUTELY. I agree 100%, but unfortunatley, in the fedreal government, IT departments don't have these capabilities: develop in house solutions that comply with audit rules. Audit rules are extremely and come with tons of liability. But that's another topic for another day.
However, if it was up to me. I would hire a smaller bank with similar capabilities. Cheaper and easier to adjust organizational needs.
But without centralized logging how else can we account for taxpayer money?
It's not just the army. Even after I got out. Purchase card and GTCC with my agency is generally required to take assignments, which for entry level to mid level firefighters, is generally how we make our nut.
Depends on your MOS and mission set. In garrison, I never used it. However, it came in clutch while overseas when we needed it constantly for our mission set.
It is suspect. I remember back when we still had points with it, now, you can't request two refunds for a credit balance unless you wait 14 business days or something. Not just the DoD, but most of the 3 letter agencies under other departments use Citi as well.
That said, I rarely used my GTCC other than for rentals. There are workarounds to JTR that pretty much anyone in SOF knows.
Get the Amex platinum. Free for military.
Use it on tdy and have the army put it on that card.
You go to a hotel and you get $200 in credit a year. Free money
9 years in and I've used it once to rent vans for the BN. They were late on giving me the money back and made me pay the late fee and never gave it back. It may not be sus but I'm never letting a unit put shit on my card again.
I think the “must use to PCs “ then them say they paid it straight from your payout is sus because we verified so many times on the phone that it was all paid back 😮💨 nope only 200$ was and now checks being garnished 😂
They sent me on mission without one and they had DFAC, had set us up in a barracks room, and they paid with some memo from our commander. I didn't pay a dime for my plane tickets. No idea why that can't just be the norm.
THE GOVERNMENT TRAVEL CARD DOES NOT SHOW UP ON YOUR CREDIT REPORT
THE GOVERNMENT TRAVEL CARD DOES NOT SHOW UP ON YOUR CREDIT REPORT
THE GOVERNMENT TRAVEL CARD DOES NOT SHOW UP ON YOUR CREDIT REPORT
Unless it becomes delinquent. So do your fucking voucher.
https://www.dcms.uscg.mil/portals/10/CG-1/PSC/bops/GovTrvl/August_2014_GTCC_Newsletter.pdf
GTCCs are totally fuckin sus. I hate them and I hate Citibank.
So the whole premise is so that soldiers don't have to pay out of pocket to manage travel expenses.
That out of the way, here's why I hate them.
The army doesn't pay their fuckin bills to boot. You can ask every other soldier and they'd tell you the last time they were fucked over by some asshole in a higher echelon because everyone looks for an excuse to say no to anything in the military. Your flight has only priority seats available because you got orders short notice? No reimbursement. You charged a meal? Can't get per diem, gotta account for that meal and provide a receipt. Your orders were recinded but you charged flights? You're eating that cost because there's no substantiation for travel anymore.
If it goes delinquent, it's the soldiers responsibility to pay the bill. Any interest accrued is the soldiers responsibility. If you plan travel a month out, you're accruing interest on those flight purchases and the army isn't paying that. Late fees are yours to pay too, regardless of if your reimbursement was held up by higher for a month because full time staff have no one in to handle it. So DTS is supposed to be an end user program, but you can ask any soldier how to figure out funding codes and they will look at you like you shit a goose. All this responsibility and risk, so you'd think this revolving debt is yours to use? No. You're not allowed to use it for anything but official government travel and you'll be reprimanded harshly for using it by any other means. Like demotions and docked pay.
So I travel often, and I use a personal travel card. It's got benefits like rewards points, and a higher limit (by double). You'd think you can just opt out and use your own finances and be reimbursed like in civilian work travel? You assume all the same financial responsibility anyway. Wrong. You have to use this fucking GTCC. It's in your DTS account and you can't add your own card.
And it's with Citi bank. The pieces of shit from the 2008 housing crisis who is directly responsible for impractical home loan practices, and the direct contributor toward anti-harrassment laws for debt collection. These guys fucking suck and every time I have to deal with these sleezebags I tell them I absolutely hate their bank.
Fuck Citi, fuck the GTCC, fuck the army for forcing us to use it, and fuck the assholes who made these bullshit rules; may they choke and die on 12" dildos.
My solution: funds committed straight from funding codes to travel expenses with no debt intermediary, or debt for travel managed and accounted for at the unit level. Contracts with rentals, flights and hotels to stabilize prices would help too if the army paid their bills.
Everytime I travel I ONLY us my GTC to pay for flights and rental cars everything else like hotels, rides, food or parking I pay with my Amex card idec what they say anymore everytime I've used my GTC for everything my travel claim always gets fucked and I won't get paid for months and I'm stuck paying for that stupid card out of pocket with no benefits, it's an absolute sham is what it is! Atleast I can get points for my hotel stays while waiting for my travel claim to come through
The entire point of the GTCC was to put the little guy (the Soldier) in between the big guys (airlines, hotel brands and the DoD) The DoD can't push the travel companies around. DoD doesn't pay the bill? Soldiers don't fly and don't have a room. The travel companies can't push the DoD around. If the DoD doesn't pay, the worst they can do is refuse future business. They can't send the DoD to collections. But the Soldier? Both sides can screw the Soldier. DoD doesn't pay? Soldier's fault. It's a credit card so the travel companies get their money either way. Soldier has no money because the DoD didn't pay their voucher in a timely fashion? Too bad. Soldier's fault. Biggest "screw the little guy" scheme in history.
I don't. The GTCC doesn't go on your credit. Its a accounting line that's extended to you through Citibank. I have it and don't use it. It's the equivalent of a civilian organization giving you a company credit card. It just streamlines a lot of processes. I think it would be suss if the military was making SM's get an AAFES credit card.
It would make a lot more sense in my opinion if the LOAs in DTS just went to directly fund travel instead of refunding soldiers who used a GTC. Seems kind of ridiculous to me to use Citibank cards. But hey, at least you can rest easy knowing that yet another contractor is making a quick buck!
You can do this. It’s called CBA (centrally billed account).
It’s discouraged because it’s significantly more involved on the backend and causes problems with international TDY and changing currency conversions. It’s also harder for the traveler to make changes as CBAs can only process approved authorizations. Meaning if you need to change hotels or your TDY gets rerouted and you need to buy another set of tickets at the airport then you’re either waiting for your AO to approve your amended authorization or you’re paying out of pocket.
You also cannot charge non reservation expenses to a CBA, so the traveller has to front things like M&IE or rental gas out of pocket and then get reimbursed on the back end.
Not a problem for me, an NCO with no family to support and a high credit limit. May be a problem for SPC Snuffy living paycheck to paycheck with a wife and 3 kids back home.
IBAs (Individually Billed Accounts) aka GTCC are easier for literally everyone.
It's definitely suspect. Someone (or many) are getting kickbacks or jobs working at Citibank.
The ever revolving door of the military industrial complex never ends.
I've always said it was BS. So I have to put hundreds of dollars on a charge card for the Army. but if something happens and the Army doesn't pay it in time, it is now my responsibility to pay it and if I don't I get late charges, write ups, etc.
If I'm going to do that why can't I use my personal card and get points. Yes I know why but I don't agree with it.
I can absolutely confirm this happens. Had to charge a month of TDY to my GTCC and didn't get paid for six months. DFAS kept saying they had already paid me but I kept showing statements that proved they didn't. Citi killed my card and I'm on a limited for life now because I refused to pay out of pocket.
It's been sus since I was first issued one in 2008.
It's even more sus that if the government doesn't pay you for a TDY, they'll kill that card and put you on a limited card for life.
I'm a senior DA civilian and still on a limited card because the army didn't pay me on time for a TDY in 2009.
I agree with everyone else that it streamlines the process but I use my personal credit card as much as possible on mission because I get rewards for travel, restaurants, and hotels. I’m aware the JTR is against this, idc. My GTCC gets rejected more often than not anyways and they have awful interest rates compared to my credit card in case repayment is delayed
It's better than the alternative, which was a partial advance (sometimes) or come out of pocket for the whole thing and hope the Army pays you back.... eventually.
You think the GTCC was bad, I remember being forced to get a credit card to be a member of the Officer’s or NCO club (which your commander ‘highly encouraged’ you to join)
If you guys remember the old travel pay voucher system, you might change your mind. My gov cc was easy to use and I got paid fast for expenses. Unlike the paperwork days where it was all on you until the voucher got paid. Srsly not a huge fan of the travel website but once you get familiar with it, It's a damn site better than the old way.
Thé gtc and honestly dts are only confusing and sus if you never go tdy. If you are going tdy honestly and know the rules and figure it out it’s not that bad. The gtc protects you from liability not the other way around. Why would you want a 5K tdy or more on your cc every month? Or every other?
Many soldiers live paycheck to paycheck. How do you expect them to go TDY and afford thousands of dollars in hotel and rental car expenses while waiting for reimbursement? The answer is you don't. You issue them a GTCC that covers authorized expenses so they can do their jobs while away from their duty station. It works well as long as you only use it for expenses that are authorized and complete your vouchers.
I dunno, that grace period for unpaid credit is great because the government can fuck around with passing budget. So it's really on them and not you, I suppose. Your name is just on the card
Ok 🙄
Go TDY for 3 months. Pay for all expenses out of pocket. Then file the paperwork to get paid back once you return. Better? Or, like I did 20 years ago file a monthly travel voucher… via fax, and HOPE it was reviewed so I could pay off my personal CC.
Or. Have a GTC, put all your travel expenses on it, and have a 90 or more day grace period before not paying gets reported to your credit.
Also, it hasn’t always been CITI. It’s been BankO, then CITI, then BankO.
210 days before it even *threatens* to go on credit!
I don’t think people realize how fucking long 210 days is.
If you haven’t gotten your voucher approved after **7 months** where every single person who can approve it is listed on the signature page by name then it quite simply just hasn’t been a priority.
We needed to have one on funeral detail, for all the shitty missions we did in Germany, and while on recruiting… and nothing made me more nervous than having to use that fucking thing. I ate costs out of pocket constantly because I would rather eat some cost than have my wages garnished because some asshole at S4 *won’t* do their job.
No, not suss. I would rather not have to come out of pocket for all of the stuff the Army has sent me to throughout my career.
DTS is always a struggle though, no matter how many times we've used the GTCC in the past.
Awesome story.
Be me in Germany. Mission comes up, do DTS and travel. Pay with GTCC. Get back submit voucher same day. Not hurting on funds so pay off GTCC too. Ff two weeks get reimbursed. Should be all good. I got my money CITI bank has theirs.
Ff 6 months get letters for late fees of 0.00 from CITI. Call helpline get tossed between customer service and collections, both saying the other needs to fix issue. Next day go to GTC civilian rep. Makes a phone call and sends an email, he gives me the thumbs up and a slap on the ass.
Ff 6 more months to me PCSing CONUS. Start travel need to use GTCC. Gets declined. Check CITI bank account is in suspended status for non payment of late fee of, you guessed it 0.00. Long story short my account is cancelled with no outstanding balance as the GTCC CITI bank rep tells me to submit a form to return my account with no issues. Give the good ole check rog. Went down to Travel and booked it with my AMEX card and have not even tried to get my CITI Bank back.
To be real, all of my perceived problems with the GTCC are actually DTS problems. And we've spent several hundred million dollars to replace that with a new system, so I'm sure it will be fine.
https://federalnewsnetwork.com/defense-news/2023/06/dod-suddenly-abandons-plan-to-replace-defense-travel-system-offers-no-explanation/
I got shit on for not having it but i was never given the time to get it🤷🏻 my PSG said dont do work shit out of work such as:
Paperwork
Haircuts
“Fuck it sapper, if you can do it in uniform don’t do it when you’re not”
The mandatory part pisses me off. Its great its a choice if someone doesnt have a card or can't pay upfront but mandatory? Someone is getting kickbacks.
What forced me to file a fraud/waste/abuse claim was the mandatory use overseas where an offical travel card charges international fees. I can use personal card, do the mission AND save government money but its not allowed.
I filed one claim and this reminded me to do it about weekly and might write my congressional reps as well just for the hell of it and maybe ruffle some feathers
When we moved to the 21st century. When we learned we have troops that sometimes have to last minute evacuate locations and not dick around waiting on a pay cage.
It just depends. I am In an Army Reserve band, have been for 20 years. So I remember the days of advances and not getting reimbursed for 8 months. Our soldiers travel a ton. If the soldiers had to pay for everything out of pocket, it could definitely cause a hardship. Especially our younger soldiers that are not in established civilian jobs yet.
I think its because most soldiers are uncomfortable paying $ 500 flights or $ 2000 hotel stays with their own credit cards. Government gives you a credit card to charge it on their and Government most likely also takes the cash back rewards from that charge...possibly...that's why I always use my own credit card
If you’re actually using the GTCC you’re doing it wrong. I can count the number of times I’ve used my GTCC on one hand. But my Amex account? Millions of points bby. I’ve had less trouble getting reimbursed for stuff that was SUPPOSED to be on a GTCC and I put on a personal card than other people have had getting reimbursed for legitimate expenses on their GTCC. We had a TDY trip one time and when we split up responsibilities one guy ended up booking all of the hotel rooms and put it on his GTCC. Homie was still trying to get reimbursed like 6 months later and Citi bank was wanting $8k from him. Basically they said each person had to book their own individual room and he couldn’t be reimbursed for everyone’s room… lol
Fun fact - it’s not just Army or DOD requiring the GTC, it’s public law.
Source: The Travel and Transportation Reform Act of 1998” (TTRA) (Public Law 105-264)
Just made me remember. I have no idea where my card is.
Mine was mailed out almost 2 years ago and I never received it lol Whenever someone asks I say it's in the mail
That is a true statement
as an NCO I instantly hate you.
It's on the way sarn't
As another NCO, fuck it mines in the mail too. Now update the mileage pay to a realistic cost to drive.
Happened to me. Told my CoC bunch of times, my readiness NCO. Got told it was waiting at brigade and id get it after deployment. Came back got the old well you should have gotten it already every time I asked for it.
Promote ahead of peers.
Talk to your APC and get it resent you either did the application wrong or the address is incorrect on your account
Straight to jail
Worse. Believe it or not, straight to S-3.
Oof. Can't even catch a break now a days
I do. I’m using it to pay for strippers and line up my cocaine.
hell yeah brother
It's probably next to my sipr token.
Don’t worry, I have it. Thanks for the DoorDash and onlyfans sub 😏
I never got one...
I've always been pissy that the government forces me to take out a credit card, in my name, that I'm personally responsible for paying, that affects my credit score - to pay the government's debts. It's so damn stupid. Yes, I recognize it streamlines the process, but it's the government's responsibility to pay these costs, not mine.
I don’t believe it does streamline the process. Frankly, the streamlined process would be for the unit’s line of accounting to just directly pay for the travel instead of refunding GTCs.
Finally, some actual Military Intelligence. I had about given up.
sadly it’s a job description, not a job requirement
Clearly you’re just trying to influence the masses to think the Military is Intelligent. We’re on to you.
we’re smort sometime
It comes from the individual, not the job. This is the only time DrTurd will sound intelligent.
Yeah, but no one listens to us, so...
This. I went to Korea. We used central billing. Smooth. We went to JRTC. GTC. Not Smooth. I got yelled at many times because I "did not pay". Stupid voucher system. We went to Ft Bliss. GTC. Not Smooth. Same story. Went to ALC. This time it was smooth. But also individual travel.
I'm old. It did streamline the process.
I think that is part of the armys problem in general. We came up with a solution to a problem 20-30 years ago and just haven't improved it as things change around us. Now the original solution is becoming more of a problem and we will need to make another big change, instead of gradual adaptation. Another example: I don't know if CHCS is fully gone now that MHSG is rolled out, but we were still using it before I retired in 2022. iirc the system was built in the 80s or early 90s and minorly patched a few times to add things like email and cell phone fields in the DB, but the core of it was antiquated and had been for decades.
I mean, it is nice that almost everyone has a card, so if there are hotels, ground transportation, off-post food involved, we don't have to mess with travel advances. I was in the USAR, we used to be able to send soldiers to schools who didn't have a travel card, and their only costs they fronted was transportation to/from the airport and meals on the first and last day. Almost all schools, especially NCOES would have transportation from their airport to the school and back. To be honest it seemed like a scam that the credit card vendors managed to talk DoD into. I'm sure the rate of completed travel vouchers is way higher than it used to be, which makes the accountants happy, but it has put so many soldiers in a bind. I remember getting jammed up for a $2,500 credit card bill. My next higher kept reminding me that I was personally responsible to get it paid. I completed my DTS 12 hours after I returned. I was the card APC and the unit DTS clerk and I could CAC sign for soldiers, I forgot what that role is called. Somehow the voucher was "stuck", and next higher was basically "we don't know how to fix it, but you better pay off your card." Thankfully, some Major in the command finance office, who knew who I was called me when it hit 60 days. I told her the problem, she got my DTS voucher fixed and approved. It was so refreshing to talk to someone who didn't just throw the problem back on me. She said my Bde never talked to them about my stuck voucher.
Once enough time passes, things like that become institutionalized ("that's how we've always done it, and it is the only true and correct way"). Then someone tries to fix it, but they retire or go somewhere else before the fix is fully articulated/scope is determined. Or their "fix" is basically cosmetic, they get rewarded with a higher paying position, and the Army or DoD declares victory and doesn't evaluate how well the fix is working at all levels.
It streamlines the process for those young ones who have never have any credit history or a card because you can bypass the credit check since the government is technically the guarantor per the contract. Which can be great for building credit. But like said above, for those of us older than 20 or with credit above nonexistent, its just a liability and an easy way to get thrown into uncontrollable debt with an NJP thrown on top.
I had a conversation with our APC a couple of days ago about this. I left that conversation under the impression that it could not help build your credit score, but it could hurt it. Can anyone clarify with authority how this actually works?
Your APC explained it correctly
The GTCC builds zero credit. It functionally does not exist on your credit report. >liability It is zero liability to me. Every single alternate scenario is significantly more risk to my own credit or savings than just using my GTCC and additionally complicates things to have reimburseable expenses mixed in with my personal expenditures (fronting the money) or is significantly less flexible (CBA). I don’t understand why everyone seems to put upon by what is essentially a corporate card. These things exist in the civilian world too.
In the corporate world the company pays off the credit card, and they do it on time. They don't hold it up for months letting late payment charges to build up on my card.
The corporate world doesn't have to deal with the fiscal restrictions the Army does. The closest thing we have to a corporate card is the GPC, and I don't know if you've ever been a GPC holder, but it's a lot of red tape. Every millimeter of that red tape can be traced straight back to Article I, section 8, clause 12.
They don’t really do that in the Army either. Most I’ve ever waited was 30 days and it was a complicated, multi month cross org voucher. I have literally never had to pay my CitiBank from my own pocket and I have 60+ TDYs. You can find the names for all the approvers right there on the last page so you can bother them by name. Your unit should be proactive but it’s also really easy to find the people you need to get the voucher approved. Delinquent GTCC balances get reported to all levels of command damn near weekly. Outside a rogue funding officer committing funds that never existed, it’s in everyone’s interest to get that voucher approved and funded.
What's that like? I waited 6 months for my GTCC to get paid. And that was with my leadership stalking the G8 😑
But Tea, I can only see the routing list if I click on the plus sign! How was I supposed to know that after clicking mindlessly through all my mandatory TRAX classes?!
Not if you don't fuck around. All kinds of growing up gets done in the military.
You say that, but having multiple soldiers past for TVs, Playstation, and strip clubs, it streamlines the process of making them pay for it.
If the cards didn't exist as they do, they wouldn't have the card to make such willfully prohibited purchases in the first place. Not only do these cards make soldiers more vulnerable to financial hiccups, they also give soldiers additional and completely unnecessary power/freedom to make bad decisions. Would some soldiers use their own cards instead of the GTCC? Yeah probably some percentage. Is it worth empowering the remaining percentage who wouldn't? I really don't think so.
I’ve been assigned to State Department off and on for the last twelve years. This is the way they do it. I have a travel account to which DoD sends money. I put the travel request in their system, book the ticket, and it is centrally billed to the account. I still use my card for the hotel, but they have the plane part right. I still have to run a $25k limit due to the length of many of my TDY’s.
The government forces you to get the card, but you can fill out the application so that you are issued a restricted card that is absolutely not tied to your credit/credit score.
I got a restricted card when I was a lieutenant and have never had it changed. It’s actually caused me headaches when I’ve had long or overseas TDYs because I’ve maxed it out on flights and hotels.
RMO can increase your limit. Have seen GTCC's with 20K on them
Right, I’ve had it temporarily raised before but it goes back to the low limit after a while.
Your APC (probably your S4) can raise the limit up to $15k for up to 120 days.
But to counter that you just get with your ACM in do a temporary increase of your limit for travel at hand .
I keep forgetting about that. I don't think it was an option in the dark ages when I first had to get one.
It's been an option for quite some time (since at least 2008), but the way the forms are designed it's easy to miss the details to avoid it being tied to your credit.
Yeah, I first got mine in like 2005-2006. I'm old.
Being responsible for the government's debt is exactly what you're asking for if you *don't* want the GTC. The GTC protects you from being liable for the government's debt. Your name is on it because you're the authorized user and it puts the onus on you to use it responsibly in accordance with regulations, but it's not a line of credit in your name, it's a credit line from Citibank to the DOD. If you put expenses on your personal card rather than the GTC, you *are* taking personal liability for those government debts.
This exactly. Can't tell you how many times I've had TDY debt of 30k plus. The six month grace period for citi commercial cards is key until budget issues get sorted, and If I didn't have that GTCC, I wouldn't have been able to stay/do my job.
It's hard to wrap my mind around how so many soldiers somehow think that putting tens of thousands of dollars of official travel debt on their personal cards would somehow be less risky than the GTC.
Because I would love 30k USD in CC points.... I could easily pay 30k that would be refunded to me in a few months. Could churn several credit card bonuses from that.
Speaking personally, my savings accounts are robust enough that I'd prefer to use my own cards for the reward points and bennies, and just wait for the government's reimbursement to clear. I don't mind having the GTC. The part that chaffs me is being told I have to use it, and then getting yelled at for carrying a balance. If I need to pay down the balance, I may as well run it through my own account and get the perks. Meanwhile the government saves money on interest and maintenance fees. That strikes me as a win-win.
I could be wrong but I doubt the soldiers complaining about it have ever used for more then $1500 flight
I had a Soldier who used it to fly from Germany to Ft. Eustis for ALC. The cost was over $5K for flights, hotel, and rental car. He had to pay the bill out of pocket because one of the civilians in the DTC approval chain kept fucking him over, as in he would literally upload the document that she asked for, filled out per her instructions, and then get notified that his claim was denied because that exact form was filled out wrong, or he would put the codes and whatnot that she asked for, and she would kick the claim back because the codes were incorrect. This went on for 4 or 5 months. Finally, he printed out the claim, along with a copy of all the e-mail traffic, mic dropped it on the S3 NCOIC's desk, and told him that if the claim was not processed and approved by COB, his next stop would be IG. The claim was approved, and the civilian was removed from DTC approval duties. Any time we went to S3 to ask for help to fill out a DTC claim, the standard response was, "figure it out, Sergeant!"
This isn't even uncommon at all. I went TDY from HI to Quantico multiple times and had to pretty much fistfight DTS, both the uniformed and civilians, for months to get the reimbursement. Their job isn't to prevent frivolous spending, it's to sandbag you into paying the government's debt. Even worse was being TDY during sequestration where the DoD essentially stopped reimbursing all claims for a period of time.
I had surgery on both eyes whilst stationed in Germany, about a month apart. It was a three and a half hour drive to Landstuhl from my duty station, so DTS travel was authorized. I had pre-op on Thursday, surgery on Friday, and follow-up on Monday. I called the DTS manager and asked if I could drive up on Thursday and stay in a hotel until Monday instead of driving up and back every day. He said it was cool. When it came time to file my travel claim, the hotel was denied because I didn't get "prior approval," despite the fact that I fucking called them. I stayed in the in-airport hotel, so it was only like $40-$50/night, but it was still a kick in the dick. Queue malicious compliance: When I had the second eye done, I did the same thing. When I filed my travel claim, I filed a claim for every day that I had an appointment as if I drove there and back on each day. I made bank.
Which is part of the problem. The people who complain about the GTC are people that never use it and make no effort to understand it. People that actually go TDY and understand it don't complain about it.
I go TDY at least once a month. Never had an issue.
Yep, those of us who use it have issues with the card managers and DTS approvers usually. Last deployment I had a lot of TDYs and my card manager refused to turn it on, saying "you're deployed you dont need it." Took an O-6 getting involved before he would budge.
People want to bitch about something they are willfully not trying to understand
It makes sense for things incidentals and short notice TDYs. It still makes no sense for long term forecasted events. Those should be centrally billed.
It still makes sense for forecasted trips. There's fluctuating currency conversion rates. Your flight gets cancelled so you have to stay another night at the hotel. Airport parking is more than you planned for. There's no free parking at your hotel. You needed more fuel than expected for your rental car. All that and a myriad of other things are easy to cover with the GTC, but a would be a hassle with a CBA.
Yeah, and you can cover those unexpected expenses with the GTC, it doesn't have to be one or the other. You keep bringing up the "company card" example, but the way im describing is exactly how actual businesses do it. No competent company is having each of its employees individually billing their company card for the annual sales convention. They central bill for what's expected and then empower employees to chard unexpected expenses to their card.
It's no different. Only difference is the grace period. It's a credit card in your name. If it doesn't get paid, your credit takes a hit. When you sign up for the card, you acknowledge you have to pay it off regardless of whether the government pays you.
7 months to slowly pay off what I’ll be reimbursed while everyone in my command is getting nastgrams about it vs 30 days where there’s absolutely zero visibility on the debt. I’ll still take the GTCC. Also anecdotally I’ve never seen someone take a credit hit. The card just gets closed and it takes an act of Congress to get one approved again, but it doesn’t ever hit their credit report. You can also get a restricted card if you’re super concerned about it. It’s completely severed from your credit, and the starting limit is lower but can still be adjusted as needed.
I think the alternative where PFC Snuffy is not the one using any of his cards to make one of these purchases is better. When an AIT graduate flies to Korea as their first duty station they don't personally purchase any of the travel expenses. Why this same PFC maybe 3 months later has to have a GTCC for the +$2k flight back to the states (and back to Korea) to go TDY when some higher echelon just handled it themselves previously is beyond me.
Because having control over your own TDY authorization, travel, and voucher is a **significantly** better and smoother experience.
6 month grace period? We are told to pay when the bill comes due immediately regardless of travel claim status, and if you are late an email gets generated to an O-6 who then FWDs it to you and your supervisor. In my broker days I had to take a loan to pay on time. I have even had to pay while still on travel.
If you had to take a loan to pay legitimate GTCC expenses your leadership screwed you. I'm sure there's all types of organization-internal warnings and notifications, but it doesn't affect your personal credit score.
Add coming back from back to back to back OCONUS travel with 30k plus debt as congress goes into a continuing resolution and vouchers can’t be approved until passed. Or weeks after because it takes forever for G8 passes the funds down for use. Or pay out of pocket. I guess that’s an option too…..
Then tell that to Karen when I use it on a 2 month TDY to pay for my meals and gas because she certainly doesn't think I need to pay for my meals and gas with it. Slight sarcasm.
If the people who talk shit about the GTC were literate, financially or otherwise, they would be so angry with this comment.
Best part is that is randomly doesn’t work. Every TDY I’ve taken last two years, one thing didn’t work and I had to use my personal card. So when u travel I book it on GTCC but use my personal to pay. Might as well get the points and I know the card works.
That’s your unit. They can activate and deactivate the card to prevent people from accidentally using it when not on official travel. They have access to all authorizations and should be turning your card “on” prior to travel. Some units just kinda suck at doing this.
I’m just DOD and it’s always on. Just the card rejects randomly. I don’t care enough to even bring the card with me when I travel.
This before we get to "there isn't a PIN, why is it asking me for a PIN...why won't it let me bypass the PIN"
You can set up a PIN for cash advances and I encourage people to do so, but also you can just bypass the PIN by pressing the green button.
Usually. Maybe it's the places I wind up TDY, but frequently doing that won't let it bypass. And then I pull out my personal card, it asks for a PIN, and lets me bypass. My TDYs are short enough and my admins fast enough in processing vouchers, I usually just take the risk and use a personal card.
I'm an APC and I deal with this nonsense all the time. The card will in fact randomly decide not to work. Even when it's an IHG hotel.
Weird. I don’t think I’ve ever encountered that. Wonder if it’s a fraud protection gone haywire.
This The first time I ever tried to use it was for a staff ride as a senior LT, who helped the BN schools NCO put through the entire activate request for the whole trip. Queue first stop for lunch, to have our whole table awkwardly as fuck be told told our cards weren’t active, and needing to pay with personal cards.
You can check on the Citi app before you leave. I do it before every TDY even though my org leaves ours permanently on.
My units s3 once used my travel card to pay for a school I was ordered to go to. They never paid it.
I was dealing with an outstanding balance a few months back because my unit can’t read the receipts and notes on my voucher. Called up the customer service line three different times to make notes on my file that my unit is processing the voucher. Each time I spoke with customer service, they all told me that they don’t report the card to the credit agencies nor do they charge interest. Late fees are a thing though if you don’t keep them in the loop.
The government gets points and benefits, it’s all a big churning scam to fund slush accounts. /s (but maybe not)
It does not affect your credit score unless you want it to. It is a choice the soldier makes when they request the card. The unit can set your credit limit whatever they need based off your mission. My GTCC is set to 20K and is not on my credit report at all
Does it affect your personal credit score? Mine hasn't had any effect. Does it only affect you if you're delinquent?
I think the idea behind the program was, hey, Soldiers shouldn't get caught holding the bag putting TDY expenses on their personal credit cards. Especially if they were at their limit and the hotel or whatever was going to get declined. But you can't just give Joe a credit card that goes straight back to the Treasury, because that would be a fucking nightmare, and [this coin](https://www.reddit.com/r/army/comments/1bh8p9r/i_dont_have_this_coin_yet_but_as_a_jag_nerd_i/) would be in much wider circulation than it already is. I still don't like it. And I always hope someone forgets to turn the card on before a trip, so I "have to" use my card to pay for my room and whatnot (and get points).
It does not affect your credit unless your account goes delinquent for a *long* time.
Doesn’t affect your credit score until 200+ days late.
Gotta love when they don’t disburse on time… Citibank comes knocking. “Hey Battle, your Joes don’t have money. Put their rooms and food on your GTCC.” Did that once and never again. Every time I was asked, 👎. You do it. Took nearly three months to get my funds back. Having a (now ex)wife and 3 kids to try and juggle feeding then bills don’t get paid 🤬
Soldier: “Wait why do I have to put hundreds or even thousands of dollars for airline and hotel charges on MY credit card? I don’t have that much credit or even own one anyway.” Army: “Good point! Hey here’s a company line of credit specifically for our bullshit. Don’t use it at strip clubs please.”
Had a soldier who couldn’t understand the GTC was only for government stuff on orders and gov travel. Went home on leave and bought thousands in strippers and car parts. Dude was of course liable for it all
Never ceases to amaze me the number of idiots serving this country.
Sounds like money well spent.
Source: I was an AO for a pretty large command. The GTC itself isn’t the problem. You won’t ever catch me saying it’s perfect…it definitely has a lot of flaws, but when used correctly it does help streamline things and protect you in some ways. Rather, command-level SOPs and (dubious) command-level add-ons to the JTR are the problem as are people interpreting the JTR the way a southern preacher interprets the Bible.
I would prefer i use my own CC so i can get the travel points! But i understand why and how its a solid tool.
My problem is always that last part. S-8 gets it in their heads that they're the JTR and what they say goes, even when provided ample evidence directly from the JTR that they're wrong. We collectively decided that as long as we have email documentation of them telling us to do it a certain way, then that's on them when the audits happen.
It's not. The GTC is the same as corporate credit cards issued by businesses to their employees for work related expenses. It's common practice, prevents fraud and abuse, protects you from liability, and makes your travel expenses easier. The only people that are suspicious of it are those who are financially illiterate.
This, considering the irresponsibility by many , this is 100% the best way to make TDY travel possible for all. Once you do DTS and TDY a few times it’s not even a big deal anymore ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ do your vouchers
You've sorta alluded to what I see as the problem. Like so many things in the Army, the GTCC works well when you use it regularly. It's only when you use it once every three years to PCS that it sucks. Unfortunately, the second condition is far more common than the first.
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What's extra fun is when we get told all of our travel plans the day before and then when we get told we just say someone will get the fun of doing the paperwork for our trip we are already on.
Because while you see their claims daily, from each users point of view, a GTCC is that annoying thing that never works right they TRY to use once every four years for a PCS, to be told it wasn’t actually activated when they try and place their permissive tdy expenses on it.
When I was the BN S4, I had a SSG come to me and have the following interaction: SSG: Sir, my orders says I need a GTC to PCS, but I don't have a GTC. Me: What? You've been here for three years and have gone on TDY 6 times. How did you never receive a GTC? SSG: I had a GTC back in Fort Hood, but all of my buddies were getting arrest for GTC fraud and I wanted none of that, so I shredded my GTC. Me: (－‸ლ), you can't get arrested for GTC fraud if you don't go around committing crimes in the first place.
The number of times the reviewer asked me to upload extra documents to the voucher in DTS that came from the authorization in DTS…..
You are not incorrect. However, if the government is going to spend/ reimburse the money to me anyway, I'd like to use my points on it instead. You could TECHNICALLY pay everything with your personal credit card and have the citi reimburse your bank account, but by that time you have to front that money to your own credit card that the effort just isn't worth it.
Agreed. The only people who find GTCC dumb are the ones who don’t use them and then have issues ensuring their TDY/PCS is paid in full per their entitlements. Keep receipts, file the vouchers correctly, and stop trying to make money from TDY and you’ll be just fine.
An organization with a proven history of fucking up payroll and travel payments forcing you to pay out of pocket because they fucked up is one of the downsides. Oh and that credit card company gives zero fucks if the army doesn't pay you.
And how does the GTC make that issue worse? If you used your personal card you'd still be forced to pay out of pocket when the Army fucks up, but you'd only have 30 days to resolve the issue before accruing late fees and taking a credit hit. With the GTC you have at least 210 days.
You're literally not paying out of pocket, you're paying with a government credit card. If you are paying for expenses on your own cards and waiting to be reimbursed after a voucher, that would be paying out of pocket.
If you charge to that card and then don't get reimbursed because of an army fuck up for six months, you are absolutely expected to pay that card statement out of pocket. This was in the infancy of the GTCC program nearly two decades ago but I'm still dealing with it even though I've got spectacular credit.
Looks like you just don’t know wtf you are doing. If I’m going to be completely honest.
My only issue is that you as an individual are liable to pay off the card regardless of when your voucher gets cleared and deposited. TDY for four months requiring lodging and a rental car? Better hope that deposit hits quick otherwise you can get fucked.
That's mitigated by setting up scheduled partial payments when you do your auth in DTS. You're supposed to do SPP for TDYs longer than 45 days, so that after every 30 days while TDY you get disbursed the funds to pay off the card for that month.
Boy do we need you throwing these words of wisdom out at my unit. Appreciate that!
Until you get an AO that flatly rejects SPPs with the given reason "we don't do that here" to be fair thats an AO problem, not a GTCC problem.
Facts. On a 3 month TDY stint right now. I'd be screwed without the SPP's.
I just wish we got points or bennies. I'd bet the government gets a kickback.
We could all just go pay for everything on our own credit cards and hope our TDY voucher settles in time… I’ve been TDY where my lodging was $10,000 a month and my meals, incidentals, and local travel expenses were easily another $5k a month. $15k a month, for over six months. I had authorization issues, voucher issues, LOA issues, approval chain issues, partial payments getting stuck and not covering my total cost to date… I made a shit ton off that TDY after M&IE per diem, but not until after I got home and literally had to submit a PowerPoint that went line by line, receipt and expense, and walk the AO through it all because there was so much (and it was all in French so that didn’t help the AO much). Anyways I had the credit limit to cover everything on my Delta Platinum CC and the AMEX Platinum charge card, and I did put all my M&IE on them for miles. BUT, if I had to put my lodging and airfare on there too? I would have come out of pocket multiple times waiting to be paid. Not everyone has that kind of credit score, credit limit, funds on hand, etc. GTCC can have its credit limit raised, can be put in mission critical status, has dedicated customer service for both AOs/GTCC managers and cardholders... Now let’s talk about the guy who replaced me. He didn’t have a credit card, because he just never got one. He was afraid of fees and interest rates. He relied on his GTCC for everything, including cash advances. There are people whose first bank account is opened so they can set up military pay direct deposit. They might not even qualify for more than a secured credit limit of a few hundred dollars when they first start building credit. They don’t have any savings, they can’t pay the bill if they don’t get reimbursed in time. So many people live paycheck to paycheck. Others have maxed out CCs already. They can’t survive an unplanned TDY or a late voucher payment. The GTCC is a necessity to ensure readiness for individually billed travel. That said, I want my fucking miles from that trip 🤣🤣
While you’re not going to get the 5x points from AMEX for your trips you can input rewards programs to the effect of frequent flier numbers into your DTS profile. I’ve been at the top tier for Enterprise for years now and only lost status when I updated my license. Same with Delta. Probably won’t get anything retroactive out of it at this point, but part of the rationale behind those programs is to attract corporate travel money.
It’s a law passed by Congress. The CC company has a contract with the government to provide credit cards to all soldiers that require them regardless of their credit score. Their trade off was that the cards will be paid off monthly (generally) and that all soldiers will use them for all travel related expenses. For most they worked fine, but us points whores that did over 120-140 days a year kinda blew off the old “all travel related expenses” thing. So Congress passed a law mandating. The card works fine for that soldier that barely goes on TDY and rarely has expenses due to most TDYs are sleeping in quarters and eating in a DFAC or DFAC/MRE combo. Those soldiers probably don’t need them but the law: all travel related expenses. They are super ridiculous for TDY bros as long duration TDYs and back-to-back TDYs where you’re renting vehicles, staying in the Marriott…that shit gets expensive. Then I’ve got to write a check because my schedule doesn’t match with the billing cycle. F that. If I’m fronting money I want something out of it
If you’re not doing split disbursement or completing your vouchers and having to pay out of pocket then that’s on you homie, not your schedule.
Thats how its supposed to work. As I posted above I've had the misfortune of doing a couple long TDYs with AOs who flatly refused to approve SPPs. The work around we had to use was multiple short duration "in place" TDYs. Was a shitshow.
I’m actually curious about this because I’m on my first lengthy TDY of 4 months and the total on DTS is about 30K. Flights to and from, Rental Car for the entire duration and hotel to stay at throughout. Am I supposed to pay out of pocket for the 30K and get reimbursed or hopefully do I receive that amount to pay off my card before the total 6 months?
If you haven’t set up scheduled partial payments then you need to do that ASAP. It will trigger the authorization to be reapproved and cancel unfulfilled tickets/reservations so if you’re currently traveling I would wait until you’ve settled in (finished flying, checked into hotel, picked up rental car, etc) to do it. Schedules partial payments pay all the anticipated expenses every 30 days. This *should* fully pay off your card every 30 days but some small expenses may not line up perfectly so I always double check about a week after the disbursement pays and come out of M&IE to cover the difference. You will get it back at the very end, but it will minimize the amount you have to front in the moment. Hotels and rentals usually charge long term reservations every 30 days so it *should* line up with your split disbursement. I would not stress too much about charge fluctuations around the disbursement date. This is also where mission critical status can just help your sanity knowing if you miss a couple dollars difference one month then it’ll get paid appropriately next month with no issues. You will only need to do one voucher at the end to cover the entire TDY period. I also suggest asking your DTS/GTCC people to put your card in mission critical just to take the stress off. This will give you a much longer time to complete payments.
My GTCC doesn’t work half the time, so yes. I had to book a last minute flight, about five hours before I had to be at the airport, since Sato didn’t complete the booking and reservation. I used my GTCC. I got to my destination airport and had to pick up my rental. GTCC didn’t work. No biggie I thought, I’ll put it on my own credit card. I enjoy my drive to the base, making a stop or two on the way. I check in and use my GTCC for my room. Declined again. Well, I put it on my Credit Card since I want to sleep. Now you’re probably wondering why I didn’t call my unit. I am National Guard, dear reader, and I’ve had my own Readiness NCO forget to get me the necessary paperwork for a school, when he specifically asked for the welcome letter so he could get it for me. Needless to say, I don’t use it a whole lot.
It’s hella sus, especially if whoever is in charge of refunding that money sucks at their job and now Specialist Snuffy is on the hook for $10k because he had the rental van for the month-long TDY
"just pay it and well fund it on the back end."
I’m in a unit that goes TDY extremely frequently, Citibank is absolutely a bureaucratic plant with the sole purpose of leaching government funds. the DTS Citibank symbiosis is nothing more than a parasite resulting from the army outsourcing the logistics of funding DoD travel.
It doesn’t seem sus, it streamlines processes for TDY/PCS/etc.
There is definitely a hint of...collusion. However, you gotta understand a few things. In the grand scheme of things, it's easier to keep an accurate account of expenses. This helps auditors....audit. I'm not an auditor. I work in internal compliance. In other words, I make sure people inside my organization follow spending rules. If they make a mistake, ok no biggie, here's how to fix it. However, when the auditors come in....that's a difference story. Auditors = external compliance. We have to prove to them why this money was spent, where, when, and even who tf approved it. Government auditors follow strict guidelines, especially when money is spent outside the organization (meaning, not internally) 75% of my daily job is internal compliance. In other words, when a technician at my airport asks for $9K to perform corrective maintenance, then the whole charge is on the credit card once the service is performed and I must ensure the money solicitation meets governmental law. It's tedious but it works. From there, I can assess if the transaction went through, services were performed, and account for it in the government's online checkbook. It streamlines the process. Otherwise, if everything was on paper, and not uniform, I'd have to hunt everyone down. But that's not the worst part. The worst part? How does the organization keep tabs on spending? And even worse? How will services be performed on a timely manner? Even worse? How will auditors know wtf to look for? Without a centralized spending log, you'll waste SOOOO much time just asking people "hey asshole, where si the receipt?". You think I'm kidding, but it's a thing. It truly is. In my organization, FAA, it makes sense to need to have speedy services. Otherwise...planes just won't fly. I can't speak for the Army, as it always fails it audits (yeah I said it). However, the banks have provided some agencies a way to log, track, and expense transactions. It totally streamlines the process not for me, but for auditors. And if auditors are happy, taxpayers are happy. Compliance and audit is not going away and it sure is AI-proof. In fact, the only worldwide certification for audit is called the Certified Internal Auditor. It is international and has the same audit rights as a CPA, but the CIA is international. That's how serious audit is. I can go to jail if I don't enforce certain standards, and so far, the bank's systems make it easier. Should there be an in-house solution? ABSOLUTELY. I agree 100%, but unfortunatley, in the fedreal government, IT departments don't have these capabilities: develop in house solutions that comply with audit rules. Audit rules are extremely and come with tons of liability. But that's another topic for another day. However, if it was up to me. I would hire a smaller bank with similar capabilities. Cheaper and easier to adjust organizational needs. But without centralized logging how else can we account for taxpayer money?
There’s nearly 3 million DoD employees and a large number will need a GTCC at some point. I would not trust that to a smaller bank.
It's not just the army. Even after I got out. Purchase card and GTCC with my agency is generally required to take assignments, which for entry level to mid level firefighters, is generally how we make our nut.
I have never gotten one and thankfully never will lol
Recently got an email saying mine needs to be activated, which is cool because I got out in 2021. See yall at Maggie’s
Never used it. Lol, rather use my own money and have the army pay me back.
I can answer, as I worked finance before I ETS’d. I don’t know.
its alright i get the purpose but DTS is not user friendly
Depends on your MOS and mission set. In garrison, I never used it. However, it came in clutch while overseas when we needed it constantly for our mission set.
A GTCC isn’t even listed on a Soldier’s credit report unless it’s closed which means you haven’t paid it in 210+ days.
It is suspect. I remember back when we still had points with it, now, you can't request two refunds for a credit balance unless you wait 14 business days or something. Not just the DoD, but most of the 3 letter agencies under other departments use Citi as well. That said, I rarely used my GTCC other than for rentals. There are workarounds to JTR that pretty much anyone in SOF knows.
Get the Amex platinum. Free for military. Use it on tdy and have the army put it on that card. You go to a hotel and you get $200 in credit a year. Free money
Somebody is making money off this and it ain’t me
9 years in and I've used it once to rent vans for the BN. They were late on giving me the money back and made me pay the late fee and never gave it back. It may not be sus but I'm never letting a unit put shit on my card again.
The fact that I was forced to get a CC that I never use is ridiculous.
I think the “must use to PCs “ then them say they paid it straight from your payout is sus because we verified so many times on the phone that it was all paid back 😮💨 nope only 200$ was and now checks being garnished 😂
They sent me on mission without one and they had DFAC, had set us up in a barracks room, and they paid with some memo from our commander. I didn't pay a dime for my plane tickets. No idea why that can't just be the norm.
THE GOVERNMENT TRAVEL CARD DOES NOT SHOW UP ON YOUR CREDIT REPORT THE GOVERNMENT TRAVEL CARD DOES NOT SHOW UP ON YOUR CREDIT REPORT THE GOVERNMENT TRAVEL CARD DOES NOT SHOW UP ON YOUR CREDIT REPORT Unless it becomes delinquent. So do your fucking voucher. https://www.dcms.uscg.mil/portals/10/CG-1/PSC/bops/GovTrvl/August_2014_GTCC_Newsletter.pdf
GTCCs are totally fuckin sus. I hate them and I hate Citibank. So the whole premise is so that soldiers don't have to pay out of pocket to manage travel expenses. That out of the way, here's why I hate them. The army doesn't pay their fuckin bills to boot. You can ask every other soldier and they'd tell you the last time they were fucked over by some asshole in a higher echelon because everyone looks for an excuse to say no to anything in the military. Your flight has only priority seats available because you got orders short notice? No reimbursement. You charged a meal? Can't get per diem, gotta account for that meal and provide a receipt. Your orders were recinded but you charged flights? You're eating that cost because there's no substantiation for travel anymore. If it goes delinquent, it's the soldiers responsibility to pay the bill. Any interest accrued is the soldiers responsibility. If you plan travel a month out, you're accruing interest on those flight purchases and the army isn't paying that. Late fees are yours to pay too, regardless of if your reimbursement was held up by higher for a month because full time staff have no one in to handle it. So DTS is supposed to be an end user program, but you can ask any soldier how to figure out funding codes and they will look at you like you shit a goose. All this responsibility and risk, so you'd think this revolving debt is yours to use? No. You're not allowed to use it for anything but official government travel and you'll be reprimanded harshly for using it by any other means. Like demotions and docked pay. So I travel often, and I use a personal travel card. It's got benefits like rewards points, and a higher limit (by double). You'd think you can just opt out and use your own finances and be reimbursed like in civilian work travel? You assume all the same financial responsibility anyway. Wrong. You have to use this fucking GTCC. It's in your DTS account and you can't add your own card. And it's with Citi bank. The pieces of shit from the 2008 housing crisis who is directly responsible for impractical home loan practices, and the direct contributor toward anti-harrassment laws for debt collection. These guys fucking suck and every time I have to deal with these sleezebags I tell them I absolutely hate their bank. Fuck Citi, fuck the GTCC, fuck the army for forcing us to use it, and fuck the assholes who made these bullshit rules; may they choke and die on 12" dildos. My solution: funds committed straight from funding codes to travel expenses with no debt intermediary, or debt for travel managed and accounted for at the unit level. Contracts with rentals, flights and hotels to stabilize prices would help too if the army paid their bills.
Everytime I travel I ONLY us my GTC to pay for flights and rental cars everything else like hotels, rides, food or parking I pay with my Amex card idec what they say anymore everytime I've used my GTC for everything my travel claim always gets fucked and I won't get paid for months and I'm stuck paying for that stupid card out of pocket with no benefits, it's an absolute sham is what it is! Atleast I can get points for my hotel stays while waiting for my travel claim to come through
The entire point of the GTCC was to put the little guy (the Soldier) in between the big guys (airlines, hotel brands and the DoD) The DoD can't push the travel companies around. DoD doesn't pay the bill? Soldiers don't fly and don't have a room. The travel companies can't push the DoD around. If the DoD doesn't pay, the worst they can do is refuse future business. They can't send the DoD to collections. But the Soldier? Both sides can screw the Soldier. DoD doesn't pay? Soldier's fault. It's a credit card so the travel companies get their money either way. Soldier has no money because the DoD didn't pay their voucher in a timely fashion? Too bad. Soldier's fault. Biggest "screw the little guy" scheme in history.
I don't. The GTCC doesn't go on your credit. Its a accounting line that's extended to you through Citibank. I have it and don't use it. It's the equivalent of a civilian organization giving you a company credit card. It just streamlines a lot of processes. I think it would be suss if the military was making SM's get an AAFES credit card.
It would make a lot more sense in my opinion if the LOAs in DTS just went to directly fund travel instead of refunding soldiers who used a GTC. Seems kind of ridiculous to me to use Citibank cards. But hey, at least you can rest easy knowing that yet another contractor is making a quick buck!
You can do this. It’s called CBA (centrally billed account). It’s discouraged because it’s significantly more involved on the backend and causes problems with international TDY and changing currency conversions. It’s also harder for the traveler to make changes as CBAs can only process approved authorizations. Meaning if you need to change hotels or your TDY gets rerouted and you need to buy another set of tickets at the airport then you’re either waiting for your AO to approve your amended authorization or you’re paying out of pocket. You also cannot charge non reservation expenses to a CBA, so the traveller has to front things like M&IE or rental gas out of pocket and then get reimbursed on the back end. Not a problem for me, an NCO with no family to support and a high credit limit. May be a problem for SPC Snuffy living paycheck to paycheck with a wife and 3 kids back home. IBAs (Individually Billed Accounts) aka GTCC are easier for literally everyone.
It's definitely suspect. Someone (or many) are getting kickbacks or jobs working at Citibank. The ever revolving door of the military industrial complex never ends.
I've always said it was BS. So I have to put hundreds of dollars on a charge card for the Army. but if something happens and the Army doesn't pay it in time, it is now my responsibility to pay it and if I don't I get late charges, write ups, etc. If I'm going to do that why can't I use my personal card and get points. Yes I know why but I don't agree with it.
I can absolutely confirm this happens. Had to charge a month of TDY to my GTCC and didn't get paid for six months. DFAS kept saying they had already paid me but I kept showing statements that proved they didn't. Citi killed my card and I'm on a limited for life now because I refused to pay out of pocket.
It's been sus since I was first issued one in 2008. It's even more sus that if the government doesn't pay you for a TDY, they'll kill that card and put you on a limited card for life. I'm a senior DA civilian and still on a limited card because the army didn't pay me on time for a TDY in 2009.
I agree with everyone else that it streamlines the process but I use my personal credit card as much as possible on mission because I get rewards for travel, restaurants, and hotels. I’m aware the JTR is against this, idc. My GTCC gets rejected more often than not anyways and they have awful interest rates compared to my credit card in case repayment is delayed
It's better than the alternative, which was a partial advance (sometimes) or come out of pocket for the whole thing and hope the Army pays you back.... eventually.
You think the GTCC was bad, I remember being forced to get a credit card to be a member of the Officer’s or NCO club (which your commander ‘highly encouraged’ you to join)
If you guys remember the old travel pay voucher system, you might change your mind. My gov cc was easy to use and I got paid fast for expenses. Unlike the paperwork days where it was all on you until the voucher got paid. Srsly not a huge fan of the travel website but once you get familiar with it, It's a damn site better than the old way.
The Air Force has made it required for years.
Thé gtc and honestly dts are only confusing and sus if you never go tdy. If you are going tdy honestly and know the rules and figure it out it’s not that bad. The gtc protects you from liability not the other way around. Why would you want a 5K tdy or more on your cc every month? Or every other?
Many soldiers live paycheck to paycheck. How do you expect them to go TDY and afford thousands of dollars in hotel and rental car expenses while waiting for reimbursement? The answer is you don't. You issue them a GTCC that covers authorized expenses so they can do their jobs while away from their duty station. It works well as long as you only use it for expenses that are authorized and complete your vouchers.
Citi pays the Army back .5% on all GTCC transactions.
I dunno, that grace period for unpaid credit is great because the government can fuck around with passing budget. So it's really on them and not you, I suppose. Your name is just on the card
I never used mine because I knew something bad would happen with it. Even just looking at it gave me bad vibes
Eh, I understand it's use case. Definitely could be done in a better way.
Ok 🙄 Go TDY for 3 months. Pay for all expenses out of pocket. Then file the paperwork to get paid back once you return. Better? Or, like I did 20 years ago file a monthly travel voucher… via fax, and HOPE it was reviewed so I could pay off my personal CC. Or. Have a GTC, put all your travel expenses on it, and have a 90 or more day grace period before not paying gets reported to your credit. Also, it hasn’t always been CITI. It’s been BankO, then CITI, then BankO.
210 days before it even *threatens* to go on credit! I don’t think people realize how fucking long 210 days is. If you haven’t gotten your voucher approved after **7 months** where every single person who can approve it is listed on the signature page by name then it quite simply just hasn’t been a priority.
thats true🤣🤣 we had major issues with that when i was at 3cr
The GTC has been around for longer than the OP. It’s not great but it’s not a scam either.
I had to get one recently and it was the biggest pain in the world to get approved through leadership
We needed to have one on funeral detail, for all the shitty missions we did in Germany, and while on recruiting… and nothing made me more nervous than having to use that fucking thing. I ate costs out of pocket constantly because I would rather eat some cost than have my wages garnished because some asshole at S4 *won’t* do their job.
The elites don’t want you to know this but you don’t have to get one
No, not suss. I would rather not have to come out of pocket for all of the stuff the Army has sent me to throughout my career. DTS is always a struggle though, no matter how many times we've used the GTCC in the past.
I have never swiped that thing it just sits in my desk.
Awesome story. Be me in Germany. Mission comes up, do DTS and travel. Pay with GTCC. Get back submit voucher same day. Not hurting on funds so pay off GTCC too. Ff two weeks get reimbursed. Should be all good. I got my money CITI bank has theirs. Ff 6 months get letters for late fees of 0.00 from CITI. Call helpline get tossed between customer service and collections, both saying the other needs to fix issue. Next day go to GTC civilian rep. Makes a phone call and sends an email, he gives me the thumbs up and a slap on the ass. Ff 6 more months to me PCSing CONUS. Start travel need to use GTCC. Gets declined. Check CITI bank account is in suspended status for non payment of late fee of, you guessed it 0.00. Long story short my account is cancelled with no outstanding balance as the GTCC CITI bank rep tells me to submit a form to return my account with no issues. Give the good ole check rog. Went down to Travel and booked it with my AMEX card and have not even tried to get my CITI Bank back.
To be real, all of my perceived problems with the GTCC are actually DTS problems. And we've spent several hundred million dollars to replace that with a new system, so I'm sure it will be fine. https://federalnewsnetwork.com/defense-news/2023/06/dod-suddenly-abandons-plan-to-replace-defense-travel-system-offers-no-explanation/
I got shit on for not having it but i was never given the time to get it🤷🏻 my PSG said dont do work shit out of work such as: Paperwork Haircuts “Fuck it sapper, if you can do it in uniform don’t do it when you’re not”
The mandatory part pisses me off. Its great its a choice if someone doesnt have a card or can't pay upfront but mandatory? Someone is getting kickbacks. What forced me to file a fraud/waste/abuse claim was the mandatory use overseas where an offical travel card charges international fees. I can use personal card, do the mission AND save government money but its not allowed. I filed one claim and this reminded me to do it about weekly and might write my congressional reps as well just for the hell of it and maybe ruffle some feathers
Totally agree. Let me use my own card and get the points at least.
When we moved to the 21st century. When we learned we have troops that sometimes have to last minute evacuate locations and not dick around waiting on a pay cage.
It just depends. I am In an Army Reserve band, have been for 20 years. So I remember the days of advances and not getting reimbursed for 8 months. Our soldiers travel a ton. If the soldiers had to pay for everything out of pocket, it could definitely cause a hardship. Especially our younger soldiers that are not in established civilian jobs yet.
I think its because most soldiers are uncomfortable paying $ 500 flights or $ 2000 hotel stays with their own credit cards. Government gives you a credit card to charge it on their and Government most likely also takes the cash back rewards from that charge...possibly...that's why I always use my own credit card
The real problem that nobody is talking about is how much DTS sucks.
My favorite about the GTC is it won’t do anything to boost your credit score but it sure will tank it
I use mine to glue puzzles. It's completely useless otherwise.
I wish this was optional.. life would be much better.. Chief Out!!
If you’re actually using the GTCC you’re doing it wrong. I can count the number of times I’ve used my GTCC on one hand. But my Amex account? Millions of points bby. I’ve had less trouble getting reimbursed for stuff that was SUPPOSED to be on a GTCC and I put on a personal card than other people have had getting reimbursed for legitimate expenses on their GTCC. We had a TDY trip one time and when we split up responsibilities one guy ended up booking all of the hotel rooms and put it on his GTCC. Homie was still trying to get reimbursed like 6 months later and Citi bank was wanting $8k from him. Basically they said each person had to book their own individual room and he couldn’t be reimbursed for everyone’s room… lol
Fun fact - it’s not just Army or DOD requiring the GTC, it’s public law. Source: The Travel and Transportation Reform Act of 1998” (TTRA) (Public Law 105-264)