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Use of government travel card mandatory May 1

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SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill. (USTCNS) - Effective May 1, all government travelers are required to use the government travel card for lodging, rental cars and transportation such as airline tickets.

What is the Government Travel Card?
Bank of America is under contract to provide a charge card to government employees and military members for use while traveling on official business. The GTC is a charge card, not a credit card.

The difference is that a credit card has a minimum balance due each month with interest charged for any balance remaining after payment is posted to the account; the travel charge card should be paid in full each month.

Bank of America does not charge interest on the unpaid balance, but a $20 late fee is applied each month if the account is over 120 days delinquent.

Why is it mandatory to use the GTC?
Congress passed the Travel and Transportation Reform Act also called 1998 Public Law 105-264, requiring all military members and government employees to use the travel card for expenses related to official travel. On May 1, DoD policy will implement the TTRA requiring the GTC for certain travel-related expenses.

Because of the law, more travelers will be using the card, which will save the government millions of dollars in administrative costs associated with providing cash advances. The government also receives cash rebates, which are returned to DoD travel accounts.

Benefits of using the GTC
Automated travel system: One of the benefits of doing business this way now is to gear toward the new automated travel system coming on line. Once this happens, those travel expenses must be charged against the GTC through the automated systems. This will allow a smoother transition into the automated travel system.

Numerous ATM locations: There are approximately 15 million locations around the world that accept Visa with more than 120,000 ATMs in 120 countries, allowing easy access to cash advances and local currency.

Extra insurance: Travelers using the GTC for airline tickets receive lost luggage insurance up to $3,000 and travel accident insurance up to $200,000. Visa also provides collision damage insurance when the GTC is used for auto rentals.

Travel and emergency assistance: The GTC authorizes travel and emergency assistance services, including medical referral, legal referral and emergency ticket replacement.

City-pair rates: The GTC is coded to authorize the airlines to provide Government Service Agency city-pair rates. Personal credit cards are not authorized for city-pair rates.

When the vendor doesn't accept the GTC
At certain businesses, such as laundry or parking garages, the card may not be accepted. DoD will not require travelers to use the card where it is not accepted by the vendor.

Travelers are allowed -- but are not required -- to charge the miscellaneous, incidental or meal expenses to the card. However, gifts and alcohol may not be purchased with the card.

Paying the GTC bill
To save the GTC holder from buying stamps, writing checks and going to the post office, finance offices can pay the bill from travel voucher settlements. This service is called "split disbursement." To take advantage of this service, the traveler indicates the amount to be paid to Bank of America on the travel voucher.

The finance office will send the excess amount to the traveler's bank account. The paid voucher the traveler receives will indicate how much was paid to the Bank of America and how much was deposited into the bank account.

Not a new program
The Air Force has used a travel card program for more than 10 years. More than 400,000 Air Force travelers currently use the GTC for their travel needs; for them it is business as usual. (FROM AIR MOBILITY COMMAND PUBLIC AFFAIRS).

Office of Public Affairs - transcom-pa@mail.mil
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