I will qualify this report by stating that I am an 18-year veteran of the armed services and am currently an E-8 in the Florida National Guard. I think of myself as a reasonably responsible and reliable person.
Some time around 1998, some quick thinking politician thought that it would be a good idea to give the Bank of America the exclusive contract for providing the credit cards that Department of Defense soldiers and employees use for official travel.
If that weren't enough, it was also REQUIRED that everyone in the armed services apply for and receive a BofA credit card AND that they use said card for all travel expenses or THEY WOULD NOT BE RE-IMBURSED!
To make a very long story only long, I went on official travel for 4 months last year. I had to stay in a hotel and eat in restaurants in a south Florida city for the entire time. As a result, I ran up a $6000 tab on the ol' Government Visa.
I was not even finished with the mission before the BofA was calling my house wanting to know where their money was. I called them back and told them that I was on TDY (Temporary Duty) and would pay them back when I was finished and filed my travel voucher (the way it's supposed to work).
This kept them happy for another couple of weeks before they started calling again. The calls became progressively nastier and more that once I had to get someone's supervisor on the line to discuss business decorum and manners. I wound up paying $1600 on a partial settlement. The calls stopped for about a month.
When I returned home I filed my voucher thinking that would be the end of it. About two weeks later, I started receiving more calls from BofA to settle up the remaining $4500. I explained that I had filed my settlement and that they would be paid directly by the government as soon as the voucher was settled.
After about three or four more calls form BofA, I checked on my travel voucher. Sure enough, the Travel Office had lost it and I had to re-file. This one got kicked back (because the temporary clerk did not understand how to file it correctly, I later found) and I had to re-file yet again.in the mean time I had to pay BofA $300 out of my pocket to keep from having the entire $4500 taken out of my paycheck. I could scarely afford this and almost had our power cut off when I was late with the electric bill.
It took the State Travel Office over three months to pay off the voucher.in the mean time, BofA had begun assessing $80/month late fees and reported me to DOD's finance agency to have the last $210 (in fees that they had assesed) taken out of my paycheck.
Now here's the good part... I had already paid off the entire balance when they reported me for salary offset. So, they took money away from me that I didn't owe. Even better... When I called to find out where my money was, I was told that I still owed them the $210 that had already been taken out of my paycheck!
About four months later I finally received a statement that showed a credit of $130. I called to find out what happened to the other $80 and was told that I had been assessed another $80 fee for having gone into salary offset (in order to collect the money that I no longer owed, I supposed)! It still took another four phone calls and two months to get that $130.
I no longer have a Government Travel Card. I have to use my own credit card or get a cash advance whenever I travel. It's worth the enormous pain in the ass to me to feel good that I am not giving a penny of my or other tax payers' money to the Bank of America. I have since found out that I am not alone. This kind of thing happens all of the time to our service men and women EVERY DAY!
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