13. Can you tell me what I will be getting paid? How do I pay my bills? I have military pay questions and want to know more about direct deposit and Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH).
You can read more about your military pay and your paycheck (as well as Basic Allowance for Housing) at our link below.
I recommend also having a system in place to pay your monthly bills. Know before you go who you pay bills to every month and have all the information with you. For example, for your car payment, please have the name, address and phone numbers for the company you are mailing your payments to! Have all your finances in order. If possible, I would get all payments that are a fixed amount every month, directly debited from your checking account (ie the account where your military pay will be electronically deposited in). Some bills also allow you to set up payments by credit card every month, another option. Less payments to mail out this way. Just make sure you are paying off that credit card every month also. Some recruits may also pay a bill one month ahead or leave a deposit or perhaps have someone they trust really well, pay their bills while they are gone (I emphasize trust, as this could be a disaster if this goes wrong!). You may also have allotments sent out of your paycheck directly. You can get this set up at the reception station.
There is one other thing I would like to point out. We would frequently get recruits who were in debt. Yes, the Army does have low/no-interest loans run by Army Emergency Relief (AER), but these are for dire serious emergencies, not just for a soldier who may be in debt. For example, I did have a soldier who qualified for an AER loan to buy a plane ticket home to attend his father's funeral. Usually, soldiers who are in debt will be counseled and then sent off to Consumer Credit Counseling (CCC). Most posts have an office on post and the services they offer are free (they ask for a donation). You will work with a counselor who will help you consolidate all your debts and work out a plan with your creditors. I find that it is a good program, as I do know quite a few soldiers who were debt-free after coming out of the program.
