If there is a balance remaining on the travel charge card, travelers will be billed for it at the end of the billing cycle, said Kathy Earn, Air Force Reserve Command s agency program coordinator. If travelers pay too much to the travel charge card, they call the toll-free number and request a refund for the credit balance. It is as simple as that. When filling out their voucher, travelers must put the amount in block one that they want the travel office to split disburse to the bank. The amount in block one should equal the amount that was placed on the card, plus 1.9 percent of any automatic teller machine cash withdrawals.
Any amount left over is sent to their financial institution.
When people are deploying for more than 45 days, they should check with the local travel office to see if they can arrange for automatic payment of accrued travel entitlements on a regular basis, Earn said. If not, they must submit interim or periodic settlement vouchers. Mandatory use of the government travel card was included in the Travel and Transportation Reform Act of 1998. The requirement was originally scheduled to go into effect March 1 but was extended to May 1 to give agencies time to implement the plan and to allow people who did not have the card time to apply. Traveler benefits include the convenience of being able to obtain money from automated teller machines around the clock, reducing the need to carry large amounts of cash.