The Army has granted permanent status to an experiment that gives new soldiers a new way to pay for items at post exchanges. Okla. Last year, the remaining basic training sites joined the pilot program, and even Air Force trainees at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas, are using the card. Now the prototype cards at different sites are being replaced with a standard EZPay card. Trainees at Fort Jackson, S.C., began using the new card in July. The card has a computer chip that keeps track of how much money is on it.
Any value remaining on the card after it expires is returned to the trainee's military pay.
The cards provide a better quality of life for trainees, said Ernest Gregory, deputy assistant secretary of the Army for financial operations. He said the cards eliminate the threat of cash theft in barracks and speed purchases at the exchange. Now a version of the card is being tested for deployed soldiers in Bosnia and Hungary. The cards also cut down on security costs, Gregory said. If the cards are used instead of cash, Gregory said security personnel aren't needed to guard and transport currency.