Fewer Airmen delinquent on government travel card payments Published May 3, 2006 By Staff Sgt. Julie Weckerlein Air Force News Service WASHINGTON (AFPN) -- More Airmen are paying their government travel card bills on time, allowing the Air Force to reach what many believed was an unattainable goal set by the Department of Defense, an Air Force official said. “We met our goal by lowering our delinquency rate below 2 percent for two consecutive months,” said Mike Bilbrey, the Air Force banking officer who oversees the Bank of America charge card program. “That’s an incredible accomplishment.” For the average Airman with a card tucked away in his wallet, that may not seem important. Yet Mr. Bilbrey credits that Airman -- and all of his peers -- for helping reach that goal. “If it weren’t for the Airmen who are out there tracking their payments and the supervisors who follow up and the commanders who support the program none of this would have been possible,” Mr. Bilbrey said. In the world of credit and money management, delinquency numbers are important. Whenever someone misses a payment, or illegally uses the government travel card, that is a knock against the service. Plus it costs manpower and money to correct -- whether it is to pay off insufficient funds or to set in motion Article 15 hearings for major offenses. The goal for the Air Force -- and other government agencies that use travel cards -- is to keep the number of delinquencies under 2 percent. Yet the Air Force has a factor working against it. Of all the government agencies, the Air Force owns 42 percent of the cards. Managing and tracking all those cards seemed daunting, especially when the program was still developing and concise guidelines were not yet established. Delinquency rates were high, and a 2 percent goal seemed like a dream, Mr. Bilbrey said. However, aggressive actions were put into place to develop guidelines that explained the program, its rules and regulations. Education was stressed at all levels. The result? Delinquency rates have continually dropped over the past few years. “We really wanted to make this a commanders’ program,” said Charles Maddox, charge card program coordinator. “Educating the commanders and supervisors was really the key to the program’s success.” Mr. Bilbrey said he also sees commanders becoming more involved with the program. “They are able to have more control,” he said. “In the past, a lot of the program was dictated to them, such as how to discipline Airmen who didn’t pay on time. That kind of thing should be left to their discretion.” He said Vance Air Force Base, Okla., has set the payment benchmark for the Air Force. The base has gone a full year without a single delinquency. “They have an excellent GTC program out there with great support,” he said. “It’s really the people out in the field -- at all bases -- who are being responsible and living up to the (Air Force) core values who should get credit for the program’s success.” By having less than 2 percent delinquent accounts, the Air Force betters the current commercial sector delinquency account rate of 4.7 percent and is in better standing than other DOD agencies, he said. "Better account access was also an important key," Mr. Bilbrey said. "We worked with Bank of America to develop and launch a Web site for Airmen to access their accounts, making split disbursements and payments easier to track."While the Air Force expects some fluctuations throughout the months, especially during permanent-change-of-station and holiday seasons, Mr. Bilbrey is impressed with the trends. Cardholders should continue to use the split disbursement option to pay their balances on time, he said. “We’ve made a lot of good changes, and they’re making a difference,” he said. “Yet, we’re always looking ahead and trying to make it better. The better our program gets, the more flexibility we have to institute changes to enhance the commander’s mission.”