MARINE CORPS RECRUIT DEPOT SAN DIEGO -- Effective at midnight, Nov. 29, Bank of America charge cards will no longer be the card used for the Travel Card program. CitiBank will be the financial institution handling the program.
The program includes about 82,000 Marines. However, the process should not be long and elaborate with piles of paper work for service members according to Jim MacFarlane, the assistant chief of staff comptroller for Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego.
“Ninety-nine percent of the Marines (on base) won’t notice a change except for a new card,” MacFarlane said. “Of course we will be prepared to help the extra one percent to settle any problems that may arise.”
Once current Bank of America card holders receive their new cards from CitiBank, they need to call a number provided on the card to notify the bank that they have received their card and it can be activated.
As of early last week, about 85 percent of the cards have already been mailed to personnel on base. If personnel have not received their cards by Nov. 29, they should call the comptroller office for assistance. Also, new service members who have yet to check in or have not made the depot office aware of their card need to do so as soon as possible.
The Defense Travel System will function the same way with the new CitiBank cards. Bank of America cards will be deactivated and can should be destroyed.
For the majority of cardholders, MacFarlane said the change should be “transparent.” More information will be made available closer to the change over date.