New IRP / Move policy-effective Dec 01, 2017 [Merged]

[stellarpanther]

So after eagerly waiting for my posting message, I unexpectedly received it today, about a month earlier than I thought.  Then, a friend told me about all these new issues and now the excitement about a new posting has lead to a bit of confusion that I'm hoping will work itself out as soon as I can register in a week or so I guess.

My families plan is basically going to be to take a DIT sometime in May so the only expenses for now would be flights that will be taken care of for me after I register them with HRG, then I provide Brookfield with their TIN's.  They book the flights for all of us as well as the rental car at destination.  I use the Relo card to pay for the rental car, hotel and meals as well as taxi's to/from airport and boardig for cat while we're away.

Will it be this easy?  What am I forgetting about?

 

[stellarpanther]

When creating a TIN for dependants, do I just go to the HRG site and create a profile for them the same way as would be done for DND employees?  What do we put when it asks for "Full Company name" right at the beginning?

 

[kratz]

Stellarpanther,

Be careful when paying for any service that normally puts a hold on a credit card (ie: pay gas at the pump, hotel check-in and car rental)
Vendors who release the hold(s) on the card can't return the funds, because the pre-paid Reloc card does not have that function.

Note: HRG booked our car rental wit Hertz. At the airport, on our HHT, the car rental company denied the Reloc card, for the deposit / hold,
because it is a pre-paid card and not a normal credit card. So if you don't ave a personal CC for your DIT/HHT, your transportation options are severely limited.

Yes, use the HRG site to create their profiles and generate their TINs. Similar to when you created your own profile.

 

[kev994]

Stellarpanther,

Be careful when paying for any service that normally puts a hold on a credit card (ie: pay gas at the pump, hotel check-in and car rental)
Vendors who release the hold(s) on the card can't return the funds, because the pre-paid Reloc card does not have that function.

Note: HRG booked our car rental wit Hertz. At the airport, on our HHT, the car rental company denied the Reloc card, for the deposit / hold,
because it is a pre-paid card and not a normal credit card. So if you don't ave a personal CC for your DIT/HHT, your transportation options are severely limited.

Yes, use the HRG site to create their profiles and generate their TINs. Similar to when you created your own profile.

So the alleged benefit of the member not having this on their personal card doesn’t actually work? Awesome.

 

[armyvern]

Stellarpanther,

Be careful when paying for any service that normally puts a hold on a credit card (ie: pay gas at the pump, hotel check-in and car rental)
Vendors who release the hold(s) on the card can't return the funds, because the pre-paid Reloc card does not have that function.

Note: HRG booked our car rental wit Hertz. At the airport, on our HHT, the car rental company denied the Reloc card, for the deposit / hold, because it is a pre-paid card and not a normal credit card. So if you don't ave a personal CC for your DIT/HHT, your transportation options are severely limited.

Yes, use the HRG site to create their profiles and generate their TINs. Similar to when you created your own profile.

There are/were some Ptes in travel who had hotels also deny them use of the reloc card for the same reason.  When used for the actual payment methods for the hotel, the hotel, too, charged them a surcharge over their rate due to the nature of the reloc card not being an actual debit card or credit card. Apparently that surcharge also is not claimable (IE:  That's what your movement grant is for - since freakin' when!!??)

Also heard of a case where a Pte travelling on HHT from QL3s failed to receive his advance in time for the trip.  Being unable to afford the costs of hotels & meals for his family from his own pocket/credit card, he requested a re-booking of the flights for the trip etc until after BGRS actually deposited his advance and was berated and told he'd now be responsible to pay them (IIRC, it was around the $365.00 mark) a "service charge" per ticket.  Their error, yet his responsibility to pay this non-claimable/reimbursable expense.  I'm beginning to get the impression the BGRS is about to make a killing off of posted service members who are supposed to have their mandatory moves totally paid for.


I can only imagine the angst that a brand new Pte is feeling dealing with the chaos that is their first move where they don't have a schmick as to what their entitlements are and how to appropriately handle the situation / make contact for immediate resolution when things go to shit.

Not acceptable.

 

[jollyjacktar]

Whomever was the bright spark that came up with this change needs to have some serious karma payback come to visit them.

 

[stellarpanther]

So can I just use my personal credit card to pay for the hotel and car rental, gas etc and just go to an ATM to get cash off the relo card to pay my own card?

 

[armyvern]

So can I just use my personal credit card to pay for the hotel and car rental, gas etc and just go to an ATM to get cash off the relo card to pay my own card?

Technically, yes. But, this just serves to highlight the absolute idiocy of the supposed benefits, efficiencies and modernism of the new way.  You also realize that if you gas up and pay for a hotel from your own personal account/credit card on the same day, that under this "new" way that only one of those user-fees you incur on your personal debit/CCard is claimable/reimbursable per day and something tells me that you'll also incur a 3rd user-fee on the cash debit you take from the reloc card to re-imburse yourself. Three separate fees incurred, only one is re-imburasable.

 

[kratz]

Yes,

You could use your own CC for all payments, but here are the problems when withdrawing all the funds from the Reloc card for cash:
- $400 max per withdrawl,
- $2500 daily max withdrawl,
- ATM fee for the Reloc card + bank fee for each withdrawl, and
- 15 withdrawls max lifetime for the card, then it permanently locks.

 

[armyvern]

Perhaps every single member who is posted should be doing up an invoice(s) to submit to BGRS for their clocked billable hours doing their own bookings, scheduling, research, form submissions, transfers, phone calls, scanning, documentation, time taken towards fixing the errors, and seperate service charges to BGRS for doing their jobs for them each time they need to log in, upload, file a receipt into their wallet, etc etc etc.

 

[stellarpanther]

So this does suck.  I just received my posting message yesterday so haven't registered yet therefore I haven't seen the entitlements etc, but I believe with myself and 2 dependants I am entitled to 2 rooms.

$300x4+ $1200.00
$102x 3 pers x 5 days for meals + $510.00
car rental approx. $250.00

Total: $1960.00.

If I can only take $400 per day in cash advances, I need to run to the bank every day for a week just to get my money.  This is stupid.  Why can they not just calculate the approximate cost of the DIT or HHT and do a direct deposit into the persons account. 

If hotels and car rental companies don't readily accept this stupid card then I don't see the point of it. 

 

[stellarpanther]

Ok, I missed the part that said max $2500.00 per day but only $400.00 each time.  Maybe I'll have a different opinion once I actually start this process but right now it seems stupid.

 

[kev994]

My guess is that the point is they no longer have to pay loss on exchange because you could have used a card that nobody accepts.

Sent from my SM-T320 using Tapatalk

 

[kratz]

Another new wrinkle in the move process, we discovered late yesterday.

- After the HHT / DIT, the move form is not on the BGRS portal.
- The member must know to request it be emailed to them by their BGRS representative,
- Who is required to action this request within 24 - 48 business hours.
- That movement form is submitted to Base Transport, who will arrange for the moving company.

When this change was introduced, we were led to belive everything needed was on the website. Now we discover a key form is missing, and there is nothing informing members that they must request it from BRGS. We went to Base TN and they redirected us to BGRS. Yeah for running around.

 

[SeaKingTacco]

So glad to be a reservist now...

 

[PPCLI Guy]

Whomever was the bright spark that came up with this change needs to have some serious karma payback come to visit them.

Just post the fucker.  Every year.  For 12 years. 

If that is deemed to be too extreme, do the 13 moves in 25 years that my wife and I have done (3 of them OUTCAN).

Not that I am bitter.

 

[OldSolduer]

So glad to be a reservist now...

Retirement is wonderful.  The policies seem to be somewhat .... difficult to comprehend. Someone remind me why Traffic Techs et al don’t do this anymore?

 

[Ostrozac]

So, strictly hypothetically, if you were to pay all or most of your move expenses out of your own cash and credit card, and ended your move with something like $50,000 remaining on the relocard (which has a max cash advance of $7500) what happens then? Can you continue to use the relocard for random expenses, groceries, liquor, buy a motorcycle, or is a cheque cut? In the old days, you'd be theoretically able to refuse an advance and collect everything on your claim at the end as a direct transfer to your bank account, but that seems that option might be off the table.

Asking for a friend, of course.

 

[RubberTree]

So, strictly hypothetically, if you were to pay all or most of your move expenses out of your own cash and credit card, and ended your move with something like $50,000 remaining on the relocard (which has a max cash advance of $7500) what happens then? Can you continue to use the relocard for random expenses, groceries, liquor, buy a motorcycle, or is a cheque cut? In the old days, you'd be theoretically able to refuse an advance and collect everything on your claim at the end as a direct transfer to your bank account, but that seems that option might be off the table.

Asking for a friend, of course.

That's what I'm trying to figure out as well...my understanding is that you can continue using the card as a visa until it expires OR you can take the remainder deposited into your bank account as a DFT...for a 1.5%  surcharge.
Someone please correct me if I'm wrong...someone....please tell me I'm wrong.

 

[kratz]

We just attempted to pay for our hotel....both the "Visa" and debit would not work for the hotel's payment system. We had to use our personal debit card and must now use 3/15 cash withdrawals to reimburse ourselves.

Thankfully, the car rental agency accepted the card for payment.

IMO the card is turning into a "food only" card. From our experience.