Author’s Note: I have not been able to get a “copy” American Express’s policy. All of what I discuss here is from what I have been told and have read in other places. Here is American Express’s interpretation of the SCRA policy. I simply called them up and they walked me through the process. This article is based on MY experience. I wrote it because it has been an awesome financial tool for our family and I have realized that this benefit hasn’t been as wildly publicized as I thought it was.
Update: The 0% is only from when the turn on the SCRA. It is NOT for life!!!! So don’t leave a balance on their thinking it is 0% like I did! Its still a great deal as long as you treat it like any credit card and pay it off at the end of every month.
We heard through the grapevine a year ago that if you are a military service member, American Express will waive all yearly fees AND give you 0% interest for the life of your service. Although we only have the American Express Hilton card we were told that this applies to all brands of the American Express card. I called the credit card, filled out a credit form and they have retroactively refunded all fees and any interest.
Special Military Offering Details In A Glance
Offering
- Waive of All Fees – Yearly Fees, Interest Fees
- 0% Interest
- Retroactive – They retroactively reimburse us for all interest, fees that you have paid for the life of the credit card.
Requirements
- Military Service Members ONLY– Although the Credit card must be in name of the service member; dependents are allowed to be “authorized users”. Therefore spouses can “use” our husbands’ accounts with our own credit card number. We cannot qualify for this deal on our credit alone.
- Must Be Active Duty– You have to provide orders to prove that you are active. For Reservists, etc, you will have to call the company to see how/if you qualify.
- Monthly Payment– Although you are allowed to max the card and pay 0%, they do require you pay the monthly payment. That is the same as any other credit card. Therefore you still have a monthly obligation.
- Qualify – You have to qualify for the credit same as any other credit. We have had this credit card since the beginning of our service.
Negative
- Carrying a Balance Affects Your Credit – Remember the amount you have on your card versus the amount of credit used affects your score. For example, for a period of time we had the card maxed as we moved money around. At this time my husband’s score temporarily went down 40 points. So make sure you are aware of how moving money on the card affects your ability to qualify for a loan as one’s credit score is an important piece to the mortgage puzzle.
- Only Good For the Life of Your Service – Once you leave the service this deal expires. Therefore it is very important that you watch your time in service to make sure you aren’t suddenly paying 15%+ on the credit card.
- Paperwork can “Expire” so one needs to watch the paperwork – We recently had our paperwork expire without any notice. Therefore we started racking up interest and fees. Of course my husband was deployed and I didn’t have a copy of his orders, therefore we had to wait till he returned to have it retroactively changed.
Author’s Warning:
Remember this is still a credit card. You will still be responsible to pay back all the money. You should not be using this on consumer debt. This should be a tool in your frugal living/ financial planning tool box. We have used it when we are trying to move money around for home purchases. We have also use it as a back up to our “emergency” fund since it is 0%. This allows us to have less cash on hand while still protecting our assets. Again, this is not for everyone! You need to assess YOUR financial situation and determine if it works for you.
Knowledge is POWER if USED correctly therefore make sure you use this to your benefit NOT your detriment.
Why We Love this Deal
We absolutely adore our Hilton Honors Credit Card. It allows us to earn Diamond level status with everyday spending with no fees. We are able to take advantage of the 0% card for financial planning and Empire building. It allows us to travel and stay at hotels for free. Last April, I stayed in Helsinki, Finland with my girlfriends for a week. It was one of the reasons why we could afford to do 3 Port Calls while my husband was deployed. Our suite at the Conrad in Singapore was on Hotel points.
I have heard rumors of Capital One offering the same deal. Do you know of any other credit cards that offer this deal? Do you also have a 0% card? How do you use it?
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I just called AMEX to inquire on this policy. They confirmed that anyone eligible for SCRA benefits would have all fees waived, and that they would lower the interest rate while you are deployed. But the 0% is only applicable to debts on current accounts from before you were on active duty. Basically it only applies to new servicemembers who had existing accounts/debt, and reservists that have been called to active duty.
Todd,
Do you have the card through USAA or regular AMEX? What you are describing is the feedback I received today regarding USAA Amex policy. The feedback I received was that USAA does not offer this for their AMEX. We have the Hilton Amex and personally have had all of our fees waived whether or not my husband has been deployed (we had ours waived before he ever deployed). We also have a balance and the interest has also been waived as long as we have a current set of orders in their system showing he is still in the service. There were other testimonies on my post today that said they too have had it waived so I definitely recommend you double check. There was mention that not every person is knowledgable so multiple phone calls are sometimes necessary.
Thank you for the feedback!
Elizabeth
This was some great gouge! It totally works. My husband has had an American Express Starwood card for over 10 years. When he called they confirmed that this was in fact true, they just had to confirm his AD status. Next thing we know, we’re reimbursed almost $1400 in yearly fees, interest and other finance charges (its all retroactive). I am SO impressed. He’s not teasing me about all the blogs I read for a long time now…I guarantee it! 😉
Yeah!! Thank you for sharing!!
We applied to get credit on our cards as well. My husband has one and I have one too. We are not on each others accounts. They issued credit to his but not mine because they said he had to be on my account since he is the AD member. I added him to my account and we waited about a month before trying again and all the fees were credited to my card as well. I did this just last March (2014) after a friend was telling me about American express waiving fees for military.
That is awesome! I will have to call our capital one card to see if they do this too.
Do you know if the 0% interest applies to balance transfers?? We’ve had a USAA AMEX for several years. We are very interested in switching over if this deal applies to balance transfers. When I called, they were not a liberty to tell me anything about the SRCA policy until we apply and are approved for the program.
I have no idea I am sorry. I have never balanced transfer before.
Also DINKs, travelers and military. I wish we lived close by because (creep alert, sorry) you seem like we could be friends.
We don’t carry balances so we use the American Express Platinum. The $450 annual fee and $150 per authorized user is waived for active duty and each cardmember gets TSA Pre or Global Entry, Hilton and Starwood status, $200 in airline fee reimbursements a year (only for main user) and access to the Delta, Centurion and Priority Pass lounges when we fly (Delta lounge is only when you fly Delta). I freaking love this card. Our points transfer 1 to 1 to Delta so we have a free one-way ticket about every three months. Otherwise, we save points for hotel stays. You do get 40,000 or 50,000 at signup after meeting minimum spend when you first open it but in 15-16 months of having this card we’ve paid $0 for four plane tickets, five or six nights in hotels and $300 in statement credit (you can use points to pay your bill). Highly recommend. It is a charge card so I don’t think you can carry a balance but that means there is no limit. I even put the down payment on my car on the AmEx (the most the dealer would let me do was $5,000 then we paid cash for the rest).
Hi! Just reading through some of this information for colleagues and I’m kind of confused when you say “turn on the SCRA”. As I understand, SCRA cannot be “turned off” like a phone put in a hold status while deployed or living abroad. In regards to credit cards/debts SCRA states that “Creditors must reduce the interest rate on debts to 6 percent for liabilities incurred before you entered active duty”. SCRA is saying that if I had a debt prior to entering the service, such as a car or a credit card, my interest rate is 6% or lower for as long as I am in the service. So I don’t understand how you can “turn it on and off”. You can call your credit card companies and they can reduce/waive/lower interest rates and fees while deployed or simply because you are now in the service. However, I have heard of creditors challenging SCRA because service members are not “materially affected”. So either you and I have a different understanding of SCRA or you are actually not talking about SCRA.
Megan,
I have noticed that alot of companies will give military members “extra” benefits above and beyond the law. Others will follow the SCRA but only once you “tell” them. Either way if you don’t notify the company that you are military, you don’t receive any benefits in my experience. That is why I mentioned “turn on”
Elizabeth