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Crosspost to GIP: Heads up, NewEgg is giving a free year of NewEgg Premier (free shipping on most stuff, free returns, no restocking) for military and veterans: http://promotions.newegg.com/nepro/16-1748/index.html The "gotcha" is you should immediately disable the "auto-renew" once you sign up, or in a year you'll get auto-charged $50 for year two. But, I just signed up for free and immediately turned off auto-renew and it worked fine for me.
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Mar 23, 2016 01:19
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I just got a call from the VA, they want me to come in Monday for the claim I submitted half a year ago for PTSD (constantly harassed and kicked out for being gay) and Hearing Loss plus Tinnitus (my exit exam they said I suffered hearing loss, makes sense since I constantly slept under a super loud industrial fan). They said that's good news if they called me in only half a year, it means they confirmed enough of my references. They said I'd do an audiogram or something there, and that my psych eval would be conducted over Skype, which sounds a bit ghetto. Is there anything I should know going in? Naturally I'd just like as much benefits as I can get without looking like I want as much benefits as I can get. Hillary Clintons Thong posted:that and I paid an additional $600 into MGIB for a higher payout, I wonder how I get that back I think if you pay the $1200, you get that back if you use up the entire 9/11 bill, and if you pay the kicker, they actually work that into amount you get for the monthly tuition allotment or something. I remember reading it and they did think all those bits out.
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Jun 3, 2016 16:04
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Pesticide20 posted:The "Skype" call is just a video chat with a psychiatrist/psychologist and other than the fact that you're in completely different places it is essentially just like any session you'd have discussing the relevant issues. If you treat it like that it should go fine. Answer the questions honestly but don't expect treatment, whoever you talk to is just trying to confirm/deny whether you have a valid claim. Hmm yup, got done with that today. He said I have moderate to severe PTSD, and the audiogram confirmed mild hearing loss. Yay?
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Jun 7, 2016 06:44
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Kawasaki Nun posted:The yays have it. Sad brains Sad brains indeed... hard to be sad right now though, they just rated me at 70% from the PTSD, holy poo poo. - How do I make sure I never lose these benefits? There's a law that says they can knock it down to 10% if I'm in jail for more than 60 days, for any reason. I guess I'll try to avoid that! - I'm apparently entitled to VA healthcare now. I pay for Blue Cross at work, but apparently this is free and I satisfies the Obamacare "we'll fine you if you don't have insurance" clause. Should I drop my insurance for the VA? There's always horror stories in the news that you get what you pay for with the VA hospitals...
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Jun 13, 2016 22:46
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MancXVI posted:Have you ever had a dude try to sell you phone accessories out of a backpack at a normal hospital? I think I can handle that assuming the dude isn't also my primary physician...
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Jun 13, 2016 23:06
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cult_hero posted:
This one, it's basically on the honor system since there's no easy they can tell, but it's an instant 10%. I got it from sleeping next to a super loud transmitter on a ship since it was the only warm place in the radio shack.
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Jul 22, 2016 06:09
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Dorstein posted:My understanding is that GI Bill and VR&E reduce each other's eligibility month-for-month, but VR&E has a total of 48 months available compared to GI Bill's 36. How does VR&E work though, it seems like it's only a vocational thing, like you can learn a trade, whereas the GI Bill is for getting a degree? All told I think I'd still rather do VR&E if it means I can quit my IT job and spend all day working at the huge makerspace up the street learning to fabricate things.
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Jul 24, 2016 18:41
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Dead Reckoning posted:Because of course it loving is on my one day off this week. A year ago I waited until the last day of the year to submit my disability claim, and that was the day the site went down for me (was down for two days actually). My claim went through the next year but that's a year of benefits I'll never get.
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Aug 16, 2016 18:16
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They are sending a Terminator back in time to kill you before you finish your degree.
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Sep 4, 2016 06:08
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Go ask the Command Master Chief really nicely? Who cares if you jump the chain of command; you're practically expected to be insolent at the end of your tour.
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Nov 7, 2016 16:43
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Tight Booty Shorts posted:I really need to get that stipend Most college book stores are fine with returns before the classes start; they fully expect a good amount of books to be returned because people change classes. Get the books you need there or from a library, and spend 15 minutes per book photographing them with your phone. Bring your laptop to class so you can read along with everyone and tell them it's the e-book version. Don't feel bad about it either, it's a loving racket where publishers just move chapters around to make old editions impossible to use so they can keep raking in $200 a pop for their poo poo.
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Nov 17, 2016 19:23
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Mike-o posted:Every time you post something about how you're getting hosed again by the loving lovely rear end Army and VA my loving blood boils. It's not good for me because I've got bad loving rage issues. I am so, so sorry that all this poo poo keeps happening to you dude. I can sympathize so much, but I've never had to deal with that level of ineptitude and idiocy. Sorry dude Every time I see this stuff I feel like a shitbag just because my claims went through quickly and easily when they actually kind of had no right to go so smoothly. It seems like blind luck how well claims go.
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Jan 5, 2017 18:36
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My Dad's friend is telling us how he's been trying to get disability for 50ish years, apparently when he was in the Army he was locked in a small room in Bethesda with some other soldiers as they did sleep experiments, he developed sarcoma from the bad water supply there, and he wasn't allowed to talk about it but it was recently declassified. I'm curious how based in reality this all is, as his recollections are rather vivid.
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Jan 6, 2017 19:47
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TBeats posted:Oh my god I love you. Getting oil checked by your coworkers is nothing if not interesting.
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Jan 14, 2017 20:25
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The Unholy Ghost posted:So, to summarize— it'd be better to go into debt for life than spend three years in the military. Let me tell you something. I did IT in the Navy as a sysadmin and was paid the equivalent of $4 an hour for a few years. Then I got out and got a job as a sysadmin making a little over $40 an hour, with no degree or certifications. What I'm saying is, yeah, the Navy helped a lot on the resume, but you can ABSOLUTELY skip both the military and college and get a high paying IT job. Go get some entry level hell desk job closing tickets and replacing toner and spend that time learning poo poo and not being retarded and you can do it buddy. Sky is the limit!
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Jan 15, 2017 08:57
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Godholio posted:You don't spend three years in, you spend 4-8 depending on your job. If less than 8, you spend the remainder in the IRR subject to callup for when the Annoying Orange pushes the "INVADE CHINA" button. I was signed up for four years and got out in three! All it cost was having my co-workers read through my emails to figure out I was gay, and my chief to threaten my life for being a human being. But that doesn't even work anymore!
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Jan 15, 2017 09:05
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I went to the air force one inside a mall but they were out to lunch, so the navy one was 20 feet down the hall.
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Jan 18, 2017 15:37
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Xalidur posted:I have a question about post-separation healthcare coverage if anyone has some ideas. I haven't been able to find any good information about it. I thought Tri-Care was made explicitly for that? Have you started the separation process? I feel like they'd walk you through the Tri-Care thingy.
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Feb 6, 2017 19:40
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Tell your babby not to get sick for a month? 
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Feb 7, 2017 16:52
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DownByTheWooter posted:I got my TDRL review paperwork back today. They want to drop me from 70%, TDRL to 10% getthefuckout. Should I lawyer up? Hmm, government dopes want to delete your retirement on a whim, I'm sure you can talk it out with th-... are you loving kidding? Lawyer the gently caress up already. Why would you not spend a thousand or two to protect what is hundreds of thousands over the rest of your life?
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Feb 10, 2017 22:34
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DownByTheWooter posted:There are some provided navy counsels in the packet, guess I'll just send one of them an email. Nah I'm on normal disability, but yeah if you're not better then don't let them take your disability. Don't email like a goon, call up multiple of the lawyers in that packet and ask them, see who you get the best gut feeling about.
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Feb 11, 2017 00:43
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Since when do you have to pay back post 9-11? I could have sworn I flunked a couple classes and they still paid for the classes and the living stipend. Since it was community college I didn't pay a dime. Maybe if you like, don't show up at all? Edit: Like, someone let me know, because I was planning to get around to half-assing the rest of college for the living stipend at some point. Zero VGS fucked around with this message at 17:46 on Feb 14, 2017 |
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Feb 14, 2017 17:40
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Elsa posted:If you fail a class your professor needs to certify that you at least attended. To avoid having to repay your education benefit. Ah, never knew that. I guess that's why I take the bare minimum on-campus to get the living stipend and do the rest online. Vriess posted:Meanwhile, veteran marine tow gunner AnCap dude owes $17,000 for his attempt at college (which has only solidified his stance that education is a sham) and the Post 9/11 wants that money back double time and is charging him $800/month to pay it back. OK, so now it's sounding like your homeboy didn't even show up or anything. If he did show, maybe he should do like Elsa says above and get professors to certify that he's an idiot and not just absentee. The military isn't supposed to punish you for being an idiot. If he intentionally didn't even pretend to go then yeah I'm not surprised they want the money back, you have to play along at least. My community college had a full time vet benefits adminstrator on-site, maybe he could find someone like that and ask for the payments to be lowered due to financial hardship. Assuming he does have some sort of financial hardship?
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Feb 14, 2017 20:46
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Reverand maynard posted:does the VA give out weed yet "Made with pride by Americans who are high"
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Apr 20, 2017 14:55
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Something really weird happened today I thought I'd share. So, a couple years ago, I started an application for disability. I procrastinated on it, because I knew I had 365 days, and because it was for PTSD which was pretty stressful for me to have to recall and document every detail again. I kept amassing evidence and documents and people to vouch for me, and went to file it on like the second to last day... except the loving site was straight down for the final two days... no one could get to it. I think it was actually a 4 or 5 day eBenefits outage at the time. "It's my fault for waiting so long, oh well." I think I said at the time. I had to redo the whole thing over as they purged the application after the 365 days. I submitted it a month later, it was approved after about 6 months and the payments began, I'm happy, the end. Today, I check my bank statement, and I see a $16,000+ surprise payment for "VA COMPENSATION 2015-2016, retroactive", as in they randomly decided to backpay me from the time I submitted the original application. Now, I don't remember bringing this up to them... maybe I made an offhand comment in my second application about how I'm such a disorganized mess from PTSD that I hosed up my first application. But I didn't press the issue since "deadline's the deadline" with all things government. So someone randomly revisited this and went out of their way to drop 16k in my lap... am I lucky as gently caress, or is Uncle Sam going to ask for it back the moment I find a way to spend it?
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May 18, 2017 01:42
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Mr. Nice! posted:You always get paid back to the date of your original claim. I've had appeals pending since 2013 and if they come out in my favor i get backpay to then. I mean my original claim was the one that lapsed... They at first backpaid me six months back to the start of my second claim, waited a year, then backpaid the whole first claim out of nowhere. I'm not going to touch or ask about it for a year... for now I'm coining it "Schrodinger's Cash"
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May 18, 2017 16:35
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Yeah even I know better than that, there was a thing on the daily Vice news a few month ago... found it: https://news.vice.com/story/va-veterans-overpayment Vice news posted:The VA told VICE News there is no limit on how much it can ask a vet to repay, and no limit on how far back the agency is willing to go to collect overpayment debts. Like I said, my payment is Schrodinger's Cash, it exists in a quantum superposition until I try to withdraw and spend it. Zero VGS fucked around with this message at 06:17 on May 19, 2017 |
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May 19, 2017 06:10
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Delizin posted:Zero, just hop on ebenefits or call up a VSO. You should be able to pull up the decision letter where they decided to back pay you. On the disabilities page in ebenefits it should also say what the effective date of your disabilities is which should let you know if that is what they are back paying. Oh thanks, I can't find any decision letters on ebenefits, but on the page where it says I'm 70%, I do see they moved the effective date back to the start of 2015.
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May 19, 2017 06:48
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Howard Phillips posted:So I just applied for my post 9/11 benefits through Vets.gov. I would think you would just dispute the 90% if you're now eligible for 100%, as opposed to opening a new thing. I'm sure when you signed up you put in your SSN somewhere... if they have that, they can see your DD214.
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May 25, 2017 00:35
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sharkbomb posted:Anyone else exhaust their Post 9/11 GI Bill benefits? This was my last term using the bill and my remaining entitlement months is at 0. I thought it was when it was exhausted as well, I don't think they're following the final housing payment thing to the letter.
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Jun 27, 2017 18:00
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Jeez, I need to quit my job and just ride out all that gravy for a few years... Edit: Does the VR&E have that same expiration date as Post 9/11? My Post 9/11 ends in line 2021.
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Jun 29, 2017 15:59
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Delizin posted:VR&E time limit is 12 years from when you become eligible for it. So when you receive a 20% disability rating or 10% with a serious employment handicap the clock starts. Oh sick, I got my PTSD rating two years ago so I could finish the college stuff then do that... although they might "patch it out" like they did where you could go to school for 7 credit semester and get 100% housing stipend.
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Jun 29, 2017 16:18
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Anyone know if there's any sites to actually let me compare APR rates for VA Loans? I looked at USAA and NFCU and the latter was like .5 cheaper for a 30-year.
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Jul 13, 2017 06:13
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So, Navy Federal Credit Union seems to blow away the other VA Loans like USAA and Veterans United right now. Their interest rate (3.25% !) on a 30-year loan is a full .5% lower than USAA and 1% lower than Veterans United. They will rate-match, and they will for free let you do a one-time lock to a lower rate if they ever go lower in the next 30 years. For a 2-family house in my county they'll let me do 765k with no money down... assuming I rent out one of the two apartments, and at that interest rate, they're pretty much paying me to live there.
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Jul 13, 2017 21:15
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Update, one big difference between NFCU and USAA... even though USAA is 0.5% higher rate, they allow the purchase of 3 and 4 family homes, where NFCU draws the line at 2-family homes no matter what. The amount the VA with loan you scales up with each unit up to 4. The VA considers 5 or more as an apartment building which they will not loan for. USAA pre-approved me for: $598k - 1 fam $765k - 2 fam $925k - 3 fam $1.15m - 4 fam Pretty insane that I can become an Uncle Pennybags real estate mogul with no down payment.
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Jul 13, 2017 23:10
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Delizin posted:Something worth looking into is whether or not the loan originator will sell off the loan immediately or give it to a loan servicing company. USAA preapproved me for a loan, but I found out that they were using Ocwen as a loan servicer. Ocwen is Treasure Secretary Steve Mnuchin's company that was built to scam consumers and the federal government. Hmm, good looking out, now that I think about it, NFCU went out of their way (without my asking) to let me know they they would always service my loan (even if they sell it) but USAA made no such promise... Edit: USAA told me they never sell their loans no matter what, they only contract out the servicing to some companies they trust. One of those companies went bankrupt and was bought up by Ocwen which explains how they got stuck working with them, and they don't work with them anymore. They said if anything catastrophic ever happens with the loan servicing, they can always pull it back to their in-house servicing. So I guess I feel better with that explanation. Zero VGS fucked around with this message at 15:13 on Jul 14, 2017 |
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Jul 14, 2017 02:50
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At this point I have found out that none of the banks who do VA loans actually know how they work, and realtors advise sellers to accept offers with VA loans, AMA.
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Jul 25, 2017 16:30
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Also some neat new benefits I learned about : - Home Depot and Lowes are now doing a permanent 10% discount for disabled vets (any % rating, verify with your VA ID card), still no discount for non-disabled vets though. - Starting November 11th, all vets will be able to shop online at the military exchange sites (not on-base though). I'm not sure if the online stuff is a good deal or not; it is all tax-free, but then so is most everything on NewEgg/eBay. Maybe they have low markups? Sign up at https://www.vetverify.org/
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Aug 2, 2017 20:27
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The only reason they ever stop paying VA disability is if you go to prison, and they start it back up when you get out. For me this is a strong incentive to not go to prison.
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Aug 27, 2017 18:29
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DoktorLoken posted:Update: My claim went from gathering evidence to preparing for notification in like 12 hours. Nice work, also being over 30% means you can claim dependents like parents/children/spouse for bonus bucks.
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Sep 20, 2017 19:03
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