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So I just received a bill from DFAS for $3,000 for the Survivor's Benefit Plan. They've been charging me (with interest!) for three years and seven months and I am only just now being notified of this, but I'm expected to pay this by 28 November. My email address and APO address have remained the same the entire time. The only thing that changed was my local German address, and my previous landlord never mentioned me getting any mail there, and we kept in touch with them for a year afterward. You would think that if someone hasn't been paying their bill for over three years that someone would get in touch with that person, right? I called their hotline today (there is no menu option for questions about billing,) and after waiting for 45 minutes was simply told that there is nothing they can do for me. She said the only thing I can do is write DFAS and ask them to discontinue the SBP, because I told her that I had no knowledge of signing up for it and in fact remember telling the dude that I didn't want it. But even stopping it now won't do anything about the $3,000 that I suddenly now know I owe them. When I asked why it wasn't coming out of my VA payments like it apparently does for most people, she didn't have an answer. Has anyone had any experience with this and know what my options would be in this case? Edit: she did ask who I do my banking with...are they just going to try and get the money that way?
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Nov 21, 2018 19:16
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| # ¿ May 22, 2024 18:52 |
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Looking into it further, I apparently can't even decide I don't want to be in it anymore, since it has been longer than 3 years. So, I guess I'm stuck paying for this for the rest of my life? I medically retired at 28 years old, why the gently caress would I have signed up for this. I also only recently looked at my credit report and it was excellent, with no mention of this apparently 3 years old debt against me. Everything about this is fishy as gently caress. The DFAS website specifically says it reports you to credit agencies monthly for delinquent payments. GoGoGadget fucked around with this message at 19:35 on Nov 21, 2018 |
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Nov 21, 2018 19:26
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Soulex posted:They will. I just got dinged by collections on a debt I didnt know about from DFAS. My debt is supposedly 3 years old...hasn't shown up on collections yet.
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Nov 21, 2018 19:44
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McNally posted:That's not how it works. SBP comes out of VA only if VA and SBP are giving YOU money, not the other way around. I am. So I guess so long as I die way before my wife it could be a net positive, but I much rather would have paid the monthly fee instead of having to pay $3,000 all at once within 7 days of being notified. And I have no idea how much interest they've charged me. not caring here posted:There's a period of time that you pay into the spb and then you've got it for life. I think it's like 10 years. It's 30 years, and only if you're 70 after those 30 years. Which I will not be. So this almost certainly is an extremely raw deal for me. GoGoGadget fucked around with this message at 20:29 on Nov 21, 2018 |
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Nov 21, 2018 20:25
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I imagine you can use the Vocational Rehabilitation for certifications such as the CompTIA Security+ cert, right? Does anyone know who I would need to get into contact with to start this process? I am in Germany still, but when I outprocessed from Ramstein 3 years ago they kind of rushed everything to the point where I never actually outprocessed at many places (I still have my chem gear, for example) and was never really given any good information. Also, going through all of my military paperwork for the DFAS issue, I discovered that I was tricked into signing up for the Montgomery GI Bill when I went through basic in 2011. That $1,200 is just lost to the wind at this point, right? There's no reason to use that over the Post 9/11? I really seem to have an issue with signing up for things I don't fully understand and losing thousands of dollars over it. Enlisted.txt On that note, I also DID sign up for SBP, but as I am 70% VA disabled my wife will be receiving the Dependency and Indemnity Compensation when I croak anyway, so it literally makes zero financial sense for me to have done that. In fact, I'm pretty sure what I thought I was doing was just electing THAT money to go to her.
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Nov 23, 2018 11:59
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GoGoGadget posted:So I just received a bill from DFAS for $3,000 for the Survivor's Benefit Plan. They've been charging me (with interest!) for three years and seven months and I am only just now being notified of this, but I'm expected to pay this by 28 November. My email address and APO address have remained the same the entire time. The only thing that changed was my local German address, and my previous landlord never mentioned me getting any mail there, and we kept in touch with them for a year afterward. You would think that if someone hasn't been paying their bill for over three years that someone would get in touch with that person, right? I called their hotline today (there is no menu option for questions about billing,) and after waiting for 45 minutes was simply told that there is nothing they can do for me. She said the only thing I can do is write DFAS and ask them to discontinue the SBP, because I told her that I had no knowledge of signing up for it and in fact remember telling the dude that I didn't want it. But even stopping it now won't do anything about the $3,000 that I suddenly now know I owe them. When I asked why it wasn't coming out of my VA payments like it apparently does for most people, she didn't have an answer. Has anyone had any experience with this and know what my options would be in this case? As an update to this, I ended up contacting my Congressman about it, and a month and a few emails back and forth between me and the dude that deals with claims against a governmental agency later, I received a passive aggressive letter from DFAS giving me the paperwork to cancel the SBP. Thanks Rep. Chris Collins! I still hope you go to prison for your insider trading!
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Jan 5, 2019 20:14
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Is there any way to find your VA Claim Number besides from letters from the VA? I have looked all over VA.gov and the ebenefits pages and neither seem to be working or they just apparently have absolutely no information on me. They don't even show payment history for my disability compensation.
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Jan 7, 2019 15:41
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This makes me wonder something. I'm medically retired and at 70%, but I can use Space A. 100% disabled veterans also have to be retired, right? So why are they only just recently able to use Space A? Why would they get less benefits than me at 70%? Someone said it's because I'm still subject to UCMJ and can be recalled at any point, while they cannot be recalled and are not subject to UCMJ. Is this true?
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Mar 10, 2019 12:34
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MonkeyWash posted:100 Percent Disabled vets can now fly on Space A whether retired or not, but their families can't, which is kind of dumb. But how can you be 100% disabled and not retired? Just if it isn't service connected?
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Mar 19, 2019 11:38
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Post 9/11 GI Bill BAH is based on the BAH national average, correct? I have looked everywhere but I cannot find this number. All of the information I can find is specific to certain ZIP codes. I ask because I received a letter from the VA saying that I owe them $2,497 that they claim to have overpaid me due to "corrections or changes" to my Chapter 33 information. There have been no changes, so the only thing I can figure is that the rate changed and they didn't correct it until now? I am still attending full-time, have been consistently since January, and have not dropped or failed any classes. In January they paid me $1,380.40, February they paid me $2,436, and March they paid me two weird amounts, $573 and $744.90. January was a half month, since I started on like the 14th or something. But February and March have both been full months of attendance at full-time.
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Apr 2, 2019 16:52
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Nick Soapdish posted:National average is if you are exclusively online and is $825.00/month. I'm not, half of my classes are in person. I am attending UMUC in Germany, but it is not a foreign school, and they state that the BAH is the national average for E5 with dependents. I should be getting 100% of whatever that is, as I am taking 12 credits a semester and half or more are in person. Edit: Apparently it's $2,436. I still couldn't find this anywhere as what was listed as the "national average," but found it for what I should expect to be paid at the specific school on va.gov GoGoGadget fucked around with this message at 17:31 on Apr 2, 2019 |
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Apr 2, 2019 17:08
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Nah, after calling them and speaking to four different people for nearly four hours, they can't seem to see why there is a debt and are sending it back to get it looked at again. Really shows what a great system they have that they don't even add a reason for the debt to their records. So in the meantime I'm just hosed because they've decided to start paying me some arbitrary amount that just over half of what I'm supposed to get. Thanks, VA!
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Apr 2, 2019 21:08
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Nostalgia4Butts posted:yeah, honorable discharge and im guessing ACDUTRA is active duty reserve army Try growing up there. My mom worked at the chow hall most of my childhood. Even after she quit I still lived in that area until I was 18.
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May 12, 2019 23:04
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Nostalgia4Butts posted:you poor bastard. nothing outside that base but car dealerships and a super wal mart When were you there last? St. Roberts actually built up a lot after around 2008 or so. I mean, we're talking adult superstores and strip joint compounds. At least there's a Sonic...
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May 13, 2019 14:20
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So after a lengthy back and forth between the VA, my Representative's office, and the Air Force Board of Corrections or something like that, they have decided that I am stuck paying for the SBP for the rest of my life with no possible way out. As a recap, I never received a bill for this until 3 years after I was medically retired. I thought I didn't sign up for it. Apparently I did. And you can't get out of it except between the first and second year - real convenient that I didn't get a bill until this period was over! After that you are a slave to the system as apparently you aren't allowed to ever decide you don't want to participate again. And I'm also stuck paying for the interest that has accrued during those first three years AND while I was fighting it. I was medically retired at 27 and will most likely die from a heart related complication, thus my wife would receive money from DIC therefore completely invalidating any and all money I will be forced to pay into the SBP until I am 70 years old. GoGoGadget fucked around with this message at 23:28 on May 27, 2019 |
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May 27, 2019 23:25
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DoktorLoken posted:drat that sucks. No further legal avenues? I doubt it. It's an actual law that you're stuck in it except between nthe first and second year, apparently. It would take an act of Congress to change it. The VA even brought this up passive aggressively to my representative asking if they were planning on changing the law. McNally posted:
That is a big part of why I don't want it, so that does help. Hope it goes through. I really don't like the idea of being forced to pay for it for the rest of my life if I don't want to, though. Especially since I wasn't actually given the opportunity to get out of it since I never received a bill until after that period. Literally no other life insurance I know of works that way.
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May 28, 2019 00:12
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Do any other states do stuff like that?
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Jun 9, 2019 23:20
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Flying_Crab posted:AFAIK you need a VA healthcare ID that says service connected. I didn't even know this was a thing. I have the blue medical retiree card but nothing else. I've been in Germany since I got out so I haven't been to the VA, only on-base facilities. Am I able to get this card? Not that I need to, I guess, since I already have access to the commissary and exchange via my wife.
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Jan 6, 2020 07:51
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zharmad posted:The blue card is DD Form 2 (Retired and entitled to pay), it should give you full MWR/Exchange/Commissary Privileges CONUS. You might not have privileges OCONUS, it varies country to country. If your wife is active, go to DEERS and get a dependent ID card as well (brown card.) I have my Guard CAC, my Contractor CAC, and my brown dependent card since my wife is active, so you can have multiple ID's with no issues. Nah, I have the brown and blue card. I have full access. I was more asking about the VA card, since I imagine I will need that when we go back stateside.
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Jan 7, 2020 00:28
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So does everyone utilizing the GI Bill get BAH right now? I was holding off until my school provided the classes I need in person so I'd get it, but if I can get it with fully online classes now instead of in person...
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Apr 18, 2020 09:41
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Logging onto tricare-overseas.com to submit claims for mental health that I've been paying out of pocket for while living in Germany, I decided to look into what coverage I actually have and this showed: I never changed anything, so is there a reason that Tricare Plus With Tricare for Life expired? Or is Tricare Plus with Retired Select better? I'm medically retired at 70%, was retired in April of 2015, so I'm also not sure why the listed coverages start in 2017, but it also appears to expire today for some reason? GoGoGadget fucked around with this message at 12:57 on Oct 14, 2020 |
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Oct 14, 2020 12:53
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I was recently diagnosed with Obstructive Sleep Apnea, so I've been trying to get it added to my rating via VA.gov, but for the past two weeks any time I try and submit the form it just says "There has been an error submitting your information." I called the VA, and they routed me to "IT Support," which actually just ended up being the same number I had already called. No real question here, because I guess the only option is to try and submit it via mail. Was more wondering if anyone else had tried to submit a claim and had similar issues recently.
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Nov 3, 2021 16:02
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CRUSTY MINGE posted:Did you use a VSO rep or file on your own? Getting a DAV rep on it would be a pretty good step to take at this point, if you're flying solo. I've never used a VSO rep, I was trying to file on my own. I haven't made any changes since getting out in 2015. Guess I'll look into a finding a VSO. I'm also still not entirely sure what my Tricare/VA health insurance covers. I've been being seen at Ramstein from 2015 until now, and now I'm being seen at a (seemingly really good) VA clinic here in Missouri. Since I was being seen by the military instead of the VA before, I didn't really have to worry about these things. Where could I go to find out exactly what plan I'm under and what all it covers?
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Nov 3, 2021 17:23
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Hekk posted:Are you retired? Do you pay for TriCare? I'm medically retired at 70%. I was only in for 4.5 years, so I'm not RETIRED retired, just medically. I do not pay for Tricare. I think I have Tricare For Life or Tricare Prime?
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Nov 3, 2021 18:21
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LtCol J. Krusinski posted:Where in Missouri are you? Springfield, Missouri. I called the Missouri Veterans Commission and left a voicemail. As for paying for Tricare, I receive $1,566.71 a month, which is the rate for 70% with spouse. Unless that's baked in to the compensation amounts, I don't seem to pay for anything. My rating is from the VA and not the Air Force, if that matters. The AF was only going to give me 60% (they didn't accept the 10% for anxiety/depression.) I'm legally separated from my spouse now though, so I should probably do something about that.. GoGoGadget fucked around with this message at 19:04 on Nov 3, 2021 |
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Nov 3, 2021 18:59
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CRUSTY MINGE posted:So you took the VA rating over the AF, good. I guess my main concern is if I have to go to an ER. The VA here is a clinic with no ER, so I don't know if it'd be worth getting health insurance via work for that. I'm fine when it comes to working, most of my rating is from heart surgery that hasn't really negatively affected me physically. That's also why I'm somewhat hesitant to get a full re-evaluation - I'm worried they'll decrease it. McNally posted:I spoke with my case manager at my senator's office. In response to her "hey, it's been over two weeks, what gives?" email the VA sent the same "give us two weeks" email they sent three weeks ago. After getting that she made some phone calls, reached nobody, and left voicemails that haven't been answered. I had to have my Representative's office contact the VA once for a debt I had. The VA essentially responded to them with a "If you want this changed, change the law."
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Nov 3, 2021 19:46
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I've been trying to schedule a meeting with my local VSO for a month now. Dude never answers his phone and he has just stopped responding to my voicemails. I still can't submit my claim for my new sleep apnea diagnosis online, I keep getting the same generalized error with no options for resolution. Guess I'm just going to do it by mail.
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Nov 20, 2021 17:56
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I'm medically retired with a 70% VA disability rating. I live in the same city as a well-equipped VA clinic (but not hospital,) and have been using that clinic for the past two years without issue besides disliking my PCM. Is there any reason for me to also sign up for Tricare Select or my employer's health plan, which is only $12 a month? I ask because I recently discovered I am still signed up for Tricare Select Overseas from the time I stayed in Germany after retiring. In DEERS, my ex wife is still listed as a dependent. I wanted to update both of those things, but apparently have to do it in person at an ID card office, of which there are two near me...but both are always closed and seemingly can't be booked online. I'll also need to update it again when I get married in April and change my last name.
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Jan 12, 2024 15:31
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Is Tricare cheaper than $12 a month? That's what my employer health care would cost due to being heavily subsidized by the university. Dental and vision are also free through the university so I don't have to worry about that. I am happy with all the medications I get through the VA currently, with the exception of having to go to a specialist to get the 300mg version of Wellbutrin because my PCM wasn't comfortable prescribing more than 150mg...
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Jan 13, 2024 16:36
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