Moving options for military families..?

Question

My husband and I will be getting out of the military this summer. We have heard of two options. We heard that the military will hire professional movers to move us home free of charge OR that the military will reimburse us 90% if we rent a U-haul and move ourselves. Are both of these true? Does anyone know any other options? Does anyone have a suggestion? It's time for us to figure this out. Thanks!

Answer 1

You have three choices.

You can use the government hired moving company to move your household for no cost.

You can hire your own moving company, the government will remburse you 100% of the rate they calculate the government hired moving company would have charged.

Note: If your moving company charges more, then you will have to make up the excess yourself.

And lastly, you can to a DITY move. A dity move is where you move yourself. You are rembursed at 95% of the rate the government would have paid a moving company to move you.

You can also get an advance on the moving charges to help rent a u-haul, etc.


NOW the nity gritty:

Of course the simplest move is to just allow the government movers to move you, insurance is provided for any damaged items. There are less headaches.

The down side is, you may get where your moving to, before your stuff gets there. Thats why alot of people go visit parents for a week beforehand, to allow their stuff to get to the city you are moving to first.

Hiring your own mover is just not worth the effort, unless you have a relative in the moving business. You generally won't be able to find one cheaper than the government does.

Dity moves. The reason to do a dity move are, your stuff arives when you do. And you may be able to make some serious cash off the move.

First thing you need to do, is contact the post moving office and see what the Government Constructive Cost (GCC) for your move will be. This will tell you how much the government is willing to spend to move your stuff.

Then you need to contact different rental companies and see how much it would cost you to rent the trucks to move yourself.

You need to include gasoline cost in your figures, U-haul's don't get very good gas millage.

The government will not pay for insurance, you will have to pay that yourself.

You will have to buy your own moving supplies, box's tape, etc and rent plenty of moving blankets.

After you factor in all the cost of moving by u-haul, you then compare it to the government Constructive Cost .

See how much money you will make.

Then determine if it is worth the hassle of self moving for the money you will make.


,
Generally, if you don't have children or have young children ( one or two ) and live within 1,000 miles of your post, dity moves can pay off.

But if you have a large family or live on the opposite coast of where you are moving. The move can be like hell.

You will either have to tow your car behind the u-haul or if you have two cars, tow one and drive the other.

Moving by u-haul is slow, you cannot drive as fast, they slow way down going up hills and your trip will take longer.

Answer 2

The first person was right.

The only other thing I would keep in mind is that if you do a DITY move (do it yourself) when you seperate, the military doesn't pay up front. Some friends of ours did a DITY move in December when he ETSed, but they didn't get paid until AFTER the move. If you have the cash to move up front that's fine, but if not it may make a difference in your plans.

One last thing - don't buy boxes! If your military installation has a recycling center, they give them away for free. Good boxes too, like the wardrobe boxes and dish barrels. They take the ones from the professional movers when people PCS and recycle or give them away. I didn't pay a dime for boxes last time we moved.

Answer 3

1. With the waiting list 2 to 4 months-- there is no temp housing for that long. Your temp housing will be to rent an apartment off post. Either that, or you stay where your at, until you get housing on post. 2. If this is your first move, id advise against a DITY move, just let the military do the move. 3. Since your gonna have to rent an apartment to live in, you do not need to store your stuff.

Answer 4

There's a lot more to it than this, and it depends on whether you're moving back into the US or just across the US.

The military will move your family and your household for free.

That's one way.

The other way is for you to do it yourself and get paid to do it. When I got out, I was paid to move my family (their bodies) and I was paid seperately to move the household (the stuff).

They will pay you what they think it costs to move from where you're at now to the place your hubby has listed as the home of record. You get money for mileage, food and per diem for moving your bodies, and you get all of your expenses for renting the moving trucks and doing it yourself. You also get some extra to move a second car if you move it seperately.

Usually, you get paid more than you actually spend if you're careful about it, and they let you keep it. You have to go through both the travel office and the property office, because the payments are seperately handled.

Answer 5

if you are Seperating, the military will move you back to his Home of Record. You can choose to do it all yourself( DITY) and they will pay you 90% of what it would have cost them to do it. it may be possible to make money on this, sometimes.

Alternatively, the Military will move all of your HHG themselves(well a contractor will). But remember.. they will only move you back to the HOR, so if you are wanting to move someplace else than that, you will pay the extra charges.

Say your last Duty station is CA and your HOR is TX, but you have a job lined up in MD. The military will only fund a move to TX, and anything past that you will have to pay for yourself.

Answer 6

Sort of true - according to Armytimes, they will ship your items (there are some guidelines on guns, cars & etc) or you can move your own. If you move your own, they figure what the cost would have been to Army & pay 95% of that.
My son & daughter in law prefer the Army pack & move the items. They used the self move to place their stuff in storage during their 1st assignment - he was never home at training for Ranger school. Good luck!

Answer 7

To get the answers to your question I would go the meeting for Military Members who are getting out. I am sure all your questions will be answered.

Answer 8

I let the Army move me and my stuff. It was free (for me, I was being medically retired for wounds in Desert Storm) and they stored my stuff for 1 month until I found a new place to live.

Answer 9

Let the military move you...they will even store it for a while.
At least they did 20 years ago.
The military move,,,they pack and carry...you move you pack and carry...you choose.

Answer 10

Yes, they will provide either/or, and I believe they will even provide these for up to six months, if you decide to try to live in the area he ETSed from.