Told pay starts in Basic, but a paper my wife had to sign said it may not start until after. This happens?

Question

In meeting with the recruiter we were told that pay starts in Basic training, but the direct deposit may take a couple of weeks. But, my wife had to sign a paper with information for dependents and one of the items on that paper stated that I may not be paid during training. Is this true? I am talking about the NAVY.
Thanks.

Answer 1

You do get paid in basic, BUT with the thousands of recruits that go through boot camp every month it takes a while to get the paperwork setup for the hundreds of different banks and credit unions everyone uses. What they are telling you is you may not see a direct deposit into your checking account until after you leave boot camp or several weeks into boot camp. In the Navy you ONLY get paid on the 1st and the 15th of the month. You also need to take into consideration the pay you will lose when you buy your uniforms. About $1000 from your boot camp pay. You WILL get ALL pay due you at some point but they are trying to tell you not to count on any money right off. It is basically a warning to make sure you have other money available to pay bills at home until your pay is established. You may need to borrow money and repay money to family or friends while you are in boot camp if you don't currently have money in savings or your wife does not work. It is way better to set up all financial stuff now before you leave for boot camp than it is to try to figure stuff out from boot camp when you don't have access to the telephone, computers or much of anything else. Communicate with your wife about all bills for everything including utilities, credit cards, car loans, rent or mortgage and anything else you need to pay and when they are due. You will be just fine once your pay kicks in but you may have some problems prior to that time. Be ready and prepared before you leave. Your wife had to sign a form stating she is aware of the pay situation so she can't come back and throw a fit saying she never knew about anything. Good luck and things will be ok once you get in and things get established for you.

Answer 2

Well, I am in the Army but I cannot see pay being any different since it is all DFAS that handles it. (Defense Finance and Accounting Services) Your pay will start the day you enter training. Your direct deposit (if filled out on the SF1199) may take as long as a week) You should make sure that before you ship (when you are at MEPS) that one of the Navy guys sits you down to establish a MyPay account on line to begin your direct deposit. Once you are in the pay system you should have an account. As far as your dependents go, yeah, it may take a little while to receive the pay difference for BAH (basic allowance for housing) with dependents. And since your spouse will not be with you, you should receive BAH for your home of record zip code.

Answer 3

weelll.. Navy Boiot camp is 9 weeks long.. and the average time it takes to get paid.. is 8 weeks. so yeah, technically it could theorteically be that long. But don't worry, it WILL be retroactive. promise.

word of advice( found this out the hard way)

contact your creditors NOW and make arrangements to either skip a payment or forgive late fees. this is especially important for little things like the car payment, rent/mortgage and insurance.

That way you will knwo ahead fo time who is willing to work with you and who will be a pain inthe tuckus.

Answer 4

until pay records get established, there is a possibility of a slight delay. It also depends on if you start in the middle of a pay cycle or not.