Eagle Cash
Eagle Cash (also: EagleCash) and EZPay are two related systems of stored-value cards developed by the U.S. Military for use at military facilities domestically and overseas. The systems center around a small plastic card, similar to a credit or debit card, which has an embedded microchip to keep track of the amount of money stored on the card. This allows soldiers with the card to purchase goods and services at U.S. military posts and canteens, without having to carry around cash, or manage their personal bank accounts while on deployment or in training. The program reduces the amount of U.S. currency required overseas, reduces theft, saves thousands of man-hours in financial labor and security, and helps reduce the cost of turning military pay into disposable income, by eliminating the need for money orders.[1]
Overview and history
Originally developed in 1997, the EZPay system was born as a pilot project aimed at inductees going into basic training, to alleviate some of the stress and cost of managing money while away from home.[1] Many U.S. military bases are structured like small towns, where extra goods and services are available for sale. However, transferring wages into cash, in order to purchase desired products has traditionally been a struggle.[2] The system works through the soldier receiving an advance on their wages in the form of the EZPay card, which they can then use to purchase goods and services, such as haircuts, snacks, and recreational activities at on-base shops and stores. At the end of basic training, the balance on the card would be reconverted into cash, and paid back to the soldiers.[1] The project was a great success, since it eliminated the need for bases to keep money on hand, and saved soldiers approximately $125,000 a year in banking fees.[3]
Around the same time, the EZPay system was expanded for overseas use during the aftermath of the 1992-1995 War in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where U.S. personnel were deployed on peace-keeping missions.[1][4] Named "Eagle Cash", the overseas system functions similarly to the EZPay system, but with the added ability of soldiers to attach personal bank accounts to the card, allowing them to load, and reload, without having to access their financial institutions back home. As 386th Air Expeditionary Wing financial manager, Catherine Miles explained in a 2007 article, "It's like a gift card. [...] You can put as little or as much money as you want on it and it comes from your checking account."[5] Unlike regular debit cards, the Eagle Cash is managed on-base, using batch processing which ensures that the cards remained useful even when connections to banks and credit unions State-side are severed.[6] The system was given widespread acceptance in 1999, just before the War in Iraq; it has since been expanded to many military bases such as Camp Anaconda on the front lines.[6]
Benefits and savings
For soldiers, the benefits are straightforward, but for the officers in charge of the system the benefits are much more extensive. Transporting US currency overseas costs the military hundreds of thousands of dollars annually — during the Iraq War, for every $1,000,000 sent to pay soldiers in Iraq, it cost $60,000 in security, logistics, and support fees.[6] It also eliminates the need for the World War II practice of producing military script. In addition, the use of a cashless economy at military stores reduces transaction times, freeing up personnel from non-essential tasks like stamping money orders or counting pennies — during 9 months of the Iraq War, this saved approximately 5000 hours of processing time for financial personnel.[6][7] It also prevents counterfeiting and reduces the impact US servicemen have on the local economy — an important consideration, since as Juan DeJesus at the Department of the Army explains, "[e]very time a servicemember spends U.S. dollars in the Middle East theater, it's potentially helping fund terrorism because the U.S. dollar has stronger market value in this region."[4]
Since the initial adoption of the Eagle Cash system, it has been augmented by ATM-like kiosks which allow soldiers to add funds to the card without having to visit the base's finance office.[5] Originally, this requirement forced them to wait in long lines to refill their cards, reducing the utility of the system.[2] The conversion to the kiosk system, which was developed by NCR Corporation, remedied these problems and increased the ability of the system to provide easy cash for soldiers away from home — "something we often take for granted, but for soldiers deployed on foreign land, it has always been a challenge".[2] To date, the Eagle Cash and EZPay systems' 250,000 cards have been "used to process 9 million electronic transactions valued at over $800 million."[7]
See also
References
- ^ a b c d "Army Adopts EZPay for Trainees, Tests Eagle Cash in Bosnia". Army News Service. 2000-08-17.
{{cite news}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help) - ^ a b c Harris, Bryan (2006-01-17). "Smart cards, kiosks ease Army life". Kiosk Marketplace. Retrieved 2008-02-16.
- ^ Snyder, Lisa Beth (2000), Army Adopts EZPay and Eagle Cash, vol. 55, Soldiers
{{citation}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help) - ^ a b Clayton, Debra (2008-05-14). "Eagle Cash Helps Manage Money". United States Central Command / Military.com. Retrieved 2008-02-16.
{{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ a b Butterfield, Phillip (2007-09-13). "Eagle Cash card: Money spreads its wings". The Military Family Network. Retrieved 2008-02-16.
- ^ a b c d Conner, Nicholas (2007-03-31). "Eagle Cash Card comes to Camp Taji". Blackanthem Military News. Retrieved 2008-02-16.
- ^ a b "Overview: Eagle Cash". United States Department of the Treasury. 2008-02-05. Retrieved 2008-02-16.