phil_77

definitely report it...but remember the Security Clearance investigation is only as good as the person who conducts it....which makes me wonder sometimes. I have a Secret, for which I had to test twice (enlisted and then officer) and I was pretty general on a lot of stuff (who can remember who lived next to you 7-10 years ago, and the address? pfft) Both Clearances were approved with no problem. Still best to report it though. Maybe a TS-SCI would be much harder to get, I dunno

If you are just starting out in your career, I would shy away from dumping $7k (cash) on a depreciating asset. Save your money, buy something cheaper, have a very small car payment or no payment at all (depending on what you buy). Don't get sucked into the notorious "I gotta show off what I drive when we all roll up for formation 4x a day." Just some words of advice... I've seen way too many Joes rolling the latest G-ride sitting on chrome, with speakers out the a$$ (all financed of course), with no cash for an emergency and barely enough to put gas in the thing. If you do go that route (the auto loan), being in the military shouldn't impact you in any adverse way. Most car dealerships around post deal with guys like you all the time, as soon as you pop in there with an LES their finance dept has it all worked out. Sounds like you are going with your own bank though, which is better. Walk in there with your financing all sorted, makes life easier. Good luck

Militaryonesource.com is decent, but it's more like a directory (from what I've seen and experienced). You call up with an issue, they give you a # to call or a contact of a company or person that can help you with your issue. Kind of like a switchboard... You are incorrect. As mentioned upthread, BAS is paid for the SERVICEMEMBERS meals. When on a ship, or deployed overseas, the service member has messing available (galley on the ship, etc...) Marital status is not considered. I'm staring at my LES right now, I'm deployed and get BAS (Subsistence allowance). I'm married, and anyone over here that is married is also getting BAS. I know my Soldiers are for sure. When I deployed the 1st time I also got it. I had my ID stolen when I was stationed in Germany. Someone used my Identity to open up phone accounts and use false addresses with Verizon and another company in California. I had proof I was in Europe and there was no possible way it could have been me. I filed disputes, police reports, hounded the credit agencies...all to no avail. The collection agencies didn't care, all they wanted was their money. I guess in their case, everyone has a story...lol This was about 10 years ago. It took a few years to get it resolved, I finally looked up the Verizon website in Cali and starting guessing what the email addresses were for the people listed as senior management. I got an email back from a Senior VP and they finally cleared it up. Still took another year or so for my credit to start recovering. It was a major hassle. I now use the USAA credit monitoring services for like $5 a month.

It's been about a week (or more) since I posted this question up. I just wanted to let everyone know that I just checked my score again and it is BACK to what it used to be. (722) Talk about a scare! In the 720-730 range all year and dipped into the 650's for a month. Thankfully the mistake got resolved and I'm back up in the 720's again.

Good point. Thanks. Basically an official letter stating their mistake and that it would be removed from my credit. Thanks everyone for the responses.

nothing else has changed...other than the normal balances going down on revolving or installment accounts (mortgage/credit cards etc) because I'm paying on time. I have no inquiries, haven't applied for any loans or such or had any other major things change with the account in at least a year. If you look at the trend, my score has stayed in the 720-730 range for at least the last 2 years, and this one item perfectly coincides with the drop. So it's a waiting game. Like I said, since there are no other changes you would think it should return back to normal. I was just wondering if anyone else faced this issue. Thanks

I looked around here (the forums) for about 10 minutes and couldn't find it, so I'm posting it. The question is, when someone posts a collection account (mistakenly) to your credit report, and then they remove it, will your score return back to what it was? You would think that it should...but you never know. Also I wonder how long this takes? Here's the story: I'm in the military, I got a letter from an agency saying that I owed them $1200. I did not owe them $1200, which I shared with them through some emails and we got it sorted out. They also asked for a copy of my orders showing I am currently deployed. No problem, scan/emailed to them the next day. I'm good to go...so I thought. This was about 4 months ago. A few weeks ago, checking up on my credit and notice my score has tanked from the 730's to the 650's. WTF??? I see the collection my report for $1200, of course I was upset. I sent a few more emails, made some phone calls. They were so very apologetic, sorry they had made a mistake not sure how it happened. I got like 3 "we are so sorry" emails from different people. They sent a letter to me saying it was removed from the credit report and also confirmed this with me via email. And now I wait...I'm thinking it will take 30-60 days for it to "not" show up on my report anymore, but the big question is will my score go back to a 730? It remains to be seen...