Stored-Value Card

Background

The SVC Program aims to end the float loss associated with the more than $2 billion in coin and currency in circulation on military bases, ships, and other locations around the world. SVCs also eliminate the cost of securing, transporting, and accounting for cash held outside the Treasury. In addition, the cards do away with the manually intensive back-end operations necessary to support scrip, vouchers, meal tickets, money orders, traveler's checks, and other paper payment mechanisms used in closed government environments.

The cards are issued to employees, soldiers, contractors, and others at government sites. They may fulfill a government payment, as is the case at all Army, Air Force, and Marine Corps basic military training sites, where soldiers receive their pay on SVCs. Or the cards may contain no value so that cardholders can load funds onto them from their personal bank accounts.

Merchant locations on government sites and ships, including stores, vending machines, and service providers, are equipped with stored-value collection terminals, allowing cardholders to make a purchase using the card.