Banking in the Marines.

[ryangassxx]

Hello Marines,

Unlike most recruits, I'm going into the Marines as an adult (27). That being the case, I have a lot of adult responsibility type loose ends that have to be tied before I leave. One of which is my banking situation. I'm a single guy who does not intend on leaving any sort of power of attorney to anyone when I leave. My finances are set up so that my pay check is direct deposited into my checking account every pay day, and my bills are set to auto debit from my account on specific dates. It all works out very nicely. So, now that I'm leaving I have to square away all of my stuff and close all of my accounts.

Now for my question...

From what I understand, once you're in the Marines a Navy Federal account is created for you in which all of your wages are deposited into. Out of curiosity today I went on the Navy Federal site and learned that as a DEP I am eligible to enroll in Navy Federal now. So,... Would it then be possible to open an account with Navy Federal, start direct depositing into, and begin transitioning my bill payments to that account? In the chaos of processing at MCRD, would I be able to communicate to the administrative people that my Navy Federal account already exists and to just use that one?

What I'm trying to achieve is to have a seamless transition from my civilian banking to my military banking. Will it work?

[Vandrel]

Whatever bank you want to use for direct deposit, just bring a voided check with you and keep it in your blue money valueable bag. When they send you to the class for you to get a lecture on direct deposit and FSNB (east coast) or Marine West (west coast), just decline and provide your account and routing number on the forms they give you.

Your direct deposit is setup in boot camp, not before. If you can, get signed up with NFCU now.

You don't have to use a military bank if you don't want to, technically they are not military anyways, they are just the standard "here ya go" places for people who are 18 and never had a bank account before in their life.