The Government Travel Charge Card program is known as GSA SmartPay. The GSA SmartPay program provides government charge cards to agencies throughout the United States government, through master contracts negotiated with major national banks. In June 2007, the Office of Charge Card Management awarded the GSA SmartPay 2 master contracts to Citibank, JP Morgan Chase, and U.S. Bank. Through these contracts, agencies can obtain a government individually billed travel charge card (IBT) as well as a number of different types of charge card services to support their mission needs.
The Federal Travel Regulations (FTR) requires mandatory use of the government travel charge card by government travelers. However, each agency policy can mandate when an IBT should be obtained depending on what each agency considers a “frequent” or “infrequent” traveler.
If a traveler is issued an IBT government charge card, the card may only be used for official government travel expenses such as lodging, transportation expenses, and meals while on official travel. Travelers should also be using the card’s Automated Teller Machine (ATM) capability to obtain cash advances if necessary.
Both the agency and the traveler benefit when the travel charge card is used. Travelers no longer need to carry large sums of cash by using their government travel charge card. As a convenience for the traveler, there are many ATM’s across the country that will accept the travel card when a cash advance is needed. Some hotels and rental car agencies waive Federal taxes when travelers use their government travel charge card.
The government agency also benefits by receiving a rebate on purchases charged directly to the travel charge card.
By: Robyn Rice
“The contents of this message are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the Government or my agency.”