First let me state that my husband is active duty military and currently in Iraq.
Totally unexpectedly, our Maryland tax return was recently intercepted by AAFES (Army & Air Force Exchange Service).
Acting as power of attorney, I phoned AAFES immediately to inquire about this baffling, out-of-no where debt my husband supposedly has. I was told our return was applied to his outstanding debt from February 2004 charges on his Military Star credit card which, after applying the return, was now $2,700.29! I asked for a statement showing me what the charges were and the woman I was speaking with told me AAFES had sent my husband a notice back in February of 2004 and that they only send one out. She said she could send me a summary but it would take 30 days to reach me. I had her put in the request.
My husband is completely baffled. He wasn't even in the military in February 2004! He was active duty Army until 9/00 and then went into the National Guard in 2/05. When he was active duty Army, he said he had a DPP card (a deferred payment card) but that his debt on that card had been paid off by his dad back then. Furthermore, what also makes no sense here is how AAFES went after our Maryland return (which is really mine since I made all the money in Maryland last year but we filed jointly) but not his Utah return which is twice what our Maryland return is (not that I'm complaining).
As of a conversation with my husband this morning, he contacted AAFES himself today. The guy he spoke with told him his account has already been purged and gone to collections! My husband told him he never even had a Military Star card and the guy argued with him that a DPP card is the same thing--NO, IT ISN'T! A credit card is a credit card; a DEFERRED PAYMENT card is obviously NOT!
It seems to me, first of all, that AAFES is not following ethical debt collection practices AT ALL. Secondly, don't we have a right to see a statement of the detailed charges for this debt before we blindly submit a payment??? I've read 5 other stories on the Net so far this morning about other military people getting screwed like this by AAFES and it seems they have no recourse!

