Coming soon: the 1 March 2016 military pay day. This regular, active duty pay day falls on a Tuesday, which adds all sorts of confusion and complication for service members who get early direct deposit as a courtesy or benefit from their bank.
As always, if you don't have any reason to suspect that your pay will be deposited early, you should plan for your pay to be deposited sometime on the actual payday, Tuesday, 1 March 2016.
One Business Day Early
The most common early direct deposit offer provided by banks and credit unions is to deposit the pay "one business day" ahead of the regular scheduled payday. This one isn't too complicated, as one business day prior to the actual payday is Monday, 29 February 2016. (Note for Navy Federal Customers - they are different, see below.) This includes USAA, Pacific Marine Credit Union, and others.
Navy Federal Credit Union
Navy Federal Credit Union (NFCU) has two different pay deposit dates based upon which type of checking account you use for your pay deposit. Navy Federal only offers early direct deposit for customers who use an Active Duty Checking account for their military pay deposit. Members who use any other account type are paid on the regular military payday.
Early deposits over weekends is a little tricky with Navy Federal because of the way that they handle their deposit processing. Navy Federal processes transactions overnight, Monday through Friday evenings (for however long it takes,) for those transactions to be completed for the next day. With deposits, they are actually processed the night before the deposit is "due." When the deposit would need to be processed on a weekend or holiday in order to be in the account on it's "due" date, then Navy Federal processes the deposit on the last business day prior to the "due" date, so deposits that are meant to be available on Mondays are typically available on the Saturday prior.
Customers who use an Active Duty checking account will see their pay pending on Friday, 26 February 2016, to be processed overnight and available for use on Saturday, 27 February 2016.
Customers who use any other type of checking account will see their pay pending on Monday, 29 February 2016, to be processed overnight and available for use on Tuesday, 1 March 2016.
Service Credit Union
Service Credit Union offers early direct deposit of military pay "up to two business days" prior to the actual payday. They anticipate depositing military pay on Friday, 26 February 2016, pending the receipt of pay information from the Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS.)
Because 15 March 2016 is also a Tuesday, you an anticipate the same shakeout of how pays actually get deposited for the next pay period. Everyone should get paid just two weeks later, regardless of whether they are paid the day before or two days before or whatever. Keep in mind that if your pay comes before the weekend these next two pay periods, you'll be facing a longer pay period at the end of March.
