I heard that the commissary surcharge is going up, and it's going to cost us more to shop there. Is that true?
There's good news and bad news. First, the good news is that the surcharge is definitely not going up. And in case you don't believe me, here's a quote straight from the commissary headquarters:
Kevin Robinson, a commissary spokesperson, told us, "It would take a change in law to raise the commissary surcharge and, to date, no legislation has been proposed to do so."
The commissary surcharge has long been set at 5%. You'll find it noted at the end of your commissary receipt, and it is calculated on your total purchase amount before coupons are deducted. Revenue from the surcharge pays for commissary construction and infrastructure updates.
There is, however a relatively recent additional fee for some shoppers using debit or credit cards. Service connected disabled veterans rated below 100%, Purple Heart recipients and their caregivers registered with the VA's caregiver program are authorized access to the commissary starting Jan.1, 2020.
But when adding those users to the system, DeCA also added a credit and debit card fees for those users. For credit cards the fee is 1.9% and for debit card use a 0.5% fee. These don’t come into play if you pay with cash, check or the Military Star card.
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