Financial Assistance

Prior to accepting orders for an overseas duty station, you must see your command financial specialist for an overseas financial screening. It’s important to take a hard look at your financial situation. Two critical areas you and your financial specialist need to assess are your debt-to-income ratio and overall financial status.

When evaluating debt-to-income ratio, no more than 20% of a family's take-home pay should be going to pay debts. (Home mortgages are not included.) When screening for an overseas assignment, this ratio should be calculated using one income only. Recent data and research have shown that if a sailor has more than 25% of take-home pay going to credit and loan payments, the likelihood of early return increases significantly.

To evaluate your overall financial status, make a projected budget for the new duty station. Debt is a major concern, but you must also be aware of your spending patterns and anticipated overseas income and living expenses. Your command financial specialist can assist you in determining your financial status and developing an anticipated budget for the overseas assignment.

A well-prepared financial plan should help you to avoid the need for additional assistance. However, despite your planning, there are circumstances that are beyond your control. For such circumstances, the Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society is available for financial assistance.​

All active-duty, National Guard and reserve service members, their family members and survivors are eligible to receive no-cost financial counseling services. Services include support of mandatory training for services and individual and group counseling.

https://finred.usalearning.gov/pfcMap

Planning for the Future 
Invest in yourself and your future by planning ahead starting today. Use all of the resources that are available to you as a member of the military community and start increasing your wealth. You’ll be glad you did!

https://finred.usalearning.gov/Planning

The temporary lodging allowance is money issued to offset the cost of living in temporary lodgings (Navy Lodge, hotels, etc.) while looking for a permanent residence. TLA is intended to cover only your basic lodging, meals and incidentals, and is based on Naples' per diem rates.

TLA is broken into two parts: lodging costs and meals and incidental expenses.

Lodging has a maximum reimbursable limit. If your lodging costs are less than the limit, you will be reimbursed only for your actual lodging costs. If your lodging costs are greater than the limit, you will be paid only the maximum rate. Any costs beyond the limit are your responsibility.

M&IE is a set rate based on the availability of cooking facilities. If you stay in lodging with no cooking facilities, you will be paid the full rate. If you stay in lodging with cooking facilities, your M&IE is reduced by 50%. The Navy Lodge has kitchenettes in every room, so the M&IE is reduced by 50%. Regardless of whether your expenses are above or below your determined M&IE rate, you will receive the full amount.

TLA is paid in 10-day increments. Military personnel must present lodging receipts and obtain housing's recommendation for TLA approval at the Housing Service Center every 10 days. These claims must then be taken to your command TLA representative for approval. Finally, the Personnel Support Detachment uses your TLA claim to compute your reimbursement for lodging and M&IE. PSD will then subtract 10 days’ worth of your basic allowance for housing and basic allowance for subsistence, which you continue to draw while on TLA.

Military personnel are authorized up to 60 days TLA when arriving to Naples.

If not using government quarters due to none being available, you must obtain a CNA (Certificate of Non-Availability) from the Navy Lodge/NGIS before you obtain lodging in the economy. Not applicable if there is no military lodging in vicinity of your duty station.

Naval Support Activity Naples Facebook page

Commander, Navy Installation Command website

TLA, OHA, MIHA, COLA, PFTF - All these acronyms can be confusing. Your sponsor may have thrown these terms at you and tried to explain them. In essence, they are all programs to ease your way into your Italy assignment and reduce your out-of-pocket expenses both while arriving and throughout your tour. They are good deals, but you need to know what they are and how they work. Your finance center will tell you your individual allowances and explain them during Monday's personnel support detachment mass check-in.

OHA

The Overseas Housing Allowance is designed to partially offset housing expenses at overseas duty locations when service members live in privately leased housing on the local economy when government-leased or on-base housing is not available. Key facts:

• OHA partially offsets the housing costs of living on the local economy by adapting to varied housing conditions worldwide.
• OHA reflects what service members are actually paying in housing costs and is adjusted for local currency exchange rates.

This website reflects all paygrades and their OHA Rental Allowance/Utility & Maintenance Allowance/MIHA rate based on location code (i.e. Naples is "IT055"). OHA Rental Allowance - This is the cap for your rent. Anything you pay for rent over this amount comes out of pocket, if you pay less you get paid the amount that your rent is (converted to USD). Utility/Maintenance Allowance: This money is paid in addition to your rental allowance. On the LES, you will see these two rates combined into one under "BAH". 

https://www.travel.dod.mil/Allowances/Overseas-Housing-Allowance/OHA-Rate-Lookup/

MIHA: Rates can be found on below website, the same way you view OHA rates. 

https://www.travel.dod.mil/Allowances/Overseas-Housing-Allowance/OHA-Rate-Lookup/

COLA: Rates can be viewed on this website.

https://www.travel.dod.mil/Allowances/Overseas-Cost-of-Living-Allowance/Overseas-COLA-Rate-Lookup/

Additional info on policies for all above entitlements and more are found in the DOD FMR VOL 7A, in their applicable chapter.

https://comptroller.defense.gov/fmr/vol7a_chapters.aspx

MIHA

The Move-In Housing Allowance is a "one-time" allowance used to ease the financial burden of moving into economy quarters. It helps to defray the costs of additional cabinets, light fixtures and various other items for your home. Allowance is not offered to personnel who choose to live in government quarters.

COLA

The Cost of Living Allowance is a variable allowance that is closely monitored to ensure that all service members receive an increase in the money required to survive the cost of living fluctuations. Naples is considered a high cost of living area. Payments are determined by:

• Location
• Rank
• Years of service
• Number of dependents
• Overseas COLA is only based on a service member's income, not a spouse's.
• Overseas COLA fluctuations should be considered in household 
  budgeting. Fixed expenses such as car payments should be based on what a service member can afford without overseas COLA.
• Overseas COLA will fluctuate based on the exchange rate and could go up or down from 
  pay period to pay period

Banking and Credit Cards

A number of banking options are available to service members and civilian employees. Service members may easily maintain stateside accounts by utilizing the direct deposit system. Net pay will be electronically transferred on or before payday to your stateside bank. Navy Federal Credit Union offers full services including a 24-hour ATM tied into the PLUS and Armed Forces Financial Network for all active-duty military personnel, civilians employed by Department of Defense and their families. Clubs and associations of the above are also eligible for membership. Banca Intesa San Paolo is an Italian bank located at Capodichino in building 450, first floor, and provides various services. Their hours are Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. and from 2:45 p.m. to 4:15 p.m. The Navy Exchange takes Master Card and Visa. You may also wish to maintain credit with major mail order companies.

Community Bank

Community Bank, operated by Bank of America, is contracted by the DOD to provide stateside-like banking services exclusively to the military community. Customers can take advantage of the wide range of services that are designed for the unique requirements of the military members and civilians stationed overseas.

Community Bank is located at Naval Support Activity Capodichino and has two ATMs which dispense euro and dollars.

Community Bank also provides no fee currency exchanges euro money transfers for rent or and local expenses, no-fee checking and savings and local utility bill payment services. Community Bank is open from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday through Friday.