Got retirement now what?

WCozart

PEB Forum Regular Member
Registered Member
I got changed to retirement. I have received my orders, got the retire Id cards. Problem I'm having is finding someone to help through the rest of the process. Tricare being a pain in the butt. I haven't been able to get through to DFAS. Anyone know of a department I can contact that can help me through the processes.
 
What branch? What is the issue with TriCare? Define rest of the process? What specifically is the issue?
 
If you are tying to reach DFAS Retired Pay, the following applies:

[DFAS] “Customer Service Representatives are available Monday through Friday, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Eastern Time. However, Monday is our busiest day, so we recommend calling Tuesday through Friday for shorter wait times.”

Toll-free: 800-321-1080
Local: 216-522-5955

DFAS https://www.dfas.mil/retiredmilitary/about/aboutus/customer-service.html <LINK to webpage

Retired pay is in the Eastern Time Zone. I always tried to be one of the first callers. They begin operations at 0800 hours.
I would begin calling from my Central Time Zone location at 0657 hours (0757 hrs their time). I would continuously call until I got through. It never took more than five minutes to the best of my memory. Others have successfully used this procedure.

Good luck.

Ron
 
I was Airforce. When I got my Id cards they told me to go over to the Tricare office on that base and make sure they back dated the effective date. So we did they told us they couldn't do that we had to call the 800 number. So we called 800 number they told us they couldn't back date coverage we had to contact DEERS, so we did that. Deers made sure it was in the system and contented us back to Tricare. The second rep we got at Tricare told us they couldn't back date but she saw in the system it was back dated with DEERS, so she but in a request form to back date to 1/1/2018 when they started the Tricare East program but it would take 15 days for a reply. So I asked do we now how coverage with Tricare so I can change all the insurance over and she told us no. Family currently has ChampVA so I figure since we already met our max payout for the year I'll stay on ChampVA insurance and let them fight it out with Tricare. Last time I talked to ChampVa they said they already had a system in place for members that are transferring to Tricare.
Thanks for info about DFAS I'll keep trying them.
 
When you get your ID cards you are in DEERS as retired. I was able to log into Milconnect.com and enroll in Tricare at that point with no issues. I could generate a "proof of insurance" letter as well. Not sure how all this impacts ChampVA?

DFAS is a whole different ball game for us Air Force. I went round and round with the DFAS, PDBR and AFPC for a couple of months before I had to file an AFIG complaint just to get AFPC to send my new orders, new DD214 to DFAS. DFAS requires all documentation be sent directly from AFPC. So even though you have your orders in hand and they are available on DPRIS, it doesn't matter. There are a couple of others in this forum that are in this same boat as you right now. @Skoobs how have you made out so far?
 
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