15,040 grads of the Ultimate Military Credit Cards Course already know why
The Platinum Card® from American Express is my #1 recommended card
Military Money Manual has partnered with CardRatings for our coverage of credit card products and may receive a commission from card issuers. Some or all of the cards that appear on this site are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. This site does not include all card companies or all available card offers. Editorial Note: Any opinions, analyses, reviews or recommendations expressed in this article are those of the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any card issuer. Thank you for supporting my independent, veteran owned site.
What is the one device you can purchase that will save you hundreds, maybe even thousands of dollars in time, gas, and wear and tear on your car? A CAC Reader for your home computer. With a CAC Reader, or Common Access Card Reader, you can log into many DOD computer networks, check your email, use your CAC login to myPay and perform many other routine tasks that would normally require you to drive to work.
The easiest way to setup your CAC Reader is by following the steps on MilitaryCAC.com. Mr. Danberry has put together THE definitive guide on getting your CAC running on your Windows or Mac PC at home. You can pick one up from AAFES (free shipping) or a SCR3310
at Amazon.com.
I recommend the SCR3310. I've used it for over 2 years and it's worked flawlessly. It doesn't even need drivers with Windows 7 – you simply plug it in and it works (you might need to download and install the DoD Certificates). So how much could a CAC Reader really save you?
Here's our scenario:
Airman Johnny lives in Seattle, WA and commutes to Joint Base Lewis-McChord. It's a 44 mile one way trip, so if he's going in to check his mail, he's got an 88 mile round trip. Let's say he has a fuel efficient car that gets 30 miles to the gallon. That's still going to be about 3 gallons of gas, or, in the Seattle area, $12 worth of gas. If he checked his email from home just once a week and didn't drive into work 1 day a week, he could save over $600 a year! Not only that, but he'll spend over 90 minutes in his car doing the commute, plus however long he spends at work checking his email. Ninety minutes of your day back for a simple $10 purchase.
I bought my CAC reader back in 2010 and it has paid me back 100 times in reducing stress, cost, and increasing my free time. I really can't recommend it enough for people who just go into work to check their email.