PLEASE NOTE: THIS POST REFERS TO THE 1 JUNE PAY PERIOD FOR THE YEAR 2011. FOR ACCURATE INFORMATION ABOUT 2012, PLEASE REFER TO THE 1 JUNE 2012 MILITARY PAY ARTICLE.
Update 26 May 2011: Hey, y'all! NFCU and USAA have confirmed that they will be releasing deposits on the schedule I predicted.
UPDATE 25 May 2011: According to their Facebook page, Navy Federal Credit Union has changed their position on the deposit this weekend. A post from 20 May states that members who have an Active Duty Checking Account will see their pay posted overnight on Thursday and have it available for use on Friday. The most recent statement says:
We understand that having correct information regarding your direct deposits is very important. Please allow us to offer clarification regarding the early pay feature for Active Duty account holders during the Memorial Day weekend. Instead of receiving your pay on Wednesday, June 1st, our information tells us that early pay for Active Duty will be available Saturday, May 28th.
In the comments of this post, NFCU reiterates that members who do not have an Active Duty Checking Account will have their pay deposited on Wednesday, 1 June, as usual.
As always, I'm getting lots of questions about whether people will get paid before the Memorial Day weekend holiday. The short (but not necessarily correct for your particular situation) answer is no. Payday is on Wednesday, 1 June. Some banks and credit unions, including USAA, release military direct deposit funds one business day early, so those funds would be available on Tuesday, 31 May.
It gets more complicated with banks and credit unions that sometimes release pay funds more than one business day early. Navy Federal Credit Union, for example, has recently instituted a policy of releasing direct deposit active duty military pay early for members who have an Active Duty Checking Account. Sometimes it is two days early, which would bring us back to Friday, 27 May. Navy Federal processes their deposits overnight, so it would be available on Saturday, 28 May. However, the early direct deposit is directly tied to when Navy Federal receives the information from DFAS, so we can't be sure that the money will be available before the weekend.
All this explanation brings us back around to the original short but complicated answer. Payday is not until after the weekend. You might, possibly, be paid before the weekend if you have an account with a bank or credit union that typically releases funds two or more days before payday. I just wouldn't count on it, and you can be pleasantly surprised if it does happen.
