A new app focused on military pay and benefits takes the guess work -- and googling -- out of exactly what your paycheck should look like.
The app, run by Military.com and available for both iPhone and Android, is clean cut, easy to navigate and simple to use. Instead of sitting down and searching for "military pay 2015" every time I want an update on just what that next promotion is going to do for us, this handy app makes it easy.
Here's my Military.com pay app review.
This Military.com pay app is really simple. It helps you figure out your pay.
When you first open the app, you have three options -- pay calculator, news and information and resources. Let's talk about the pay calculator first.
When you tap "pay calculator" you get a very straight forward screen. Here you get to select your pay grade, branch, and years in.
Tap to the next screen and you calculate your allowances (dependents?) and pull up your housing allowance based on an alphabetical list of possible locations. I thought scrolling through this to find "Fort Campbell" was going to be annoying, but it went faster and was easier than I expected.
You can also manually enter your COLA or other allowances. If you don't know what your COLA rate is you can tap "look it up here" and be sent outside the app to the Defense Travel Management site which, unfortunately, is not mobile responsive.
Finally you'll head to the "special pay" section where you can select any other pays for which you qualify (Hazardous duty pay? Sea pay?).
This whole time at the top of the app you can see your pay number change as you add money ... up, up, up (hopefully).
Easy!
The Military.com pay app also has other helpful sections.
There are two other sections in the pay app, both of which can be really useful, especially if you're looking for information beyond just that paycheck number.
Take a trip over to the news and information section and you can scroll through a TON of Military.com articles on exactly what your pay is, how it works and how it's changed lately. Helpful!
Go over to resources and you can see articles categorized by subject -- even more helpful.
The only bummer about both of these things is that tapping the article takes you outside the app. However, because Military.com's site is mobile responsive, it's still easy to read and use.
The Military.com pay app takes the guesswork out of military pay benefits in a way that is easily accessible and user friendly. This is an app I'll be keeping around.
Go here to download the app from the Apple store and here to get it for Android.
