Department of the Interior (DOI) Moratorium on Routine Credit Card Application/Issuance Date: Fri, 07 Aug 1998 15:39:15 -0400 To: "USGS Employees" From: Lesley Levi Subject: DOI Moratorium on Routine Credit Card Application/Issuance Friday, August 7, 1998 Note: Supervisors, Managers, and Team Leaders: Please ensure that employees without access to e-mail receive a copy of this messaage. MEMORANDUM To: All USGS Employees From: John K. Peterson signed Chief, Office of Acquisition and Federal Assistance Subject: Department of the Interior (DOI) Moratorium on Routine Credit Card Application/Issuance The contracts under which the American Express and the Government IMPAC VISA Card programs are currently run will be ending November 29, 1998. Because of this, DOI has decided that new cards will not be routinely issued after August 15, 1998. We are sorry that such short notice is being provided. We had expected DOI to issue a departmentwide notice, but that has not occurred. Anyone who is not currently a cardholder but expects to be needing a card before November 30, 1998, should submit the appropriate forms in time to be received by the applicable office below no later than *THURSDAY, AUGUST 13, 1998.* American Express Card - Approved applications should be submitted to: Office of Financial Management, Attn: Kathy Keillor, Mail Stop 270, or by fax to (703) 648-4112. All applications must be signed by a supervisor in the area below the applicant's signature. Kathy can be reached for questions by calling (703) 648-7621 or by e-mail to kkeillor@usgs.gov. IMPAC VISA - Applications should be submitted to: Office of Acquisition and Federal Assistance, Attn: Margaret Seaboy, Mail Stop 205P, or by fax to (703) 648-7901. Before requesting a card, the applicant must read the Bankcard Handbook. The Handbook and application forms and instructions can be found at http://www.usgs.gov:8888/ops/acquisition/bcindx.html Any changes needed to existing card accounts (such as limits or approving officials) must also be requested by this time. Margaret can be reached by calling (703) 648-7350, or by e-mail to mseaboy@usgs.gov. This moratorium is necessary because the current contractors are required to provide agencies with electronic files of cardholders as of September 1, 1998, to facilitate conversion to our new bank. We expect to be able to manually process a limited number of additional cards and changes for some period after this date to handle individual cases where lack of a card or present card limits pose a particular hardship or inefficiency. GSA's Wright Express contract for fleet credit cards is expiring in November as well. New or replacement fleet cards will be handled by the Branch of Property Management in the usual manner until such time as Wright Express stops issuing cards under their contract. Cards issued after August 15 will have to manually added to converted card records under the new contracts. Beginning November 30, 1998, we will be operating under a consolidated departmentwide order to NationsBank under GSA's SmartPay Charge Card Program, with one integrated card to be used for purchase, travel and likely fleet related transactions as well. The DOI team has selected MasterCard as the 'brand' of credit card we will use and it will be the only card for the three business lines. Officials from my office, Office of Financial Management, Branch of Property Management, and Division representatives have been meeting as a bureau transition team to make this transition as smooth as possible. More information on the new program and transition procedures will be provided at a later date. *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* Lesley Levi U.S. Geological Survey 201 National Center Reston, VA 20192 (703) 648-7202 fax: (703) 648-7219 E-mail: llevi@usgs.gov *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*