but since they have 0% interest, they're really advance pay. But they're only given in a couple circumstances such as:
- when you are moving, you can get some advance pay, which is then taken out of your subsequent paychecks over a set amount of time
- when you're going on a long deployment, you can get all of your pay in advance. If you're wise and invest, it's a good deal (0% loan), but then you have NO PAY coming in, because you already got it. I never did this, because I felt it was better to leave my pay alone - "the paymaster is always quick to get back overpay, but slow to correct underpay".

Some Navy pay stories:
- We got one guy 3 days before we went to sea. He was supposed to be on another ship, but we needed another guy, so.... Anyway, when we got back, his pay was all screwed up, and the pay people were slow at fixing it. Our XO finally fixed the issue by saying (cleaned up version) "If you guys don't pay him NOW, I'm coming over this instant and making you. You can straighten out the details later."
- Navy wife quote: "How can I be out of money? I've got checks in my checkbook."
- Another wife needed assistance because her husband got all his pay in advance (so nothing more coming in for 3 months), but thought it was only partial, so she went out and bought a new car - and then had no money for mortgage, groceries, etc.
- Then there's the officer who met a girl three weeks before deployment, and then gave her a checkbook full of signed, blank checks, so she could pay his bills....and she paid each one, and nothing more.

So yes, many in the military aren't smart about money, but neither are many other, otherwise intelligent people - we're already hearing horror stories as the housing bubble collapses. And there are plenty of pay day loan places in the SFBA, and there's no longer any significant military presence.

--Tony