Travel charge card/account

What is the GSA SmartPay® program?
Established in 1998, the GSA SmartPay program provides payment solution services to more than 250 federal agencies/organizations and Native American tribal governments. The program has travel, purchase, fleet, and integrated business lines. 

• Most common travel card/account.
• Issued to an employee designated by the agency/organization in the employee’s name.
• Used to pay for official travel and travel-related expenses.
• Only issued to federal employees or employees of tribes or tribal organizations.
• May be used for local travel only if authorized by written policy of the agency/organization.
• Agencies/organizations reimburse employees only for authorized and allowable expenses.
• Card/account holders are directly responsible for all purchases charged to the IBA account.
• Payment may be made directly by the card/account holder, agency/organization or in the form of a split disbursement in accordance with agency/organization policy.

• Established by the bank at the request of the agency/organization to pay for official travel charges and official travel-related expenses.
• Generally used to purchase common carrier transportation tickets for employee official travel through third-party arrangements, such as the GSA E-Gov Travel Service (ETS) for civilian agencies, the Defense Travel System (DTS) for the Department of Defense or permissible equivalent travel system.
• Agencies/organizations may also make purchases through their Travel Management Centers (TMCs), commercial travel offices and through other government contracts.
• Agency is directly billed and is liable for making the payment.
• Payment is made directly to the bank by the government.

• Issued to an employee designated by the agency/organization in the employee’s name.
• Used to pay for travel and travel-related expenses.
• Combines IBA and CBA transactions to provide tax exemption at the point of sale for rental car and lodging expenses.
• Charges for rental cars and lodging will be automatically billed to a CBA for payment, taking advantage of the government’s CBA tax exemption status for those types of accounts.
• Charges for other travel-related purchases, such as meals and incidentals, are billed to the IBA portion of the account and will still incur tax. The individual traveler will still be liable for payment to the bank for those charges.

What is the benefit for federal agencies?
There are many benefits when customers use GSA SmartPay payment solutions, including the opportunity for agencies to earn refunds based on the dollar volume of transactions and the speed of payment. Refunds are a monetary payment provided by the contractor bank to agencies/organizations that can directly fund and support mission critical efforts.

How can travel managers make it happen?
In 1998, Congress mandated that federal employees use the government travel charge card/account for all payments of expenses related to official government travel with some exceptions. 

Travel managers should ensure that all of their travelers use their government-issued travel charge card/account for all purchases of travel-related services or products such as rental cars, hotel rooms, and telephone or Internet service.

Looking for more information on GSA SmartPay?
Please visit the GSA SmartPay program website. Additionally, to contact the Travel Program, call 888-472-5585 or email travel.programs@gsa.gov.