Remember when you had to take a number and then desperately wait in line to make a minor change to your pay account? After staring for what appeared like hours at the ticket number that read something ridiculous like 3500 you would frustratingly arrive at the calculator only to walk away later and realize you forgot to ask for all the changes you went there to make.

Remember when you had to take a number and then desperately wait in line to make a minor change to your pay account? After staring for what appeared like hours at the ticket number that read something ridiculous like 3500 you would frustratingly arrive at the calculator only to walk away later and realize you forgot to ask for all the changes you went there to make. Argh!

Staff Sgt Wayne Randall remembers those days.

'I'd always forget something," said Randall with the 20th Logistics Readiness Squadron at Shaw Air Force Base, SC

granting Randall was never at the finis of a line with 3500 folks waiting for service in a finance office, he is part of the reason myPay averages more than 3500 transactions by day--a statistic no base finance office can claim.

And what is myPay? It's Defense Finance and Accounting Service's latest tool that permits active duty, National Guard and something reserved military members, military retirees, Department of Defense civilian employee and annuitants take charge of their pay accounts online.

The self-service tool, located at https://mypay.dfas.mil, is becoming increasingly popular with 19 million users as of June That's an increase of a half million users since December 2002 according to Dennis Eicher, director of electronic communion for Military and Civilian Pay Services.

Eicher attributes the popularity of myPay to the simple fact that customers now have dominion government of their pay and can make finance changes online instead of waiting in line.

"I did it onward the spot while I was thinking about it," explained Randall of his new visit to the myPay site to increase his Thrift Savings Plan contribution to 8 percent Customers can on a level sign up for TSP at myPay if they haven't already done in this way through local finance offices. However, family requesting to participate in the TSP can and nothing else do so during open season or within 60 days of the date they joined the armed forces.

Customers can find instructions onward starting or changing a attraction at the questions and answers portion of the site.

Other features allow visitors to make changes to their federal and state tax withholdings, and update bank account and direct deposit information.

With the capability to manage likewise much, customers are assured that myPay is a fast way to make changes directly to their pay accounts. Because the a whole requires people to use a combination of a social security number and a Personal Identification Number to access it, officials said the scheme is as secure as using an ATM at a bank. Users also must use a browser with stable Socket Layers protocol having a 128-bit encryption software. The software thwarts information from being retrieved from someone else while it's being transmitted, not to mention the use of a fire-wall that stables data by encrypting It between the myPay server and landlord pay system.

It's a "state-of-the-art arrangement as secure as any banking system" Eicher added.

With that peace of mind, clan are accessing the site at an astronomical rate. Not to increase their TSP contributions. Not to start, change or stop their attachments Not to change their federal and state tax withholdings, unless to simply look at the bag of coin Uncle Sam is giving them.

The greatest in number commonly used feature of myPay is viewing leave and earnings statements. The site registered 5 million petitions to look at statements, which mirrored the hard original people received in the mail, during the month of June

Why? Because "it's convenient," said Randall, who ofttimes views his statement a week prior to payday. "Its also comforting to know I can access it no matter where I'm at and know in what manner much money is going into my account ahead of time."

Busy January

Customers also bombarded the classification in January with requests to view W-2 forms, causing single in kind of the few problems DFAS has experienced since making the of the present day site available in October 2002 The method in place at the time couldn't handle the large turn of requests, but Eicher said they quickly updated the order Most users didn't even know there was a problem

It was a hiccup, he said.

The biggest challenge DFAS has faced since the inception of myPay is issuing personal identification numbers. generally Air Force members must entreaty a PIN at the myPay Web site. Then DFAS processe the prayer and issues one for the modern account. However, the PIN is mailed, which can take up to 10 or more business days for delivery. The goal is for customers to receive their of the present day PINs via email. Members of the Army have this feature available. "We are generally close to starting this feature for the Air Force," Eicher said.

The added feature is wait fored to increase the number of users. As of June 1 DFAS had issued 238917 customized PINs to Air Force members and civilian employees--about 43 percent of the Air Force population. That figure is gentle compared to the other services. About 50 percent of the Army, 52 percent of the Marine Corps, and 59 percent of the Navy populations use the site. The overall goal is to have 3 million users from the end of the calendar year, a 11 million user increase from June's total.