1. In 1988, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers entered into an agreement with the Department of Treasury and Citicorp to provide credit card services for payment of recreation use fees at Corps of Engineers campgrounds. At that time the Nashville, Tulsa, Little Rock, and Fort Worth Districts were authorized to accept credit cards under a pilot program. Nashville District was the first to initiate the program at its campgrounds.
2. Citicorp was initially selected to provide credit card services to the Corps. During subsequent years, Finance and Accounting was not able to successfully resolve operational differences with Citicorp. As a result, there was a reluctance to expand the credit card program to other programs that would benefit greatly from their use (e.g.: maps and charts sales, shoreline permits).
3. In FY93, Citicorp notified the Corps of Engineers that it would no longer provide credit card services to the Corps. NationsBank was subsequently selected to provide these services. NationsBank was the largest provider of federal credit card services and was already providing credit card services to 43 other federal agencies, including the National Park Service, at that time.
4. In 1994, the Corps entered into an agreement with NationsBank and the U.S. Treasury for credit card services to allow payment of recreation use fees by credit card at Corps of Engineers campgrounds. The Chief of Natural Resources, CECW-ON, expanded the credit card program nationwide and requested the Nashville District to serve as the National Credit Card Program Manager for HQUSACE based on its experience with the credit card program.
5. Participation by Corps Districts in the credit card program increased steadily with 16 Districts participating in the program. Within the 16 participating Districts, over 270 Corps locations (campgrounds, project offices, etc.) accepted credit cards. The Corps rose to become the second-largest participant in the Federal credit card network utilizing NationsBank as a service provider.
6. In 1996, Corps locations collected over $715,000 through credit card transactions. This was a 171% increase over the $263,597 collected through credit card transactions in 1995. The average amount per transaction was just over $31.
7. NationsBank continued to provide service to the Corps until 1999, when the company merged to become Bank of America. Bank of America also holds the contract for providing credit card services to the National Recreation Reservation System (NRRS).
8. The credit card program allows the Corps an excellent means of providing good service to its customers while facilitating safe, fast, and easy handling of revenues. Revenues collected by credit card represent a significant amount of money that did not require direct handling by Corps or contract personnel.
9. The point of contact for this program is John Malone.
