Savings Deposit Program (SDP)

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The Savings Deposit Program pays you 10 percent a year on money you set aside while deployed. Interest compounds quarterly at 2.5 percent a quarter. You put in up to 10,000 dollars. No commercial savings account comes close, and the rate is fixed by law rather than by a bank.

This page covers who qualifies, what money goes in, how to put it in, and how to get it back out.

Do you qualify

Three things have to be true.

1. You are drawing the Combat Zone Tax Exclusion. See Combat Zone Tax Exclusion for how the exclusion works.
2. You are serving in an eligible area.
3. You have served in the assignment for at least 30 consecutive days, or at least one day in each of three consecutive months.

Eligibility ends when you leave the qualifying duty assignment or the combat zone. Adding money stops there. The money already in the account keeps earning.

What money goes in

You deposit from unallotted current pay and allowances. In plain terms, the amount you are entitled to receive on the payday right before the deposit, minus your authorized deductions and allotments.

These count toward what you deposit.

• Basic pay and allowances
• Special continuation pay
• Reenlistment bonus
• Travel allowance on discharge
• Pay and allowances for unused accrued leave

These do not.

• Advance pay
• Travel allowance for a permanent change of station
• Travel allowance for temporary duty

Two timing rules help you at the start.

• Month of arrival. On reaching a covered area or covered duty assignment, deposit the amount you accrued during the month you arrived, less authorized deductions.
• Paid twice a month. Combine midmonth pay with end-of-month pay, or end-of-month pay with the following midmonth, for a single deposit. The total for any one-month period stays within one month of entitlement.

If something outside your control kept you from depositing the normal way, your commanding officer reviews the circumstances. On the commanding officer's acceptance, unallotted pay above your current pay and allowances goes in.

How to put money in

Two methods, and you use one or both. Either way the ceiling is 10,000 dollars total.

• Allotment. Start a savings deposit allotment, the J allotment, through your disbursing or finance office. Your S-1 routes the request. See FPM Vol 1FPM Vol 1 Chapter 18.
• Cash. Take the money to your disbursing or finance office. They prepare a collection voucher and hand you a copy. Keep it.

Interest starts accruing on the day the office takes your money, not the day you filled out the paperwork. Ask for your copy of the voucher and check the date on it.

Getting your money back

To pull money out earlier, submit the request through myPay.

One trap. If any of your deposits came in by allotment, stop the allotment before you request a withdrawal. Requesting a withdrawal while an allotment still runs puts money back in as you take it out.

Where to check and who to ask

• myPay carries your balance and general account information. Check it first.
• Defense Finance and Accounting Service, Cleveland handles anything myPay does not answer. Call (216) 522-5096 or toll free 1-888-332-7411, or email dfas.cleveland-oh.jfl.mbx.sdp-cle@mail.mil.
• Your S-1 or disbursing office handles the allotment and the cash deposit itself.

Common mistakes

• Waiting until the end of deployment to start. Interest compounds quarterly, so an account opened in month one earns materially more than the same money deposited in month seven.
• Assuming the 10,000 dollar ceiling resets per method. It does not. Allotment and cash share one ceiling.
• Requesting a withdrawal without stopping the allotment first.
• Expecting to deposit a travel allowance or advance pay. Neither qualifies.
• Losing the collection voucher. It is your record of the date interest began.

Authority

Every fact on this page comes from the Finance Policy Manual Volume 3FPM Vol 3 Chapter 8 paragraph 080409, dated September 2026. Allotment mechanics sit in Finance Policy Manual Volume 1FPM Vol 1 Chapter 18. Eligibility rests on drawing the Combat Zone Tax Exclusion under DoD 7000.14-R Volume 7ADoD 7000.14-R Volume 7A.