A 10 percent military discount on a $100 purchase saves you $10. The Defense Commissary Agency says its US stores averaged 21.4 percent savings on groceries in the third quarter of fiscal 2026, after its own 5 percent surcharge and against store prices that include tax.

Most veterans never compare those two numbers, because they don't know the second one applies to them. If VA has rated you for any service-connected condition, even at 0 percent, you can shop the commissary and the exchange in person.

I checked 58 brands' military discounts against their own pages for Claim Raven's military discount guide. The discounts are real and worth using. But the benefits tied to your VA rating are often worth more, and they get far less attention.

A service-connected rating opens the base stores

Since January 1, 2020, veterans with a service-connected disability rating can use commissaries, exchanges and MWR (Morale, Welfare and Recreation) facilities. The rating level doesn't matter. Purple Heart recipients, former prisoners of war, Medal of Honor recipients and primary family caregivers approved under VA's caregiver program also qualify. VA's commissary page and the commissary's eligibility page list the groups.

The full rules, with sources and check dates, are on Claim Raven's base shopping guide.

What the commissary is worth next to a 10 percent discount

Here's the arithmetic on a $100 grocery basket, using the commissary's published US average:

10 percent store discountCommissary, US average
Basket at a regular store$100.00$100.00
What you pay$90.00about $78.60
Card fee if you pay by creditnoneabout $1.12 (1.43 percent)
What you keep$10.00about $20.28

Two cautions. The 21.4 percent figure is an average across 43 US commissaries; Hawaii and Alaska stores averaged 32.0 percent and South Atlantic stores 18.1 percent, according to the commissary's savings page. Your own basket will differ, and both the commissary and regular stores run sales, so compare the final totals on the items you actually buy.

Even with those caveats, the commissary's average saving is about twice 10 percent, the most common rate among the brands in the guide that publish a single percentage.

The card fee is lower than most pages say

Veterans who shop under the 2020 expansion pay a small fee when they use a credit or debit card. The commissary's eligibility page now lists 1.43 percent for credit and signature debit and 0.36 percent for PIN debit. Cash, checks, SNAP EBT and eWIC carry no fee.

Many pages, including older government fact sheets, still quote 1.9 percent and 0.5 percent. Those were the rates when the program started. I checked the current rates on October 1, 2026.

Getting through the gate and paying at the register are two checks

Since November 1, 2024, a veteran without a VA health ID card can enroll for base access at the visitor center with a REAL ID. That gets you on base.

At the register, VA says to show your Veteran Health Identification Card (VHIC), or a VA letter along with your passport or driver's license. If you've never requested a VHIC, the veteran ID guide explains how to get one. It's the single most useful card for this benefit.

Confirm the entry rules with the visitor center at the base you plan to visit before you drive there.

The exchange is open online to more veterans

You don't need a rating for this one. Veterans with an honorable discharge, or a general discharge under honorable conditions, can shop the military exchanges online, tax-free, at ShopMyExchange.com, MyNavyExchange.com, MyMCX.com and ShopCGX.com. Uniforms, alcohol and tobacco are excluded, and online shopping doesn't give you base access. The exchange online shopping guide covers how to sign up.

That matters when you compare prices. The Home Depot, for example, sells most of its items on the exchange sites tax-free with its 10 percent military price already built in.

Two VA payments people miss

The same rating can pay you directly, and neither payment shows up in a discount list.

Clothing allowance: $1,053.19. If a prosthetic, orthopedic device or prescribed skin medicine for a service-connected condition damages your clothing, VA may pay $1,053.19 a year, the rate effective December 1, 2025. You need to qualify by August 1 of the year you're claiming. If you're already approved and your devices and medicines haven't changed, you don't need to reapply. Details are on the clothing allowance guide and VA's clothing allowance page.

Automobile allowance: $27,908.90. VA raised it on October 1, 2026, according to its special benefit rates page. It's a one-time payment toward a specially equipped vehicle, paid to the seller. You need a qualifying service-connected condition, such as loss or permanent loss of use of a hand or foot, certain vision loss, severe burns or ALS, and VA's approval before you buy. VA's automobile allowance page lists every condition.

Why getting the rating right matters more than the discount

Every benefit in this article starts with a service-connected rating. A store discount asks you to prove you served. These benefits ask VA to recognize what your service did to you.

If you have conditions from service and no rating, a 0 percent rating alone opens the commissary and the exchange. If you have a rating that doesn't reflect how your conditions affect you now, the monthly compensation difference will outweigh every discount on this list.

Find out if your claim is ready to file. Claim Raven's free Claim Readiness Review looks at what you have and what's missing. If you already have ratings, the VA disability calculator shows how VA combines them.

How I checked this

I checked every amount, fee and eligibility rule on the agency's own page on October 1, 2026: VA for the allowances and commissary eligibility, the Defense Commissary Agency for fees and savings, and the exchange program rules as recorded in Claim Raven's military discount guide. Commissary savings are the agency's own published averages, not a price study I ran. Benefit amounts change, the clothing allowance each December and the automobile allowance each October, so check the linked VA pages before you rely on a number.

-Landon Founder, Claim Raven | U.S. Army Veteran