Do I Still Have the MGIB if I Transferred the New GI Bill?

What are your options? Well, you do still have some options, but they don’t have to do with the Montgomery GI Bill. When you transferred your Post 9/11 GI Bill to your dependents, you switched over your educational benefits from the Montgomery GI Bill to the new GI Bill. You can’t ever go back to the old GI Bill, although the fact that you were eligible for it does make you eligible to use the new GI Bill for some programs that aren’t available for newer soldiers.

Of course, since you have performed a transfer of educational benefits (TEB), your dependents are getting the benefits, rather than you. If they don’t wish to use them, you can, at any time, modify the number of months that you allocated to your dependents, or even cancel the transfer completely, so that you can use the benefits. You can do this even after you retire, although if you want to add any other dependents, you have to do this while you are still in the service.

As for the $1,200 that you paid into the GI Bill when you joined, yes, you can get that back. If you (or your dependents) use up all 36 months of the GI Bill benefits within the eligibility period (15 years), that $1,200 will be added on to the final housing stipend when the benefits are exhausted. If you never use up all the benefits, you will never receive the money back.