loan specialist

center manager

branch manager

sales

customer service representative

Advance America

Center Management - Review operating results of center daily, weekly and monthly to identify areas of opportunity for increased profits and decreased expenses. Ensure procedures outlining opening, closing, banking, collections, audits, local store marketing (LSM), all Loss Prevention (LP) procedures, and other company policies are followed daily. Ensure compliance with Federal, State, and local laws. Control cash flow, balancing and audits while maintaining LP standards. Maintain company standards as related to staffing, operations, marketing, collections and customer service.

• Budget Control – Manage P&L, payroll and other budgeted items; continuously identify ways to control costs.

• Employee Relations - Recruiting, hiring, training, disciplining, evaluating, developing, and terminating of center staff. Maintain employee files and process all new hire paperwork according to company timeline.

• Leadership - Communicate image consistent with the company creed and vision to all members of center. Provide guidance in all aspects of operations. Recognize and develop skills/abilities of associates in order to meet center and company objectives. Delegation of center responsibilities.

• Training – Provide on-site training instruction on all aspects of leadership, company procedures and policies. Ensure center staff fully comprehends how to perform their job duties and responsibilities as well as understand how to use our computer system.

• Product Knowledge - Understand new and current products so you can assist with the company’s marketing and sales initiatives.

• Marketing - Maintain an on-going marketing strategy and marketing tracking sheets for the center. Conduct divisional market analysis/strategy to increase total market share and active accounts. Pursue marketing strategies that would help grow center.

• Team Player - Provide operational support by working with other departments to solve issues that develop.

• Collections –Lead team in collecting Past Due, Non-Sufficient Funds (NSF), Write Offs, and perform field calls.

• Customer Service – Provide exceptional service and support to customers.

• Data Entry – Complete transactions accurately and in a timely manner on both new and existing accounts.

• Account Maintenance –Ensure all required documentation is included in each customer’s file. Information should be accurate and complete.

• Sales – Recommend and sell products and services to meet customer’s needs

• Phone Calls – Manage incoming and outgoings calls in a professional, customer-oriented manner.

• Center Appearance – Manage the appearance of the center by keeping it clean and organized; Housekeeping duties include but are not limited to vacuuming, sweeping, dusting, cleaning windows, bathroom upkeep, etc.

• Local Travel - Assist with marketing, collections, staffing, and banking responsibilities within the division.

• Adhere to all company policies and procedures.

• Communicate and adhere to all points of the Company’s Creed

When arriving to work in the morning you required to log into your computer, and start up your register.  Once you have completed this you were required to pull all of the customer's checks that have been returned and/or funds uncollected that were not deposited the day before.  You would then have to contact each bank to see if funds were available.  If the funds were available then you would be required to run to the bank, and do a pay out for the cashier's check or Money Order Fee that would be assessed by the bank.  Once the funds were collected you can take the cashier's check back to the store, and enter the payment into the system while taking a copy of the Cashier's Check or Money Order for record keeping, and place the copy in the Customer's File, while placing the Cashier's Check in the safe for deposit.  You would then have to make notes on all customers account regarding bank calls for that morning.  

Once you completed your bank calls, you would need to help customers as they came in while contacting all Returned Customers and Written Off customers to make arrangements to collect payment as well as make notes regarding any contact.  

Through out the day we would also receive new applicants. We would have them complete the application in the store.  Once completed we would enter the information into the computer, and then take copies of their Photo ID, Social Security Card, Bank Statement, and Pay Stub.  We were then required to enter this information in, and based on their income we would determine their qualifying amount.  

We would have the customer make out their check payable to the company in the amount of their loan plus interest.  We would keep the check, and then have the customer sign a contract as well as a non military form.  We would then review their  interest, finance charge, and total amount due back on their next pay date.  

Once all had been completed we would give out the amount that they were approved for less the interest. An example would be if the  customer was approved for $425.00; which is the max loan amount, the finance charge is $75.00.  The customer makes out the check for $500.00, and we would then give them $425.00 in cash.  When they returned to repay their loan they would then need to bring $500.00 in cash to get their check back.  They could then choose to re-loan if needed at that time, and they would need to sign a new contract as well as make out a new check.  

We were also required to maintain State and Federal compliance regarding files, personal checks, TILA, and collection practices.  We were subjected to internal audits as well as annual state audits.

Also maintaining clutter, and cleanliness of the store was a priority.

*A typical day at Advance America was full of customer service, collections, sales, marketing and whatever else the Divisional or Regional Director(s) may have sent through the e-mail system for us to do. It started around 8:30 or 9:00 am and ended around 6:30 pm with an hour lunch in between.  We would come in and verify funds on checks that were past due and then start making calls to customers who were either past due on their title or payday loans.  Each person had a different group to call.  In the meantime, we would answer calls and provide customers service to customers in the store.  We would balance our drawers three times a day always making sure they balanced to the panny.  When days were slow one or two of us would go marketing or to make field calls. 

*I definitely learned a lot from this company.  It gave me an opportunity to further perfect my collections and customer service skills, learn to do outside marketing, get some sales experience, loan processing, gain some experience in management, learn about revenue and receivables, learn more about bankruptcy laws and other laws which govern these types of businesses and many other things.  The list just goes on and on.

*My co-workers were great, for the most part.  I believe any time you put five females in an office for ten hours a day five days a week that there are going to be personality differences but we always made it.  I think the different personalities may have been what helped us to work as a team better sometimes. 

*The hardest part of the job, to me, was having to put somebody's account in the negative who had been a great customer for years and the only reason they were not able to pay on time was because of a tragedy or a terrible hardship.  

*The most enjoyable part of the job was, by far, the customers.  I love customer service and collections and this gave me a great opportunity to do both in the same job.

I have been employed for AA for some years now and I'm really starting to hate stepping foot in the door. First of all the claim to be family oriented but that's not true one but. In the division I work in we have to work every single Saturday unless we take some type of vacation time. I have small kids and it seems like I rarely get to spend time with them. I leave for work in mornings and don't get back home until after 6 or 7 o'clock cook dinner help with homework and then it's time for bed. So yes that makes me frustrated because I can't spend quality time with my family on Saturdays. I personally think the hours are not safe to be working anyway when you are dealing with money and sometimes you may be working alone. When I first started working for AA I really enjoyed it now it has become stressful. Our DDO is a pain in the butt. It's always something that she wants..Going to work in the mornings it's a million things she wants done and it's the same for closing when in actuality she can pull it up her self. It's just always something to make the workday stressful when it doesn't have to be. Don't let me get started about the hours I don't know the last time that I have gotten a 40hrs work week which I think we are rightfully entitled. I understand about the budgeting for overtime but just let me have my hours I have a family to take care of and with what I make I made that in high school working at McDonalds but yet I'm the Asst Manger. I quess they pay you want they want and I'm a good worker maybe if I start being lazy I will make more money and get Bonuses like the Mangers do. Sometimes the Asst and Csr does all the work and the manger just sits there but yet they are making the money..Anyway my time with them is growing short and Ill be free when my last day of employment there ends. That's how I feel I don't know about anybody else..So much of the stress and feelings come from our DDO because she really talk to us like we are kids that doesn't know any better when all of us are adults. I also hate when they give you short notice about covering for another center sometimes they don't even ask if you can do it they just say you're going to be covering this center tomorrow...Oh really??? And they wonder why new hires don't stay long..I'm counting my final days down!!!!

I was a Center Sales Manager for the company. A typical day was getting to the store and opening the store, counting all the money then assigning all cash drawers, checking funds on 40 plus accounts, checking emails and responding back to emails. Going to the bank to make cash deposit from night before, going to the post office when needed. Making 80 plus collection calls that had to be called 3 times a day and logged, making reminder calls for the accounts due for the week and logging them. Making 20 to 30 inactive calls to try and drive more loans in from previous customers and logging them. Weekly store audits and marketing. Emailing and faxing information over to our Divisional Director Of Operations that he could easily pull up him self. All of this while still having to help customers that were coming in to the store to due transactions like MoneyGram, issuing pre-paid cards and loading funds on a prepaid card, taxes or just coming in to get a cash or title  loan. Cleaning lobby as well as break area, bathroom. The list of things upper management wanted you to do at times we over the top especially when you're working a center alone for a long period with no help. Upper management not only has a list of things for you to do ,but a binder full of list of duties. Upper management,(when we did have a DDO) like to micro manage everything. I didn't feel like I was a" Center Sales Manager" because most of the time I spent working alone. I wasn't involved in the hiring process upper management did that, six months later I finally got someone to work with. A fully staff store consistent of one employee and yourself. If you were lucky you'll have a third person. I felt like I was a CSR.  Any kind of transaction that needed to be voided I needed a encryption code from upper management, and a  explanation why it was being voided. The job started off well ,but then the list of duties began growing and growing but no increase in pay. We wouldn't get yearly raises, when we did it was a joke. We were definitely under paid for all the things they wanted us to do. They try alluring you in with the "great bonus program" they like to talk about which was also a joke and impossible to reach.

This job has managers with no high school diploma or GED running a store alone. Most of the management has little to no education or job experience at all, are many are very young, at least in my division anyway.  Promotion from within the company is not usually the policy. OSHA requlations for things like chemicals, using a safe ladder, etc, were not followed. We were forced to prepare tax returns without proper training, as we only did the data entry and etax actually filed the return. Then they would get upset when the customers found that out and didn't want to file with us. Why would you file a tax return where the person inputting your information is ill trained and will make many mistakes? Check one box wrong, and it's a tax audit nightmare down the road. I learned of IRS approved tax training for free, and when I told my district manager I wanted to go so I could be better with the tax program, she discouraged me and told me not to go.  We were a payday loan store, but they made us start buying gold, which was risky. We got so/so training on gold buying in the first place, then we were supposed to "negotiate" gold prices by offering someone around 5 bucks for a ring. It could be full of diamonds, but it didn't matter because they don't buy the stones, only the gold. A very expensive piece of jewelry would bring someone $20 bucks. We were told to pay the lowest possible bid the computer gave us, although we could pay much, much more. The computer had a green to red system, green was the lowest of what you could offer (green because it saved the company money) and the red zone was the top offer. In between we had brown, yellow, orange- strange system.  We had no idea what the going rate for gold even was, because the computer gave us all the numbers when we put in the karat and weight.  Such a scam! Don't sell your gold there, don't file your tax return there, and DEFINITELY don't work there.

A typical day at work would be the normal, assist customers, cash handling, collection calls, bank runs, marketing, and filling out tons of paperwork.  Every day I would have to track numbers to see how far the center was awayfrom making revenue and sales goals.  Then formulate an effective marketing plan to help boost sales by increasing visibility, shop competitors, create business partners, blitz neighborhoods with hundreds of marketing bags, etc.  Then, train and coach my staff to maintain quality of customer paperwork and files in the center, train new employees for the division.  Answer calls for the DDO is he/she was unavailable.  Of course, there were tons and tons of logs that would have to be filled out and sent to the DDO everyday.  

Then, when a new product rolls out the work increases even more and the pay and benefits do not.  Also, the "bonuses" are mostly unattainable and small for the effort that has to be put in to even dream of reaching it consistently.  Long hours and the work to life balance is really hard to deal with.  There is a black out from November to the end of February where employees cannot take vacation time to spend with their families around the holidays.  The health benefits are extremely expensive and the co-pays are too high (but I like a challenge).  

However, the management was not bad.  The DDO was fantastic and very supportive.  The DDO and RDO both had a coaching style of management and great leadership, even if sales expectations were set too high for the amount of pay.  The center staff is great to work with and make it enjoyable to come to work, customers too.  Overall, this company is a great stepping stool to something better but could use some improvement in how they treat their employees which are there greatest assets.

My typical work day. I would open the store at 9:30AM each day. We first counted safe to balance, create drawer for transactions, read over email and daily stats, verify any potentially available funds due to company by calling and verifying with bank. Then open store. Would assist customers with financial needs and continue collections on past due accounts in between new customers. 

In this position I did learn a lot about state law. You also have to learn how to interact with all different types of people from all walks of life. The way this is different than my previous work experience is that this is face to face and much more personal than over-the-phone collection and call centers.

Management, in my opinion, needed to be on the same page. They had a tendency to turn against one another and there would be quite a bit of conflict between them. It is very difficult to maintain a positive attitude and grow in an institution that doesn't have a strong upper management. 

My co workers were amazing. Most very friendly and willing to help at any time and for any reason. We did our best to stick together. There are typically only two employees per center, so contact was fairly limited.

The hardest part of my job was having to issue "assistance" to people that I just didn't believe would help them. It is very difficult to be your best you when you don't fully believe in the job you are doing. 

The most enjoyable part of my job was getting to know my customers on a personal level and being able to see them face to face. I thoroughly enjoyed the company/consumer relationship more that way.

I worked for this company for a little over 6 months. Really enjoyed my position at first and was awarded store of the quarter after 4 months on the job. Then everything went downhill because store mangers were quitting left and right. (NOT due to Covid...due to the after effects of actions by a very poor district manager.) I lost faith in him and the company. There was very little true communication, no true leadership, no guidance what so ever and a very immature minded management style. They would constantly push us hard to get people back into the store to loan...even going as far as to say I don't care if they won't pay us back just get them in here. This made our bad debt numbers increase dramatically.
My DM poked fun and made jokes about my store's performance in front of another manager. I was belittled and very embarressed for most of the day. I confronted him about it and he stated that I need to have thicker skin.
Several behaviors displayed by upper management (gossiping and back biting) that were not at all professional in my book and they also pet and verbally compliment (mass email all stores) their favorite performers...which really lowered other manager's self esteem and confidence. I never truly felt that this company saw my potential, my value or my hard work I put in every day. High turnover rate and fair hourly wage. The bonuses are a joke.  You'll get it the first month, and then your numbers go up so much  did you can never obtain it . If you miss several days of work due to being sick... they will not allow you to use any more than 32 hours per week of sick pay.
I felt nothing more than like a loan shark... trapping the poor, elderly and disabled into a loan that they can neverfully pay off. These people are on a limited income of Social Security, pension and retirement.

If your thinking about this company as a job don't do it! They prey on the elderly and the mentally challenged! This is a cycle that people get hooked into and fight to get away from! Besides the integrity issues there are other downfalls to working for this company! For instance on a busy payday like the 1st or 3rd of the month you will be required to stand and take customers for up to 9 hrs! They are constantly understaffed! They claim they respect their employees, that is false! THEY RESPECT MONEY!! That's it! They will expect you to be all work and no play!! There is NO trust! They will expect you to be a team player, there is no team respect or trust! A typical day @ Wk starts with collections activity you open take customers and when and if you have down time you do more collections calls to people who owe money to that center, take more customers, push other services the center offers, collections, more customers, lunch and repeat. I learned that people are rude, don't pay you back in good faith. Society at it's worst! Don't get me wrong there are good customers but the bad ones are numerous and out weigh the good. Training is sub-par at best! It depends on WHO is doing it! You will spend allot of time on your own. Co-workers don't trust you because the culture is around money! Even though you go through a thorough background check! You could be shifted around to different centers and they only pay .25 cents/mile and there are more stipulations as determined by the divisional manger. The hardest part of the job was the constant standing, lack of staffing and collections! There was nothing enjoyable about this job. I left on my terms and am not disgruntled! This is what I observed in my time with this company and I'm sharing here in hopes that you don't get fooled like I did!

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