American General Finance Reviews

Pros

They give a good amount of vacation compared to other companies
The employees are friendly
Work can be fun at times

Cons

Upper management keeps employees in the dark
outdated system
working Saturdays and late nights
nothing is ever good enough
no room for advancement above branch manager position
Bonus structure is a joke
Under paid for the work being done

Advice to Senior Management

Keep employees in the loop so they know what is going on. Don't treat us like we don't know anything. There is more to life than working for this company so constantly pushing numbers and not properly compensating employees for doing a good job isn't the right way to run a company.

Pros

It's a job, with benefits, and vacation pay.

Cons

Boring work. The worse training I've ever had. No training Manuals. Intranet sucks, can't find policies and procedures easily. Application taking process "CLASS" software feels like was build for Windows 95. Lastly, AGFS is one of the cheapest companies I've ever worked for. It's obvious that they penny pinch. No money spent on training & employee development. If your manager is not a good teacher your screwed.

Advice to Senior Management

Upgrade your software, invest in a training manual for new employees, stop being so cheap...trust me it shows!

Pros

You don't take your work home with you, great learning environment, training is always available, great management

Cons

Not for someone who can't sit at a desk all day, same thing all the time, collecting accounts, soliciting to customer who can't afford a larger loan payment, boring at times, not very challenging

Advice to Senior Management

you keep us out of the loop

Pros

You get to leave at 5:30 everyday.

Cons

Discouraged from educating people about money, just take it from those most vulnerable.

Advice to Senior Management

Try ethics.

Pros

You do get a crash course in consumer loans and mortgages, they will force you to get licensed in life insurance and fixed annuities but typically will never have a chance to sell the product because someone in a branch bundled the product and was caught by the banking commission.

Cons

You are expected to produce produce produce and even if you are among the best you still are not producing enough. Training stinks.

Advice to Senior Management

Try to do a little more for the customer rather than looking to see how you can rip off the poor and line upper managements pockets.

Pros

The benefits at AGF are really good. Also, working in a branch network is the best way to stay connected with your customers. AGF pays for licensing including notary, life insurance agent, and the new mortgage licensing. They offer plenty of paid time off. Also, the base pay is good, and getting weekly paychecks is definitely nice.

Cons

Collecting gets old, but it's a necessary part of the business. Also, it is very difficult to hit your goals, because they cut down every loan you send up. I think once the market improves, goals will probably be easier to hit. The bonuses are a joke, even if you hit your goals.

Advice to Senior Management

Please improve the bonus structure!!!

Pros

The pay is higher than competitors, benefits are outstanding, and the family-like small branch atmosphere is what keeps employees hanging around for an entire career.

Cons

AGFS is a company that is performance-driven. No matter if the goals that management set out are actually obtainable, you will be micro-managed the more and more that you cannot reach goals until it just gets unbearably annoying and agitating to the point that many quit. That is what they want you to do. Senior management seems to have "moods" where they will become lenient on loan approvals for a while then go back to the tight lending again for a while. That gets very annoying too. Field calling is not my favorite either (going to delinquent customers' homes to collect payments). There can be competition within the branch to the point employees may even argue over who gets a loan application. That is how bad some employees want to meet their goals, but most of the time it is not possible to exceed or even meet goals set for you.

Advice to Senior Management

I encourage the senior management to work one month in a branch as a regular branch employee. I believe their thinking will change as they have become too "number-savvy" to the point they forgot or have never experienced what it is like to be the one having to meet the "numbers" they want.

Pros

Small business feel with big business benefits! Professional development is key. Great place to gain experience.

Cons

Lots of Saturday work, late nights, and conservative lending with high rates. This can make hitting goals a challenge.

Advice to Senior Management

Keep up the good work. Look for new areas to open branches where the competition is getting out.

Pros

Decent pay and benefits, mostly nice management and coworkers

Cons

The main purpose of the company is to make high interest loans to customers with bad credit. In most cases the customer would have been much better off without the loan. The current environment is becoming stressful because of the bad economy and because the company is owned by AIG. My boss appeared to have me on a carrer track to nowhere, so I retired early.

Advice to Senior Management

I felt like my contributions were undervalued while management was quick to heap praises and promotions on new employees and anyone decent in their 20's.

Pros

-The pay is decent
-Good benefits
-Education assistance
-Nice people to work with
-Promotion potential
-Professional growth opportunities
-Good Corporate citizen

Cons

-It is in a sub-prime market for lending, which recently has led to some very tough
problems for AGF to deal with

Advice to Senior Management

Management could have communicated a little better about the potential layoffs that happened, but understand that their in between a rock and hard place when it comes to doing that.