Pros
Benefits. Experience. Coworkers. Adaptability. Schedule
Cons
I also used to bank here years and years ago but after 3 months I quit banking there (slow system, no deposit ATM, lack branch locations, etc) and went to Wells Fargo and I have been there for years and never been happier. Ok bank to start a banking career with and get your feet wet and learn the ropes but that is it. Pay was terrible compared to what EVERY other bank paid for similar work. Your position starting out is a UNIVERSAL banker not a personal banker, that's a cheap trick to make you appear to do less work than they actually have you do. You are a personal banker, marketer, and a teller all rolled into one but you are paid WAY less than a teller is industry wide for a position that is 3 ranks up the chain. The bank provides good benefits I will give it that. They have sloooooow 1990s technology and most branches only have ATMs that can distribute cash not take deposits so you're limited to being able to deposit cash and checks during opening hours. The app is TERRIBLE!!! Always crashes and does not tell the customer that it's down and you will get FLOODED with complaints as to why people cannot log in, make a payment, transfer funds, etc and you will find this out right when people find out so you aren't prepared or aware until someone is screaming at your right when you open up the branch. The app only provides basic and I mean basic information compared to every other major bank (it is soooo clunky and outdated along with the website, you cannot see your credit score, you cannot see your credit card account in the app to make direct payments or see purchases (you have to use another 3rd party provider and don't get me started on the problems that causes), you can't send money to someone else, you can't see your bank statements on the app, soooo many more problems). Location. They are only located in 4 states with most branches within just Missouri. They cannot provide the same level of service at their in-store branches as their brick-and-mortar branches. Most in-store branches cannot do what traditional branches do and clients get angry when you can't do what so-and-so did. Foreign currency. Along with every procedure, almost everything has to be filled out, printed, and emailed to a back office. They take a long while to transfer currency and charge an arm and a leg to do so so most clients go somewhere else to exchange their foreign currency. Also, most branches cannot purchase foreign currency? Going to Paris? Go to the airport and get robbed in fees to get your precious Euros. Lost forms. The back office loses forms sooooooooo many times. Got a new client and they are all signed up? Great now go submit your forms so its verified. You do. A few days later: "The account created is missing forms, please submit or else the account will be closed in a few days". You resubmit forms again, no response. You try to call doc support: no answer or no we didn't get your forms. You call the client hey sorry the bank lost your forms we have to have you come in again (sometimes 3-4 different times) to fill out all the forms again and get every document and signature. They are super angry and you're embarrassed to have to call again to ask and tell them their account will have to be closed if they don't come in again. One more time is annoying enough but even worse when it's more than one time and by that time they think you're a terrible banker who can't do their job when it's not your fault and now the bank looks and IS inept. Also account creating procedures are terrible, very complex, often time you have to resort to manually creating the account if you can because the system won't do it. Also account are closed due to the system making errors and you can't fix them in the system or get the client to come back in again and several clients end up closing their accounts after a few days and moving to Chase or Bank of America or Wells Fargo. A REAL BANK!!!! Checks. This is a HUGE HUGE HUGE problem with this bank. Most banks have a standard waiting policy for all checks regardless if it's $20,000 or $1 and clients are aware of this policy. If you've got a check its gonna take a few days to clear plain and simple. If the banker takes the check and it's bad it's on the client/issuer not the banker. Checks are simply deposited with the standard hold and moves onto the next transaction. Not here! At Academy, check procedures are on YOU the banker. You are required to make a judgement call on all checks on whether or not to hold the check, refuse to deposit it, cash it, or what-have-you. The check policies are not clear whatsoever to the client and you will get hundreds of angry and I mean angry clients as to why you cannot take their check even though the client hasn't done anything wrong but if it comes back not sufficient funds you WILL LOSE YOUR JOB so you have to refuse clients checks if you can't prove to the bank that the client could repay the check it it was returned. This happens tons of times on Fridays. You can refuse a check if the account is less than a month old, they have 6+ overdrafts on the account in 6 months, or the check is over $5,000.00. If the client has less than 6 OD, over 30 days old, and the check is less than $5,000 but they make didley squat you would think you can just deposit it right? WRONG!! If you do and turns out the check is returned then you've probably lost your job. Not qualifying for a hold is NOT a reason to just deposit and/or cash the check. When you're starting out you are required to look for the check history in the bank to see if it's genuine or had problems and then contact the maker and the issuer to see if the check is genuine and has funds available. SPOILER: ALMOST EVERY BANK WILL REFUSE TO TELL YOU IF FUNDS ARE AVAILABLE! If you don't feel it can't be repaid or it's new, or the client just doesn't make enough to cover the check, you can try to call the maker and the issuer to give you a better feeling about the check but then that takes times and the customer gets mad as to why you have to do it when "That's the same check I get every week" "Why do you have to do that?" "I've been here for years!" "I was just issued that!" that's even if you can get a hold of both to verify the check. If not but you just know the client can't repay it or possibly couldn't you will have to refuse it to save your own neck and sometimes you're stuck 50/50 as what do to: satisfy the customer or risk loosing your job. And that's just one client when it's Friday and you've got a long list of customers everyone gets angry as why they've waited an hour to deposit and cash their checks, yes an hour, I'm not joking one bit and then the next person has the same issue so you do your due diligence to see if you can cash or deposit the check and not lose your job but help the client out and meanwhile you've made the next client who just wants their money mad but oh its now 4:10 and the next days business so now they're not getting their money till at the earliest on Monday. And if you can get a manager to sign off on the check then you can save your neck but if they don't feel good about it either they will refuse to sign off it leaving you to make the decision and make the customer mad. But oh you can just have the customer mobile deposit telling them that it will be available in 10 minutes WHEN IT WON'T and will definitely be put on hold and then the customer is mad when it is held and you don't want to release the hold for fear of losing your job but you're told to tell that to customers so the risk is on someone in the back office and not you. HORRIBLE HORRIBLE HORRIBLE CHECK POLICY. VERY CONFUSING, FRUSTRATES ALMOST EVERY CUSTOMER AND FIRES GOOD BANKERS!! SIMPLY PUT EVERY CHECK ON HOLD THAT WILL MAKE THINGS GO MUCH FASTER, CLIENTS UNDERSTAND, BANKERS DON'T LOSE THEIR JOB, AND THE BANK SAVES MONEY. All this just to be able to give someone their money right away when most customers work at McDonald's, get SS, and/or homeless and couldn't repay the check even if they wanted to. Marketing. You will hate your job everyday. You are required to market to strangers in a Walmart who just want to get bread and milk and get out and not talk to you. You get yelled at for not getting more clients when you think you've got a customer, make an appointment, give them your card, follow up, etc and then NOTHING. Client after client: appointment gone. The next day: "How many clients do you have?" "Oh 1 because 5 people didn't want to come in and just said yes so I'd leave them alone". "Why aren't you trying hard enough?! You must not care!" So then there's the wonderful Walmart check cashing place next-door, so you resort to picking off waiting customers by opening an account and cashing the check the same day to get accounts regardless of the bank's check cashing procedure and then anger them off next week for not cashing their check because its less than 30 days old but you happily cashed it the week before to get their business. The back office is TERRIBLE. You will NEVER be able to get ahold of someone. Ever. The database is old and outdated with people who never answer or get back to you and you can't get through to the main operator anymore and you're calling manager after manager trying to see who you should talk to to resolve a specific problem. They tell you try so-and-so and they say try so-and-so and they don't answer or they don't handle that issue and meanwhile its been 20 minutes and you're on hold or can't get ahold of someone to resolve the issue and now the client is super mad at you for "Not doing your job" and you're genuinely sorry but literally cannot fix the problem because it requires someone else to resolve it. Case in point, I had a customer who got married and needed to change her name on her account. Simple right? WRONG!! She goes to my associate who tried but didn't know what they were doing and the client thought it was all settled and left only to come back and be told "Sorry, I can't help you, the name doesn't match the account" "What do you mean I came here last week and spoke to her my name was changed here's my old license!!!" "Oh, I'm sorry so-and-so made a mistake and didn't get the right information from you. I'm gonna have to do this all over again. Let me get your marriage certificate, your new DL, SS card, BC, sign here, here, here, here, fill this out. Ok I will scan these off and send so so-and-so department. So sorry that should be fixed right away" Nope. Same thing happens the next week, I'm frustrated as to why the change wasn't made and try to get ahold of anyone who will fix it. No one responds, no one knows who to talk to, emails and phone calls go un-replied, resubmit after resubmit. I resubmit the forms again. No change. I resort to manually making the change myself. Nope. Rejected; has to be completed by so-and-so. Please try again. I ended up leaving the company and the client's issue was still unresolved for almost 2 months. I have no clue if she got her problem fixed but I hope she left and went to another bank. Their cash handling policies are terrible. You're trained to be able to count, distribute, and be responsible for tens of thousands of dollars but if someone needs a cash withdrawal over $500 you have to have a manager approve it and if the manager is busy or not there (semi-often) you have to call other branches hoping a manger there will approve it. A lot of the time there isn't a manger available and you've called 10 branches and several branches will get mad at you for calling and ask never to call again and ask why your manager isn't there. Meanwhile the client is angry waiting for their cash and you can't give it to them because the computer won't let you. $500 is play money at a bank and those kinds of withdrawals are a dime a dozen. If you can't be trusted to simply give $500 to a customer when there's over $10,000 in your drawer then why do you even have tellers? I think I've rambled on enough and I'd say more if I could but I think you get the picture. STAY AWAY FROM THIS BANK!!! DO NOT BANK HERE, DO NOT WORK HERE!!! IF YOU'RE AT WALMART GO AROUND THEM. THIS IS A KIDDIE BANK!!