Household HSBC Watch

Thu Nov 03, 2005 10:28 am      

First, I want it noted that I left Beneficial on my own accord. I was not fired, or laid off.
I took the job because I was told I'd make good money and I'd make a difference.
The training was 1 month, was computer based, and not nearly long enough. From what I understand it is even shorter now. You spent most of your time reading and then you took a test. Most people just got help from their co-workers so whether they knew the answers was beyond me. We would be warned ahead of time when they were doing quality check calls and I was always told to answer the phone because no one else knew how to respond compliantly.
After training, you are thrown to the wolves. Your job is to convert the checks that are sent to customers into branch loans that way the branch gets credit for them. Then, your job is to sell credit life insurance. We would turn the closed-end loans into revolving loans, that way we could add the insurance and make it a lower payment. Sounds like a better loan now doesn't it? The problem was, since it became revolving, the balance kept going up and up if just the minimum payment was made, so what was once a 3 year loan now became a 30 year loan in essence.
Quality assurance will tell you that they ask customers if they are quoted payments without and with insurance. I will tell you that many people quoted the $139 closed end payment first and then quoated the revolving loan payment with the insurance. Because the loan is revolving, it requires less of minimum payment due. Then you can add the insurance on top of it and still come out less than the original payment. In essence you are quoting without and with insurance-and the customer will not know any different because of how the questions are asked. Believe me, we all knew about packing insurance, but because there was an unbelievable pressure to make insurance goals, we were told we couldn't close loans without insurance on them.
Our interests rate went down a 3% over the life of the loan. That was our key selling point. Because of the daily interest aspect, it made it a very appealling loan. We had elaborate proposals we would send out illustrating how much time and interest they could shave off their loan. In small print it was written that it assumed payments were made every two weeks. The problem was unless you enrolled in the automatic payment program, it was nearly impossible to get the payment there once every two weeks. Since it was daily interest, every day the system went without a payment more and more interest accrued, leaving some, who weren't late with their payments, but who didn't make the payments at the same time every two weeks or every thirty days, accruing more interest with a minimal amount, if any, going to principal. We charged $5 for auto pay.
Most of the time I was told I explained too much. My boss even told me that the best kind of loan was when the customer came in and had no idea what they were doing.
Our district managers were no better telling us to do do one thing, but once we were caught claimed no knowledge of anything.
We added income to loans called RIV to get the debt to income and disposable income in line. Most of the customers didnt know it was added.
We were told that if we had income issues to always use RIV and to use the source of the money to reflect a side job close to what their actual job was. Some account executives lied to their customers to get them to do the loan-even telling them we escrowed when we didn't.
We were hourly employees told to work 60 hours if we wanted to be successful. Yet, we were allowed no overtime. If we claimed overtime, it was a terminable offense for disobeying company orders, if we didn't claim it but worked it, it was a terminable offense.
If you were like me, and refused to do the things asked of you or spoke out against them, you were black listed from receiving any promotions or transfers. No one narked at Beneficial. The would find a way to get rid of you-not the employees who were actually breaking the law.
The objective there is money. Money to the branch, money to the employees. The customers are thought of only as paychecks.
On paper, the loans look wonderful. Perhaps they've even worked for some. Most customers were recycled many times in the two years I worked for that company. We used their equity until we couldn't use any more.
I know there are some posts from employees on here stating how wonderful it is to work there and I've read about how customers wouldn't have to go to them if they had decent credit or wouldn't complain if they just paid their bill on time. Many customers I refinanced had stellar credit, but were non traditional refinances. They were self employed or the debt to income was out of line for a normal bank to refinance them. They paid their bills on time with us too, but continued to see their loan amortorize- negatively. They trusted the employees to help them make the right decisions and we helped ourselves by padding our pocket while their lives went down the drain. You cannot respond by saying they should have read the fine print, when you didnt' want them to read it the first place. Employees who continue to work their are either oblivious to the evil being told what to do and never questioning it, or they simply do not care. How they sleep at night, I'll never know.