American FINCO Renews Relationship with Fiserv Credit Processing Services.Explosive growth and successful partnership lead to early renewal ORLANDO, Fla. -- Fiserv Credit Processing Services, a unit of Fiserv Inc. (Nasdaq: FISV FISV Fiserv, Inc (stock symbol) ), today announced the early renewal of its contract with Schaumburg, Ill.-based American FINCO Financial Services The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view of the subject. Please [ improve this article] or discuss the issue on the talk page. . American FINCO originally selected the Fiserv PLUS[TM] System in August 2002, to manage its expanding private-label credit-card processing operations. The new agreement will take the relationship through 2013. "We are extremely pleased to be able to continue our relationship with American FINCO. The company's products enable retail dealers to provide credit programs for their customers. By their nature, these programs must be flexible and have the ability to react to a variety of market opportunities," said Tim Smith Tim Smith is a common name. Notable people with the name Tim Smith include:
American FINCO provides consumer financing programs to both independent and brand-based dealers of home improvement products. The company credits a strong cooperative plan for the product's initial success. "The original implementation of Fiserv PLUS went very smoothly because we had planned for it well in advance," said Phil Layher, president of American FINCO. "The system went live in March 2002, but we didn't book our first loan until August. We took plenty of time and received considerable support from the staff at Fiserv, who made sure we thoroughly understood the system." Layher said a second key to the successful implementation was that the company's IT director was already familiar with VisionPLUS[TM], the core processing platform for the Fiserv PLUS system. This prior knowledge of the system enabled American FINCO to smoothly launch its services. "Our primary dealer base was familiar with the VisionPLUS system, so we were able to take advantage of the flexibility of the system and create a transition plan for dealers that took them to market quickly and easily. It was an easy internal transition, and the dealers also felt comfortable with the system," he said. Smith agreed, saying, "The product knowledge of the American FINCO staff has enabled them to quickly manage changes they need to accomplish to meet their business needs. We provide consulting services Noun 1. consulting service - service provided by a professional advisor (e.g., a lawyer or doctor or CPA etc.) service - work done by one person or group that benefits another; "budget separately for goods and services" and analysts to assist with any questions they might have, but they are very forward thinking and utilize the product in many unique ways." Layher said that because American FINCO is a small company, it was important to have a highly-customizable system that did not require investing in a major infrastructure. "That way, we could apply our resources into growing the business," he said. Since teaming up with Fiserv Credit Processing Services in 2002, American FINCO has generated over $41 million in outstanding loans. "From our perspective, it's one of our fastest-growing core clients. They focus on specific markets and industries and handle big-ticket financing very well," Smith said During the first 18 months after American FINCO opened its doors, it was the exclusive financing company for RainSoft. Over the last two years, the Years, The the seven decades of Eleanor Pargiter’s life. [Br. Lit.: Benét, 1109] See : Time company has expanded into other dealer networks. "Water treatment is a core industry for us. We are also expanding into the home improvement industryCoworking with dealers offering heating and cooling, windows, siding and decks," Layher said. Layher said the reliability of the PLUS System allows American FINCO to offer better dealer service. The company can apply a higher degree of automation using the Fiserv system, which creates better operating efficiencies. "We have the ability to provide 24/7 credit approvals and authorizations with minimal staffing. The system's reliability has also enabled us to compete with larger finance companies. The fact that Fiserv brings scale to the entire process allows us to be more cost efficient and offer stronger feature functionality than a typical start-up would be able to do on its own. We use Fiserv not only for our core processing, but also for much of our customer billing and card processing. The system provides instant economies of scale," he said. Layher said one of American FINCO's key servicing benchmarks is its funding turnaround time (1) In batch processing, the time it takes to receive finished reports after submission of documents or files for processing. In an online environment, turnaround time is the same as response time. , which is critical to smaller dealers so they can maintain the cash flow they need to operate. He said the Fiserv PLUS System's capability to automate ACH (Automated Clearing House) A system of the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank that provides electronic funds transfer (EFT) between banks. It is used for all kinds of fund transfer transactions, including direct deposit of paychecks and monthly debits for routine payments to payments on a nightly night·ly adj. 1. Of or occurring during the night; nocturnal: the cat's nightly prowl. 2. Happening or done every night: the physician's nightly rounds. basis cuts two to three days from the funding process. The average funding turnaround time is now 48 hours. "There are a several factors that are important to us in maintaining a competitive business," Layher said. "We need to have superior underwriting Underwriting 1. The process by which investment bankers raise investment capital from investors on behalf of corporations and governments that are issuing securities (both equity and debt). 2. The process of issuing insurance policies. and the ability to develop our own credit scoring Credit scoring A statistical technique that combines several financial characteristics to form a single score to represent a customer's creditworthiness. model that is implemented through the PLUS System's automated credit decisioning module. This allows us to maintain a strong risk profile." Of his decision to renew the contract with Fiserv two years early, Layher said, "If you're going to do a conversion, you need to apply well in advance and we felt it was an advantage to secure the relationship long term. We've been very satisfied with the service provided by Fiserv and by renewing early there was additional value built into the contract." Smith said that by making an early commitment to continue the relationship an additional five years, Fiserv was able to work with American FINCO to create more overall value from the total relationship. "It's a strong relationship that will allow American FINCO to take advantage of other services and products we offer, such as mail fulfillment, credit cards, paper statements that include messaging, and other high visibility items cardholders see and touch," he said. About American FINCO Financial Services Founded in 1999, American FINCO Financial Services provides retailers with innovative financial solutions to help consumers finance their home improvement purchases. Today, American FINCO is a leading third-party private label credit provider dedicated to providing marketing solutions to help retailers generate incremental Additional or increased growth, bulk, quantity, number, or value; enlarged. Incremental cost is additional or increased cost of an item or service apart from its actual cost. sales and drive greater profitability. For more information, visit www.finco.com. About Fiserv Credit Processing Services The Fiserv PLUS System unites the VisionPLUS credit processing softwareCothe industry's leading credit-processing solutionCowith decades of information-processing expertise and a comprehensive suite of value-added products and services from Fiserv. This powerful mix of software and service provides a state-of-the-art foundation upon which business can build innovative private-label, revolving, bankcard bank·card n. A card issued by a bank authorizing the holder to receive bank services and often functioning as a debit card. and installment credit Noun 1. installment credit - a loan repaid with interest in equal periodic payments installment loan consumer credit - a line of credit extended for personal or household use loan - the temporary provision of money (usually at interest) programs. Credit-processing clients of the Orlando-based business unit of Fiserv include industry leaders in the private label, captive finance and bankcard markets. Processing over 13 million accounts, Fiserv CPS (1) (Characters Per Second) The measurement of the speed of a serial printer or the speed of a data transfer between hardware devices or over a communications channel. CPS is equivalent to bytes per second. offers a complete outsourced servicing solution for all types of credit programs. About Fiserv Inc. Fiserv Inc. (Nasdaq: FISV), a Fortune 500 company, provides information management systems and services to the financial and health benefits industries. Leading services include transaction processing Updating the appropriate database records as soon as a transaction (order, payment, etc.) is entered into the computer. It may also imply that confirmations are sent at the same time. Transaction processing systems are the backbone of an organization because they update constantly. , outsourcing (1) Contracting with outside consultants, software houses or service bureaus to perform systems analysis, programming and datacenter operations. Contrast with insourcing. See netsourcing, ASP, SSP and facilities management. , business process outsourcing Business process outsourcing (BPO) is the contracting of a specific business task, such as payroll, to a third-party service provider. Usually, BPO is implemented as a cost-saving measure for tasks that a company requires but does not depend upon to maintain its position in (BPO BPO Business Process Outsourcing BPO Benevolent & Protective Order (of Elks of the USA) BPO Benzoyl Peroxide BPO Business Process Optimization BPO Broker Price Opinions BPO Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra ), software and systems solutions. The company serves more than 17,000 clients worldwide and is the leading provider of core processing solutions for U.S. banks, credit unions and thrifts. Fiserv was ranked the largest provider of information technology services to the financial services industry worldwide in the 2004, 2005 and 2006 FinTech 100 surveys. Fiserv Health provides health plan management, pharmacy benefits management and BPO services to the managed care market and self-funded commercial and government employers and health plans. Headquartered in Brookfield, Wis adv. 1. Certainly; really; indeed. v. t. 1. To think; to suppose; to imagine; - used chiefly in the first person sing. present tense, I wis. See the Note under Ywis. ., Fiserv reported more than $4 billion in total revenue for 2005. For more information, please visit www.fiserv.com. 
American FINCO has very misleading,dishonest and underhanded methods of racking up late fees and charges.
They purposely delay posting payments until after the due date. This was substantiated by my account representative at Bank of America bill pay system. I requested a payment be made to AM Finco on the 14th of the month through BofA bill pay system and they verified the payment was made on the 14th, but AM Finco did not post it until the 22nd of the month, one day past the 21st due date. B of A and myself conferenced called Am Finco. They agreed to defer the late fee of $39.00 but failed to tell us during the conference call that the late fee would be deducted from the PRINCIPLE of the loan, not the payment due. The next month I made the regular payment through B of A bill pay system and they charged another late fee because the payment they received from me was not for the full amount (I deducted the late fee). It was only after I called them that they told me the late fee was deducted from the principle of the loan and I was still expected to pay the late fee with my payment. They considered it a partial payment which qualifies it as the full payment being "late". No amount of arguing would convince them any different, so I immediately refinanced the account balance with a reputible l |
|
||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion