Jobs with Banks - What’s Available and What You Need (bankruptcy help)

August 31st, 2008 admin Posted in finance |

By john mce

Banks can be great places to start a career. Here’s 3 jobs available in the banking sector which may help you find the job you’ve always dreamed of.

Customer Service Advisor

As a customer service advisor or cashier, you are the first point of contact for a bank’s customers. That’s either in branches serving customers, or in ‘contact centres’, answering telephone calls and emails.

You would process payments and withdrawals, deal with general enquiries, sell financial products and services, update computerised account details, issue foreign currency, help customers with applications and carry out more general administrative duties.

Employers will generally ask for four or five GCSEs, including English and Maths for these kinds of positions, although many have their own entry exams upon application. Experience of customer service and handling cash is an advantage, as are basic computers skills and office experience.

Mortgage Adviser

Mortgage Advisers help customers find, understand and apply for suitable mortgages. If you worked for a bank or building society you would only be selling your own mortgage products. As an estate agent or mortgage broker you would offer mortgage products from a range of providers.

You would advise customers about the home-buying process, assessing their finances, explaining the different kinds of mortgage products, helping with the application, explaining elements of them and selling other related financial services. Your role may come with sales targets and requires a constantly updated knowledge of the products and the law.

There are strict sets of guidelines laid out by the Financial Services Authority regarding selling the financial products, acting fairly and giving the correct advice.

Communication skills and experience in customer service, sales, or financial services are considered more important than educational qualifications for this role. During your training and career development you would obtain FSA-approved qualifications.

Financial Adviser

As a financial adviser, you would help clients to choose between financial products and services, such as investment opportunities, savings, pensions, mortgages and insurance. There are three ways of working; tied, multi-tied, and independent.

Tied means working for a bank of building society and only offering their products and services, Multi-tied means selling services from a selection of companies, and independent means you offer advice on the whole of the market.

Your duties would involve setting up meetings with clients, finding out about their financial situation and future plans, researching financial products, explaining these products to the clients to help inform their decisions, meeting sales targets, keeping records, producing financial reports, updating clients, keeping up to date with the market and the law.

There are strict rules set out by the Financial Services Authority to ensure you act fairly and are properly qualified to give financial advice.

Again, communication skills, ‘people skills’ and a background in customer service, sales or financial services can be more important than educational qualifications. The normal promotion route would lead from a customer service role to a tied adviser after achieving a FSA-approved qualification.

John McE writes on behalf of Commercial Finance People, a financial recruitment consultancy, which was established in 1998 to place candidates in asset finance jobs, invoice finance jobs and banking jobs

The 8 Benefits of Modular Construction that Every Owner Builder Needs to Know
By Chris Esposito

Owner builder construction is growing in popularity at a tremendous pace around the country as more and more people look to save money by building their own home. If you are considering being an owner builder to build your next house, then you need to know these 8 benefits of modular construction before you begin.

1. Highly engineered.

Whether you want to be an owner builder or hire a licensed general contractor, modular construction will be a good option to ensure the home is well engineered. In the past, there was a stigma about modular construction, because the earliest versions of the homes were poorly built.

But, the modular industry has come a long way. An owner builder can rest assured that a modular home will be engineered properly. Nowadays, unlike twenty years ago, there is a big difference between modular homes and manufactured homes.

2. Generally lower cost per square foot.

If you want to be an owner builder, you will save money in most cases by building a modular home versus hiring a general contractor to build the house for you. In fact, modular construction is somewhat comparable in cost to owner builder construction on site. In general, you will pay a little more, though, for the convenience of having the modular home built for you in the factory. However, if you compare owner builder modular construction to hiring a GC to build your home on site, then you should almost always see savings by going the modular route.

3. Built in a factory environment, eliminating timber warp and resulting in improved fit.

Because a modular home is not built on site, the lumber is not left outdoors to endure the weather. Therefore, the materials are not subject to timber warp, and your framing will fit together more precisely. Once the modular home is erected on the foundation on site, it will be weather tight, and the owner builder can then take his time to do the few remaining items required to complete the home.

4. Efficient building process and material usage saves on costs and material waste.

Any owner builder who goes through the typical on site construction process will tell you that there is always a lot of waste. It can’t be avoided, as you have to estimate the amount of lumber and other materials needed to build your home. This waste translates directly to money out of your pocket. A modular home, however, is built in the factory to pre-known specs, so there is much less waste.

5. Speed of construction cuts down the time frame tremendously, yielding interest savings on your construction loan.

As an owner builder goes through construction, interest accrues against the money that he has borrowed. Every month that goes by means more money that the owner builder owes in interest. Modular construction will drastically reduce the time needed to build the home, and you will therefore have less interest payment costs.

6. Less to manage.

This seems simple and obvious, but it’s vitally important, especially with owner builder construction. If you have never built your own home before, you will quickly realize that managing the myriad of sub-contractors can become a real burden. But, if you build a modular home, you will have much less work to oversee. Depending on the specific modular package that you purchase, you may have only one or two things to do to finish the home.

7. Built to meet or exceed local standards.

Modular homes nowadays are going to be engineered specifically to meet your local building code requirements. It takes a lot of the design and management off the shoulders of the owner builder. This means no more sweating over county code inspections.

8. Makes owner builder construction possible for some people who otherwise would need to hire a GC.

Because the process is simple for the customer, modular construction lends it self perfectly to owner builder construction. You can very easily build your own home without having to hire a general contractor. This will mean large savings in time and money for the construction of your home. There are many examples where the owner builder would not have been able to manage the project without a GC unless they went with a modular home.

Chris Esposito is an expert in owner builder construction loans and provides financing through his Owner Builder 101 program. If you want to learn more about building your own home and cutting out the costs of a GC, go to www.OwnerBuilder101.com, or call (877) 876-3688.

How to Eat Well Without Overspending
By Ki Gray

With living costs rising at a seemingly constant rate, simple, everyday expenses are getting more and more difficult to accommodate, and many people are finding their budgets getting tighter than ever. While there are plenty of areas people can trim their budgets, such as spending on entertainment or shoe shopping, the rising costs of necessary items like food and gasoline make it harder and harder for people to cut enough spending elsewhere in their budgets to accommodate the increased expense of these everyday necessities. And despite the need, it’s simply unrealistic to eliminate all extraneous spending in order to make room for the ever-increasing expense of groceries and gasoline.

Thankfully, with a little budgetary reorganization, some planning, and a dash of creativity, you can maximize your food budget to make sure you get the best value for your dollar. Here are a few tips to help you spend wisely at the grocery store, and stretch your food budget as far as possible.

Plan ahead

All too often, people approach grocery shopping with an impulse-buy mentality. “I’ll just go see what’s on sale,” is an extremely ineffective approach to grocery shopping. Sit down with a cookbook and plan your meals at least a week in advance. Scheduling meals out in advance will allow you to maximize your food spending, as you can organize meals by primary ingredients, using them from one day to the next. Also, planning ahead will help you avoid impulse buys when you get to the store. Make a list and stick to it.

Buy in bulk

The larger quantities you’re able to buy, the more you’ll save. While memberships at wholesale discount clubs aren’t cheap, they pay for themselves almost immediately in big savings. Buying items like individually packaged frozen meats, toilet paper, paper towels, laundry detergent, etc., is significantly more cost effective than buying these items in smaller amounts at your local grocery.

Keep it simple

Sticking to simple, basic ingredients is a great way to save at the grocery store. Creative recipes and exotic spices can make even the simplest items (chicken breasts, for example) a culinary treat. So skip the fillet and get creative with your recipes. You’ll still eat well, and your budget will go much farther.

Be prudent with produce

While buying in bulk is great for some items, it’s rarely wise when it comes to produce and other perishables. Less is more when it comes to items that have a shorter shelf life. When buying produce, only buy what you’re certain you’ll use. This will help you avoid unnecessary waste, and will help you save money.

Keep it close to home

Eating out is one of the fastest ways to blow through your food budget. Between overprices meals, drinks, tax, and tip, it’s extremely difficult to get enough value in a meal out to justify it over eating in. Sure, there’s more work involved in cooking for yourself, but it’s significantly more cost effective. Save eating out for special occasions only, and you’ll find your food budget will go much farther.

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Escapeso Realty is a small real estate company assisting buyers looking for Austin homes. Their site provides a search of the Austin MLS and information on mortgage interest rates.

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