ACAMSReviews of acams.org

More SCAMS than ACAMS Very low level courses offered at the beginners level, you literally can have all this info for 15x cheaper with other online course providers. Way too low quality of materials for the price. The most disturbing part is unlike with other online course providers you don't have access to your course that you paid USD 700,- for after your membership expires, literally no other platform I used is so greedy, all courses that I paid for are available at any time. Customer service is absent, You dont pay for knowledge but for the brand name, hope more people will shift away.

If you enquire about a course at ACAMS, you're being bombarded with marketing calls, so-called account managers who are going to help you throughout your journey etc. I paid almost £1500 for the CAMS exam and the membership. Immediately after making the payment, my account manager Tom Frenzel disappeared! No replies to my emails or to phone calls. I emailed two account managers, I emailed the certification department, the Europe team. No response from anyone. Whilst studying for the exam, I realised that the study materials were outdated, full of spelling mistakes and with wrong answers to practice questions. The course is hideously overpriced for what it offers. They charge over £1000 for 294 pages that are of poor quality, not up to standards. I regret having signed up to this course!

Customer service is non-existent. I reached out several times to ACAMS about the CTMA certification but without a response. However, after reading the other reviews, I'm happy that I didn't book the course!

Unbelievable. I introduced my boss to ACAMS having done mine certification with them. However after paying a 1 thousand plus for membership and 2 online course. No information was sent. No course material or log in to go ahead with the course. Their customer service is so horrible, you stay on the line for almost 30mins and get cut off, no one bothers to call you. I used to think ACAMS was quite respected in this field but it appears the new website and change in logo just made everything worse. after 3 weeks, I am yet to know how to go ahead with the course or refund...no one is calling or emailing back. At least i should be able to get a refund and register with ICA. Pheeewwww

I struggled to pay very expensive fees as the platform to process the payment did not work. Then, I became a member yeay! But big surprise the course consists in a 311 p pdf, with poor formatting, no dates, we do not know when it was made... Then they promised online virtual courses, but I received not link to the course, which I paid for. I have been reaching out to their customer service (outsourced with limited budget probably FOR 1 HOUR, with annoying robotic waiting message. TO AVOID !!!!!!! I think ACAMS is actay ASCAM! I will seek a refund immediality.

I booked the basic foundation course for my wife and money got deducted but where is the course and its past 10 days.. wherein the course has expiry date of 4 weeks from the payment date. No one replies over long waited queue over phone or cares to callback or reply back to emails and not even through their contact web form.

Sitting here on hold for over 30 minutes now as their customer service hours are about to come to an end without me getting any help. I’ve already sent two emails with no responses after spending $500 on a certification course. I received an email from them with “instructions to access the course” that contained nothing of the sort—just a link back to their homepage. If this is the typical experience, I will not be taking any additional course. As it is, I may have to request a chargeback through my bank.

I am a certified member of ACAMs. I do appreciate the importance of the certification and awareness on AML and CFT (Counter-terrorist Financing) but This organization needs a lot of work to do in terms of their Syllabus, Examination preparation and resources, training and most of all Customer services. For a new certification body i find them trying to get your money with minimal returns. They get your money but everything is quite substandard. 1) customer services - They are very slow in responding in all queries and troubleshooting. Particular experience I had was when my access to my profile and review materials were lost and I asked for help and trouble shooting. They replied after a month which did not resolve the problem and it took them another month for them to resolve. They have to move my start date as I lost some months till my eligibility. Another issue was when i had questions on the review materials, where I find quite inconsistent and practice questions that have questionable answers... they never come back to me after I followed up again after a month, then they told me "You have an outdated material, please access new one on your profile....Where is the notification??? Do i have to read the study guide again???" 2) training, syllabus and examination prep - Way to expensive with less information. The research and pulling materials outside is the candidate's work. No notification if there were updates (as mentioned above). The Study Guide only has 4 chapters and its just like story telling with some cases. They just drop names or people and organizations and typologies and literatures, Candidate has to pull the typologies and and literatures to numerous sites (even if they have an appendix with all the sites and links, most of them dont work... better google them... (risk is you may miss any updates or you may pull the outdated files). There are only 125 practice questions and the Organization does not even have test banks or maybe a committee that would help candidates to be prepared in terms of practice questions. (Tbh, AML Trainings in my company and questions are way better an challenging). For a very expensive training/certification course, they have to provide more materials than a set 300 page study guide, an audiobook (which cannot be downloaded and only encourages candidate to slack of from the reading) and a PDF version of a flashcard that i didnt even use. The video lectures are not packed with information so better read the study guide. Without practice tests its so hard to guage if you are ready or not. It burns out most candidates with the too much reading then when the exam comes, you laugh at the exams because others questions are common sense answers and others are not even in the scope of the study guide (per my opinion) , and you just have to make your an intelligent answer. I joined some of the webex trainings and i find it most of them are courses through advertising the organization and its importance instead of technicalities. I gone tired and instead read textbooks and watch AML Documentaries lol 3) Membership, Examination fees and Rescheduling - Very Expensive. Membership is 295USD which i dont see much incentives like discounts to materials, trainings etc (unlike other professional association), Examination rescheduling fees is a whopping 100USD (consider your exchange rates). Clearly, ACAMS is really trying to get your money. 4) Value on your profession - Maybe it adds an additional letters under your name. Is it worth it? You be the judge. Will you be able to use this? Yes, but other certification bodies on compliance such as CIA, CRMA. CFSA would be a better cheaper choice to think AML is just a portion of their work. :) One more thing I remember, they should have a code of professional ethics,, and include it as part of their curriculum. I will have to see how the certification will affect me professionally and my bargaining power in getting a new job.