Comments on: United First Financial Lies: You can pay off your mortgage faster with no change in spending

By: Craig

Craig — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 20:57:29 +0000

You didn’t come across as rude – you came across as yet another UFirst agent who doesn’t know the nature of the E&Y award.

So, when you started, your HELOC rate was 7%, and your mortgage was at 5%.

And you don’t see why borrowing money at 7% over 4 months to pay off a mortgage at 5% is a bad idea?

Sure, you’ll save some interest by paying down the balance with every paycheck, but you could have done better by just applying your discretionary income directly to the mortgage. If you want to hash through the numbers, we can do that, but you should already see the writing on the wall. On top of that, you borrowed an additional $3500 to pay for the MMA, so you’re accruing $3500 x 5% /12 = $14.58 in additional interest every month for the life of the mortgage.

The MMA is inefficient, it’s more work that simple prepayment, and we can absolutely use your example (just like all the others before it) to prove our point.

By: Jay

Jay — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 20:42:35 +0000

First let me say, I’m not trying to sell this product to you. I’m merely stating that I have saved a bunch of money with it. Answer to your questions are below.
1st mort…5.75
heloc….variable of course (when I started it was in the 7’s…now it’s 5.00)
Sorry if I came across rude in the previous post.

By: Craig

Craig — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 20:07:55 +0000

Not again.

Here is what E&Y had to say about the award:

”
You should know that Ernst & Young sponsors the Entrepeneur of the Year program but does not have any say in the selection of award recipients. The recipients are selected by an independent panel of judges. An EOY award is not an endorsement of any individual, company, product or service by Ernst & Young.

Thank you again for your report.

Andy Heaton
EY/Ethics
“

As for your math, what was the interest rate on your 1st mortgage and your HELOC? Let’s see just how smart this software is.

By: Jay

Jay — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 18:17:43 +0000

I have one thing to say. Does anyone know Ernst & Young? If not, let me help you. Take a look at this link. http://www.ey.com/global/Content.nsf/US/Media_-_Release_-_30-06-08DC
Notice who WON the Entrepreneur Of the Year Award for Financial Services? You guessed it, UFF. I wonder why UFF hired a guy from NASA to help develope the software? Oh, I got it, just to win awards. For those of you that think this is a scam, it’s really sad. The Banks have you right where they want you. I bought the software over 1.5 years ago and have knocked my mortgage down from 380,000 to 300,000 in that time. No, I have not changed my lifestyle. Yes, my kids still go to private schools. Yes, I’m debt free with the exception of my house. I made DOUBLE house payments for a solid year in a Bi-Monthly format BEFORE I bought this software and was not able to come close to the savings I have with this software. What people don’t realize is that EACH person situation is different which makes the software so beneficial. No, you will not be making extra payments to your mortgage on a “month by month” basis….BUT, the software WILL strategically tell you when to make a BIG payment on your primary mortage. For instance, when I started the program, I was told to cut a check straight from my Home Equity Line of Credit for over 10,000. I paid the 10,000 back in 4 months and it only cost me a little over $300.00 to use the money. Once the 10k was paid back…the software told me to cut another check to my primary mortgage down to the penny. Not only does it work, it works very well. It’s called, Interest Cancellation. ALL of your money is working for you, ALL the time…..instead of sitting in a checking account working for the bank WAITING to pay bills. How do you make it with no money in checking?…well, you simply use someone else’s money…such as a credit card. And guess what, if you pay the bill off IN FULL each month (from your equity line) you don’t pay any interest. Ok, I’m tired of talking because some of you are so darn hard headed you’ll never get it. No skin off my back, I’ll be completely debt free in less than 7 years. Oh, one more thing, the software comes with a 100% money back guarantee. Know why?…cause it’s math, plain and simple.

By: JT

JT — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 13:41:25 +0000

I have been a REALTOR since 1980, I have seen a lot of ways to cut your mortgage time frame from 30 to 15 or better years. One way I was told is to make one extra mortgage payment a year and have it applied to the principle, another way was from day one to bay double the principal amount – in the beginning that is very low, and as time goes on it may get higher but hopefully you are in a better position, another way is to apply the tax savings that you get from writing off the interest and taxes to your principal in the form of your tax rebate. So there is some free advice that I have been giving out for a LONG time. (and most of the REALTORS I know do tell their clients this)

By: Dennis

Dennis — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 13:21:58 +0000

I was approaced on line as a prospective employee candidate for UFF.
Wow, at first I too thought it could be a good program, especially for those people that can’t find the money to kick start a budget. Nothing like infusing a little cash to get off to a good start.
The more I read the more I feel it’s another bank scam. It reminds me the sooner I can get free of the banks the better.

By: Tracy Coenen

Tracy Coenen — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 01:46:59 +0000

John – I HAVE talked to people using this product and they all have one thing in common: They have no idea what the program is really accomplishing (which is NOTHING that a simple and free prepayment would do).

They all believe the lie stated in the title of this post. They are all confused about what they really bought, and don’t realize they could have had equally good results paying off their mortgage early FOR FREE.

They got duped, plain and simple. I’m glad you brought up talking to users of the program, because that’s one thing I hadn’t yet written about. The users are ill-informed about what they’ve plunked down thousands of dollars for. It’s sad, really.

By: JT

JT — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 01:40:53 +0000

I am a Real Estate trainer for a top company in New England; I have a bit of influence in our Real Estate community. I was approached by someone with ties to the National Association of Realtors Women’s Council, a group I love and trust. When I saw the flyer on this I wondered why there was not more information. LIke: Why should I care? Do I make money on this? Is there a cost? If so How much? My first impression was forgetaboutit, but since the offer came from a person in a very reputable organization I decided to look into it. Glad I found this article! When something is so hidden it makes you wonder what they are hiding! In Real Estate we have to be very careful about making money on things other than selling real-estate and we have to disclose everything if we are- hope this person is following the rules!

By: John

John — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 18:15:43 +0000

Once again, Tracy manages to twist words. Good job. Obviously I am referring to the negativity towards the program. There is nothing negative about the program. It is very clear you have yet to speak with anyone that is actually using the program, which would be necessary in doing any research on a company. Go figure, people using it would be a good measure as to the effectiveness of a product. It’s weird how that works.

I think it’s great there are people out there looking out for consumers for scams, but it’s probably best for you to move on to other things. This is not your specialty.

I am glad I made someone laugh though. That makes me feel good. It’s funny to me how up until these programs on paying mortgages surfaced, nobody was helping people pay off their homes early or offering any legitimate advice of the sort. UFirst, those monsters for helping people, how dare they. Where do they get off.

By: Save you 20K free

Save you 20K free — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 13:29:29 +0000

“What are you doing, other than not offering any solutions whatsoever.”

By paying $3500 to your 30 year mortgage instead of flushing it down the UFF toilet, a person will have saved $20,000 on that mortgage (since you guys like to mix future value with present value when it suits you). That seems like substantial value to me and free to boot.

“If it didn’t work, the company wouldn’t exist. ”

That may be the funniest thing I’ve read in a long time. Could I interest you in some “enhancement” pills?