If you owed a bank money under a loan that had an interest rate of 6%… And I came along and said to you “Here, take this loan with an interest rate of 8% and use the money to pay off the loan you already have…”

What would you say?

Anyone with remedial math skills would say NO WAY!

Recently I’ve posted a couple of articles about my disappointment with LinkedIn. It’s my opinion that for most professionals it’s a complete waste of time. Actual benefits from it are few and far between, unless you’re looking for a job or you’re a headhunter.

This morning there was a pending comment here on one of those articles. It was from someone pretending to be a happy user of a similar site, Salesconx. This site lets users buy and sell leads, and supposedly you don’t pay unless the lead meets your criteria.

Here’s how they describe the service:

Much to my dismay, the Business Journal of Milwaukee ran a piece raving about the usefulness about LinkedIn, the modern day version of a chain letter. Last week I talked about how it’s nothing more than an annoying tool ultimately used by headhunters and sales people. Real connections and real value derived from the service are few and far between unless you’re a job-seeker or job-peddler.

And apparently I must have hit a sore spot with the folks who run LinkedIn, because they can’t seem to stay away from this site. They’re checking that thread multiple times a day to see if anyone’s saying anything.

I found this interesting description of the deception involved in selling the United First Financial program to unsuspecting consumers for $3,500:

Owning a franchise can be the best and the worst of times. Franchises are successful because the parent company has a proven business model, excellent training and business development guidelines, a brand that has a lot of goodwill with customers, and advertising leverage that a single owner could never have.

On the bad side, they are expensive to get into, can create a lot of restrictions for your operations, and can be very inflexible. One of the worst aspects of franchising is having a  parent company that puts stores too close together, cannibalizing the sales of the established franchise locations in an effort to gain greater overall market share.

I have had a ton of fun researching the United First Financial “program” being sold for $3,500 by multi-level marketing people. The more I read, the more it’s clear that this is a bad way to spend $3,500.

Apparently, telling consumers that it was based on the “Australian banking system” is intended to give it some credibility. That somehow, since “it” is used in a land far away and this awesome company UFF is offering it to us in the United States is supposed to make it better.

Wrong!

In researching United First Financial and the Money Merge Account, there weren’t many sources of information on the compensation structure for agents. What I do know is this: The official corporate website does not mention “the opportunity” or “business opportunity,” as most other multi-level marketing companies do. I came to the conclusion that the company doesn’t want to be labeled as a MLM or potential pyramid scheme.

The logic is obvious: Consumers are becoming more educated about the pitfalls of MLM. They realize that because the company has to pay so many levels in the food chain of an MLM, the actual seller of a product receives relatively low compensation. If the company wasn’t worried about building and paying the pyramid, there would be far more money to reward and compensate the actual seller of the product.

I promise this will be my last post for today on United First Financial. The more research I do, the more I think this company’s program sucks. Those who promote it suck. And those who participate… they’re suckers.

So here’s how my plan works, and I’m giving you this for free! I’m using a $200,000 mortgage with an 6.5% interest rate for 30 years.

First, take the $3,500 you were going to pay to United First Financial, and apply it to the principal of your mortgage immediately. This saves you $19,714 over the life of your mortgage, and ends your payments 19 months early.

In my book, Dave Ramsey is hands down one of the best and most credible experts on getting out of debt. While I disagree with him on a few technicalities, we’re on the same page for most of what he preaches. The guy talks sense.

So when United First Financial representatives scammers began emailing me, calling me ignorant, stupid, and uneducated because I don’t believe in their product, I decided to research what my beloved Dave Ramsey has to say.

Yesterday I wrote about my research on a multi-level marketing company called United First Financial. My problem with the company is not that what they’re selling isn’t good or doesn’t help people. The plan can help people pay down their debt faster. I just don’t believe handing over $3,500 for something you can get for far, far less makes sense.

The banking product utilized (mortgage accelerator loans) is available to consumers without this big fee. For a few hundred bucks up front, plus a very small annual fee (less than $100), you can get this product from a bank or mortgage lender. No need to shell out $3,500 up front!