The United First Financial Limited Guarantee

A comment today by one of our readers on this thread prompted me to take a look at the United First Financial money back guarantee. If you’re a customer of UFF, good luck trying to get your money back. Sure, it sounds nice that they offer your money back. But if you take a look at the terms, there is basically no protection for you as a customer.

This comes from the Money Merge Account activation documents from UFF (linked here under the Fair Use Doctrine, for educational purposes): Continue reading

Selling the Money Merge Acount from UFF

One of our readers posted this, and it’s brilliant. It is the simplest possible way to break down what United First Financial is selling with its Money Merge Account.

Question for the consumer:

Would you rather pay $0 to save $110,000, or would you like to pay $3500 to save $100,000?

It gets to the truth of what UFF is selling with the MMA. Sure, you could save a lot of money using the MMA. But you will save even more FOR FREE.

United First Financial: Sell Them With Deceit

I’ve been critical of the United First Financial Money Merge Account for a few months now. My critique is simple: The program is not worth $3,500. It’s worth less than $100. All the MMA does is direct you to use all available cash each month to pay down more of your mortgage. You can do that for free. The budgeting tools that are offered with the software are no better than other packages on the market like Quicken.

On of the criticisms I’ve faced from UFF “agents” is that I simply don’t understand the program. I haven’t tried it. I haven’t seen how it REALLY works. I just don’t know what I’m talking about.

They are wrong. I know exactly what they’re selling, and that’s the problem. If my analysis wasn’t right on the money, they wouldn’t be so bothered. “Have a free analysis done!” they tell me. Continue reading

United First Financial’s New Math (It’s Still Not Worth $3,500.)

Guest post by Craig Hansen

The fine folks at United First Financial (UFF) have come out with a new version of their Money Merge Account (MMA). It’s version 4, and it’s marketed as something that uses… factorial math! And promoters are saying the software does over 3 million calculations each time you use it to analyze a purchase.

Consumers are being tricked into thinking UFF has a magic bullet, and are plunking down $3,500 for the “chance” to use the software! Continue reading

United First Financial Scam: You’re Using the Bank’s Money to Pay Down Your Mortgage

Banking 101 – If you’re “using the bank’s money” it means you’ve borrowed it from the bank and you’re going to pay interest to “use” it. You don’t get to use it for free.

The United First Financial Money Merge Account supposedly uses “the bank’s money” to help you pay off your mortgage faster. After paying the $3,500 admission fee, you use Home Equity Loan (HELOC) funds to pay down your mortgage, and then you use your paycheck to pay down the HELOC. (Confused yet?)

The idea (sort of) is that instead of putting your paycheck into a checking account and letting the money sit there until you need it to pay bills, you can use the Money Merge system to “put your money to work for you”. Essentially, until you actually need that cash, it’s being used to reduce what you owe on your house. So you get a week or two of reducing your interest on your mortgage through this money shuffle. Continue reading

Ufirst Money Merge Account: Resistance is Futile

One of the most common forms of “training” offered to members of multi-level marketing companies (also known as direct sales, pyramid schemes, dual marketing, networking marketing, etc) is Overcoming Objections. Why is that such a key? Because all of the ones that I’ve seen have overpriced, underperforming products, and consumers are usually pretty quick to see that.

So distributors, agents, representatives, or whatever they’re called must be skilling in overcoming every single objection you could have. In Mary Kay, consultants are trained: “No does not mean no. It means that she needs more information.” Clearly, the only answer that is accepted is “yes.”

United First Financial trains its “agents” in the fine art of overcoming objections, and today I’m going to share with you a couple of them. Continue reading

$3,500 Wasted With United First Financial, Per Dave Ramsey

I’ve had lots of comments on my thread here about United First Financial and Dave Ramsey. Dave is an absolute expert on credit issues, and he hates UFF. He says it’s a complete waste of money. (Of course, I agree.)

As usual, he’s accused of not knowing what he’s talking about because he hasn’t been to one of the UFF cult meetings. The fact is that he’s very savvy about this. Continue reading

Misleading Consumers in the Marketing of United First Financial Money Merge Account

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been researching and reporting on the United First Financial Money Merge Account. UFF’s “agents” are poorly trained multi-level marketing pawns who spout company propaganda about how the MMA is the greatest thing since sliced bread.

I was recently directed for United First Financial’s FAQ page. I had seen this page before, but looked at it today with an entirely different perspective. With my research on the product nearly complete, I am able to see a number of distortions and deceptions in this page.

And the company can’t claim (like many MLMs do) that they’re a victim of independent contractors who are misrepresenting things. These are corporate’s own representations about what the product is and does.

Here’s a the UFF story paired with simple facts: Continue reading

Getting Into Even More Credit Card Trouble With United First Financial

I’ve outlined all the reasons why United First Financial’s Money Merge Account is a scam. Although it technically offers something to the buyer, it’s not worth anywhere near the $3,500 fee that’s charged for it. Consumers can pay off their mortgages faster and for free without this program.

But if you need another reason why the UFF program sucks, I’ve found it. The basic concept of the UFF MMA is a money shuffle using your mortgage and a home equity line of credit (HELOC)… which they call an ALOC. You are led to believe that you’re achieving huge mortgage savings because the UFF computer program has a secret algorithm that helps you save money. The real reason you’re saving money is that you’re prepaying your mortgage, saving you interest payments down the road. Continue reading

Analyzing the Details of the United First Financial Program

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! Continue reading

Tracy Coenen on Don’t Try a Do-It-Yourself Fraud Investigation: “Nice to hear from you Jonathan!” Dec 19, 08:37

Jonathan T. Marks, CPA, CFF, CFE on Don’t Try a Do-It-Yourself Fraud Investigation: “Amen! Valuable Advice.” Dec 18, 07:40

Tracy Coenen on Primerica Financial Services: The Fake Job Interview: “LOL Stacy. People keep saying Primerica is MLM because it IS an MLM. People are recruited into multiple levels in…” Dec 10, 12:49

Tracy Coenen on WorldVentures Pyramid Scheme Lawsuit: “Hilarious! I just found what you’re talking about. 2 failing MLMs become ONE failing MLM.” Dec 10, 12:46

wendy stovern, WV member on WorldVentures Pyramid Scheme Lawsuit: “Ironically among WV reps is the word “bankruptcy” and company takeover ie; new entity is “Seacret” claiming ownership. Only months…” Dec 9, 23:47

Stacey on Primerica Financial Services: The Fake Job Interview: “Primerica is a brokerage not a MLM. I’m not sure why the internet continues to say PRI is MLM. It…” Dec 9, 13:22

Tracy Coenen on Fifteen Frightening Facts About Usana Health Sciences: “I haven’t kept up with Usana, but all MLMs are bad. The products are no better than what you can…” Dec 9, 08:36

nana abdullah on Fifteen Frightening Facts About Usana Health Sciences: “Hi Tracy, this article is written in 2008. I wonder what is your view towards USANA company governance in recent,…” Dec 9, 07:49

Fraud Files Forensic Accounting Blog

Commentary on fraud, scams, scandals, and court cases.

uff