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):
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 … Read more Selling the Money Merge Acount from UFF
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.
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!
Read moreUnited First Financial’s New Math (It’s Still Not Worth $3,500.)
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.
Read moreUnited First Financial Scam: You’re Using the Bank’s Money to Pay Down Your Mortgage
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.
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.
Read more$3,500 Wasted With United First Financial, Per Dave Ramsey
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:
Read moreMisleading Consumers in the Marketing of United First Financial Money Merge Account
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.
Read moreGetting Into Even More Credit Card Trouble With United First Financial
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!
Read moreAnalyzing the Details of the United First Financial Program