Don’t just take it from me and from Dave Ramsey. We think the mortgage accelerator program sold by United First Financial for $3,500 is a waste of money. We’re pretty smart, but are there other smart people who agree with us? YES!

Jack M. Guttentag is  Professor of Finance Emeritus and former Jacob Safra Professor of International Banking at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania (one of the world’s best graduate finance programs). He is the former Chief of the Domestic Research Division of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and formerly on the senior staff of the National Bureau of Economic Research. Jack says:

The United First Financial plan, called the Money merge Account or MMA, is a variant that does not require that you take a mortgage from them. The MMA assumes you already have a first mortgage, and it guides you on opening a second mortgage in the form of a home equity line of credit (HELOC), which plays a central role in the scheme. Here is an example which I have over-simplified to reveal exactly where the savings come from and how much they are likely to be.

Assume the borrower’s monthly paycheck is $8,000, and on the first day of the month he does the following: a) Draws $8,000 on his HELOC which is used immediately to reduce his mortgage balance, and b) applies his paycheck of $8,000 to pay down the HELOC. On day 2, therefore, his HELOC balance is zero and his mortgage balance is lower by $8,000.

As the month progresses, he pays his expenses by drawing on the HELOC, and the HELOC balance gradually rises to $8,000. However, the average balance will only be about $4,000. For the month as a whole, therefore, he has saved interest on $8,000 of the mortgage while incurring interest on $4,000 of the HELOC. Assuming both are priced at 6%, he has saved $4,000 x .06/12, or $20. Over a year, that adds to $240. Of course, if the paycheck is $16,000 instead of $8,000, the number will be $480, and if the paycheck is $4,000 the number will be $120.

For several reasons, these calculations over-state the savings. The HELOC as a second lien will almost always have a higher rate than the first mortgage. Further, it will take some days for the borrower’s paycheck to be credited to his HELOC. Finally, and most important of all, the date when the mortgage is credited for the extra payment depends on the policies of the lender servicing the mortgage. In some cases, a payment will be credited to the balance at the end of the preceding month, which works to the borrower’s advantage, but in other cases, credit is not given until the end of the current month, which would reduce and perhaps eliminate any savings.

Note that a one-time payment of $3500 on a 6% mortgage would save $210 of interest a year. This is probably more than most borrowers would save using the MMA.

Of course, if you spend less than your paycheck and apply the balance to your mortgage, it is a different story. The claims by UFF that you can pay off your mortgage in 1/3 or 1/2 the time, depend on your doing exactly that.

[snip]

Based on everything I know, I have considerable confidence in my main conclusion, which is that the bulk of the reduction in interest payments comes from the borrower’s savings rather than from the program mechanism. The borrower who allocates 10% of income every month to principal reduction is going to reduce interest payments and shorten the life of the mortgage, and no special program is needed to do this.

 

15 Comments

  1. Toby 09/09/2008 at 10:18 pm - Reply

    You are missing a few important points from your review of the mortgage acceleration programs that are out there. I in no way am trying to negate your thoughts, only shed more light on the concept.

    First, in your example, you stated that the homeowner would pay off their expenses from the $8000 gradually over the month and end up with a $4000 daily balance. And then pay interest on that $4000 balance. Well with several mortgage acceleration programs on the market the homeowner is encouraged to charge all of their expenses on a secondary credit card (not the HELOC) and then right before the end of the billing cycle for the secondary credit, write a check from the HELOC and pay off the secondary credit. This allows the homeowner to prolong the time that their income offsets the balance on the HELOC. The homeowner pays no interest on the secondary credit, because he or she pays it off every month before interest is charged. So a homeowner may be able to drop their average balance to the HELOC to let’s say $1000 per month.

    Secondly, it really depends as to where you are in your amortization schedule as to whether the mortgage acceleration programs will help you out. If you are in the 5 years of your mortgage, the amount the homeowner is paying in interest is much greater than what is being applied to the principal. So dropping $8,000 on the principal of your mortgage will help the homeowner skip thousands of dollars in interest payments and to skip rungs on the amortization schedule. The next month the homeowner pays, more will be going to principal. The process is repeated month after month per the instructions of the software, thus speeding up the process of paying down the mortgage.

    And finally, there are plenty of programs out there that cost much less than $3500. I have found programs ranging from $200 to $3500 and there are new companies appearing monthly. So you don’t have to spend a fortune to decide whether the programs will work in your best financial interest. Only the test of time will conclude as to whether these programs are scams. Is it a smaller investment to at least see if the programs do what they say they are going to do?

  2. John McNeill 09/19/2008 at 5:39 pm - Reply

    i have a question, what does the $3,500 software have over the $200 software, and all those inbetween?

  3. Craig Hansen 09/22/2008 at 6:56 pm - Reply

    Toby said: “Only the test of time will conclude as to whether these programs are scams. Is it a smaller investment to at least see if the programs do what they say they are going to do?”

    Why do we need to wait? This isn’t a prediction or a palm reading – this is math. The MMA just doesn’t save nearly enough money to justify the cost – any cost. If you want to delay expenses with a credit card for purchases, then go ahead. You don’t need software for that. Just don’t pay the mortgage directly from the card, or you’ll incur CC interest from the day of the cash advance.

    John,

    First of all, from an agent’s perspective, the selling agent and his/her uplines share in $2500 of the $3500 cost of the MMA, so that’s one thing the $3500 software has going for it – insane commissions. Typically, the higher priced software should look prettier and hold you had tighter while it walks you along the needlessly dangerous path of borrowing from a variable rate higher interest debt to pay a lower interest debt.

  4. Tracy Coenen 09/22/2008 at 6:59 pm - Reply

    Toby – Isn’t that kind of like suggesting we light a pile of money on fire and see if the money magically reappears? I mean, 10 years from now that money will seem insignificant, won’t it?

    My example sounds silly, but no sillier than what you’re saying. We’ve provided objective evidence that you can save more money and spend less time by avoiding UFF, yet you want to do it anyway? The objective evidence says you will LOSE with this program, but you’re saying “let’s try it and see.” You can’t get around the math. There is no “let’s see” with the numbers. They are what they are, and UFF and the MMA are losers.

  5. Craig Hansen 09/22/2008 at 7:12 pm - Reply

    Hold the phone – Toby has a blog where he compares…mortgage acceleration products. Mostly their prices. That way, you get to choose how much money you are prepared to waste on a useless piece of software. You can waste $3500 on three different products, or you can waste as little as $297. It’s up to you.

    Toby also compares mortgage acceleration products to a standard amortization schedule, just like every mortgage acceleration scam does. He also indicates in a chart that a mortgage accelerator does not increase your monthly payment (like prepayment does). That is a lie, of course.

    Neither of these is a fair comparison, but at least they makes mortgage accelerators look good. If you took the same money the accelerator was using and applied it directly to the mortgage, that simple formula (at no cost) will beat the mortgage accelerators, but Toby seems disinterested in telling people that.

  6. Tracy Coenen 09/22/2008 at 7:16 pm - Reply

    LOL – Did you notice that the two least expensive options are Toby’s affiliate links, so he’s actually selling mortgage accelerator programs? I guess I don’t blame him. Anything will look good next to the $3500 crap that UFF is selling. Especially at around $300.

  7. Toby 09/22/2008 at 10:36 pm - Reply

    This topic has made for a great discussion. I appreciate your responses to my 1st comment. It was not my intention to write a long comment, but I was asked multiple question and given multiple argument that deserve clarity on my part.

    I will answer John’s question first:

    I have a question, what does the $3,500 software have over the $200 software, and all those in between?

    Reply: Here is a brief understanding. I have listed about 15 programs on my website and continue to gather information about them as I learn more. The $200 is EquityOMatic. The website says they will launch their product very soon. According to the website EquityOMatic split from Speed Equity about a year ago and began developing their own product. It comes with an e-book on how to use the mortgage acceleration method being discussed on this page. Harj Gill is the promoter of SpeedEquity product and may also be the owner of EquityOMatic. He claims to be the one who developed the concept in the first place. Equityomatic claims it does practically the same thing as the U1st product. We shall see when it launches.

    Now for the “in between”. There are companies like EZ Mortgage Acceleration who have considered the opportunity cost of putting all of your available post expense money into you line of credit versus applying a portion of that available to investments such as mutual funds and so on. This allows you to see both sides of the problem, building wealth and paying off debt as quick as possible.

    WEXL Financial offers a software program that takes into consider the importance of investing some of your money in their insurance product while at the same time paying off your home using their mortgage acceleration software. WEXL Financial has merged a life insurance product offered by AMZ Financial with Sydney Financial Groups which offers a mortgage acceleration product. From what I have heard U1st is also developing an insurance product.

    I have found 15 programs so far that offer a mortgage acceleration product. Some also offer a product/service for the non-homeowner to pay off other debts more quickly such as credit cards, student loans and so on. Most seem to couple education with the software product.

    John if you want to talk more send me an e-mail (on my website). I will tell you what I know thus far.

    Craig said:
    “Typically, the higher priced software should look prettier and hold your hand tighter while it walks you along the needlessly dangerous path of borrowing from a variable rate higher interest debt to pay a lower interest debt.”

    Reply: Yes it appears that U1st is the Rolls Royce of mortgage acceleration products. Some people may only need a economy car. You may want to clarify what you said about two debts in your quote. The variable rate higher interest debt is a revolving line of credit. The lower interest debt is a fixed rate or variable rate that is amortized. And if you look on bankrate you will find that currently the rate for a 30 year fixed rate mortgage is 5.87% and the rate for HELOC is 5.43%. Yes, you may use the argument that nobody can get a HELOC right now. With all of these products you can use a personal line of credit (rate will be higher). Some claim with their software you can use a savings account. I haven’t research this topic yet.

    Craig Says:

    Toby also compares mortgage acceleration products to a standard amortization schedule, just like every mortgage acceleration scam does. He also indicates in a chart that a mortgage accelerator does not increase your monthly payment (like prepayment does). That is a lie, of course.

    Reply: Please explain the lie. How does not increasing your monthly payment increase your monthly payment?

    Craig: If you took the same money the accelerator was using and applied it directly to the mortgage, that simple formula (at no cost) will beat the mortgage accelerators, but Toby seems disinterested in telling people that.

    Reply: Craig I liked your idea and so I took the scenario off of my website and applied the $1046.24 available budget and applied it as an extra payment to the principle on a monthly basis. I used bankrate’s extra payment calculator and came out with a payoff of 10 years and 8 months. This is the exact same number as shown on my website for the MA program (Equity Genie’s website mortgage accelerator calculator is used for the example on my website). I plan to add this information to the comparison. It will be good for the consumer to know what will happen if they pay all of their extra money towards the principal. Give me a day or so and I will update the website with this new information. Taking your entire leftover money after your bills and applying it directly to your mortgage doesn’t seem like the best thing to do. The strategy would be much more constricting than using the method we are discussing.

    Tracy, Craig, & John: May I ask what you may be selling or your motive for such focus on the mortgage acceleration topic? We are all interested in this subject for one reason or another. Tracy I noticed that your book “Essential of Corporate Fraud” is being sold through Amazon. I have not read your book as of yet, but my comment just promoted it. Amazon is the “king” of affiliate marketing. I also noticed that there are Adsense Google ads on this page. Someone is also making money off of the google ads. You are going after a product/service that continues to gain exposure because a MLM is selling it at a ridiculous price of $3500. Our discussion is promoting it, even if you do or don’t believe these are viable programs.

  8. Tracy Coenen 09/22/2008 at 10:42 pm - Reply

    My book has nothing to do with mortgage acceleration, so there is no correlation between the two. I discuss many topics here, and mortgage acceleration scams happen to be included. But I make no money off mortgage accelerator scams. I pointed out that you are selling mortgage accelerator schemes on your site only to show that your critique of programs that you’re selling can’t really be objective. Since I’m not selling anything remotely related to mortgage acceleration, I have zero conflict of interest.

  9. Toby 09/23/2008 at 12:39 am - Reply

    I appreciate your looking into scams so that the public can be more educated. I do think the $3500 is a hefty price, however I don’t think that it is a scam. Can you direct me to an explanation in your own words as to why it is a scam?

    Although you may be objective in your analysis of these of programs. Your source Jack M. Guttentag may have a subjective view of the subject. I clicked on his link above labeled “Jack” and came to the source you are quoting from 2007. I have nothing against Professor Guttentag and I am actually very interested in what he has to say.

    I noticed towards the bottom of the page he is promoting a website that sells a book/program to pay off your mortgage quickly without “extra payment or refinancing”. He then states that he has no financial interest in the program. If you look at the URL, there is evidence that he is promoting his own product: letriches/wharton. His name is not wharton, but he is Jacob Safra Professor of International Banking at the “Wharton” School of the University of Pennsylvania according to his credentials. If you peal away the affiliate links you end up at the site where you can partner and sell the book/kit yourself. The book/kit appears to advertise the same principles that are being used by U1st.

  10. Craig 09/23/2008 at 1:05 pm - Reply

    Tracy,
    Just noticed Toby’s affiliate links. So, Toby, how are sales of WeXL and Mortgage Magic System going? How do you accuse others of being biased, when you fail to mention you sell two of these products?

    I don’t sell any. I don’t have a book, and I don’t work in the mortgage or financial industries. I design structures in Ontario. I also care about people being scammed out of money. I’m odd that way, I know.

    Toby says:
    “Taking your entire leftover money after your bills and applying it directly to your mortgage doesn’t seem like the best thing to do. The strategy would be much more constricting than using the method we are discussing.”

    There is a reason Equity Genie comes up with the same answer, or close – applying all the discretionary income to debt is *exactly* what these MA products do.

    You seem worried about having no money available under a simple DIY system. When the MA involves a HELOC, the homeowner has *less* than no money in the bank – only debts.

    A simple DIY solution is to set a minimum balance to carry in checking, and send everything over that to the mortgage. Want a larger safety net? Get a HELOC and let it sit there unused, waiting for a rainy day. More conservatively, keep $3500 in a savings account. There are plenty of fast yet responsible solutions to accelerating your mortgage, and none of them require a $200, $1000 or a $3500 piece of software.

    Besides, the best software solution, with the best interface and the longest history of helping people, is probably Quicken. I think it’s about $80 around here, and it will help you set a budget, import information directly from your bank, and all kinds of fancy things that even UFF users could only dream of.

    UFF the “Rolls Royce”?!? You can’t compare MA products to any vehicle. Vehicles are useful.

  11. Peter 09/29/2008 at 10:13 pm - Reply

    I would like to recommend an article “World’s Most Honest Research on Mortgage Acceleration”.
    http://www.yourbonus.org/Mortgage/acceleration/intro.html
    This guy actually plug in the number and run the example using the software. There is a free software listed in the website. It really open up my eyes. Hope you will find it helpful as well.
    PL

  12. jjsmith 01/26/2009 at 8:50 pm - Reply

    I have used the MMA software, not the 3500 version, but the 1700 version. I have to say it is way over priced. Now I did take a few good money saving tips from it and learned a lot more about mortgages than I know before. Also I learned more about how banks and compound interest works as well. But that is all stuff I could have just pick up a book and read for myself. These people are right you are just putting any extra money you have to your mortgage or your debts. That is it. Do you think that the top money earners in the world needed a 3500 software to tell them how to make money and stay out of debt…NO. They read, researched, stayed disciplined and made more money than they spent. This software works for those who already have money and have tons of extra income to put towards debt, or real estate investors who have multiple properties.
    As far as there agents, I was lucky to actually get one who had some real estate knowledge. But most of them are just everyday working people. Not a CPA, accountant, mortgage professional. They are house moms, office workers, they well even recruit some one who works at burger king if they will pay the 175 dollars it takes to become an agent. Then all they have to do is take a test online to be certified (a test which they give you all the answers to and you can take until you pass) Over half of the agents don’t even own the software themselves. So this is just another pyramid scheme just on another level, just preying on the American people.
    Am I sorry that I bought the software, no. I learned a great bit from it and it opened my eyes to a lot of things. But would I recommend it to anyone, defiantly not! If you truly want to get out of debt, make more money, educate your self on interest/loans/credit cards/mortgage, and be disciplined with your money. Ask any wealthy, debt free person how they got to where they are and they will tell you the same thing.

  13. Craig Hansen 01/26/2009 at 10:54 pm - Reply

    jjsmith, are you sure you learned about compound interest from anything produced by UFirst? Most of their agents don’t know what compound interest is.

  14. PJV 03/09/2009 at 2:05 pm - Reply

    Re: Peter’s reference above to the yourbonus.org site – I have a hard time taking any site seriously that contains the following grammar:

    “…We also have read the fine prints, and make sure no hidden fees, hidden clause. The rebate is not calculated by very complicated method. This is second aspect about us. We also want peach of mind. We here keep things simple. All being said, we hope the cards we picked can at least serve as starting point for you…”

    Come to think of it, Peter, your post sounds suspiciously similar…

  15. Mark 05/13/2009 at 9:18 am - Reply

    Well a friend told me about this so I researched. I had the feeling of a sales job when he started, and now I have confirmed it.

    Anyone can pay off a house early – and you only need determination and willpower to do it. I’ll use the $3500 to apply to my mortgage.

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