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):
You must exactly and timely follow the instructions and prompts that will be regularly provided to you by the software (the “MMA Software”) which relates to the MMA Program. The MMA Program consists of a number of inter-related component parts, all of which must be precisely and timely followed in order for your Guaranteed Savings to be achieved. In the event that you neglect to exactly and timely follow the instructions and prompts given to you by the MMA Software, you will not realize the Guaranteed Savings.
[snip]
In the event that you do not achieve the full amount of the Guaranteed Savings, notwithstanding that you have timely and exactly complied with all of the terms and conditions set forth in this Limited Guarantee, your sole remedy will consist of UFF refunding the full amount of the MMA Program Activation Fee which you paid.
According to this, you can only get your money back if you followed every single money shuffle exactly how and when you were directed, and if you did not receive the savings they said you would.
Imagine what missing even one transfer (or doing it a day late) does to the consumer… It basically voids this guarantee.
OK it’s obvious that you have not communicated with anyone in the UFF company for any type of solid information. Let’s get down to brass tax. Front end loaded mortgages are how mortgage brokers make money. Right? Looking at my mortgage statement I’m paying 3/4 to interest and 1/4 to principle. That ratio is not going to come to my side of the equation until about 20 years into the mortgage. Your spread sheet will take up all of my time and most likely cause me a headache as well as financial hardship because you cannot compute, calculate or guide me in any of the equations that will get me to zero in the fastest time. This software does for about 15-20 minutes a week. I would ask you to contact UFF and get some hard info because right now you sound really ignorant about the whole issue.
Brass tax? Brass tax??? Oh my goodness.
Obviously you’re not in a position to understand how any of this works, which is why you can’t grasp how a spreadsheet (or even better, none at all) would work for you.
Do you really not understand what you’ve been sold? You’ve been sold a program that tells you to take all your extra cash at the end of the month and send it to your mortgage company. Except you have to pay $3,500 for that advice, and I’ve just given it to you for free. Plus, the software will tell you to make some money shuffles. All I’m telling you to do is write one extra check (at most) each month.
They got you good on this one!
WELL SAID GFUNK, LONG LIVE UFF.
She has nooooooooooooooooooooooo clue.
LMAO at “Brass tax”. That’s classic.
In this time of high mineral prices, I believe a “brass tax” would be detrimental to the economy. lol
GFunk3000 and bruce, my challenge is the same to every self-assured UFirst agent – show us the math. Show us how the MMA transfers “cancel” interest. They don’t, but you won’t listen to me, so it will be more effective if you discover it yourself.
As for the 15-20 minutes per week spent on the MMA, you can beat it with one simple calculation per month with a simple DIY approach of Income minus Expenses equals Prepayment amount. Easier still, take your ending checking account balance, subtract your minimum acceptable balance, and that’s what you add to your mortgage payment.
And it will beat the MMA every time.