Haven’t gotten enough of the cold hard reality that United First Financial’s MMA is inferior to a very simple (and free!) do-it-yourself prepayment of your mortgage (which only requires you to pay extra on your mortgage once a month)?
Joe Taxpayer did a five-part series on the UFF MMA, and here’s a summary: Continue reading
Guest post by Joe Taxpayer
As I looked at multiple United First Financial agents’ sites, I found the common thread was the claim that one simply can’t do this on their own, that the shifting of funds from a checking account, to a HELOC, and then to a primary mortgage somehow needed such a level of sophisticated computer analysis that it was beyond the average consumer.
But let’s dig a bit deeper to understand what savings may or may not be possible with the UFF Money Merge Account. In the classic MMA example (i.e. the one appearing on or linked from most agents’ sites) we are looking at a 6% fixed rate mortgage, and $5,000 in net monthly cash flow. Continue reading
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
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.
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
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
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
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
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: Continue reading
Probably the biggest single lie told by United First Financial “agents” is that you can pay off your mortgage faster than scheduled, with no change in your spending or lifestyle. That sounds too good to be true, because it is.
Simple math debunks this claim. Think about it. If you’re currently paying $1,500 a month on your mortgage and you’re scheduled to have it paid off in 30 years, how would you pay it off earlier? The only possible way to do that is to pay more than $1,500, right? Continue reading