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.
You can’t do the UFF program without a HELOC/ALOC, though. That’s the key to the money shuffle.
Until recently. Now United First Financial is letting consumers do the money shuffle with a credit card. (Yes, you read that correctly.)
…Version 3 of the Money Merge Account can now utilize a credit card as a form of Advanced Line Of Credit or ALOC. With current market conditions limiting new Home Equity Lines of Credit and freezing existing Home Equity Lines of Credit this could not have come at a better time for homeowners.
The Money Merge Account Requires a ALOC to drive the interest cancelation account. An ALOC can consist of a Personal Line of Credit or PLOC, Business Line of Credit or BLOC, Home Equity Line of Credit or HELOC and now Credit Cards.
Most credit cards charge a cash advance or check fee of 1-3%. This is one of the main reasons Version 3 had to be updated to accept a credit card ALOC. Credit Cards are to be used as a last resort if another LOC cannot be obtained.
Let’s be honest. If you’re trying to pay down your debt, do you really need one more reason to use a credit card? Do you really want to add more to a credit card balance to play this money shuffle?
Oh, I know, I know… UFF isn’t encouraging irresponsible use of the credit cards blah blah and consumers must follow the program to get the savings yada yada.
This program is horrible. And it’s not worth $10, much less the $3,500 fee they’re charging. Run! Run for your lives and do not sign up for United First Financial!
25 May 08 at 12:33 pm
Wow, that is some horrible advice to use a credit card like that.
25 May 08 at 12:59 pm
Ya think???
How long will it take for someone to tell us we just don’t understand? Cuz if you use the program as directed, you’ll be farrrrr better off.
*puke*
26 May 08 at 5:52 am
This is not using debt to pay off debt dollar for dollar. It is leveraging money. Chase, BOA, US Bank, 5/3 and others. Have made trillions leveraging checking and savings accounts into big profits. They borrow our money lend it to us at a higher interest rate than they are paying. That’s leverage. Ufirst affectively lowers the interest due on the moneys leveraged to pay down isolated amounts of mortage debt at a higher affective interest rate. If I pay a lower interest bill on the moneys levereged to pay down a higher effective interest rate, then I save the difference. If this did not work then banks would be out of business. Stop thinking like a bank customer and learn to think like the bank!
If leveraging OPM did not work then why has Chase not closed all of it’s bank branches and just invest they billions of dollars they have made from interest. Because it is very profitable to borrow my checking account money at 1/2 to 2% and lend it to you at 7% or 15% for credit cards.
Take an educated look at UFirst and stop relying on misinformation. It is just math…a very good way to leverage the banks money to pay less interest on any other loan.
26 May 08 at 8:39 am
Don - That would be nice if that was the way it worked. You’re suggesting UFF leverages “lower interest” debt to pay off higher interest debt. How so?
I’ll tell you how - They’re NOT. They’re leveraging HIGHER interest debt (the HELOC) to pay down lower interest debt (the regular mortgage).
So what you’re saying in theory is fine. It’s just not what’s happening with UFF.
Again, you’re not saving money with UFF because of the secret money shuffle. You’re saving money because of prepayment of your mortgage, period.
But saying “leverage” impresses potential buyers of your overpriced service.
26 May 08 at 9:42 am
Not Really… I have to prove it. Because I mainly talk with Financial Planners, Mortage and Real Estate Brokers. So I have to prove my statements with math. The math works. I can show you in about 10 minutes.
If I understood this program the way you did I would believe the same as you, “UFirst is a SCAM” Can you invest 10 minutes with me so I can do the math for you…no smoke and mirrors with double talk.
26 May 08 at 10:07 am
You can email me anything you want. Although you shouldn’t waste your time with the “putting your money in your checking account to work for you argument”.
I understand that the UFF program uses this HELOC instead of a checking account… under the theory that you’re using the money which would have been sitting in the checking account collecting no interest to make a prepayment on mortgage debt until you need to get the money back again and use it for bills.
But here’s the problem: The savings from doing that are so minimal as to make it not worth the trouble. Certainly not worth the $3,500 fee. Not worth the fees to actually get and keep the HELOC.
Experts have shown that consumers will save a couple of hundred dollars a year doing this, at most. NOT WORTH THE MONEY.
Here’s my article that details the issue:
http://www.sequence-inc.com/fraudfiles/2008/05/18/the-united-first-financial-system-is-based-on-the-australian-banking-system/
And in case it’s still not clear…
Let’s suppose you have $3,000 a month sitting idle in your checking account. You want to “put that to work for you” by prepaying on a mortgage and saving yourself some interest. On a 6% mortgage, the most you save is $15 a month. On an 8% mortgage, the most you save is $20.
There’s your couple hundred bucks a year, and there’s no way anyone should pay $3,500 for access to such stupidity.
(Let me guess: I just don’t understand, right? LOL)
26 May 08 at 10:08 am
Oops - I forgot about the part where you use your higher interest HELOC debt to “drive down” the balance on your lower interest first mortgage. Yeah, that makes sense. Replace lower interest rate debt with higher interest rate debt.
26 May 08 at 12:48 pm
This company discloses details and information about how the system works all over their corporate website. If this program is “not worth $10″ as you have stated, why are many thousands of homeowners paying their homes off, sending in thousands of testimonial comments about the fact that they would never have done this on their own? Please don’t say it’s because they don’t understand how the system works. I know many of them personally and they range from accountants to financial planners to bank presidents. And yes, you do actually have to “use” the program in real life to give an opinion about how much value it holds.
Just because you have an opinion that you can do something on your own, and your trying to make money off of selling your negative information, does not mean that this program is not delivering valuable service to many many people that understand the service, and have stated that they never would have done this on their own.
One of the biggest problems in today’s economy is that the majority of people do not have a plan. They don’t see ahead of time what misspending here and there does to them in the long run. While you’re sitting here slashing this from one end to the other, many educated people are getting out from under the burden of debt at an accelerated rate, and they understand how it is being done, and they continue to say they would never have done it on their own. Could they have done it on their own? Possibly.
Can people set out on a mission to demean and bash companies, simply to make a buck, on their own without buying your book? Absolutely.
I am sorry to come across negative. I just hear from many of the people using this service on a daily basis. I hear from people that have stated that they tried to get ahead financially their whole life and were never able to, until they started using this service. I hear from people that stated they never could see light at the end of the tunnel, and now they can see it 5 years away. I hear from people that felt like they were doomed to fail financially, and now they can see how they can get ahead. I have spoken with 14 family’s who have paid their houses off in full with this program. I have asked them after paying off their homes with this service, if they felt like they could have done it as quickly on their own. Almost all of their responses have been something like “in theory yes, in reality no”.
I look forward to your next negative response. Thanks.
26 May 08 at 3:06 pm
Awwww… Ed - Thanks for your kind words.
See the best thing about this is that I’m not selling anything here. Not selling information. Not selling a bogus program. Nothing. I’m simply blogging about this issue in the interest of consumer awareness.
What you’re forgetting to say is that consumers aren’t paying off mortgages early because of the UFF program.
They’re paying them off early because of SIMPLE PREPAYMENT OF THE MORTGAGE. They can do it for free on their own.
You gotta love this false representation on the page you linked to though:
“With the Money Merge Account system, substantial savings are achieved by strategically and incrementally repositioning the unused money that you usually have “sitting stagnant” in a standard checking or savings account against the principal balance owing on your home until otherwise needed, without increasing your minimum required monthly mortgage payments. When you need access to money, you can draw money out through your line of credit.”
You see, the money shuffle does not offer SUBSTANTIAL SAVINGS. Using money that is idle in your checking account does not offer SUBSTANTIAL SAVINGS.
It’s the SIMPLE PREPAYMENT OF THE MORTGAGE, without the UFF program that offers substantial savings.
26 May 08 at 8:07 pm
Tracy the way you explain it you are absolutly right!…the system you describe will not work. I will explain how we isolate principal amounts this point alone makes all the difference. The problem with our website is that it is very easy to misunderstand our program the way it is written. So I don’t rely on it. I like talking to people like you… professionals in Financial Services. I hope to have a chance to to do just that.
26 May 08 at 8:18 pm
LOL - The “you just don’t understand” argument!
“Isolate principal”??? I’ll isolate some principal for you.
The program is based upon prepayment of a mortgage which any consumer can do for free (assuming their mortgage allows it).
This program is simple math, and even though UFF “agents” (LOL) keep telling me I’m wrong and I don’t understand, none of them can explain how or why. Why do you suppose that is? It’s simple. It’s because the program is crap and not worth the money.
26 May 08 at 8:54 pm
I just told you I can and I will. Just not in an email. I love talking about this program and I have spent many hours studying it and teaching myself the easiest way to explain it. Let’s get together if you are interested in the truth. This will be my last offer. Thanks for your time.
26 May 08 at 9:00 pm
If you have any information, you can feel free to send it over.
26 May 08 at 10:23 pm
Dear Ed,
Your snide comments will not be posted here.
Please note also that MLM diehards are not the target market for my book, so I’m not writing about MLMs in an attempt to sell books. Nice try though.
26 May 08 at 11:36 pm
Tracy,
I had a chance to read Ed’s comments before you erased them, and I thought he brought up some very interesting points. Why did you erase his comments and refer to them as snide? He was not being abusive, and raised some very interesting points. Just curious. Thanks!
27 May 08 at 6:37 am
Nice try “Julie,” but you didn’t read them. No one could see them because they weren’t live. So does that mean you’re really Ed? Or are you Julie and lying on behalf of Ed?
Wow, you UFF people will do anything to further your cause, won’t you?
27 May 08 at 7:07 am
This is vastly entertaining, but I’ve seen zero evidence from the UFF sockpuppets that justifies their $3500 software, just the same retreaded emotional appeals, specious testimonials and ad hominem attacks. Trust me, none of those is a good way to deal with critics. It just shows their true colours as shysters.
Mortgage prepayment is a good thing, and you don’t need to pay anyone to tell you how to do it.
Debt reduction is a good thing, and there are plenty of resources available to help people struggling with debt that don’t cost $3500.
No matter how it’s spun, swapping low-interest debt for higher interest debt is a bad idea.
A $3500 debt reduction program is like a $100 glass of lemonade: it would make the person selling it really happy if you bought it, and they’re going to come up with all sorts of reasons in their sales pitch for why a $0.50 glass from the lemonade stand down the street just won’t do.
27 May 08 at 7:16 am
Lee, you just don’t understand $100 lemonade. I don’t know why you choose to be ignorant about it. You should listen to our pitch before you dismiss the world’s best lemonade as a scam. Better yet, try it. If it doesn’t work like we said*, you can have your money back. Promise!
*You must follow directions for drinking to the letter. Any deviation from the instructions (sip it too fast, too slow, put extra sugar in it, etc) will void our guarantee.
27 May 08 at 7:34 am
Well played, Tracy!
I’ve heard more MLM pitches than any one person should have to endure. When you point out the holes in their “business plan” or their “numbers” their arguments devolve rapidly from Syllogistic fallacies and appeals to authority into unfounded emotional appeals and ultimately to anger.
It never gets old.
If there’s no value in a proposition, insisting over and over that there is still doesn’t make it so.
05 Jun 08 at 8:11 am
Ref Tracey: It is obvous that you do not have this program and probably don’t have amortgage, or you got the program and were not disciplined to follow it. I assure you it is excellent and I will have my home paid off in 5 years from now and will have saved over 400,000. How much will you have paid on your home.
By the way thte 3700 doesn’t come out of your pocket but the 400,000 + goes in my pocket, what’s so complicated about that. Most people would give 3700 for even 5,000 in return much less getting back over 400,000.
I think you need to understand before slandering a company that has surely help me and several other of my friends.
Maybe you should spend your time with bottom sucking programs like some of the budget people present. DId I mention Ramsey, oh he’s your buddy I believe, maybe that’s why you are trying to be so negative, Grow up and do your home work, can’t believe I wasted my time writing to you
05 Jun 08 at 8:26 am
If you’re so ignorant that you think this costs you nothing, you have no credibility here.
17 Jul 08 at 9:36 am
I am looking into purchasing this software. I have read the above comments and understand the math presented and if one was thinking short term I would agree with the math presented however, if one is looking at the long term savings benefit I can not see how this software is a bad investment. According to my research, speaking to financial professionals and also being a mortgage professional myself using an interest cancellation program can save you thousands of dollars over a long term period. Can you explain to me in detail how one would achieve the same result on their own? With the programs math I figure I can pay off my mortgage of 197,000.00 at 6.75% in 9.6 years. Can you outline how I would do this on my own?
Thanks
Stevie
17 Jul 08 at 9:42 am
Stevie - All you do is prepay your mortgage, which is FREE for you to do. First, take the $3,500 you would have wasted on UFF and put that directly on your mortgage. Then find a free mortgage calculator on line and use it to figure out how much extra you have to pay each month toward principal to have it paid off early. It’s really a simple concept, and your interest is “canceled” just like with UFF except you don’t pay a dime for it, nor do you do a silly money shuffle with a HELOC that costs you extra money. There are really no fancy details to it. That’s why this program is so laughable - it’s a complete waste of money.
12 Nov 08 at 8:08 am
I would like to comment on Tracy’s earlier statements. I went to an amoritization table and plugged in $202,517.00 debt for 28 years at 5.7% interest. The monthly payment would be $1207.69. I then put $3500 (the cost of the software) as a one-time payment and then began putting in extra monthly payments to see what it would take to pay the principal down to UFirst’s estimate. UFirst has estimated a savings of $133,832.12 and brought down the time from 28 years to 10 years. Finally I found the number to be $800 extra a month! WOW - It would take $3500 upfront and $800 a month extra to equal close to what UFirst had estimated. I stopped at $132,584 savings (as being close enough).
Now, Tracy or anyone else - if I’m doing something wrong, please let me know but if not, I think “I rest my case”….
12 Nov 08 at 9:11 am
Yes, you did something wrong. Where did UFF get its “savings”? From you making EXTRA PAYMENTS each month. Send me the analysis they did for you. I’ll show you exactly where you went wrong.