United First Financial offers a Money Merge Account(TM) (MMA) system that supposedly helps you pay off your mortgage in as little as one-half to one-third of the time. The software costs $3,500 and relies on the use of a home equity line of credit. His idea is to use two loans to pay off one loan. Why would you take out a HELOC to pay off your first loan when you could just as easily make additional payments to achieve the same results? From what I can tell, the main reason you need the HELOC is so you can pay them $3,500.
I watched a video introduction to Money Merge Account(TM), and even after pausing and going back several times, I was confused. Since I’m a mortgage professional with an MBA, something doesn’t smell right. When a concept is presented in such a complicated way, my only thought is that they must be hiding something. From what I could see, they want you to use your discretionary income to pay off your mortgage so you can retire early. Essentially, they want you to buy a $3,500 calculator. As I understand it, the system simply tells you to add your disposable income to the principal. My wife can tell me that.
Here are some things I know about the U 1st system. First, you must have a HELOC in place. The software then costs $3,500, which you pay with your HELOC. It is also important to note that this is an MLM marketing scheme. Like all MLM organizations, they are quick to tell you that you don’t have to sell their product. They are happy to take your three thousand five hundred dollars. It is easy to identify it as an MLM because the people who drive it are really “inflated”. I have had loan originators and former lender account executives approach me about this product. They have left the financial industry and are selling this software full time, and are eager to add me to their downline.
On the U 1st website, they state that a 30 year mortgage can be paid off in 11.33 years. Unfortunately, it’s hard to determine if their program works because the company hasn’t been around that long. The bottom line is that United First Financial is in the software business and they are eager to sell you an expensive piece of software. I can’t say for sure that this is a scam, but it certainly has all the markings. The numbers that were presented to me just didn’t add up, and I had a feeling that they were trying to complicate it so that I couldn’t make a decision based on the facts (having never had the facts). I think they were trying to lure me in, using the “sounds good” angle of the concept. As a mortgage broker, I plan to advise my clients to pay $3,500 for their current home loan instead of giving it to U First Financial.