United First Financial offers a Money Merge Account(TM) (MMA) system that supposedly helps you pay down your mortgage in as little as one half to one third the time. The software costs $3,500, and it relies on the use of a home equity line of credit. Their idea is to use two loans in order to pay off one loan. Why would you take out a HELOC to pay down your first loan when you could just as easily make extra payments to achieve the same results? From what I can tell, the main reason you need the HELOC is so that you can pay them $3,500.

I watched a video presentation of the Money Merge Account(TM), and even after pausing and going back several times, I was confused. Given that I am 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 tell, they want you to use your discretionary income to pay toward your mortgage so that it can be retired early. Essentially, they want you to buy a $3,500 calculator. As I understand it, the system simply tells you to put your disposable income toward principal. My wife can tell me that.

Here are a few things that I do know about the U 1st system. First, you have to have a HELOC in place. Next, the software costs $3,500, which you pay out of 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 do not have to sell their product. They are happy just to take your three thousand five hundred dollars. It’s easy to spot it as an MLM because the people pushing it are really “pumped up.” I have had loan originators and former lender account executives approach me about this product. They have left the finance industry and are selling this software full time, and they are eager to add me to their downline.

On the U 1st web site, they claim that a 30-year mortgage can be paid off in 11.33 years. Unfortunately, it is difficult to determine if their program works because the company has not been around that long. The long and short of it is that United First Financial is in the software business, and they are eager to sell you an expensive piece of software. I cannot say for a fact that this is a scam, but it certainly has all the markings. The numbers presented to me simply did not add up, and I got the feeling that they were trying to make it complicated so that I would not be able to make a decision based on the facts (having never had the facts). I believe they were trying to lure me in, using the angle that the concept “sounds good.” As a mortgage broker, I plan to advise my clients to pay $3,500 toward their current home loan rather than give it to U First Financial.

By: Wade Young

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