U1st Financial????

[blittles]

Has anyone ever heard of this? It is a money merge account. It has to do with your mortgage. I went to the website, but I have no idea what this is about. I am looking to refinance my home, and I was told about this.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks

[Dan Auito]

Never heard of them. Let us know if you find them worthwhile.

[jimb]

A few weeks ago Clark Howard, the consumer advocate, told a caller to his radio show that the new wave of mortgage merge and mortgage accelerator programs were MLM schemes, and is also quoted as saying they "stink like rotted fish".

Recently two different MLM mortgage merge marketeers came to his forums to dispute his statement. However, IMO all they really did was prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that they are indeed over-priced MLM schemes.

The two posters managed to make about 3 dozen posts without answering any specific questions or giving a single concrete, verifiable fact to support their claims. No proof at all that their scheme(s) are anywhere near as good as just keeping a fixed rate mortgage and paying all your spare money on it instead of giving a bunch of it to somebody in a MLM scheme to line their own pockets while tricking you into paying a little extra on your mortgage.

There are no real secrets about how mortgages and compound interest work but there is a lot of misunderstanding. The fact that paying just a little extra on a long mortgage on a regular basis is so misunderstood that there are many schemes that allow others to skim some money from our collective lack of knowledge.

Most of the schemes actually can save some money, but you would save more just by adding extra prepayments on your own mortgage, which is free. But this one appears to be very close to an outright ripoff, which will essentially bilk you out of the $3500 up front fee for nothing.

Their claims for paying off your mortgage in 7 to 9 years with no changes to your spending habits are false. No matter what the rate, and how much interest you save, you MUST come up will the remaining principal balance plus the interest on it for the time you’re still paying it off.

In fact, it appears more and more that those claims--and maybe even their “secret” miracle calculator--are making promises like a chain-letter or Ponzi scheme based on you paying down your mortgage with commissions you get from suckering new recruits into the pyramid scheme to give you money to pay down your mortgage instead of using the money to pay down their own mortgage.

It does not take a calculator or magic formula to know when to send the payments. Time is an exponential factor in compound interest. You'll save the most on the mortgage by sending as much as you can, as soon as you can, in order to reduce the time remaining on the mortgage.

...And by sending all of your money to pay down your own mortgage. The $3500 fee for their magic software is doing nothing except enriching the people who are participating in the MLM scheme. To put salt in the wound, you’re paying 8 to10% interest on it too.

People don't even need a financial calculator at all. It doesn’t take much time at all for someone to add an extra prepayment of all they have to spare each month on their existing mortgage...after they've paid all their bills. And that’s all that mortgage merge plan really does...except for the unnecessary $3500 fee and the 8 to 10% interest on the HELOC.

Here are two discussion threads on the Clark Howard forums. Threads age off in 10 days there, so they may not be there if you see this too late.


http://clarkhoward.com/p/boards/ch/showflat.pl?Cat=&Board=clarkhowardclarkstinks&Number=685934

http://clarkhoward.com/p/boards/ch/showflat.pl?Cat=&Board=clarkhowardclarkstinks&Number=681047

I happened to find your question while searching the web for more of their outlandish claims, and don't normally visit here. If those threads are gone by the time you read this, you can ask more questions over there at clarkhoward.com on the "money" or "real estate" forums, and I'll probably see it.

jimb

[Debbie]

A few weeks ago Clark Howard, the consumer advocate, told a caller to his radio show that the new wave of mortgage merge and mortgage accelerator programs were MLM schemes, and is also quoted as saying they "stink like rotted fish".

I happened to find your question while searching the web for more of their outlandish claims, and don't normally visit here. If those threads are gone by the time you read this, you can ask more questions over there at clarkhoward.com on the "money" or "real estate" forums, and I'll probably see it.

jimb

Jimb,

If I were standing next to you while you explained the way you posted, this would be my reaction: :SM082:

On behalf of the Magic Bullets Fambly, we thank you for taking the time and effort to warn us. :thumbsup:

We also hope you will visit us again very soon!

Welcome to the Magic Bullets Fambly!

Debbie

[blittles]

Jimb,

Thanks!!! Looks like I will turn the other way :thumbsup: