United First Financial Money Merge Account Restructuring Fees

Some of the questions I've been asked about the United First Financial Money Merge Account are about fees associated with the following situations:

1) What would happen if a person on the United First Financial Money Merge Account were to sell their home
2) After they paid off their home if they can transfer the United First Financial Money Merge Account to another property.

Well, a couple of days ago, all Agents received a notice from United First Financial Corporate addressing the restructuring and transfer fees of the Money Merge Account. I thought it would be a good idea to post them here this way your know exactly what they are.

a) If you refinance your First Mortgage or HELOC on the subject property, then the fee to restructure is $100

b) If you sell your current home and the mortgage WASN'T completely paid off yet with the United First Financial Money Merge Account, then you can transfer the United First Financial Money Merge Account to your new property and pay down that mortgage for a fee of $100

c) If you sell your current home and the mortgage WAS completely paid off with the United First Financial Money Merge Account, then you can transfer the United First Financial Money Merge Account to your new property and pay down that mortgage for a fee of $500

d) After your subject property's mortgage is paid off with the United First Financial Money Merge Account, you can transfer it to another property (like a second home or investment property) and payoff that mortgage for a fee of $500

This is great news since many people think that once they paid off their mortgage on one property, they would have to pay the full fee again for the next property they want to payoff. As you can see, this is not the case.

I hope this information clears up a lot of the debate on the United First Financial Money Merge Account and if you have any other questions, feel free to call or email me.

Why Can't You Have Your HELOC Payments Automatically Taken From Your Checking Account on the United First Financial Money Merge Account?

I have been getting a lot of emails and calls recently concerning the question of why can't you have your HELOC payments automatically taken from your checking account when you are the United First Financial Money Merge Account. Well, I thought I would address this as a post since it seems it is a hot topic.

It is true that most banks will give you a lower rate on your HELOC if you elect to have payments for the HELOC automatically withdrawn from your checking account. The interest rate savings varies from each bank as is usually about .25% to .50%. So, instead if getting a 8.00% rate on your HELOC, you could get a 7.75% to 7.50% rate. Sounds good, but wait.

The main reason why I tell clients not to elect for the automatic payments is because you run into two problems:

1) Increasing your payoff time on the United First Financial Money Merge Account
2) Running the risk of overdraft charges

Let me address both these issues.

1) In order for the United First Financial Money Merge Account to work the best, you should never have money sitting in your checking/savings account and it should all be in your HELOC. Therefore, you should always have a $0 balance in your checking/savings account.

When you elect to have automatic payments on your HELOC, the bank will take the payment on the HELOC from your checking account. Therefore, you will have to transfer funds from your HELOC to your checking account or not transfer all the money in your checking account to your HELOC to make sure you have the funds available to make the payment.

Yes, your funds transfer from your checking account to your HELOC should count as a payment, so you shouldn't owe a payment to the HELOC, but some banks have a minimum financial charge or fee for the automated payments. This minimum finance charge or fee will be taken from your checking even if you tranfer your funds from your checking to HELOC.

2) If the bank tries to take money from your checking account for the payment and there isn't enough there, then they could charge you an overdraft fee. I have seen these fee as high as $50 for each occurance. Therefore, to safeguard yourself, you will have to keep money in your checking account instead of keeping in your HELOC.

So, you can see why having the automatic payments on your HELOC is a problem when you are on the United First Financial Money Merge Account. My advice is don't worry about the saving on your HELOC rate as the potential problem of overdraft fees and increasing your payoff time is a bigger problem then a .25% to .50% savings on your HELOC rate.

Need Help Repairing Credit For The United First Financial Money Merge Account

I have been getting some emails recently from potential clients whos credit is preventing them from getting a Home Equity Line of Credit for the United First Financial Money Merge Account. So, to help out I decide to provide a Credit Repair Guide which was sent to me showing how to repair your credit. The Credit Repair Guide goes over step-by-step how to repair your credit and even has some sample letters to send the Credit Reporting Agencies.

You are more then welcome to download and use the Credit Repair Guide to help repair your credit on your own, but I am not responsible for anything that should happen by you using this guide. Also, if you don't have time to repair your credit on your own or have trouble, you might want to hire a company that does this for you. One good company to contact is Credit Financial Solutions, Inc. Here is their info:

Credit Financial Solutions, Inc.
John Grimm
4403 1st Ave. SE, Suite L3
Cedar Rapids, IA 52402
319-294-6651
877-294-6651 (toll free)
jgrimm@creditfinancialsolutions.com
www.creditfinancialsolutions.com

They can help get your credit repaired and then you are on your way to getting your HELOC for the United First Financial Money Merge Account. Hope this helps!

Thank You Rebeca G.!!!

I just wanted to say "Thank you" to Rebeca G. She is an Agent with United First Financial who is not part of my team, just someone who read my blog on the Money Merge Account.

She wasn't getting the support she needed from her team, so she wanted to know if I could help her out. Even though she wasn't on my team I gave her the advice she needed. She called me again about a month later and again I helped her out.

I know my experience in the mortgage industry helps a lot with some of the questions clients and agents have with the Money Merge Account. I just feel that helping people out is the right thing to do.

Anyway, I was away for the holidays and she left me the sweetest voice message expressing her gratitude for my help. It really made me happy! Just thought I would share that with you all.

Can't Get A HELOC for the United First Financial Money Merge Account? Try These Other Loans...

There are many people who want to get going with the United First Financial Money Merge Account, but have trouble getting a Home Equity Line of Credit (HELOC). The main reason why people don't qualify is they don't have equity in the property you want to payoff.

I wrote in an earlier post (Money Merge: Account Use a HELOC from any property to pay down your mortgage) how you can use a HELOC from another property if you don't have equity in the one you want to pay down. But, what if you don't own another property or the other properties you own also don't have equity? Well, you can also use two different Lines of Credit which will work with the United First Financial Money Merge Account. They are:

1) Business Line of Credit
2) Personal Line of Credit

As long as the above Lines of Credit have the required features in order to utilize them with the United First Financial Money Merge Account then you are good to go. Here are the Line of Credit requirements again so you don't have to go digging for them:

The HELOC must have the following features:
a. Has to be a variable loan
b. Has to have interest only payments
c. Has to apply payments daily
d. Has to have check writing/debit capabilities
e. CANNOT have automatic payments taken from your checking account

I hope this information is helpful for those of you wanting to get started on the United First Financial Money Merge Account. If you have a question, give me a call at 561.756.4279.