Primerica ..Land of the Morons

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*UPDATE: Primerica gets a POSITIVE rating from Rip-off Report in customer support & satisfaction. Primerica pledges to resolve complaints from the past, present and in the future, and give 100% commitment to customer service-say Company Executives!

My introduction to Primerica came about in what I now feel was a very sneaky fashion. I was minding my own business at work one day when I was lamenting the fact that I had not joined my company's 401K plan and that I wished I knew more about Mutual Funds, stocks, IRA's, etc, because I had some money in the bank that I wanted to invest. Well, this lady sitting next to me stated that she had a friend (upon reading these other reports, what she was actually doing was pimping me off to her upline) that was very knowledgeable and competent in the world of finance and that she could help me direct my monies into some good investments, etc. At this time, I was under the impression that I was going to see some college educated individual who had some sort of 4 year degree, along with some years of experience, in the world of Finance. Unknowingly, I made an appointment to discuss the above mentioned matters with her. When I went to see her (the office was nicely kept and in a good part of town) she immediately pulled out their pamplets and asked me if I wanted to 1) Work for the man all my life 2) Own my own business 3) Be whatever that level would be if you were a Doctor or Lawyer or 4) Be independently wealthy and play golf all day. I said the Doctor type level and she said "No...Wouldn't you rather not work and play golf all day". I said OK just to shut her up and move on to why I was really there. Then she pulled out that crap on how many millionares the company has, how Citigroup is the largest company in the world, and the rest of the song and dance that has been reported, and wanted me to attend that meeting the next night. Finally I give her my info so she can generate my financial needs analysis and tell me what funds I should invest in, and we make an appointment in a week for me to come back and discuss it. In that week, I read about how Citigroup(or Citi-something) was one of the big lendors in the Enron fiasco, so I thought I would ask her how that would be affecting her trillion assest comany. When I asked her, she blew it off and said that her comapny was so big that they couldn't keep up with everything. Then she shows me these Smith and Barney booklets and points to these pages and tells me how all these funds have managed to stay in the positives even in the wake of September 11th, and how so many other funds have slipped into the negatives. I was shaking my head in agreement and saying that these must be pretty good then. She then tries to get me to refinance my mortgage with Traveler's and consolidate the one credit card I have in my name into one "low payment" a month. I explained that my mother uses that credit card, that the $3,500 balance is her's, and she pays on it religiously. She said she had never had a case like this (obviously there was no pre-scripted scenario in her Primerica- rip- the- consumer off handbook for a situation such as this) but I needed to go ahead and consolidate the mortagage and credit card anyway. I asked why should I pay my mother's bill and become responsible for more debt? She stated I could then have my mother pay me directly each month and figure out some interest rate to charge her. I'm thinking that this is the most retarted and unsound financial advice I have ever received. Then I ask her what the interest rate and closing costs would be. Of course I got the "interest rate doesn't matter" and "closing costs will just be put into the bi-weekly payments" routine. I guess they figure "out of sight out of mind". I then asked her why did I even need to refinance when I can just pay an extra payment or two a year all by myself without accrueing closing costs and higher interest rates. All I got was gibberish in return and that it would be best for me in the long run. I then thanked her and said I needed to go home and think about what I wanted to do. I asked to keep the Smith and Barney brouchures which she didn't want to part with because she said they were hard to come by, and went home with the brouchures to do some research on the computer about the mutual funds she suggested. I went to the Smith and Barney site and pulled up the 4 funds she suggested. I then noticed that all the funds were in the negatives and wondered what had happened to be so different from the info she first showed me. It was then that I noticed that all 4 brouchures were any where from 1 year old to 6 months old....all before 911 happened. Now I'm thinking what kind of crap was she trying to pull on me by stating how all these funds didn't succomb to 911 like so many others did. No wonder she didn't want me to have the brouchures to take home. Finally, I just want to say that I think all these Primerica agents are really just little robots trying to make a buck, and will tell you anything to do just that. They don't have enough financial experience and education to direct anyone on the proper financial path. Look at all the crap advice and out of date mutual fund brouchures that were presented to me. They can't answer any financial questions (unless it's pre-scripted) and brush off any questions you do have. It's all about them making a buck, not helping people out. Up until I discovered this god sent Rip Off Report site, I still wasn't even aware that Primerica was an MLM type company. I had just thought the lady was just an idiot. Thanks and keep up the good work.

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