Complaint Review: Primerica

I apologize for the length of this, but I felt it was necessary to be very specific about my experience. I've read many of the other reports here regarding Primerica, and I'm wondering whether I want to go anywhere near this "job", and would like advice based on what has happened to me so far ... :

There was an ad in the paper on Sunday that said: Mortgage - Will educate for mortgages and financial services. PT/FT. And the guy's name and number. I'd seen a similar ad a few months ago, and figured the first person they hired didn't work out or something.

I called on Monday to find out what the deal was. A friend had suggested getting into the mortgage/loan processing business before, especially considering the run on refi's over the last six months, and it was something I'd considered, but hadn't seen anything that didn't require a whole lotta prior experience. So I was interested in this ad - I figured it was probably some independent broker that was looking for someone to push paper for him, and he'd pay s**t for it, but at least I'd learn stuff I wanted to know and would gain "experience". Seemed like it was made for me. But when I call, and tell him why I'm calling, he doesn't ask me any questions, just says "When can you come in for an interview?" I thought that was strange, but cool, I'm figuring the guy's desperate and I'll get the job. After fudging around with a few different days and times, we finally settled on Tuesday at noon, but he knew that I had a dentist appointment at 2:30 the same day, so as long as we didn't go much more than 90 minutes, it was fine.

So I show up a few minutes early (the office is pretty close, and I actually hit all the lights green - not my FAULT!).

I start out talking to this woman at the front desk - she's having me fill out a standard application form (the kind you get when you walk into a retail store and ask to apply for a job), except it asks for five personal references.

I give her my resume, and she flips to the bottom of it - as in the stuff from 1986 - and starts asking me about it. "You went from secretary to executive secretary to office manager - tell me about Redirect, you were president?"

I think this is a little odd, that she's going to the really old stuff first, but I go with it, figuring they really want to focus on my paper-pushing skills or something, rather than ... errrr ... recent experience or other talents.

Then she starts telling me long stories about how she got into this business - she'd been a geek also (used to work for Andersen-c*m-Accidenture LOL), and she "got to a point where it seemed like she was bringing home a lot of money but didn't have anything to show for it, it seemed to all be gone".

I'm wondering where this is going, and I find out (sort of) when she continues it with "that's why I went with this business".

She tells me that they will require that I become life and health certified. I have no idea what she's talking about, I'm thinking "You want me to push your paper, but you want me to certify that I'm neither deceased nor about to be, and what does that have to do with mortgages anyway???"

Well, these questions are answered when I get in to talk to the Mr. Ad-Placing Dude. It turns out that they are trying to recruit people to sell mortgages, life insurance and health insurance, as well as "investments". They're both real big on "we help people become debt-free and plan their future."

The woman had told me that they did so well because the markets that they target are the "neglected" ones - the lower middle class and upper middle class. "Everyone else is marketing to the middle range!" (My thoughts on that bit later, but seemed a good time to note that part of the conversation.)

So I get this sales pitch from this guy, essentially. He shows me this little brochure that sets out a scenario of somebody with such and such a mortgage, such and such credit card debt - you have them refi for the amount of both, and the money they save they get themselves life and health insurance, and still have money left over for investing, and at the end of 15 years, this is what they have, and at the end of so many more years, they have this. And LOOK! You've made THIS much! Just by filling out a few forms! You've spent about four hours of work, but you've made over $800 on one deal! And you HELPED your client become debt-free and retire in STYLE!

And here is where I note that the company I would be working for is called Primerica ... and they exclusively market Citigroup products.

I got a spiel from Mr. Ad-Placing Dude about how smart a guy is the guy who started Citigroup. I don't even remember his name. Something Weill? Whatever. Apparently he's God to this guy. Oh so smart. Yeah, whatever.

Mr. Ad-Placing Dude also has a little bit in the middle of his sales pitch about how "people say this is a pyramid, but it's not. Besides, every company is really a pyramid - you have your CEO making millions of dollars, and you have your guy in the mailroom making squat, and the CEO is still profiting from Mr. Mailroom's sweat." Which, when you think about it, is an extremely valid point. The fact that he felt it was necessary to BRING UP the fact that Primerica is not a pyramid scheme bothered me. And as he was showing me the cute little scenarios, there was a line in there where once you get up to a certain point in the "hierarchy", you can sit there on your a*s and make money off the work that other people do (the people you recruited). And you make more money from sitting on your a*s than the person who did the work. Red flag. Bill Gates aside, that bothered me a lot, when added to the quickness of the "this is not a pyramid, that's *gasp* illegal!"

What bothered me also was the exclusively Citigroup products. I'm not a big fan of Citigroup, I think they will take advantage of you whenever they think they can get away with it, and hope you don't know any better so you won't notice. Although I suppose to be fair, so will ANYONE in the finance business - but Citigroup didn't get as big as it is by "helping their neighbors".

Which brings me to the other point - I'm figuring that I can translate the "target market" thusly ... they sell mortgages or refi's to lower-income people at higher rates or higher costs - in any event, completely non-competitive deals. But they market it in such a way that the poor sucker who might not have the best credit or no cash for down payments, whatever, walk away thinking how wonderful they are for not turning them down, not making them pay lots of points and stuff, and they were so NICE! Actuarially, it probably works out quite well for Citigroup - those extra couple of interest rate points on multiple "clients" more than make up for the couple of deadbeats in the batch. And as far as the upper middle-class - I figure those are the ones they're selling term life insurance to, rather than whole life that they already have - on the assumption that they'll be suckers and look only at the monthly premium, not the fine print on the differences between the two.

So somewhere along the line in this interview, they tell me that to get life and health certified/licensed, I have to pay $199. Mind you, if I decide not to do it, Citigroup will refund all but $40 of that. But $199 pays for a two-day class in life insurance, and gets you a state license to sell/market such. I'm thinking "I have to PAY to get a job?", but later after I get home I'm also thinking this is cheap - a license is not a petty thing and it is literally worth money. If I were licensed I could probably get a job right away selling overpriced crap to some poor schmo. Heh. So having to pay for training does not bother me.

What DOES bother me is that Mr. Ad-Placing Dude kept pushing me, showing me the schedule for the classes and asking me to pick and commit to one of the sessions. As I looked at the clock and realized it was 1:45, and I still had to get home, change, do a couple of minor things and get to the dentist (25 minutes away door-to-door), I said "I'm sorry, but I really have to go." He kept talking, but I stood up and started getting my stuff together - and he started in (not for the first time) with "So when are you coming back in? When are you going to start the training?" I answered "I'm not sure yet, I have to think about this, but I really have to go, the last person you want to annoy is your dentist, don't you think?" So I finally got out and made it with about two minutes to spare to the dentist.

So that's my story. My personal, direct experience. I was thinking that while I was uncomfortable with some parts of it, what they'd consistently stressed about being able to do it even part-time appealed to me. I was not terribly swayed by the money-making/commissions they were waving in front of me - that was another thing that made me uncomfortable and I didn't believe a word of it. Little too much of a hard-sell or desperation practice.

So I thought about it, and wasn't sure, am still not sure. On the one hand, I was interested in the opportunity, and figured that while all the numbers they were so quick to spout at me were most likely greatly exaggerated, it might still work out. On the other hand, I was uncomfortable with some of the things they said, the "bait-and-switch" of the ad versus the actual job, and the whole Citigroup thing. They'd given me an application to take home, read and fill out - Independent Business Application or something. The last several pages are a "Binding Contract" which is all written in extremely fine print - which I confess I have not muddled through yet, but when I do, it also will be a bit of a deciding factor. I just assume(d) that there will be something in there I don't like but might be able to live with.

Last night I finally got around to doing some more research. I googled Primerica. Of course I naturally gravitated toward the things called "opposing views" that came up. Much of what I read struck chords with what I've already talked about with my experience so far. Some of it didn't - which may have more to do with "recruiting style" than anything else. I am almost tempted to go to one of their "training sessions" (which they do on Wednesday nights and Saturday afternoons), just to satisfy my curiousity of whether these two people are some of the "honest" ones. But even if they are ...
I would like your impressions and advice.


George
Somewhere, Virginia
U.S.A.

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