Complaint Review: Primerica - Maitland Florida

I have had NO exposure to the denizens of Primerica, nor have I ever been involved with the mortgage or insurance business except as a customer. Primerica reports clearly describe too much smoke (and mirrors) to claim there is no fire. All of these negative Primerica reports describe dumb lies and cheap antics. I do understand financial math and I have money. I can also identify rats when I see them, which is why I do have money. I don't think you will ever be in this position if you accept these dumb lies and cheap antics. Let us know what homeless shelter Primerica ultimately helps you move into.

Rich, what is Crimerica the best at besides duping consumers and door-to-door peddling agents? Burn this into your brain, you pathetic shiller: "Victim of a consumer Rip-off? Want justice? Rip-off Report? is a worldwide consumer reporting Website & Publication, by consumers, for consumers, to file & document complaints about companies or individuals who ripoff consumers."

Dont't miss the boat.

It's ineteresting that as soon as I rebutt one Crimerican moron, another shiller comes trolling down. Well here goes: "I am surprised that more people haven't responded to all of the reports of "scams" and "rip-offs" and bad mouthing of ____________." Er um might be due to the fact that Crimerica can't be effectively defended since it really is a highly deceptive, fraudulent company. "I did enough research on this company to know that it is backed by one of the leading financial institutions in the world; CITI CORP." Correction, moron, Citgroup is the parent, not Citicorp. Citgroup has been fined hundreds of millions of dollars by the US Government for predatory lending plus it made out-of-court settlements for its involvement in the Enron and Worldcom scams to the tune of $4.6 billion (Leroy has effectively explained that Citigroup doesn't back Crimerica). "If it was a scam, there would be NO LICENSING involved! We would just take your money! LOL." The operative word here is "if." "ALSO, __________ will REIMBURSE you your licensing fees once you have finished your classes and passed the exam....DID YOU EVEN MENTION THAT?? NO, probably because you NEVER took the classes to see if _________ was REALLY a SCAM or a RIP OFF!!" Liar - Crimerica doesn't do this. What Crimerica laughingly calls a reimbursement is when you sell and get commission - this is the so-called reimbursement that Crimerica refers to. Burn this into your brain, bottom feeder: "Victim of a consumer Rip-off? Want justice? Rip-off Report is a worldwide consumer reporting Website & Publication, by consumers, for consumers, to file & document complaints about companies or individuals who ripoff consumers."

imagine working for a company where you deceptively recruit the broke, uneducated and desperate under the guise of offering them a "management position"... imagine telling the unsuspecting recruit that your company is "backed by Citigroup" when in fact Citigroup has absolutely no financial obligation to your clients imagine telling the wide eyed recruit that you need 6 or 7 "references" from him/her and then selling the recruits family and friends a heaping pile of overpriced fecal matter under the guise of helping them out of debt. imagine being naive enough to actually believe your canned one size fits all sales pitch is unique to the industry and you are the only one who doesnt charge for it. imagine trolling a website called RipOff Report on a daily basis to check on who is slamming your p.o.s. company just imagine...

I too was contacted last year when I was searching for a job and it had nothing to do with management. I was actually sending out resumes for a tv job. A young couple where I was working at the time were the ones who actually referred me to go to one of their "meetings". Funny thing is I was contacted by someone else anonymously over the phone not knowing it was the same thing the young couple was recruiting me for. When I asked the women is this a multi-level marketing thing? The women said, "well we will discuss that information and everything else when you get here", I suspected it was a multi-level pyramid scheme. I left a message on her voice mail the next day letting her know I wasn't interested and to stop calling me. I did go to the meeting that the young couple told me about and as soon as I got there, YEP. It was what I thought all along. A Pyramid crap. Total sales pitch. I left quickly after the meeting ending in disgust. I heard someone yelling my name in the background but I ignore them. I was bolting out of there like a horse coming out of the gate at the Kentucky Derby. I actually saw the young couple again and they apologized to me b/c they realized to it was a ripoff after being with Crimamerica a year.

I agree qith Susan on one thing only. In commission sales positions where the person is to be an independent contractor they pay thier own licensing fees. Its this way in real estate too. I disagree with Susan on virtually every other point she made. Susan claims primerica reps have access to the most competetive plans ouit there? Really? How come you don't use them? All I see from primerica is overpriced term insurance and ridiculously overpriced loans. Susan as a female should feel especially bad knowing how horrible primerica treats women on life insurance rates. Their rates are near double what competeitors charge women because primerica chrgaes them the same rates they do men. To my knowledge, and I have software that quotes 500+ companies, no one else does this. Susan says they save people from bad financial decisions. What could be a worse financial decision than getting talked into a home loan that is 1.75% MORE than you could otherwise qualify for? Primerica does this with a sleight of hand sales presentation that takes the focus away from the abominably expensive interest rates. See my post above for details. Susan says they have a referral based business. Lets get specific. A rectruit is brought to a primerica meeting under the guise of being recruited for a management position with Citigroup. If he shows any interest he is asked to hand in a list of 6-7 "referrals". The lead dog in the pack then takes the recruit out with him while he delivers the sales pitch and tries to get a sale before the poor recruit is licensed and can legally get a commission. Like all MLMs, primerica had to change its name once it became too well known as A.L. Williams Agency. Name recognition is like a cross to a vampire to an MLM. Amway had to change its name too once it had been around long enough for eye rolls to appear everytime its name was mentioned. Primericans continue to spread this myth that they give away a complete financial plan free when others charge $500- 10,000 for the same thing. NONSENSE!!!! First of all they give it away because you have to be licensed to do a REAL financial plan and charge for it. Secondly it is nothing more than a canned sales pitch. Its called a Financial Needs Analysis (FNA) and you can buy them for approximately 10 cents a dozen on the net. New York Life, Met Life, Principal Life, etc..... all do very similar things, and also do it free. Lastly, Susan once again mouths the myth that primerica is "backed" by Citigroup. "Backed" has a connotation that somehow Citigroup is responsible to pay primerica's claims should primerica ever become financially unable to do so. CORRECTION!!!!! Primerica is a wholly owned subsidiary of Citigroup. What that means to the consumer is that by keeping it as an owned subsidiary Citigroup is free of liability from any claims against primerica. Citigroup has absolutely no legal obligation whatsoever to primerica policyholders. Should primerica falter financially anything Citigroup does for the policyholders is purely voluntary and would be based on Citigroup's ethics. Given Citigroup's record regulatory fines and class action settlements totalling TWO BILLION DOLLARS I personally wouldn't hold my breath waiting for Enron's bed partner to have a sudden attack of ethics and come galloping to the rescue.

I am surprised that more people haven't responded to all of the reports of "scams" and "rip-offs" and bad mouthing of Primerica. I am a well educated individual who was introduced to the company from a co-worker in the field I was working in. There were never any broken promises, only upfront information. I did enough research on this company to know that it is backed by one of the leading financial institutions in the world; CITI CORP. It is silly to base your opinion on the company when it is obvious you never even attempted to go forward with Primerica solely based on the fact that you had to pay $199 to get started. The company doesn't take your money, it goes toward education so that you can get licensed by the STATE you live in. If it was a scam, there would be NO LICENSING involved! We would just take your money! LOL. You pay a university to go to classes and for books etc right??? How is that different than what Primerica offers? If you wanted to be an insurance agent for any other company, you would still have to have a license and take the course. Primerica just happens to be the ONLY company that has a STATE APPROVED course that qualifies you to take the exam. ALSO, Primerica will REIMBURSE you your licensing fees once you have finished your classes and passed the exam....DID YOU EVEN MENTION THAT?? NO, probably because you NEVER took the classes to see if Primerica was REALLY a SCAM or a RIP OFF!! We actually have access to the most competitive rates and plans out there. We have helped millions of people to become debt free and we are REFERRAL BASED! How is it, that a REFERRAL-BASED company has been in business since 1977 and still GROWING??? ALSO, Primerica does more business for Citi Corp. than Citi Corp. itself! I think that the way you were approached wasn't professional, I'll give you that. I don't agree with contacting people you don't know and reeling them in to the company with the impression that it is like your everyday 9-5. He also should have answered your questions over the phone or at least explained about the company rather than making you show up to an "interview". I'm sorry you had a bad experience. I have found Primerica to be an awesome company that has helped many of my friends and family get out of BAD financial decisions. It's not a "get rich quick scheme", it does take work and you have to get licensed in every area you would like to make money in and the licensing costs money....big deal. So does EVERYTHING else in life. The financial analysis is free for your clients and most financial advice from other companies will cost $500-$10,000 and they can't even put the advice into action....they make YOU do it! Bottom line is you quit...you let your misunderstanding of the company keep you from becoming financially independent and I'm sorry for that. I would say to those who are reading this to get BOTH SIDES of the story. Many times the rip-off reports are from people who were misinformed.

I am surprised that more people haven't responded to all of the reports of "scams" and "rip-offs" and bad mouthing of Primerica. I am a well educated individual who was introduced to the company from a co-worker in the field I was working in. There were never any broken promises, only upfront information. I did enough research on this company to know that it is backed by one of the leading financial institutions in the world; CITI CORP. It is silly to base your opinion on the company when it is obvious you never even attempted to go forward with Primerica solely based on the fact that you had to pay $199 to get started. The company doesn't take your money, it goes toward education so that you can get licensed by the STATE you live in. If it was a scam, there would be NO LICENSING involved! We would just take your money! LOL. You pay a university to go to classes and for books etc right??? How is that different than what Primerica offers? If you wanted to be an insurance agent for any other company, you would still have to have a license and take the course. Primerica just happens to be the ONLY company that has a STATE APPROVED course that qualifies you to take the exam. ALSO, Primerica will REIMBURSE you your licensing fees once you have finished your classes and passed the exam....DID YOU EVEN MENTION THAT?? NO, probably because you NEVER took the classes to see if Primerica was REALLY a SCAM or a RIP OFF!! We actually have access to the most competitive rates and plans out there. We have helped millions of people to become debt free and we are REFERRAL BASED! How is it, that a REFERRAL-BASED company has been in business since 1977 and still GROWING??? ALSO, Primerica does more business for Citi Corp. than Citi Corp. itself! I think that the way you were approached wasn't professional, I'll give you that. I don't agree with contacting people you don't know and reeling them in to the company with the impression that it is like your everyday 9-5. He also should have answered your questions over the phone or at least explained about the company rather than making you show up to an "interview". I'm sorry you had a bad experience. I have found Primerica to be an awesome company that has helped many of my friends and family get out of BAD financial decisions. It's not a "get rich quick scheme", it does take work and you have to get licensed in every area you would like to make money in and the licensing costs money....big deal. So does EVERYTHING else in life. The financial analysis is free for your clients and most financial advice from other companies will cost $500-$10,000 and they can't even put the advice into action....they make YOU do it! Bottom line is you quit...you let your misunderstanding of the company keep you from becoming financially independent and I'm sorry for that. I would say to those who are reading this to get BOTH SIDES of the story. Many times the rip-off reports are from people who were misinformed.

I am surprised that more people haven't responded to all of the reports of "scams" and "rip-offs" and bad mouthing of Primerica. I am a well educated individual who was introduced to the company from a co-worker in the field I was working in. There were never any broken promises, only upfront information. I did enough research on this company to know that it is backed by one of the leading financial institutions in the world; CITI CORP. It is silly to base your opinion on the company when it is obvious you never even attempted to go forward with Primerica solely based on the fact that you had to pay $199 to get started. The company doesn't take your money, it goes toward education so that you can get licensed by the STATE you live in. If it was a scam, there would be NO LICENSING involved! We would just take your money! LOL. You pay a university to go to classes and for books etc right??? How is that different than what Primerica offers? If you wanted to be an insurance agent for any other company, you would still have to have a license and take the course. Primerica just happens to be the ONLY company that has a STATE APPROVED course that qualifies you to take the exam. ALSO, Primerica will REIMBURSE you your licensing fees once you have finished your classes and passed the exam....DID YOU EVEN MENTION THAT?? NO, probably because you NEVER took the classes to see if Primerica was REALLY a SCAM or a RIP OFF!! We actually have access to the most competitive rates and plans out there. We have helped millions of people to become debt free and we are REFERRAL BASED! How is it, that a REFERRAL-BASED company has been in business since 1977 and still GROWING??? ALSO, Primerica does more business for Citi Corp. than Citi Corp. itself! I think that the way you were approached wasn't professional, I'll give you that. I don't agree with contacting people you don't know and reeling them in to the company with the impression that it is like your everyday 9-5. He also should have answered your questions over the phone or at least explained about the company rather than making you show up to an "interview". I'm sorry you had a bad experience. I have found Primerica to be an awesome company that has helped many of my friends and family get out of BAD financial decisions. It's not a "get rich quick scheme", it does take work and you have to get licensed in every area you would like to make money in and the licensing costs money....big deal. So does EVERYTHING else in life. The financial analysis is free for your clients and most financial advice from other companies will cost $500-$10,000 and they can't even put the advice into action....they make YOU do it! Bottom line is you quit...you let your misunderstanding of the company keep you from becoming financially independent and I'm sorry for that. I would say to those who are reading this to get BOTH SIDES of the story. Many times the rip-off reports are from people who were misinformed.

To explain folks Crimerica sends over fools such as James over to this website to deliberately try to mislead the visitors to this site. James is characteristic of all Crimerican shillers in accusing victims of not working (translation: lazy) which isn't true. About the only work you'll see from that pathetic excuse of an agent from Crimerica is his running his mouth off on this website (can't you fat cats send over anybody worthy?). It's time to rebutt this moron who's gotten bored with the Crimerican meetings and can't peddle those trash term policies on the street corners. Quoting: "...opportunity..." Does anybody call making less than $2,300 a year an "opportunity" which is what over 100,000 agents make yearly at Crimerica? (which is before business expense and commission chargebacks). "What are you talking about? Do you expect to ever get a mortgage that you don't pay interest on." Well duh James what we have is a failure on your part to get your facts straight (a deliberate deceptive move from you). The operative word that Leroy used in his report which you so conveniently overlooked is "more." I'll spell it out for you. He's saying with Crimerica you pay $75,000 to $100,000 MORE in interest on average than you will with other companies including banks. I would make a strong suggestion to you, shiller James, that you work on your grammar and spelling (you've misspelt actually and dissatisfied). Next time you come trolling to Ripoff Report you better be prepared because me, Leroy and others will be kicking your butt. Now burn this into your brain: "Victim of a consumer Rip-off? Want justice? Rip-off Report is a worldwide consumer reporting Website & Publication, by consumers, for consumers, to file & document complaints about companies or individuals who ripoff consumers."

Yes, a not-so-SMART loan can cost a client an extra $75,000 to $100,000 in EXTRA interest over the life of the loan COMPARED TO OTHER LOANS the borrower could qualify for. Primerica has a canned sales pitch which gives a song-and-dance employing smoke and mirrors to keep the borrower from focusing on; 1. interest rates 1.5-1.75% higher than he could qualify for through other lending sources. Please don't try and say that isn't the case. Its too well documented. 2. Loan fees and associated costs $2,000-8,000 higher (depending on loan size) than other lenders he could use. Primerica uses the following to convince the unsuspecting borrower to pay more for a loan than he needs to; (all figures based on a $250,000 loan) 1. "interest rates don't matter...only time in debt matters" <<<< WRONG. Interest rates matter most. No matter what type of payment plan the borrower uses a lower interest rate will mean he can pay off his loan sooner than the higher rate OR that he will be in debt the same amount of time but will be making a lower payment. ALL payment plans can be duplicated elsewhere. 2. biweekly payment plans lower your total interest paid <<<< All a biweekly plan does is create a 13th payment every year. A borrower can easily duplicate a biweekly payment plan with primerica by adding 8.33% of the principle and interest payment to each monthly payment they send in.....or just send in a 13th payment once a year. 3. "simple interest saves lots of money over scheduled interest" <<<< The absolute most simple interest can save over scheduled interest is 29/30 days of interest (depends how you calculate it). If your loan interest rate is 1.5-1.75% lower on the scheduled interest plan then you will have equaled the savings in a simple interest loan in 4-5 months time. After that all you save is yours. 4. "only primerica doesn't charge mortgage payment insurance" <<<< Its built into the loan rate!!!!! Mortage payment insurance is paid by any borrower who doesn't have 20% equity in his property. With primerica EVERYONE pays it whether they have 20% equity or not. It simply doesn't show as a separate charge. Furthermore, if you are paying that and you then achieve a position of 20% equity, other lenders will drop the charge off. With primerica you just keep paying and paying and paying. 5. "only primerica doesn't charge $395 to set up a bi-weekly payment plan" <<<< So what! The $395 is made up in one month on a lower interest loan. Calculate for yourself the costs of a $250,000 loan at 7.75% and then at 6%. If you pay the same payment required on the 7.75% loan and apply it to a 6.0% loan, you will BE OUT OF DEBT 46 MONTHS SOONER" than you would with a 7.75% primerica loan. If you just pay the lower payment but pay it biweekly you will save money each and every month and BE OUT OF DEBT AT PRECISELY THE SAME TIME as with with the higher interst loan. Either way the savings are about EIGHTY SEVEN THOUSAND DOLLARS ($87,000) in interest over the life of a $250,000 loan. That doesn't even count the LOST OPPORTUNITY cost of not being able to invest the difference a lower house payment would enable you to do. Using primerica's ridiculous 12% investment rate assumption means the poor little middle class family they claim to want to help will end up over TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS ($200,000) short. I don't know about anyone else reading this but it seems to me that for a middle class guy to have $87,000 less at retiremnt because he got talked into a high interest loan is going to HURT!!!!

What are you talking about? Do you expect to ever get a mortgage that you don't pay interest on. If you can get that then send them to me so I can do the same thing. But since that is impossible I guess you have to pay the interest. Are you a representative or just a disatisfied client? And as for the telling people that we are the only ones doing this, maybe that isn't the whole truth but, if you are talking about credit counceling, that hurts peoples credit. We recruit the way we do to give the average Joe a chance to own their own business where they make money if they work for it.

Is recruiting someone by telling them they will be considered for a managerial position with Citigroup righting a wrong? Is presenting a deceptive sales pitch to someone so that they become convinced they should pay $75,000-100,000 more in interest over 20 years righting a wrong? Is telling people that "our company is the only one that does such-and-such" when in truth dozens of other companies do the same thing righting a wrong? Of course the answers are no.

Any one and every one can comment about an opportunity that "didn't work" but the question is, did you do what you had to too earn your commission. If the company was truly a bad company, don't you thing that the majority of the people that work for it would stop "paying for broken promises". I know that I would prefer a company that is trying to pay me more by telling me exactly what needs to be done and me doing it, than a company that is trying to pay me as little as possible so the executives can line their own pockets. And as to the recruiting methods, most companies have a recruiting system in place. Primerica just so happens to recruit from the general public that sees what needs to be done and goes out and tries to right a wrong.

most crimerica victims waste about 3-6 months of time and money and alienate and/or lose their family and friends before they catch on to the scammers at primerica. be advised, if you gave the thieves a list of "references", be sure to contact them right away before your former "employer" calls to suck them into overpriced term insurance and a not so smart loan that costs them tens of thousands of their hard earned dollars. cheers, Jay

You're lucky you got out so cheap and that none of your friends or family had to pay dearly for your mistake of getting involved with them. The $61 you paid for fingerprints is nothing. Its two months overcharge of premium for their term insurance. Of course even paying $30 extra a month extra is absolutley nothing compared to paying an extra $75,000-100,000 in loan interest had you sold one of their not-so-SMART loans.