That's not true at all! Citigroup has so many divisions, like Citibank (used to be my bank when i lived in an area that had one nearby me) and I'd never even heard of Primerica at that point. I had a Citi credit card, also not sold to me by Primerica, Citifinancial which is a lending division of citigroup who have their own locations. Citigroup does not market soley through Primerica at all! Smith Barney is another division of Citigroup, and most people who invest with them are not associated with Primerica at all. So that's just blatently wrong. Primerica is one marketting division of Citigroup, but Citigroup was doing a lot of business way before Primerica was purchased by them, and they continue to do a lot of their own marketting.

Primerica is NOT a Pyramid Scheme. It does use Network Marketting, but those two terms are not synonymous. A Pyramid scheme does not have ANY products or services, a pyramid scheme's sole business model is paying money so people will pay you money by signing up. First of all, in Primerica a person does not make money just by getting a person to sign up.You only make money on someone else if they make sales, in the same way that Avon works. Is Avon a pyramid scheme? No. Is it Network Marketting? yes. Is Avon a scam? no, and neither is Primerica. Network Marketting is not illegal, pyramid schemes are. Unfortunately, people get the two confused because there have been pyramid schemes that called themselves network marketting, but weren't really, which sucks, but oh well.

I still think it's a pyramid. Here's why. If I make money the person who recruited me gets some, then if I recruit, they make money off my recruits, and so on and so forth. If you're not at the top, you make squat.


You can turn painful situations around through laughter. If you can find humor in anything, even poverty, you can survive it.
Bill Cosby

I think Primerica is owned by Smith and Barney.

actually Smith barney is another division of citigroup. So Primerica and smith barney are both owned by Citigroup

I had an interview at primerica last week. The things I did like about the company is they train you. They seem like they want you to succeed in their company. Even though I didn't like their interviewing techniques (everyone in one room) I didn't mind it either at least you got some info. first before the next step. They didn't pressure me into anything.

The things I didn't like about it.

They want me to pay $199 for licensures, which might be true I haven't looked into that, but they could have told me that before I came to the interview.

They stated that serving just one family you would get a nice size commission which made it seem like a scam. Also they never explained where this commission would come from and how exactly it worked.

They claimed even working part time you'll have a sizable income, I wondered how; working on commission you would really have to put in some work.

They don't advertise, they said they are mostly word of mouth. They probably save a bundle on advertising costs. But it makes me think that they hire large amounts of people who pay their own licensure cost, give them a commission so they don't have the cost of giving them a paycheck (or benefits), all these employees are running around talking to whoever they can about primerica in a good way so they can get them as a client. Even if they only get one client they may have talked to many people about primerica who talk to other people who may call primerica directly and I'm sure the big bosses are in the office waiting for the calls and getting their clients and the commission without even leaving their desk.

The thing that really made me walk away is there was not one
thing in writing not even one small scrap of paper, maybe just a business card. Not even a mission statement in writting- Nothing.

I'm not saying Primerica is not a good company, but anyone with an education would be cautious. Oh yeah, most the people in there had no business education, financial background, they either had a high school education or they were trying to switch from another field that wasn't business related. I have a little bit of a business background and understood their product, but I know the way they were talking in circles that others didn't really know, but they reeled them right in with very limited information.

What I didn't understand is where are all these incredible commissions coming from. The amount that they suggest you'll get from one family is a unreal amount. So how much does it really end up costing that middle cla** client.

I was with Primerica for a couple Months, and here's what I found:

Yes, it is possible to make a good chunk of money like they say. However, it is unlikely. A statistical analysis reveals that only 5% of those in Primerica make $50,000 a year or more. They will tell you that's becuse most people only do it part time. However, it makes one ask: If it's so easy to make so much money, why don't people do it full time? Surely that much money would be better than your typical 9-5?

I asked my trainer "How do I market these services?" His response? "I don't know" he'd been doing it for 4 years. Why didn't he know? His entire tactic of getting sales was to get them from his trainees. Here's the scenario. You have to bring in a certain amount of friends and family in order to complete your training and move up to the next commission level, right? In the mean time, all those friends and family's sales don't go to you, they go to your trainer. So basically, in Primerica, in order to do well, you have to complete your training in order to become a trainer, and then all your trainees will bring you your sales. They will just hand them over because they want to become rich like you promised. Just like you did for your trainer.

How do you make money? Basically, you are a salesperson for CitiBanks financial products, and your income is comission on those sales.

I think what they do is a good thing, as far as financial services go, but I don't like their business model.

they suck we had life insherance through them and they over charged us and never gave it back

Well I'm glad I decided not to go through with joining Primerica because my family and friends wouldn't go for it. Also, I have the determination to do something like that, but I wouldn't involve my friends and family. (and I wouldn't purchase any insurance utill I decided I wanted it, and I would go directly to the source of insurance provider not through primerica) And I could never become a trainer and ethically take the commissions of the ones I train because most the people I saw in the meeting were in need of employment. I need a paycheck now.

Does anyone know how long the training is anyway?
At first I was thinking of taking the training if I didn't like the situation at least I got some education out of it. But with bringing in the friends and family (which they didn't tell us; it feels like selling vacuums) I would have walked away.

My parents would never use financial services that get their clients in that manner.

Plus primerica might be a large and growing company, but I'm sure they are getting more and more competition in this area. Plus there is so much free information out there now why would you go to a company like primerica when you can do the research yourself.

Primerica likes to say they are the only company offering this service for Free, but that's not true. There are actually several, though for some reason they all try to market through weird tactics like Primerica. Why a company can't market through more conventional avenues (which work just fine for many financial planning places, like H&R Block as an example) I don't know. I think they would be doing better if they did, and would have much higher credibility.

The degree and time it takes to train is in your hands. The model that they use is 30-60-90 days depending on each individual. As a result, they wil tell you to keep your other job if you have one untill you complete the learning curve. As far as the $200 goes it is for the license process and you get it back anyway. They literally hand you a check for two hundred dollars after you complete your 6 qualified training sessions. So there is nothing to lose. Furthermore, the courses that you must take when you join actually cost the company $2000.00. So they are not ripping you off like some may say. The two hundred is just to guarentee that you are not going to screw the company by not sitting the course as they pay like I said $2000.00 up front. By making you pay $200 it ensures that they are not wasting their time and money.

Also everywhere that you work someone gets a cut. The company that you currenty work for makes more then they pay you an hour. Eg. McDonalds do you really think that they only make the minimum wage amount that they pay you an hour or do they get more money than you an hour?! USE YOUR HEAD PPL!

Any company could be considered a pyramid if you want it to be...despite the fact that if you thought about it PRYAMIDS ARE ILLEGAL!