So you’ve probably found out about this way to get a loan a potentially make a lot of money from it. Now you’re probably wondering “is Credit Star Funding a scam?”
I’m not going to drag this one out for you… it’s a scam and not a great way to go about getting out of debt or making money.
The rest of this honest Credit Star Funding review, with videos, will explain exactly what the company actually does. This will help you to make an informed decision about whether it’s a good idea to get involved with them.
What to look for in an MLM
- Low start-up fee & maintenance cost
- High-quality affordable products
- You don’t have to carry inventory
- Generous compensation plan
- An affiliate-like system
- Company is in the early momentum phase
What is Credit Star Funding?
Credit Star Funding is a company that fixes credit scores and provides loans and investment opportunities.
They claim not to be a Multi-Level-Marketing company, but they are very similar to one…
Here’s the Wikipedia definition:
A marketing strategy where the revenue of the MLM company is derived from a non-salaried workforce selling the company’s products/services, while the earnings of the participants are derived from a pyramid-shaped or binary compensation commission system.
But no no… Credit Star Funding is a “Two-tiered agency”…
I’m not sure if it’s just me, but does this look like a pyramid-shaped commission structure to you?
Now you’re probably wondering…
Is Credit Star Funding a pyramid scheme?
In my opinion… yes Credit Star Funding is a pyramid scheme.
The only legit way you can make money from this “opportunity” is by recruiting more people into the company.
They claim to have other ways you can make money, such as “getting a hefty loan” (aka more debt) and using unproven ways to make more money such as trading in cryptocurrencies or Forex.
We’ll cover this in more detail later in this Credit Star Funding review but for now…
What is a pyramid scheme?
A pyramid scheme is when a company recruits members by promising them payment for recruiting more members.
Technically there is no service or product being sold other and the only way you can make money is by recruiting more people into the scheme.
They are illegal in most countries because they are completely unsustainable as the diagram below shows…
Diagram from Wikipedia
Credit Star Funding does have a service for improving your credit score. But if you want to become “an agent” of the company the ONLY way you can get paid commission is if you recruit more people to take on these loans.
There is no product or service that you are selling.
The only way you can get a commission is to “sell these loans” and recruit more people into the system.
This simple 5-minute video explains more about what to look for to spot a pyramid scheme…
Watch it on x2 speed if you are in a hurry!
How does Credit Star Funding work?
Here’s the funny thing…
Even though you’ve probably checked out their website and maybe seen a video or two about it, it’s still really hard to work out exactly what’s going on right?
Well here’s an overly simplified overview of how it works:
- Pay $5,000-$6,000 to improve your credit score quickly (21-60 days)
- Now you can get a huge loan $20k-$250k (there is a $199 commitment fee + 22% generation fee + 9-18% interest rate)
- Now you can invest in some extremely dodgy investments that Credit Star Funding doesn’t even provide but suggest you should be able to easily make 10-60% returns each month.
Supposedly you can reach financial freedom in 10 steps…
The most up to date video for Credit Star Funding is below.
It’s a 45-minute viewing of Riccardo (the shady owner) explaining how amazing the system is without sharing the fees of taking these wild “no collateral, no recourse loans.
He also spends the last 10 minutes explaining why Credit Star Funding isn’t a scam. This is without ever actually explaining the true costs of the loans or any real details about the fraudulent investments you can make 10-60% return each month!
Credit Star Funding products
There really isn’t a product or service as such being offered by Credit Star Funding. Especially not for “agents” to sell.
The only thing agents can get paid a commission for is selling these expensive interest rate loans.
The fraudulent investments they suggest you should use your deceptive loans for are not even a service Credit Star Funding provides.
Note that there are many MLMs out there that are selling similar stuff. The most prominent ones are:
How to make money with Credit Star Funding
There’s only one way:
Recruit more people to take on one of these high-interest rate loans.
And how will you convince people to give this a try?
Oh yeah, that’s right!
They can always sell these high-interest loans to other people too!
AKA… pyramid scheme!
How much does it cost to join Credit Star Funding?
Now here’s the good thing…
It’s completely free to join as Riccardo mentions in the video (many times!)
He’ll even let you become an “agent” so that you can sell these loans and earn a commission for free!
For some reason, he seems to forget that they charge $5,000-$6,000 to repair credit scores (apparently they do not take a penny from that… it’s all to pay for the lawyers and experts to help you!)
He also seems to forget that your loan comes with a set-up fee of $199 and costs you somewhere between 9-22% interest.
Where I come from… that is not FREE to join!
Credit Star Funding compensation plan
Do you remember Riccardo saying it’s not an MLM company?
No, remember it just looks like one and has a two-tiered commission structure.
Basically, if you sell a loan to someone you get a 2.5% commission. If they sell a loan to someone else you get a 1% commission.
That is the only way you get paid.
There are no bonuses that you can get paid for your downlines past two levels so it is slightly different to many MLM companies.
But the pyramid shape commission structure is very similar. MLM companies are not scams anyway as long as they offer legit products or services.
Is Credit Star Funding a scam?
It offers a really expensive way to improve your credit score.
It offers a weird way to get a huge loan with a very high-interest rate.
And Credit Star Funding suggests you invest your money in fraudulent investment Ponzi schemes.
They then tell you that you can make an extra income by selling these expensive loans to other people.
All of these signs point to the fact that Credit Star Funding is a scam.
Just to be fully transparent with you, I am not a distributor myself and I do not endorse it in any way.
I have researched the website, testimonials and information on the Internet to get to the bottom of what this program genuinely does. This is because I have been burnt from programs just like this in the past and I want to prevent others from making the same mistakes. If you’d like to learn more “Ways to Spot an Online Marketing Scam” then click the highlighted text.
Credit Star Funding: What I Like Liked
Here is was one thing I liked about Credit Star Funding…
#1 Improve your credit score
Originally I thought it seemed like a legitimate way to help you improve your credit score quickly.
To be honest, I genuinely believe this company may be able to do it.
But is it legit and ethical?
Almost certainly not.
Especially when you consider how much it costs to do this…
Spending $5,000-$6,000 to improve your credit score so that you can then get into a load more debt is just plain bonkers!
There’s normally a reason if you are in bad credit and unfortunately, the best way to improve this score is to pay off your debt over time.
There really is no quick fix for this and I genuinely believe that Credit Star Funding understands peoples emotional state if they have a poor credit score.
Oftentimes these people are desperately looking for a quick fix to get things back on track. Unfortunately, that quick fix will cause a lot more long term pain if you use Credit Star Funding.
Key terms
- Black Hat Methods
- Using lies and unethical methods to make someone buy something
- White Hat Methods
- Being honest and genuine to help people make informed decisions about purchases
- Pyramid Scheme
- recruits members via a promise for payment from referring others to the service rather than providing a product
- Affiliate Marketing
- Connecting a customer to a product they are looking for and receiving a commission for doing so
- Red Flag
- A warning sign
Credit Star Funding: Hidden Truths
Here are some of the ugly bad parts of Credit Star Funding that you should be aware of before getting involved…
The sales pages and videos should really explain this (but of course they won’t as they want anyone’s money)
#1 Unrealistic claims & returns
Some of the claims are so absurd.
When I first saw them I presumed they at least owned or offered some of these fraudulent investment Ponzi schemes that can earn you 10-25% (or even 60% returns each month)
However, all they actually do is tell you… do you know that some people make these really high returns?
It’s like me saying take this $100k loan… because you can become the richest man in the world by investing in the stock market.
I can’t tell you exactly how or train you how to do it but Warren Buffet did it.
Then this claim is absolutely bananas…
“From broke to 6 figure passive income”
HOW?!
They don’t even explain how to do this at any point.
Remember, here’s their theory:
- Pay us $5k to improve your credit score
- Now take a really risky high-interest loan for $200k (ooo… this can pay off your $5k you paid us already!)
- Now invest it to make a 25% return every month… but we won’t show you how to do this, just know that you can!
It’s ludicrous!
#2 Owners bad reputation and history
The owner, Ferrari, was promoting the BitClub Network Ponzi scheme before this.
Richard Brooke cited Ferrari as an example of “outright lying, stupid illegal claims and cheeseball videos about how cool it is to be rich”…
I mean a guy that boasts this kind of obscene stuff doesn’t just change his spots overnight.
He’s an outright fraudster.
#3 It’s a pyramid scheme
There’s no real product or service.
The only way to make money is to recruit more people to take on these loans.
These are clear signs of a pyramid scheme.
See if you can spot any signs of a pyramid scheme in the infographic below…
But it doesn’t end there.
#4 No professional financial advice provided
In the FTC disclaimer small print, there are a lot of truths.
Including…
There is no financial advice that you can take from this company.
You’re expected to hand over thousands to improve your credit score and accumulate hundreds of thousands of debt from them, but you shouldn’t take this as financial advice?
So what should you see it as?
Financial entertainment?
#5 This Ponzi scheme is illegal
They don’t actually offer investment vehicles.
But they do suggest you invest in numerous other Ponzi schemes (much like Ferrari’s old BitClub Network).
Any investment that offers returns of 60% a month is doing so by paying existing investors their returns by the funds received from new investors.
Eventually, these Ponzi schemes always come crashing down.
#6 Kicks the can down the road- more debt!
This whole system is just a way for people to “kick the can down the road”.
It’s not helping to educate or improve people’s financial situation.
It’s actually doing the opposite.
The way this whole “theory” works is by taking on more debt.
More debt means more monthly interest.
When you come to the end of the term you will owe much more money than you borrowed and be in a much worse situation.
They claim that you can earn 10%+ returns on your money every month, but doesn’t show you or educate you on how to do this.
This is one of the worst scams I’ve come across and I imagine (and hope) it won’t last much longer.
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My opinion - Credit Star Funding
It’s an outright scam that should be avoided at all costs.
The only thing that can happen from taking on a loan is to get into more debt and owe more money than when you started out.
Quick fixes like this are never a good idea.
You can find out more about the pros and cons of Working Captial loans here if you need a quick loan. Or you can find out how to find the right business loan broker here.
But there are legit ways that people make money from home…
How I make money from home
In 2018 I had no idea how people make money online.
All I knew is that I wasn’t a huge fan of MLM programs even though they can be legit and I know some people that do very well from them.
That’s when I discovered affiliate marketing.
The best things about this is that:
- You don’t need to sell anything to friends and family
- You can promote anything you like and you don’t need to make the products
- It’s free to start
I really had no idea about this in 2018.
But I went from a full time PE teacher to making a passive income online within one year…
If you want to discover how I did it then check out this special video I created which explains exactly how. You can also get your free 7-day bootcamp to get started.
How I make passive income online
In 2018 I had no idea what affiliate marketing was.
Once I learnt about it, it just seemed like a great business model that can grow over time using the power of the internet.
So I tried to figure it out by myself… that got me nowhere fast.
Then I fell for some terrible online scams.
But eventually, I found Wealthy Affiliate. It teaches long-term proven strategies to build an online business with all the tools and support needed.
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I've reviewed hundreds of courses and programs that claim to help people make money online. And I've spoken to dozens of 6-7 figure online entrepreneurs on my podcast.
This is by far the best place I've seen to help beginners get set up on the right foot. You can read my full Wealthy Affiliate review here (including the pros and cons!).
Discover these secretsMike, PE teacher to passive income online