Upromise for your kids college

[CRFSaver]

If you have kids, do any of you sign up for Upromise? One of my good friends told me about it. He is having his first child next month. Essentially what you do is sign up, and register your credit cards as well as any grocery or member cards. When ever you buy a product that participates (Coke, Edie Bauer, Exxon Mobile) you get credit that can go to a 529 plan. For example, I bought woll trousers at Eddie Bauer. They put 2% of the purchase price into my Upromise account for when I have children.

Now here is the kicker. You can get your friends and family to register their cards to give you the credit. Think about every family member you have. Every time you get gas at Mobile (2%). Every time you pay your SBC bill (up to 5 bucks a month). Its crazy who all belongs.

[34saving]

I'm a member, but in several months I think I (and my relatives) have manage to accumulate like $3.28 and $3 of that was a sign up bonus from Huggies. My grocery store and place where I get diapers, etc. don't have loyalty cards and you only get credit for products if they're identified on the loyalty card. (Just using your registered credit card doesn't work.) I get credit at the Mobil station and if I buy McDonalds gift certificates. That about it for me. Maybe I'm just not the right kind of shopper. Oh well, maybe by the time my 1-year-old makes it to college she can buy a book or something. (Or maybe they'll change the program to make it a bit more user friendly to people like me . . .I buy several of the products, I just don't get any credit for them . . .)

[CRFSaver]

Well that stinks. Sorry to hear you had a bad experience. I have gotten $4.50 just from eddie bauer since I signed up a month ago.

[mom-from-missouri]

Our McDonalds no longer sells the GC books, so I am in the same boat almost.

[mjrube94]

I'm a big fan of Upromise, basically because everything you get from it is gravy, it's effortless, and with the rising cost of college, every bit helps.
I've been a member since the beginning (2002?) and have saved about $1500. Most of it is due to the Citibank Upromise credit card, which gives 1% back up to $300 per year. I charge absolutely everything (and pay it off each month) to get as much as I can from this card. The other big moneymaker is the grocery store rebates. Different companies (e.g., Kelloggs, Coca-Cola) give a % back on their products if you register your supermarket's club card. If you then use the Citi Upromise credit card to pay for it, all of the participating companies increase it to a 10% rebate. I spend a fortune on groceries (unfortunately), so this has really added up.

My perspective is, if I save enough to pay for my kids' textbooks, I'm way ahead of the game...

[Tree0164]

I wouldn't depend on upromise. It is a little bit of extra here and there that you can add to a child's 529 plan.

My parents have their shopping cards linked up to the upromise accounts as well as my single sister. I tend to buy generic so some of the brand name stuff doesn't that upromise pushes you to buy doesn't really help. I haven't look at the balance

[CRFSaver]

I am just amazed at the number of participating companies. Dell, Home Depot, Bed Bath and Beyond. Heck some are quite big. Whirlpool you can get up to $35 bucks. You are right though its just gravy. I don't even know what college is costing these days. Grad school was bad enough.

[34saving]

A CVS opened recently and they have a loyalty card that works with uPromise. Too bad most of there stuff is much more expensive than other places I shop. Oh well, sometimes when something is on clearance and I have a coupon and . . . What is the most anybody (reading this forum) has been able to accumulate with uPromise?

[karnic3881]

I just started using this program in March, and have accumulated $11.49 for making the same purchases I normally would (many from gas). I also am waiting on more $$ because I had a few purchases that aren't in that total. I think any money you can possibly get from this program, even if only a few cents worth, still is a few cents worth more than you had before. I am very pleased with Upromise.

[2moretrees]

I think a really important thing to realize about upromise is that it can subconsciously change your spending habits. If you have the discipline to shop like you would normally, then it is good. When I was doing it however, I found that I was buying the brand name products more often than I would have normally because of the "bonus" I would receive. I'm not saying its bad - just that you need to really keep on track and not let the names that give a bonus back influence what you buy.

[karnic3881]

Originally Posted by 2moretrees

I think a really important thing to realize about upromise is that it can subconsciously change your spending habits. If you have the discipline to shop like you would normally, then it is good. When I was doing it however, I found that I was buying the brand name products more often than I would have normally because of the "bonus" I would receive. I'm not saying its bad - just that you need to really keep on track and not let the names that give a bonus back influence what you buy.

I would agree with this ~ when I first started, I was all gung ho about buying the certain brands. Now I have calmed down and basically still get the money from the same purchases I have always made - gasoline and Coke (hard habit to break).

[mom-from-missouri]

I was getting money from McDonalds--By entered the numbers from the McDonalds Gift Certificates. Then we we spend the coupons-but, our McDonalds quit selling the books. Since I mainly buy generic, I am not earning anything now.

[DivaJen]

Here is something I wrote about a year ago in another conversation about upromise:

I've been doing some more reading. It appears that if you set up a 529 with them, you have to have $250 initially and a mnimum of $50/month in contributions. So unless you and yours do A LOT of shopping, you would have to plan on adding your own savings to the upromise contributions. (Not that this is bad, of course - just trying to figure out if there was some sort of catch to setting up a 529 plan using solely upromise money.)

Does anyone know if you can take the money you get from the shopping bonuses, withdraw it, and spend it on educational expenses? It's been so long since I looked at the program.

[karnic3881]

I believe you can, but it takes awhile before it's available funds, not pending. Also, if you have a linked 529 plan with Upromise, once that amount hits $25 it will be deposited into that.

[Tree0164]

I have my kids 529 plans through Fidelity and just realized the upromise no longer associates with them. Oh well... the $15 earned in 4 years doesn't really matter.